Two homes, one set of kids, and a week that has to look the same from both kitchens. The apps built for that split into two kinds: court-grade co-parenting tools that document everything, and plain shared calendars that document nothing. Most families end up needing to know which kind they are shopping for before the price matters.
Below: OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents, AppClose, Cozi and Google Calendar, from their own pages, on price, who needs an account, custody templates, records, and what each does with the schedules that come from somewhere else — the team app, the school PDF. Then Schedule Caddie, which is ours, and which is not a co-parenting app at all; we say exactly what it does and doesn’t do beside the others.
Competitor details checked November 9, 2026, on each maker’s own site. Tell us if something has changed.
Schedule Caddie is the last row in the table, and it is a schedule tool, not a co-parenting tool: no messaging, no expense log, no custody templates, no records for a courtroom. If you need those, one of the first three apps is the right answer and we say so. Every claim about the other five is limited to what their own pages say today, cited at the bottom.
If there is a court order, a mediator, an attorney, or simply a history that makes every text a risk, use a co-parenting app and pay for it. OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents and AppClose exist so that what was said and when the schedule changed is on a record nobody can edit. None of them is free, all three waive fees for families in hardship, and the differences between them are about accounts, price and which records a court will take.
If the two homes can share a calendar without needing proof of it, Cozi or Google Calendar is free and fine, with one catch each: Cozi gives everyone the same password and full edit rights, and Google’s sharing is a computer job.
What none of the five does is keep the kids’ own schedules current. The Tuesday practice that moved, the half day the school added, the tournament bracket that posted Friday night — in every app above, somebody types that in, and in a two-home family that somebody is usually one parent, which is where the “you never told me” starts. Schedule Caddie is the layer for that: it reads the team apps and the school calendar itself, watches them hourly, and gives the other home a link that is always right. It sits beside a court-grade app, not in place of one.
| App | Price | Who needs an account | Custody-schedule templates | Messaging / records | Kids’ team & school schedules, auto-updated? | Change notifications | Phone-calendar subscription | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OurFamilyWizard | Entry plan (“Choose your own”) $110/yr; Essentials $149.99/yr; Premium $216/yr; Max $299.88/yr. No free plan; fee waivers; 30-day refund if bought on its website. | Both parents — “each have your own accounts” and “each need to have your own subscriptions” (one parent may pay for both). Free limited accounts for children, relatives, caregivers, and professionals. | Yes — preset parenting-time templates or a custom schedule, more than one schedule, holidays that override it, and schedule change requests. | Yes — messages time-stamped when sent and first read, can’t be edited or deleted; ToneMeter and Writing Assistant; unlimited free PDF reports; “court-admissible.” | Typed in, one event at a time. Premium’s Event Import drafts an event from forwarded details. Subscribing to a team app or school link: not stated on the pages we could read. | Yes — when the other parent edits or deletes an event they created, you get a notification and the original details are logged. | Not stated on the pages we could read. | A court-involved or high-conflict arrangement where the record is the point. |
| TalkingParents | Essentials $7/mo; Enhanced $16/mo; Ultimate $32/mo; annual saves 8%. “You need a paid subscription”; 30-day free trial; fee waivers. | Both parents, each on a paid plan (“you and your co-parent can communicate even if you are on different plans”). | Partly — “track your custody schedule with repeating events”; its help center has tips for 50/50, 60/40, 70/30. No one-tap template is described. | Yes — Secure Messaging, Accountable Calling, calendar history of who viewed, created and edited each event; unlimited PDF records on Enhanced and above. | Typed in. Importing an outside calendar is not described. | Yes — each parent can only edit what they created, and “the other parent will be notified if a change has been made.” | One-way push to Google Calendar via Personal Calendar Connect. Apple or Outlook: not stated. | Two parents who want every message and schedule edit on the record, on a monthly plan. |
| AppClose | $7.99/mo on the web ($8.99 in the app); $6.99/mo prepaid yearly, $5.99/mo for two years. 60-day free trial, no card; 27,400+ fee-waived accounts since Jan 1, 2026. | The subscriber. “Solo Mode” works without the other parent connected; non-users get a link to view a request or event — “no account needed,” expires in ten days. | Yes — “15 pre-built templates, or create your own”; “court-friendly custody schedule templates”; schedule swap requests. | Yes — unalterable messages, unlimited calls and recordings, PDF exports, and U.S. “Certified Electronic Business Records”; third-party and professional access. | Typed in. Importing an outside calendar is not described. | “Get notified every time there has been a response or action taken for an event or request.” | Not stated. iOS, Android and web app. | One subscriber who needs the court-grade tools even if the other parent won’t join. |
| Cozi | Free with ads; Gold $39/yr for the account. | One household account, up to 12 people, all signing in with the same password and “full access to view/add/edit/delete any data.” No restricted access. | No — nothing about custody or co-parenting on its pages. | No. | Yes — paste a team app’s or school’s iCal URL; Cozi checks it “about once an hour.” | “Calendar Change Notifications” are a Gold feature, sent when events are created or edited. | Yes — outbound read-only iCal URLs to Google, Outlook or Apple; the receiving calendar can take “several hours or up to 24 hours.” | Two households that get along and want one shared calendar plus lists and meals. |
| Google Calendar | Included with a Google Account. | Share with specific people by email (they click a link to add it); a public calendar gives a “Public URL” that needs no sign-in. Sharing settings are computer-only. | No. | No. | Yes — “From URL” on a computer, if the source calendar is public. TeamSnap’s help: Google “typically updates on a 12-hour cycle,” so a change can take “up to 24 hours.” | Not published for subscribed calendars; the event moves, nothing says so. | Yes — share the calendar, or hand out its public iCal address. | Two parents already in Gmail who need no record and don’t mind the computer step. |
| Schedule Caddie | Free, no ads. | One parent. The other adult opens a share link in any browser — no account, no password — and can subscribe their own phone calendar to it. | No — not a custody tool. Any custody calendar you already keep can come in as an ICS link. | No messaging, expenses or records; it sits beside a court-grade app, not in place of one. | Yes — paste each team app’s link (20+ platforms with guides), upload the school PDF or photo, add any ICS; re-read every hour. | Yes — the account holder gets an email naming the change: old time to new, new location, cancelled; plus conflict and tight-transition warnings across kids. | Yes — a Subscribe URL for Google, Apple or Outlook, and the share page has its own “Add to your calendar” option. | The kids’ own schedules — practices, games, school days — kept current in both homes without either parent retyping them. |
From each maker’s own site, read November 9, 2026. “Not stated” means their pages don’t describe it and we won’t guess. Prices are U.S. list prices; all three co-parenting apps offer fee waivers. OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents, AppClose, Cozi and Google Calendar are trademarks of their owners; we’re not affiliated with any of them.
The one courts name. Its home page says “accepted by courts in all 50 states,” and the product is built around that: messages are time-stamped when sent and when first read and can never be edited or deleted; ToneMeter and Writing Assistant flag and soften language before it goes; PDF reports are unlimited and free. The calendar has preset parenting-time templates or a custom one, more than one schedule (school year, summer), holidays that override the rotation, and formal schedule change requests. If the other parent edits or deletes an event they created, you are notified and the original is logged. Children, relatives, caregivers and professionals get free limited accounts that see the calendar.
The catch: both parents need their own account and their own subscription — the entry plan is $110 a year, Essentials (the one with schedule change requests listed) $149.99, Premium $216, Max $299.88 — though one parent may pay for both. Every event is typed in; Premium’s Event Import drafts one from details you forward. Whether it can subscribe to a team app’s or school’s calendar link, or be subscribed from your phone, isn’t on the pages we could read today.
The monthly-plan alternative: Essentials $7, Enhanced $16, Ultimate $32 a month, 8% off annually, each parent on their own plan and the plans don’t have to match. Every plan has Secure Messaging, the Shared Calendar, Info Library and a journal; the tiers buy call minutes, storage and PDF records (unlimited from Enhanced). The calendar does custody as repeating events, with color labels, and keeps a record of who viewed, created and edited each one; each parent can only change what they created, and the other is notified when they do. Personal Calendar Connect pushes the shared events into your Google Calendar.
The catch: “You need a paid subscription to use the TalkingParents app” — no free plan, though there is a 30-day trial and fee waivers. The custody schedule is built from recurring events by hand (its help center has tips for 50/50, 60/40 and 70/30) rather than a one-tap template. Importing an outside calendar isn’t described, and the sync out is Google only.
Often listed as the free one; today its pricing page says one all-inclusive plan at $7.99 a month on the web ($8.99 in the app, $6.99 prepaid yearly, $5.99 for two years), a 60-day free trial with no card, and more than 27,400 fee-waived accounts since January 1, 2026. What it does well is work when the other parent won’t: Solo Mode runs without them connected, and an event or request can be sent to a non-user as a link that opens with no account. The calendar has 15 pre-built custody templates, a schedule per child if arrangements differ, swap requests, and a per-event history and comment thread. Records are unalterable and export as PDFs or, in the U.S., Certified Electronic Business Records.
The catch: the no-account link is per item and expires in ten days, so it is a way to send one request, not a standing view of the calendar. Events are typed in; nothing on its pages describes subscribing to a team or school calendar, or subscribing to AppClose from a phone calendar.
Not a co-parenting app — its FAQ says nothing about custody — but a lot of separated families use it, because it is free, it shares one calendar with up to twelve people, and it takes a team app’s or school’s iCal URL and re-checks it about once an hour. Gold ($39 a year for the whole account) removes the ads and adds Calendar Change Notifications when events are created or edited. It also publishes read-only iCal URLs out to Google, Outlook or Apple.
The catch: one account, one password, and everyone in it has “full access to view/add/edit/delete any data” — Cozi says plainly there is no restricted-access option. That is fine between two homes that trust each other and a problem the moment they don’t. No records, no templates, and a feed event that moves is just quietly different the next hour.
Free with the account both of you probably have. Share a calendar with a specific person by email and choose what they can do, from “see only free/busy” to “make changes and manage sharing”; or make it public and hand out the Public URL, which needs no sign-in. It subscribes to outside calendars by URL too, so a team app’s link can live in it.
The catch: Google says sharing settings and adding by URL are computer-only, and a URL subscription updates on a cycle Google doesn’t publish — TeamSnap’s help puts it at roughly 12 hours, up to 24 — with no notice that anything moved. No records of who changed what, and no custody layer at all.
Ours, and deliberately the narrowest thing here. One parent pastes the calendar link from each team app — TeamSnap, GameChanger, SportsEngine, LeagueApps and twenty-plus more, each with a guide — uploads the school PDF or a photo of the practice sheet, adds any other ICS link, and has one merged calendar, color-coded by kid or schedule. Every feed is re-read every hour, and when a time, date or location changes the account holder gets an email naming it: old time to new, new location, cancelled. It flags conflicts and tight transitions across kids. Then you make a share link — scoped to one kid, one schedule, or just games — and the other home opens it in any browser: no account, no password, always the current version, with an “Add to your calendar” option if they want it on their own phone. Free, no ads.
The catch: that is all it is. No messaging, no expenses, no custody templates, no records, nothing a court would want. The change emails go to the account holder, not to the other home; what the other home gets is a page that is already right. No native app, no SMS, no push. If your situation needs documentation, keep the co-parenting app and let this feed it.
We would rather say this clearly than have a schedule tool sold to a family that needs something else. Use OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents or AppClose — and not a plain shared calendar, and not us — when any of these is true:
In that situation the kids’ activity schedules are a separate, smaller problem, and it is fine to solve it separately: keep the custody calendar and the messages in the court-grade app, and let Schedule Caddie carry the team and school schedules to both homes by share link, so neither parent is retyping the coach’s Tuesday change into anything. Nothing about the record changes.
It depends on what the calendar has to prove. If a court, mediator or attorney is involved, or communication is tense, pick a co-parenting app whose records are built for that: OurFamilyWizard (from $110 a year per parent), TalkingParents (from $7 a month per parent) or AppClose ($7.99 a month, and it works even if the other parent never joins). If the two homes get along and the problem is just seeing the same week, a shared Cozi or Google calendar is free. And if the hard part is the kids’ own schedules — the team apps, the school PDF — none of those keeps them current by itself; that is the one job Schedule Caddie does, free, beside whichever of the others you choose. This is Schedule Caddie’s site, so weigh that last sentence accordingly.
Among the court-oriented apps, no — OurFamilyWizard, TalkingParents and AppClose each say a paid subscription is required, though all three offer fee waivers for financial hardship or domestic-violence survivors, and AppClose has a 60-day trial with no card. For a plain shared calendar between two homes, Cozi (ad-supported) and Google Calendar are free. Schedule Caddie is free too, with no ads, for the kids’ activity and school schedules and the read-only share link.
OurFamilyWizard: yes, each parent has their own account and subscription (one may pay for both). TalkingParents: yes, each on a paid plan. AppClose: the subscriber does; the other parent can be sent individual events or requests by link with no account, and Solo Mode runs without them connected. Cozi: everyone shares one account and password with full edit rights. Google: a specific person is added by email, or a public calendar gives a link that needs no sign-in. Schedule Caddie: one parent holds the account; the other opens a read-only share link in any browser with no account or password, and can subscribe their own phone calendar to it.
From the makers’ pages today, none of the three co-parenting apps describes subscribing to a team app’s or school’s calendar link; events are typed in, and OurFamilyWizard’s Premium Event Import drafts one from forwarded details. Cozi and Google Calendar do take a calendar URL, Cozi re-checking about hourly and Google on a cycle its own page doesn’t state (TeamSnap says roughly 12 hours). Neither tells you when an event inside that feed changes. Schedule Caddie takes the links and the PDF, re-reads hourly, emails the account holder what moved, and the share link the other home opens is always the current version.
Each maker’s own site, read November 9, 2026: ourfamilywizard.com (pricing, calendar and messages pages), talkingparents.com (pricing and Shared Calendar pages), appclose.com (home and pricing), cozi.com (FAQ and Gold pages), Google’s Calendar help pages on sharing, public calendars and adding by URL, and TeamSnap’s help article on subscribed-calendar timing. OurFamilyWizard’s support center blocked our reads today, so anything it may describe there — connecting an outside calendar, or a feed you can subscribe to from a phone — is marked not stated rather than guessed. If something has changed, tell us and we will fix the page.
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