For separated parents
Co-parenting, free for both of you.
The calendar, messages, handovers and shared costs in one calm app. No per-parent fee, no paywall on your own records, and no location tracking — and it works before your co-parent even joins.
Free at launch No card, ever One email when it's ready
Free for what matters
What GrownUps is
GrownUps is a free co-parenting app for separated parents. It handles custody schedules, handovers, private messaging with a clear record, shared expenses, documents and reminders. There is no per-parent fee and no paywall — every core feature works on your own, before your co-parent joins.
The problem
You already know the failure modes.
None of this is because either of you is bad at this. It’s because two households are running one family on text messages, screenshots and memory.
What GrownUps does
One place, and one version of the truth.
Everything your kids need you to keep track of, agreed by both of you, in a record neither of you can quietly change.
Everything in two homes
Nine features. Three jobs.
Custody calendar
Week-about, 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, every-week-same, or a custom cycle up to 28 days — with swaps your co-parent accepts or declines.
Explore the calendar 02 / PLAN
Handovers
Generated from your schedule, with a reminder beforehand. One tap to confirm you arrived. Location only if you choose it — never tracking.
How handovers work 03 / TALK
Messages
One civil thread. No editing, no deleting, by either of you or by us. Delivered and read receipts, so “I never got that” has an answer.
See messaging 04 / TALK
Records & reports
A tamper-evident record you can export free, forever. Pay a couple of dollars only when you want a polished copy for a lawyer.
About the record 05 / MONEY
Shared expenses
Log it, split it, agree it, settle it — with a running balance you can both see and a CSV you can export. No money moves through GrownUps.
See expenses 06 / MONEY
Documents & child info
Birth certificates, consent forms, school letters. Doctor, allergies, sizes — out of one parent’s head and into a place you both trust.
See the vaultIn practice
A Tuesday, start to finish.
- 1The reminder arrives
An hour before changeover. Both of you. - 2One tap at the kerb
Works with no signal. Syncs later. - 3A message, on the record
Delivered, read, and unchangeable. - 4The shoes get settled
Logged, approved, balance updated.
Today 5:00pm · Ella & Max
Delivered 4:00pm
Every push is tracked, retried on failure, and mirrored in an in-app centre. Notification settings live on the server, so they can’t silently revert.
5:02pm · captured offline, synced 5:11pm✓
5:04pm · no location attached✓
School car parks are where signal dies. Tap anyway — GrownUps records your device time, queues it, and syncs on reconnect, keeping both timestamps.
One thread per family. Nothing can be edited or deleted. Encrypted at rest, and our admin tools are architecturally unable to read the content.
You paid · split 50/50Approved
Sam owes you$42.25
Logged → requested → approved → settled, every step timestamped and unchangeable. You settle however you already settle — we’re not a payment processor.
Your privacy
Encrypted. And not for sale.
We don’t say “end-to-end encrypted”, because it wouldn’t be true — the server has to be able to produce your export and your reports. So here is what is actually true instead.
- Encrypted in transit and at rest, with a separate key per family AES-256-GCM
- Our admin console is structurally unable to read your content Enforced by a test on every build
- One family can never see another’s data A denial test per endpoint
- Full data export — free, forever Messages, files, expenses, everything
- Genuine deletion, completed within 30 days Including stored files
Product facts, not trust claims. There is no user count here because we don’t have one yet.
What it costs
Free. Not free-for-now.
No trial, no card, no per-parent fee. If you ever want a polished, court-style PDF for a lawyer, that’s a few dollars — generated on demand. Your raw export is always free.
Free
$0forever · both parents
- Custody calendar, swaps, calendar feed
- Messages, receipts, unchangeable record
- Handover confirmations
- Shared expenses and balance
- Documents and child info
- Full export & genuine deletion
A polished report
A few $each, on demand
- Court-style formatted PDF
- Integrity-verification page
- Communication record · case file · expenses · handovers
- Free watermarked preview first
GrownUps+
Lowper family, per month
- Unlimited reports
- Larger document vault
- Advanced calendar rules
- Priority support
What we will never do. Never charge per parent · never put your own record behind a paywall · never charge for security or safety · never make cancelling hard · no countdown timers, no fake crossed-out prices, no pre-ticked boxes.
Compare
The category charges per parent, per year.
| GrownUps | OurFamilyWizard | TalkingParents | AppClose | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per parent, per year | $0 | ~$99–$144 | ~$120–$300 | Paid tiers |
| Works before your co-parent joins | Yes | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| Cost to export your own record | $0, forever | Varies | Per document | Varies |
| Free tier on mobile | Full core | No | Withdrawn | Withdrawn |
Illustrative figures — placeholder pending W5. On the live site every number carries a source and a “last verified” date (plan §9.1).
Questions
Good to know.
What is GrownUps?
A free co-parenting app for separated parents — a shared custody calendar, private messaging with a clear record, one-tap handovers, shared expenses, documents and reminders, in one place both homes can trust.
Is GrownUps free for both parents?
Yes — free for both, with no per-parent fee and no paywall on your own records. It even works for one parent before the other joins.
How is it different from OurFamilyWizard or TalkingParents?
Those charge each parent an annual fee and gate features until both pay. GrownUps is free for both parents, never charges you to export your own record, and doesn’t track your location.
When can I get it?
It’s in development. Leave your email and we’ll tell you the day it launches — that’s the only email you’ll get.