Cozi Alternatives: 7 Apps Like Cozi, Compared (2026)

Quick answer: the closest all-round replacement for Cozi is Homsy — it covers the shared calendar and shopping list, and adds the chore assignment Cozi has never had. If you want location sharing, FamilyWall. If you want to motivate young children, OurHome. If all you ever used Cozi for was the calendar, TimeTree or a shared Google Calendar will do it for nothing. And if ads are your only complaint, Cozi Gold at $39.99 a year is the cheapest fix.

Cozi has been the default family organizer since the mid-2000s. Millions of households run their week on it, and for a shared calendar and a shopping list it still works. People go looking for alternatives for narrow, specific reasons — usually one feature Cozi never built, or the ads.

This page is the list. If you want the one-on-one detail instead, Homsy vs Cozi puts a single app against Cozi feature by feature; this page puts seven of them side by side so you can find the one that fixes your particular complaint.

Why People Look for Apps Like Cozi

Four complaints come up again and again.

The ads. Cozi's free tier is ad-supported. In an app you open five times a day, that wears thin. Cozi Gold removes them for $39.99 a year, which is a fair price — it just changes the math, because once you are paying, you may as well compare what else the money buys.

No chore management. This is the real gap. Cozi has a to-do list, but it is a flat list. You cannot assign the bathroom to a named person, set it to repeat every Tuesday, rotate it between two teenagers, or look back and see who actually did it. Households arguing about who does what get no help from Cozi at all.

The interface shows its age. Cozi works. It does not feel like an app built recently, and next to anything designed in the last few years the gap is obvious.

Feature gaps that feel basic now. Search and extra reminders sit behind Gold. Custom calendar colors do too.

If none of those bother you, stay where you are. Switching family apps costs you an evening and a round of persuading everyone in the house, and that is not worth paying for a change you do not need.

The 7 Alternatives at a Glance

1. Homsy — the closest full replacement

Homsy covers everything most people used Cozi for and adds the part Cozi never had.

The calendar gives each household member their own color, offers week and agenda views, and subscribes to external iCal feeds — so the school calendar or the sports league schedule lands in the app on its own instead of being typed in twice a year. Cozi has no iCal subscription.

The chores are the reason to switch. Every task has a named owner, a schedule, and a completion record. Rotations cycle a job between people automatically, so the same task never lands on the same person twice. Everything Cozi's flat to-do list cannot do, this does.

The shared shopping list syncs in real time, which matters when one person is already in the aisle. It all works offline and catches up when signal returns.

Honest trade-offs. Homsy is newer and has fewer years of polish behind it. There is no family messaging and no location sharing — if you want either, this is the wrong app. Meal planning is still coming; Cozi has a recipe box and a meal planner today. The free plan covers two members with every feature and no ads; three or more needs a paid plan, the same shape of deal as Cozi Gold.

Best for: households whose actual argument is about who does what, not about who is where.

2. FamilyWall — if you want location sharing and messaging

FamilyWall is the broad one. Shared calendar, lists, family messaging, location sharing, photo albums, and finance tracking on the premium tier. Over 5 million downloads and a 4.8-star rating say the approach lands for a lot of families.

Location sharing is the genuine differentiator, and it is the reason to pick FamilyWall over anything else on this list — no other app here offers it. Built-in messaging keeps family logistics out of the general group chat.

Where it does not beat Cozi. Task management is basic — no rotation, limited recurring logic — so if chores were your Cozi complaint, FamilyWall does not fix it. Per-member color coding and iCal subscriptions are absent. The free plan is limited enough that most households end up on Premium, around $50 a year. There is no web app.

Best for: families with teenagers, where knowing where everyone is matters more than knowing who cleaned what.

3. OurHome — if the problem is getting children to do chores

OurHome turns chores into a points economy. Kids complete tasks, earn points parents have set, and spend them on rewards parents have defined. Leaderboards, a reward shop, a bright kid-facing interface. For children roughly five to twelve it genuinely works.

It also includes shared grocery lists and a basic calendar, so it covers some of Cozi's ground.

Where it does not beat Cozi. The calendar is thin next to Cozi's. It assumes a parent-child household, so two adults splitting housework get very little from it. It is mobile-only. And the gamification is a double-edged tool — external rewards can crowd out the habit you were trying to build, so points that work at eight may do nothing at fourteen.

Best for: parents of young children whose single goal is motivation, not coordination.

4. TimeTree — if you only ever used Cozi's calendar

TimeTree does one thing: group calendars that several people write to, with comments on events and a clean split between your personal view and the shared one. If your Cozi use amounted to "we all need to see the same schedule," TimeTree is a lighter, tidier version of that.

Where it does not beat Cozi. It is only a calendar — no shopping list, no to-dos, no chores. No iCal subscriptions, so external feeds get typed in by hand. No per-member color coding in the household sense; events have colors, people do not. It needs a connection to work properly. And the free tier carries ads, so you have not escaped that either.

Best for: two people who want a shared schedule and nothing else.

5. Google Calendar (plus Keep or Tasks) — the free-for-everyone option

Shared Google Calendars are free, unlimited in members, work on every device, and everyone already has an account. Layer Google Keep or Google Tasks on top and you have lists as well.

For a large household with no budget, this is the most functional free answer on the list — Cozi's free tier gives you more household features but charges you in ads, and Homsy's free tier stops at two people.

Where it does not beat Cozi. It is a calendar with household uses, not a household app. No chore management at all. Colors attach to calendars, not to people, so per-member coloring means building a calendar per person and maintaining them. The lists live in a different app from the schedule, which is exactly the patchwork Cozi was invented to replace. Homsy vs Google Calendar covers where that patchwork gives out.

Best for: big households that need a shared schedule and refuse to pay anything.

6. Apple Calendar plus Reminders — if the whole house is on iPhone

Family Sharing gives you a shared iCloud calendar; Shared Reminders lists work well enough as a grocery list. Free, reliable, and already installed.

Where it does not beat Cozi. One Android phone in the household and the whole plan collapses — Cozi at least works everywhere. No chore assignment, no rotation, no household context.

Best for: all-Apple households with simple needs and no intention of installing anything.

7. Fami — the newer entrant

Fami combines chore tracking, a shared calendar and location features, and its meal planning is the standout: it generates suggestions from your preferences and dietary needs. That last part is the one place it clearly beats Cozi's recipe box.

Where it does not beat Cozi. Smaller user base, a feature set still filling in, and meal suggestions that can miss. Cozi's decade-plus of refinement counts for something against a newer app.

Best for: people who want the meal planning to do the thinking for them and do not mind an app that is still maturing.

A note on the specialists

If your household's one real problem is cleaning rather than organizing, Tody is worth a look — it tracks how dirty each room has got and tells you what to clean next. It is excellent at that and does nothing else, so you will still need one of the seven above for the calendar and lists.

Which One Should You Actually Pick

Work backwards from the complaint that sent you looking:

• "Nobody does their share." Homsy. It is the only app here built around that problem.
• "I need to know where my kids are." FamilyWall.
• "My children won't do chores without a reason." OurHome.
• "I only ever used the calendar." TimeTree, or a shared Google Calendar for nothing.
• "Everyone here has an iPhone and I want zero setup." Apple Calendar and Reminders.
• "I want the app to plan our meals." Fami, or stay on Cozi.
• "It's just the ads." Cozi Gold. Switching apps to dodge advertising is a lot of work for $39.99.

Then apply the only test that matters: install two, use each for a week, and keep whichever one your household actually opens without being asked. A simple app everybody uses beats a rich app one person maintains.

The full family organizer roundup scores the same apps on price and feature depth, and the free family organizer comparison works out what each free tier really gives away.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best Cozi alternatives in 2026?

Homsy is the closest full replacement — it does Cozi's calendar and shopping list and adds chore assignment with rotation, which Cozi has never offered. FamilyWall is the pick if you want location sharing and family messaging. OurHome suits parents motivating young children. TimeTree, Google Calendar and Apple Calendar cover the calendar only, for free.

Are there any free apps like Cozi?

Yes, several. Google Calendar with Google Keep is free for any household size and works on every device. Apple Calendar with Shared Reminders is free for all-iPhone households. Homsy is free with every feature and no ads for households of up to two members. TimeTree is free with ads. All of them avoid Cozi's ad-supported free tier, though each trades something away for it.

What is the closest app to Cozi?

Homsy, on feature overlap: shared calendar, shared shopping list, cross-platform, real-time sync between everyone in the household. The differences are that Homsy adds chore assignment and rotation, per-member calendar colors and iCal subscriptions, while Cozi has a recipe box and meal planner that Homsy has not shipped yet.

Is there an app like Cozi with proper chore management?

Homsy for whole-household chores including adults, with per-person assignment and automatic rotation. OurHome for children specifically, using points and rewards. Cozi's own to-do list cannot assign a task to a person or repeat it on a schedule, which is why this is the most common reason people leave it.

Should I switch from Cozi or just upgrade to Cozi Gold?

If the ads are your only complaint, upgrade — $39.99 a year is cheaper than the effort of moving a household onto a new app. Switch if you need something Cozi does not have at any price, and chore management is the usual one. Homsy vs Cozi walks through that decision in detail.

Can I move my Cozi data to another app?

Partly. Cozi exports the calendar in .ics format, which nearly every calendar app will import. Shopping lists and to-do lists have no export path, so those get retyped. Rebuilding them by hand takes fifteen to thirty minutes and is a decent excuse to drop the recurring tasks nobody has done since last year.