Plannie vs AnyList: the full comparison.
AnyList is the best shared grocery list you can buy, and at $14.99/year for the household it costs a fraction of Plannie. Plannie puts the meal grid, recipe import and grocery list inside the family calendar, with chores and a Family Inbox around them.
Feature by feature
| Plannie | AnyList | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared colour-coded family calendar | ✓ | ✗ AnyList's calendar is for meals only, with recipes and notes per day. It doesn't hold the family's events. |
| Calendar sync | Two-way Google & Outlook, Apple & ICS feeds in | ● One-way ICS feed out The meal plan publishes as an iCalendar feed to Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook.com. Set up from the web or Mac app only; Google can take up to 12 hours to refresh. Nothing syncs in. |
| Chores, routines & rewards | ✓ | ✗ |
| Weekly meal planning | ✓ | Complete A calendar of recipes and notes with a queue, templates and ideas, and a grocery list generated from the plan. Not in the free tier. |
| Shared grocery list & private lists | ✓ | ✓ Real-time sync, autocomplete, automatic aisle categories, stores and filters, Siri and Alexa. Any list you don't share stays private to you. |
| Recipe import from a link | ✓ | 5 free, unlimited on Complete |
| AI import of emails, photos & PDFs | Premium | ✗ Recipe import parses web pages. No email, photo or PDF import is documented. |
| Wall display | Kiosk mode on any tablet | ✗ |
| Per-member personal mode on own phones | ✓ | ● Each household member has their own login. Kids' accounts and per-member notifications aren't documented. |
| Open API & MCP for your own agents | Premium + MCP | ✗ |
| Hardware to buy | None | None |
| Subscription | $99/yr whole household | $14.99/yr household AnyList Complete is $9.99/year for one person or $14.99/year for a household, and unlocks the web and Mac apps. Free tier: mobile apps only, no meal planning, five web recipe imports. |
| 3-year cost, family of four | $297 Premium | $44.97 One household subscription at $14.99/year covers all four. |
AnyList prices and platform details from anylist.com, help.anylist.com and the App Store listing, checked 18 September 2026. In fairness, AnyList's shopping list has things Plannie's doesn't: automatic aisle categories, stores and filters, Alexa, online-shopping links and an Apple Watch app.
Sources: anylist.com/premium, help.anylist.com: meal plan iCalendar, help.anylist.com: sharing recipes & meal plan, AnyList App Store listing
A list app, and a week
AnyList has done one thing carefully for fourteen years. A grocery list shared with the household updates on everyone's phone as you type, items land in the right aisle by themselves, and you can add milk by voice from the kitchen. Recipes import from a link, and on Complete the meal planner turns a week of dinners into a shopping list. For $14.99 a year, the whole household is covered, on iPhone, Android, the web, Mac and Apple Watch.
What it doesn't hold is the rest of the week. There is no calendar for the family's events, only the meal plan, and that leaves AnyList as a one-way feed that Google may take half a day to refresh. There are no chores, no rewards, no roles for the kids, and no way to send it a photo or a PDF. Meal planning and the web app are paid features, so the free tier is a mobile list.
Plannie starts from the week. Everyone's days sit side by side in their own colour, synced both ways with Google and Outlook, and the meal grid is one row of that view. Paste a recipe link and it becomes a meal with a photo and ingredients; one click sends the ingredients to the shared grocery list. Chores pay out in tickets, the Family Inbox files a forwarded school PDF under the right child, and the kitchen tablet shows it all in kiosk mode. It costs more, $99 a year, because it covers the whole day rather than only the shop.
Choose AnyList if…
What you need is a shared shopping list that works well, with recipes and a meal plan behind it, for $14.99 a year. You already have a family calendar you like, and chores happen on paper or not at all.
Choose Plannie if…
You want dinner planned next to the football run, the ingredients on the list without retyping, chores the kids can see, and a Family Inbox that reads school emails for you. One plan at $99/year covers the household on the phones and tablets you already own.
Frequently asked
Is AnyList good for families?+
For lists, it's the one to beat. A list shared with the household syncs in real time, items sort themselves into aisles, you can add by Siri or Alexa, and it has held a 4.9-star rating across 80,000 App Store reviews. The household plan is $14.99/year and each member gets their own login. What it doesn't have is the rest of family life: no events calendar, no chores or rewards, no kids' roles.
AnyList vs Plannie for meal planning?+
Both plan the week and both turn a plan into a grocery list. AnyList's planner is on Complete only ($14.99/year household): a calendar of recipes and notes per day, rebuilt in January 2026 with a queue, pinned entries, templates and ideas. Plannie's meal grid sits inside the family calendar, so dinner is a column next to football practice and the dentist. Paste a recipe link and Plannie adds the recipe, its photo and its ingredients; one click sends the ingredients to the shared grocery list. The free plan starts you with 20 dishes; Premium removes the limits.
Does AnyList have a family calendar?+
No. Its only calendar is the meal plan, and that leaves the app one way: an iCalendar feed you subscribe to from Apple Calendar, Google Calendar or Outlook.com, set up from the web or Mac app, with Google taking up to 12 hours to refresh. Nothing syncs in. Plannie is a family calendar first, with true two-way Google and Outlook sync and Apple or ICS feeds in, and the meal plan lives inside it.
Does AnyList do chores or rewards?+
No. You can keep a chores list in AnyList and share it, but there is no assignment per child, no points and no rewards. Plannie has chores and routines that pay out in tickets, rewards the kids can see, habits, and personal mode so each child's phone shows their own day.
How much does AnyList cost compared with Plannie?+
AnyList is free on mobile with five web recipe imports and no meal planning. AnyList Complete is $9.99/year for one person or $14.99/year for the household, which unlocks the web and Mac apps, unlimited recipe import and the meal planner: $44.97 over three years. Plannie's free plan has the shared calendar, sync and starter lists; Plannie Premium is $99/year for the household, $297 over three years. If a shared list is all you need, AnyList is the better buy.