Plannie vs Sense: the honest comparison.
Sense and Plannie are built around the same idea: forward the school email, snap the flyer, and the calendar fills itself in each child's colour. Sense is $59.99 a year and keeps most family features behind Premium. Plannie is $99 a year, includes calendar sync and private lists on the free plan, and adds an open API for your own agents.
Feature by feature
| Plannie | Sense | |
|---|---|---|
| Shared colour-coded family calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calendar sync | Two-way Google & Outlook · Apple & ICS as feeds · free plan | ✓ Google two-way · Apple, Outlook & ICS · Premium Connected calendars need Premium. Google is described as two-way; the direction for Apple and Outlook isn't documented. |
| AI import (email, photos, PDFs, URLs) | Family Inbox + Magic Import, Premium | ✓ Email, WhatsApp, photo, PDF, voice, URL The free plan allows 10 AI actions a month. WhatsApp import and unlimited email forwards need Premium. |
| Chores, routines & rewards | Tickets & rewards, Premium | Feathers, allowance & routines, Premium |
| Weekly meal planning | Free with starter limits · unlimited on Premium | Premium · saved recipes on free |
| Shared & private lists | Both, free plan | ● Shared lists, free Grocery, packing and custom shared lists with folders. Private per-member lists aren't documented. |
| Wall display / kiosk mode | Kiosk mode on any tablet, Premium | Sense Hub on any tablet, Premium |
| Per-member personal mode on own phones | ✓ | ● Shared app + Kid Mode Every member installs the app and sees the shared family. Kid Mode gives each child a screen in Hub mode. Accounts are for users 13 and over. |
| Open API & MCP | Premium + MCP, $159/yr | ✗ No public API or MCP is documented. Integrations are an Alexa skill, Siri Shortcuts, the iOS share sheet and WhatsApp. |
| Data hosting | EU · Swedish data controller | ● Not stated The terms name a Delaware company and AI processing by Anthropic and OpenAI; no hosting region is stated. |
| Hardware to buy | None | None |
| Subscription (whole family) | $99/yr Premium · $159/yr with MCP | $59.99/yr or $6.99/month |
| 3-year cost, family of four | $297 Premium | $179.97 annual |
Sense prices and platform details from getsense.ai and the App Store listing, checked 18 September 2026. In fairness, Sense takes in more channels than Plannie: WhatsApp messages and voice notes as well as email, photos, PDFs and URLs, and it has an Alexa skill alongside Siri Shortcuts.
Sources: getsense.ai: pricing, Sense App Store listing
Three things that matter on a Tuesday
What the free plan is for. Sense's Free Forever tier is real and has no ads, but it is a manual calendar with lists and 10 AI actions a month; connected calendars, chores, meals, the Family Display and Kid Mode all sit in Premium at $59.99 a year. Plannie's free plan is the everyday calendar: two-way Google and Outlook sync, Apple Calendar and ICS feeds, every view, shared and private lists, and starter meal planning, with no ads and no time limit. Premium at $99 a year adds the assistant, unlimited lists and meals, chores with tickets and rewards, and kiosk mode.
What you can build on it. Both apps read email, photos, PDFs and URLs into the calendar, and Sense goes wider with WhatsApp and voice. Where they part is what happens after. Plannie has an open REST API with scoped tokens and a full MCP server, so Claude or any agent you run can read and write the household, and everything it adds carries an attribution badge. Sense has no public API or MCP; its integrations are an Alexa skill, Siri Shortcuts and the share sheet. Plannie runs in any browser as well as on iOS; Sense has iPhone, Android and web apps.
Who holds the data. Sense is early-stage: its site cites 1,500+ families, the App Store listing shows 24 ratings, the terms name Intuitive Apps LLC in Delaware and the App Store seller is MyShoperoo Inc. AI processing runs on Anthropic and OpenAI, which Sense says don't train on your content, and no hosting region is stated; one page says forwarded emails are deleted after 90 days and another that they aren't stored after extraction. Plannie is based in Sweden, hosts service data in the EU, is the data controller under the GDPR, and has no ads or tracking SDKs on any plan. Sense makes the same no-ads promise.
Choose Sense if…
You want the widest capture funnel for the lowest price. Forwarding from WhatsApp and dictating a voice note are things Plannie doesn't do, and $59.99 a year covers unlimited members with chores, Feathers, allowance, meals, a Hub mode for an old tablet and Kid Mode. An Alexa skill in the kitchen is a bonus if you use Echo.
Choose Plannie if…
You want sync, every calendar view and private lists on the free plan, and an assistant, kiosk mode and chores with rewards when you go Premium. You want an open API and MCP so your own agents can work with the household, a web app in any browser, and data held in the EU under the GDPR.
Frequently asked
Sense app vs Plannie, what's the difference?+
Less than with most family apps. Both turn forwarded emails, photos and PDFs into a colour-coded family calendar, both have chores with rewards, meals and a tablet mode for the kitchen wall. The differences: Plannie's free plan includes two-way Google and Outlook sync and lists, where Sense keeps connected calendars, chores and meals in Premium. Plannie has an open API and an MCP server; Sense has none. Plannie is hosted in the EU. Sense takes in WhatsApp messages and voice notes, which Plannie doesn't.
Is Sense free?+
There is a Free Forever tier with no card required: manual events and reminders, lists, notes, saved recipes, and 10 AI actions a month (the pricing page doesn't define an action). Sense Premium is $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year for the whole family and adds email, WhatsApp, photo, PDF and voice import, unlimited AI actions, connected calendars, chores, routines and rewards, meal planning, the Family Display and Kid Mode. Plannie's free plan includes calendar sync, lists and starter meal planning; Plannie Premium is $99 a year.
Does Sense have an API or MCP server?+
No public API or MCP is documented. Sense's integrations are an Alexa skill, Siri Shortcuts, the iOS share sheet, a WhatsApp contact, an email forwarding address and ICS subscriptions. Plannie has an open REST API with scoped tokens, documented at plannie.io/developers, and a full MCP server so Claude or any agent can work with your household, on Premium + MCP at $159 a year.
Can kids have their own Sense account?+
Sense's terms say the service is for users 13 and older, and that information about children is collected and managed by parent or guardian accounts. Younger children get a colour and a profile, and Kid Mode gives each child a dedicated screen on the Sense Hub, where they can mark chores done with pictures. In Plannie every household member has their own login, and personal mode on their own device shows their day, their notifications and their private lists.
Which is cheaper over three years?+
Sense. Premium billed annually is $59.99, so $179.97 over three years for unlimited members; paying monthly is $251.64. Plannie Premium is $99 a year, $297 over three years, or $477 with the API and MCP. What the extra buys is an open API and MCP server, a web app in any browser and EU hosting under the GDPR; Plannie's free plan also carries the calendar sync and private lists that Sense reserves for Premium. Neither app charges per member or sells hardware.