Kid Pickup vs Cozi
Cozi is a family organizer. Kid Pickup does one narrower thing: makes sure each pickup has a name on it. Plenty of families could use both.
Last checked
Cozi
A shared family organizer: calendar, reminders, shopping and to-do lists, and a recipe box.
What it does well
- A big, well-loved family organizer: rated 4.8 on about 400,000 App Store ratings.
- A free version with the core features.
- Calendar, reminders, lists and recipes in one place, and it can subscribe to school and work calendars.
Where it stops
- The whole family shares one account, so everyone signs in as the family rather than as themselves.
- The free calendar shows 30 days ahead; seeing further needs Cozi Gold. Calendara reports the limit arrived in May 2024.
- It shows everyone what’s on. Getting one named person to say “I’ve got this pickup” isn’t what it’s built around.
What Kid Pickup does instead
- Every pickup is claimed by one person, or stands out as open until it is.
- Anyone who can’t do a pickup says “Can’t make it” from the notification, and the family hears it still needs someone.
- Parents hear when a pickup is added, taken on or dropped. Helpers hear about the open ones they could take.
- If nobody has a pickup, parents and guardians hear 24 hours, 3 hours and 2 hours ahead.
- Sitters see only open pickups and their own. Grandparents see the calendar. You choose, per person.
- Everyone signs in as themselves, with a role: parent, guardian, grandparent, nanny, sitter.
Who should pick which
Choose Cozi if you want one free place for the family calendar, reminders and shopping lists.
Choose Kid Pickup if your problem is “who’s actually getting the kids?”, especially with grandparents or sitters in the mix.
Pricing side by side
| App | Price | App Store rating |
|---|---|---|
| Cozi | Free version; Cozi Gold listed at $39.00 among its in-app purchases (Calendara reports $39 a year). | 4.8 on about 400,000 ratings |
| Kid Pickup | Family $59.99/yr or $5.99/mo. Premium $109.99/yr or $11.99/mo. US dollars. One price per family. Two-week free trial for new subscribers; Apple charges when it ends unless you cancel 24 hours before. | No US ratings yet; 5.0 on 4 ratings in Canada |
Prices in US dollars, as of September 2026. App Store prices are shown in your local currency.
Sources
Every fact about another app on this page comes from these pages, checked September 2026. If something’s changed, tell us through the contact form and we’ll fix it.
The difference in one sentence
Cozi answers what’s on this week. Kid Pickup answers who’s getting the kids. A Cozi calendar can show “3:15 pickup, school” perfectly well; what it isn’t built to do is get one person to say yes to it, mark it open until somebody does, and chase it when nobody has.
Where Cozi is the better choice
- You want shopping lists, to-do lists and a recipe box in the same app as the calendar.
- You want something free to start with. Cozi has a free version; Kid Pickup is a subscription after a two-week free trial for new subscribers, which renews at the plan’s price unless cancelled at least 24 hours before it ends.
- Some of your family use Android. Cozi runs on iPhone, Android and the web; Kid Pickup is an iPhone app with a browser version, and no Android app yet.
- Your pickups are already settled (one parent always does them) and what you need is the rest of the week in one place.
Where Kid Pickup is the better choice
- Pickups get shared between two parents, grandparents, a sitter or a neighbour, and the question each week is who’s doing which.
- You want each person signed in as themselves, with a role. A sitter sees only the open pickups and their own; a grandparent can see the whole week.
- You want a pickup nobody has taken to stand out, and a nudge before it’s too late, rather than finding out at 3:20.
- You want “Can’t make it” to be one tap from the notification, so the family knows a pickup is open again.
Using both
Keep the household calendar, lists and meals in Cozi. Put pickups and drop-offs in Kid Pickup, where each one gets a name. Kid Pickup’s calendar feed can be added to Apple or Google Calendar, so the pickups can sit next to everything else on your phone.
A week, side by side
What a week looks like in Kid Pickup
You add Tuesday’s swim pickup at 4:30 and leave it open. Grandma and the other parent see it marked open on the calendar. Grandma taps I’ll do it, and the pickup now says her name on everyone’s phone. If nobody had taken it, the app would have sent parents and guardians a nudge the day before, then three hours out, then two hours out. On the day, Grandma taps I’m here at the pool and Picked up when she has them, and the family sees both.
In Cozi, the same pickup is an event on the shared calendar that everybody can see. Who’s doing it lives in the event’s title or notes, or in a text thread beside it.
Questions parents ask
Is Kid Pickup a Cozi alternative?
For pickups, yes. Kid Pickup doesn’t do shopping lists or recipes. It makes sure each pickup has one person who said yes, and tells you when one doesn’t.
Can I use Cozi and Kid Pickup together?
Yes. Keep the household calendar in Cozi and the pickups in Kid Pickup.