A Cozi alternative with an AI assistant

If a shared calendar and a grocery list are all your family needs, Cozi Free or Cozi Gold ($39 a year) costs less than The Margin, and you may not need a Cozi alternative at all. The Margin suits a family that also wants chores with approvals, an allowance and points, the household's money and a wall display in the same app, all working with no signal. Its Family plan costs more than Cozi's paid plans; its free plan covers the calendar, a shopping list, recipes and money.

I should say up front that I make The Margin. I built it for my own household, so read this as one maker's comparison. Everything said about Cozi here comes from Cozi's own plan pages and help center, read on October 24, 2026. Plans and prices change, so if you are reading this much later, check Cozi's plans too.

Cozi vs The Margin at a glance#

Sources for Cozi: compare plans, Cozi Gold and its offline help page, all read on October 24, 2026. "Not listed" means it was not on those pages. It does not mean Cozi has said it will never have it.

Where Cozi is the better pick#

• Price. Cozi Gold is $39 a year, and The Margin's Family plan is $240 a year paid yearly. If the calendar and lists are the whole job, Cozi costs less.
• Fewer things to learn. Cozi does a handful of things. The Margin also has boards, notes and money, which is more to find your way around, and I won't pretend otherwise.
• Phone apps in the stores today. Cozi's iPhone and Android apps are out. The Margin installs from the browser on any phone, and its own store apps are still with testers.

What Cozi users complain about#

A comparison from the maker only goes so far, so I also wanted to know what Cozi's own users say. On October 26, 2026 I read its public reviews on Trustpilot and its App Store reviews as collected on JustUseApp. The same few problems kept coming up.

1. The free calendar got shorter. In May 2024 the free plan stopped showing entries more than 30 days ahead, and most of Cozi's Trustpilot reviews date from those few weeks. One reads: "Switched to a paid model with no notice."
2. The free app keeps pushing you to Gold. Reviewers say that searching for an appointment, among other things, needs the paid plan.
3. Ads. Free users describe "annoying ads everywhere," and one says a brand showed up as a suggestion in their shopping list.
4. Reliability. Some reviews, many of them undated, mention crashes, lost updates and reminders that never came.

I can't test the crashes from outside, so treat that one as reported, not proven. The first one bothers me most. A family puts years of birthdays and school dates into a calendar, and seeing them again shouldn't cost money. The Margin's free plan doesn't cut the calendar off at a date, and you can export everything on every plan, Free included.

Where The Margin is different#

The biggest difference is that chores and allowance sit next to the calendar. On the Family plan a child ticks off a chore, a parent approves it if you want that step, their points add up, and allowances pay themselves on payday (allowance and chore points).

All of it works with no signal. Every device keeps a full copy, so the list opens in a supermarket basement and your edits sync once you are back online (working offline). Cozi keeps lists offline too, but its calendar only shows days you already opened.

The household's money lives there as well: what went out, what came in and what is owed, free on every plan (expenses and money).

Margin Intelligence, the assistant, is on every plan rather than the top one. It answers from what the household put in and can do the work: add to the list, plan the week, move a chore. On Pro and up, an AI tool you already use can connect too (Margin Intelligence).

I call the way the planner works Margin planning: you leave room in the week on purpose, and a task gets a day only when you mean to do it then (Margin planning).

A spare tablet becomes a shared screen on the kitchen wall with the week and the list, on every plan (the wall display). There are no ads on the free plan.

Price, side by side#

The Margin's current prices, and what each plan includes, are on the pricing page.

Switching from Cozi#

There is no one-click Cozi import. What works today:

• The calendar: if your Cozi calendar can be shared as a calendar feed link, add it under Share and subscribe on The Margin's Calendar page and its events show up, read-only, while you move over. See integrations.
• Recipes: paste a recipe's web page link and The Margin imports it. See recipes and the meal plan.
• Lists: there is no list import yet. Add them again by hand, or paste a list into the chat and ask Margin Intelligence to add it. The shopping list guide covers the rest.

If you are still weighing whether The Margin is a real company, the who makes it page has the register entry and the rest.