Plannie vs Apple Reminders: the full comparison.
Apple Reminders is free, already on your iPhone, and Family Sharing gives you a shared Family list plus a shared calendar in Apple Calendar. Plannie puts the calendar, chores, meals and lists in one place for every member, on any device, with two-way Google and Outlook sync.
Feature by feature
| Plannie | Apple Reminders | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared colour-coded family calendar | ✓ | ● Apple Calendar Reminders has no calendar view. Family Sharing sets up a shared calendar in the separate Apple Calendar app, coloured per calendar rather than per person. |
| Two-way Google & Outlook sync | ✓ Google & Outlook iCloud calendars come in as a one-way subscribed feed, so the Family Sharing calendar shows up in Plannie too. | ✗ Reminders documents no Google, Outlook or ICS import; calendar accounts belong to the separate Apple Calendar app. |
| Chores, tickets & rewards for kids | Premium | ● Shared lists with assignment and repeating reminders. No rewards, points or kid mode. |
| Weekly meal planning | ✓ | ✗ No meal plan or recipes. The Grocery list type does sort items into aisle categories by itself. |
| Shared + private lists, with sub-tasks | ✓ | ✓ Family list auto-created Lists are private per Apple Account until shared. Subtasks, sections, tags, smart lists and templates. |
| AI import of emails, photos & PDFs | Premium Family Inbox email address plus Magic Import of photos, PDFs and URLs. Ask by chat, or out loud via Siri. | ✗ Siri adds reminders by voice. Photo and scanned attachments are stored, not read. |
| Wall display | Kiosk mode on any tablet | ✗ Not documented. |
| Kids' accounts & per-member personal mode | Personal mode per device, kids included | ✓ Family Sharing child accounts Organiser plus up to five members. Child Accounts are required under 13 and available up to 18, with Screen Time controls. |
| Open API & MCP for your own agents | Premium + MCP | ✗ No public web API or MCP is documented. Siri and Shortcuts run on the device. |
| Hardware to buy | None, any device | Apple devices Native apps on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. Android and Windows family members get icloud.com in a browser. |
| Subscription | $99/yr whole household | Free |
| 3-year cost, family of four | $297 (Premium) | $0 Free on Apple devices you already own. Optional shared iCloud+ 200 GB is $2.99/month, $107.64 over three years, and isn't required for sharing. |
Apple Reminders and Family Sharing details from support.apple.com, checked 18 September 2026. In fairness, Reminders has location-based alerts and a grocery list that sorts itself by aisle, and it costs nothing on devices you already own. Plannie reads iCloud calendars as a one-way feed, not two-way.
Sources: support.apple.com: Manage grocery categories in Reminders, support.apple.com: How Family Sharing works, support.apple.com: iCloud+ plans and pricing
Where the two part ways
Reminders is a list app, and a good one. Family Sharing gives you a Family list on day one, anyone on a shared list can be handed an item with @name, and the owner is told when things get added or done. It is not a calendar. The schedule lives in Apple Calendar, a separate app with its own shared calendar, coloured per calendar rather than per person, and nothing connects the two to chores or meals.
Plannie is one place. Every member has a colour and every view lines their days up side by side. Google and Outlook sync both ways, and iCloud calendars come in as a feed, so the Family Sharing calendar you already have shows up too. A chore is assigned to a child, ticked off on the kitchen tablet, and pays out tickets they spend on rewards. Dinner is a grid for the week, with a recipe link turned into ingredients on the grocery list.
Then there is who gets to join. Reminders is native on Apple devices; an Android parent or a Windows laptop gets icloud.com in a browser. Plannie runs as a web app on any device and as an app on iOS, so the whole family sees the same view. And when the school sends a PDF, you forward it to your Family Inbox and it becomes events under the right child. Reminders stores an attachment; it doesn't read it.
Choose Apple Reminders if…
Everyone in the house has an iPhone, you want shared lists with zero setup and zero cost, and the Family Sharing calendar in Apple Calendar is enough of a schedule. Child accounts, Siri and the self-sorting grocery list come with the OS.
Choose Plannie if…
You want the calendar, chores, meals and lists in one place, with a colour for each member and two-way sync with Google and Outlook. You have an Android phone in the family, want a kitchen tablet in kiosk mode, or want school paperwork turned into events without retyping it. It's $99/year for the whole household.
Frequently asked
Can Apple Reminders replace a family calendar app?+
Not on its own. Reminders is a to-do app with no calendar view; the family schedule lives in Apple Calendar, where Family Sharing sets up one shared calendar automatically. That works for an all-Apple family, though colours are per calendar rather than per person, and nothing links the calendar to chores or lists. Plannie is one place for all of it: a colour-per-member calendar, chores with rewards, meals and shared lists, with two-way Google and Outlook sync.
Is Apple Reminders good for families?+
For lists, yes. Joining a Family Sharing group adds a shared Family list, you can assign a reminder to anyone on the list with @name, the Grocery list sorts itself into Produce, Meat and Frozen Foods, and child accounts are built into the OS. The rest of the household is missing. It does not do chores with rewards or meal plans, has no wall display, and cannot turn a school flyer into events.
Does Plannie work with Apple Calendar and iCloud?+
Yes. Plannie subscribes to iCloud calendars as a feed, so the Family Sharing calendar you already have shows up in Plannie, kept current. The feed is one way: edits made in Plannie don't flow back to iCloud, unlike Google and Outlook, which sync in both directions. You can keep Apple Calendar on each phone and run Plannie as the household view on the kitchen tablet.
Why pay $99 a year for Plannie when Apple Reminders is free?+
Because the free part is lists. Plannie's free plan is also free, with the shared colour-per-member calendar and two-way Google and Outlook sync. Premium, $99/year for the whole household, adds the things Reminders doesn't do at any price: chores with tickets and rewards, a weekly meal grid, the Family Inbox that reads school emails and PDFs, and kiosk mode for the tablet on the fridge. Over three years that is $297 against $0.
Can an Android parent use Apple Reminders?+
Only in a browser at icloud.com/reminders; no Android app is documented. Plannie runs as a web app on Android, installable as a PWA, with the same household view as the iOS app, so a mixed Apple-and-Android family sees one calendar.