Motion is the most aggressive automation in the category, and it's priced that way. Before you replace it, work out which half you actually needed: the deciding, or the scheduling.
Match your reason to the right tool
| Your reason | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Too expensive for what you use | Reclaim.ai | Free tier, paid from around USD10/user/month, strong calendar defence. |
| The auto-scheduling fought you | Sunsama | You choose the day's work deliberately instead of an algorithm placing it. |
| You needed ranking, not scheduling | Lumin | USD9/month, no calendar setup, no time estimates required. |
| You want to go back to manual | Todoist or TickTick | Cheaper, simpler, fully under your control. |
The comparison
| App | What it automates | Price (Aug 2026) | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lumin | AI prioritisation from an unstructured brain dump | USD9/month or USD90/year; 7-day free trial, no card | Deciding what deserves attention first |
| Reclaim.ai | AI calendar defence and habit scheduling | Free tier; paid from around USD10/user/month | Meetings are eating your week and you need focus blocks defended automatically |
| Sunsama | Guided daily planning ritual | Around USD20/month billed annually | You want a deliberate, calm daily planning ritual and will actually keep it up |
| Todoist | Manual lists, projects, labels, filters | Free tier; Pro around USD4–5/month billed annually | You like maintaining a system and want the best-built classic to-do app |
| TickTick | Manual lists plus calendar and Pomodoro timer | Free tier; Premium around USD36/year | You want a timer, habits and tasks in one app and you're happy to prioritise yourself |
Pricing checked August 2026. Vendors change plans often — follow the link in each row to confirm current pricing before you buy.
Where each one is genuinely better
Reclaim.ai
Strength: Excellent at protecting focus time and auto-scheduling recurring habits around meetings.
Limitation: Calendar-first, not task-first. It defends time; it does not tell you what deserves the time.
Choose Reclaim.ai instead of Lumin if meetings are eating your week and you need focus blocks defended automatically.
Sunsama
Strength: The daily planning ritual is genuinely calming and pulls tasks in from Gmail, Slack, Jira and more.
Limitation: The ritual takes 10–15 minutes every day. If you skip it, the system degrades. Premium price.
Choose Sunsama instead of Lumin if you want a deliberate, calm daily planning ritual and will actually keep it up.
Todoist
Strength: The most refined manual task manager available. Natural-language date entry, excellent cross-platform sync, huge integration library.
Limitation: You still decide what matters. Priority flags are manual, and the system needs maintaining as projects change.
Choose Todoist instead of Lumin if you like maintaining a system and want the best-built classic to-do app.
TickTick
Strength: Best value in the category. Built-in Pomodoro timer, habit tracking and calendar view in one app.
Limitation: Feature density becomes its own maintenance burden. Prioritisation is still entirely manual.
Choose TickTick instead of Lumin if you want a timer, habits and tasks in one app and you're happy to prioritise yourself.
Where Lumin is the wrong choice
No team features, no calendar auto-scheduling, no time tracking. It answers 'what first', not 'when exactly'. If any of those is what you actually need, one of the tools above will serve you better. We would rather you bought the right thing than churned in a month.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Motion worth the price?
It depends on whether your bottleneck is fitting work into a full calendar. If it is, the automation can justify the cost. If your bottleneck is deciding what deserves attention at all, you're paying for scheduling you don't need.
What's the cheapest Motion alternative?
Reclaim.ai has a free tier and paid plans from around USD10/user/month. Lumin is USD9/month but solves ranking rather than scheduling.
Does Motion need a lot of setup?
Yes. Accurate time estimates and a well-maintained calendar are what make the auto-scheduling work. That setup cost is the most common reason people leave.