Free co-parenting apps in the UK

There is no longer a credible free-forever co-parenting app. AppClose, the last major free option, ended its free tier in January 2026. What remains free are trials, a handful of thin apps, and general-purpose tools like a shared calendar — each of which has a real cost, just not a monetary one.

Checked 19 September 2026.

What happened to the free options #

AppClose was free for years, funded by adjacent services, and it was genuinely the answer for parents who couldn't pay. It moved to paid in January 2026. Users who'd built up years of records found themselves choosing between paying and losing access to them.

TalkingParents has a limited free tier in the US with paid records and exports. Per-parent pricing above that.

2houses, OurFamilyWizard, Graham, The Coparent App and OurPath are all paid, with trials.

The pattern isn't a coincidence. These apps carry legal-grade records, encrypted storage and years of retention, for a small user base. That costs real money per family per year, and there are only three ways to cover it: charge, advertise, or monetise the data. Two of those are unacceptable in this category.

What's genuinely free, and what it costs you #

A shared Google or Apple calendar. Free, and everyone has one. But either parent can silently edit or delete an entry, there's no record of what was agreed, and no way to show what the arrangement was in March. Fine for coordinating. Useless for the disputes coordination is meant to prevent. More on this →

WhatsApp. Free, and it's where most separated parents already are. Messages can be deleted and edited, arrangements vanish into the scroll, and a screenshot proves much less than people assume.

A paper or spreadsheet contact diary. Genuinely useful, genuinely free, and recommended by several UK support organisations. The weakness is that it's yours — written by one parent, so it shows one parent's account. How to keep one properly →

Cafcass's Our Child's Plan template. Free, official, and the right starting point for an agreement. Our guide to it →

Free tools on this site. Our parenting plan builder and shared care nights calculator need no account and no payment, and they never will.

Gingerbread, Citizens Advice and the Family Mediation Council — free advice, free helplines, and worth more than most apps if what you actually need is guidance.

What free usually costs #

A paywall arriving later. The AppClose lesson. Free products in a small market either change model or close, and by then your records are inside.

Your data, or ads. Neither is acceptable around children's locations and two parents' private communication.

Records that don't hold up. A record either parent could have altered is a record either parent can be accused of having altered.

Nothing to lose. The under-discussed one. Part of why a shared record works is that both parents know it's permanent. A free tool anyone can walk away from doesn't carry that.

If you genuinely can't pay #

Say so. There are real routes, and none of them requires pretending.

If you're on legal aid and going through mediation, your mediator can give you a full free year of OurPath, converting to a standard subscription afterwards. We make no eligibility decision — your mediator has already assessed it.

The Family Mediation Voucher Scheme contributes up to £500 towards mediation about child arrangements. How it works →

Export is free on every OurPath plan, permanently, including after you cancel. Whatever happens to your subscription, your records don't become hostages.

And if you use us and can't afford to renew, email hello@ourpath.app before you lapse. We're a small company and we can be sensible about it.

So is a paid app worth it? #

Honestly, it depends on where you are.

If you're on reasonable terms and just need to coordinate, a shared calendar and normal messaging are probably enough. Don't buy something you don't need.

If arrangements keep slipping, if "you never said that" is a regular conversation, or if there's any prospect of proceedings, then a neutral permanent record is worth considerably more than £130 a year — roughly what an hour of a family solicitor's time costs, and considerably less than the argument you're currently having twice a month.

Guide hubs #

Publish these before the guide articles in document 4 — a guide that links up to a 404 is worse than an unpublished guide. Each hub lists its cluster; delete the lines marked (not yet published) from the live page and add each back when its guide ships. Two of these are full pillar pages.