Plannie vs Picniic: the full comparison.
Picniic called itself the free family home hub: a shared calendar, to-dos, shopping lists, recipes and meals, a file locker and a family locator. It was removed from Google Play on 5 November 2021, has left the App Store, and its website no longer loads. Plannie is the home hub you can sign up for today.
Feature by feature
| Plannie | Picniic (last version) | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared colour-coded family calendar | ✓ | ● A shared family calendar for events. Colour per member wasn't documented on the archived pages. |
| Calendar sync | Two-way Google & Outlook, Apple & ICS feeds in | ● Google & Microsoft add-ons Listed as add-ons for calendars and lists. Whether sync ran one way or two wasn't documented. |
| Chores, routines & rewards | ✓ | ● Assigned to-dos To-dos and lists could be assigned to family members. No points, rewards or routines were documented. |
| Weekly meal planning | ✓ | ✓ Recipes & Meals Saved online recipes and scheduled meals from them. Review sites put the meal planner in Premium. |
| Shared and private lists | ✓ | ● Per-store shopping lists A list for each favourite store, plus Circles for caregivers and extended family. Private per-member lists weren't documented. |
| AI import of emails, photos & PDFs | Premium | ✗ |
| Wall display | Kiosk mode on any tablet | ✗ |
| Per-member personal mode on own phones | ✓ | ● Members joined one family account. Kids' accounts and per-member notifications weren't documented. |
| Family locator | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open API & MCP for your own agents | Premium + MCP | ✗ No API. Integrations listed TeamSnap and IoT devices such as pet trackers and smart watches. |
| Available today | Web app and iOS app, any tablet as the display | ✗ Removed from stores Gone from Google Play since 5 November 2021, absent from the App Store, website unreachable. Sharing between members reportedly stopped in mid-2022. |
| Subscription | $99/yr whole household | Free + Premium, price not retrievable The Android listing carried ads. Review sites gave $50/year, $99.99/year or $15/month for Premium; the vendor's own price page is gone. |
| 3-year cost, family of four | $297 Premium No hardware to buy for either. | Not available |
Picniic details from archived pages of picniic.com (last capture 29 January 2023) and its Google Play listing as recorded by AppBrain, checked 18 September 2026. In fairness, Picniic had a family locator and Circles for caregivers; Plannie doesn't share your location.
Sources: picniic.com (archive)
The same idea, five years apart
Picniic had the right shape early. Between 2016 and 2021 it put a shared calendar, assigned to-dos, per-store shopping lists, saved recipes and scheduled meals, a file locker, a locator and group messaging in one app, and called it the family home hub. Apple named it a Top App of 2019. Google and Microsoft calendars came in as add-ons, and Circles let a grandparent or a nanny see part of the family without joining all of it.
It never got to finish. The last update was March 2021, the Android app left Google Play that November, and by mid-2022 families reported that sharing between members had stopped. No notice was ever posted. Even at its best, the free tier carried ads, the meal planner sat behind a Premium price that review sites couldn't agree on, and there were no chores with rewards, no way to email a schedule in, and no display mode for the kitchen.
Plannie is that hub, finished and maintained. Everyone's days sit side by side in their own colour with two-way Google and Outlook sync, and chores pay out in tickets the kids trade for rewards. Paste a recipe link and it becomes a meal with a photo and ingredients, one click from the grocery list. The Family Inbox files a forwarded PDF under the right child, and a tablet in kiosk mode shows it all on the wall. It is $99 a year for the household, with a free plan that has no ads.
Choose Picniic if…
You can't. The app is gone from both stores, the site doesn't load and the sync stopped years ago. If you used it, what you'll miss most is probably the locator and Circles; take those as things to look for, and the rest of the hub is easy to replace.
Choose Plannie if…
You want the home hub Picniic promised, working today: one shared calendar, lists, meals and recipes, plus chores with rewards, a Family Inbox for school paperwork and a kitchen tablet in kiosk mode. $99/year for everyone, no ads on the free plan, and an open API if you ever want to build on it.
Frequently asked
Is Picniic still available?+
No. The Android app was removed from Google Play on 5 November 2021, with its last update (version 1.97) in March 2021. The App Store listing now returns a 404, and picniic.com refuses connections. By January 2023 an Apple Community thread reported that sharing between family members had stopped working around the middle of 2022. Picnic Labs never published a shutdown notice.
What happened to Picniic?+
It went quiet without a word. Picniic was one of Apple's Top Apps of 2019 and made Time's list of 50 best apps, then the updates stopped in March 2021, the store listings disappeared and the last successful capture of the homepage is from January 2023. No acquisition or closure was announced on the site, in the press or on review sites, so there is nothing more to say about why.
What replaced Picniic?+
No successor was named. Plannie covers the core of what Picniic did: one shared family calendar, shared lists, saved recipes and a weekly meal plan, with everyone on one plan. It adds chores with tickets and rewards, a Family Inbox that turns forwarded emails and PDFs into events, two-way Google and Outlook sync, and kiosk mode on a kitchen tablet. Plannie doesn't share your location, so the Picniic locator has no equivalent here.
How much did Picniic cost?+
The free tier had the calendar and to-dos, with ads in the Android app, and a Premium subscription unlocked the rest. The vendor's own price is no longer retrievable: review sites recorded $50/year, $99.99/year or $15/month at different times, and they don't agree. Plannie's free plan has no ads and no time limit; Plannie Premium is $99/year for the whole household, $297 over three years.
Does Plannie have Circles like Picniic?+
Not as a separate feature. Picniic's Circles let caregivers or grandparents see a slice of the family without joining the whole account, and that was a good idea. Plannie is built around one household, but it doesn't bill per member, so a grandparent or a nanny can simply be a member and see the shared calendar, while private lists and personal mode keep each person's own things to themselves.