The Onward app is shutting down on October 8th, 2024. We apologize for this inconvenience. We will let you know if we relaunch the app in the future!
The Onward app is shutting down on October 8th, 2024. We apologize for this inconvenience. We will let you know if we relaunch the app in the future!
hen you share children with someone, you know that communicating with them is unavoidable even after you’re divorced. You’re in a relationship with that other parent for the long haul because of the little people you mutually love. Still, it may not be easy to figure out how to keep it amicable when talking is necessary. Luckily, a co-parenting app could be the solution.
The right app for finances, schedules, or record-keeping can save you time and energy, but there’s another reason you may need one: co-parenting communication is now a huge point of focus in family law.
Attorneys and judges will often suggest or require that you talk with your co-parent about extracurriculars, school, or child care. Traditionally, they told some parents to use only email or text message for record-keeping purposes. Now, a lot of them are actually recommending that divorced couples select from the best co-parenting apps and use them exclusively.
Whether you’re legally required to use an app or just looking to make things easier, you should know what’s out there for you! On this list, we’ll share a mix of both free and paid apps that will make co-parenting a more amicable process for everyone involved.
Even in the most amicable divorces, finances tend to be the #1 thing that divorced parents argue about. Despite these conversations being uncomfortable, most divorced parents need to continuously work with their ex-partner for years on shared expenses for children. If you’re one of these co-parents, make use of a convenient expense tracking app.
Cost: $4.99/month
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Onward is best for co-parents who need clear expense tracking that’s not complicated by other clunky co-parenting app features. Most smartphones come with shared calendar options and photo albums on the cloud for the rest.
Onward skips the unnecessary features many other apps tack on and sticks to one of the biggest needs co-parents face: talking about money without awkwardness, nagging, or conflict.
Onward is also the only app that allows you to send proposals for future expenses so that there are no surprises, this helps avoid any arguments after money has already been spent. You’ll know how crucial this is if you’ve ever tried to work out disagreements over shared expenses after the fact without a dedicated app like Onward doing it for you.
Cost: Free account for 2 expenses per month; upgrade for $14.99 per month
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If your child support goes into (or comes out of) your account automatically, you might not always notice when payments are made. SupportPay presents itself as an app that can solve this.
Even though you can use this app alone if your co-parent isn’t on board with using it, solo use won’t help you avoid disputes about missing payments.
And with the free account only allowing two expenses per month and not allowing users to access features like payments, its hard to see value in the app without paying for it. With so many back-and-forth payments between co-parents every month, you’re better off going with an expense tracking app that’s truly free (like Onward) so you can track it all.
Download: iOS and Android
Cost: Free for desktop version; paid mobile app accounts start at $5.99 per month
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Talking Parents organizes all of your communication with your co-parent and your kids’ important records in one place. Those timestamps can be helpful for court proceedings, though users report that the app is hard to use.
If you need to limit communication with your co-parent, you won’t appreciate the detailed tracking in this app.
Most importantly, the app fees can get outrageous if you want to utilize the full functionality. You’re better off with a free app like Onward that has no hidden fees and an easy-to-use interface to track your finances.
Download: iOS and Android
When you have a parenting plan, especially one that you agreed upon in court, you need to keep records of how each person followed (or attempted to follow) it. Apps with a shared calendar feature can help you maintain accurate and easy scheduling.
Here are some great family calendar options. A couple of these are general calendars that can be used for your unique parenting situation, while others were designed as dedicated co-parenting apps.
Cost: Free
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If you already use Google Calendar, this is certainly the easiest option for making the transition to a shared co-parenting schedule. This is one you’re probably already using, but some parents ditch it post-divorce so their personal calendar is no longer accessible by their ex.
Cost: $3.99
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You know what they say about the best laid plans. It’s unlikely that both you and your co-parent will be able to follow your intended parenting schedule 100% of the time. This app takes that into consideration. But the $3.99 download fee might not be worth it due to the slow nature of the app and the less-than-stellar user experience.
Download: iOS only
Cost: Free for a one month trip; paid plans start at $1.99 per month
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Your parenting plan might include a procedure for requesting schedule changes in advance, and Parentship lets you do so without officially changing a calendar event until the other parent agrees. With many users complaining of not even being able to send an invite to their co-parent, though, you might find this one frustrating.
Cost: Free or $29.99 per year for advanced features
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Cozi is an app for a big family with people going in all different directions. It lets you remind just one kid about that cancelled basketball practice or notify Grandma about a new pick-up time, so there’s no more worry about forgetting to send a text when something changes last-minute. However, all users must have an email address to join. This renders it useless for families with younger kids or tech-challenged relatives.
Cost: Free
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You can use FamCal to keep many different family members’ commitments organized in one convenient place. Having a centralized place to store vacation photos or your children’s milestones is also a nice plus, but shared albums on the iPhone or Google Photos are more convenient for most people.
Cost: $9.99 per month or $99 per year; free 14-day trial
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If you’re lucky enough to have a village helping you out, you need a way to communicate with everyone who’s a part of your children’s lives. WeParent gives you the option to message a preschool teacher or babysitter and the other parent simultaneously in a simplified group chat.
But some users find the app glitchy and don’t love its unreliable scheduling features.
Cost: $9.99 per month
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Have a 2-2-3 schedule or another setup with lots of back-and-forth? Fayr can help eliminate confusion about whose day it is and whether you arrived on time to the drop-off spot. But this app probably won’t be the best for anything beyond keeping track of your time sharing.
Download: iOS and Android
Cost: $12.50 per month; free trial available
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Not a fan of having to spend hours entering repeating events on a typical online calendar? The co-parenting schedule wizard in 2houses could be helpful. You can also use the desktop version to explore your family’s calendar, documents, and more in greater detail.
In fact, it’s almost too much detail for some families. If you won’t make use of things like the journal feature, this app will seem a bit bulky and complicated.
Download: iOS and Android
Just need an app for record-keeping for court or mediating your relationship with your co-parent? These two apps could provide the service you need.
Cost: $99+ for a one-year subscription per co-parent
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OurFamilyWizard may be a good solution if your divorced hasn’t been finalized or you’re looking to keep immaculate records so you can request a change in your parenting plan. This app also gets your child involved with their own account, but lets you decide which parts of the family conversation they get to access.
However, if there are too many users involved in your account (e.g., lawyers), it could become a source of stress rather than an organizational help. This app was really designed for use in the most contentious divorces.
Download: iOS and Android
Cost: $12.99 per month
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CoParenter is unique because it can help you avoid court altogether. It’s an option if both you and your former partner are looking to keep things civil. Yet, it could be risky to solely rely on the limited legal advice you can get from an app.
You can certainly manage being divorced with children without a co-parenting app, but why would you? After seeing what a purposeful mobile app can do to ease tension and make things so much more convenient, you’ll never want to go back to the world of endless emails and phone calls again.
Chelsea is a twice-divorced mom of two boys. She is happily single parenting and doing her best to balance two simultaneous co-parenting relationships. Despite the complications, Chelsea can see the beauty in her story and believes healing is possible for the whole family.
