Folly vs PictureThis: Which Plant Care App Fits You?
PictureThis and Folly are often listed side by side, but their centres of gravity are different. PictureThis is an identification tool with an enormous plant encyclopedia behind it, and a solid set of care features around that. Folly is a care app first: it assumes you roughly know what you have and want to keep it alive.
If your question is “what is this plant?”, PictureThis is one of the most downloaded and best-known answers to it, and it is very good at that job. If your question is “when should I water this, and what happens when it gets cold?”, that is what Folly was built for.
Most people end up wanting both things eventually. The honest comparison is about which job matters more to you right now.
The short answer
- PictureThis is the stronger identifier, with a much deeper plant encyclopedia and 24/7 access to experts.
- Folly is the stronger care app: schedules built from 15 factors, weather risk alerts with protection steps, and chore day grouping.
- Folly shows its working - every watering interval breaks down into the factors that set it, with the percentage each one added or cut.
- PictureThis runs on iOS 15; Folly needs iOS 16.4. On an older iPhone, PictureThis is the one that will install.
When Folly is the better pick
Pick Folly if the hard part is keeping plants alive rather than naming them - adaptive schedules, weather warnings before frost or heat does damage, and care batched onto a day that suits you.
When PictureThis is the better pick
Pick PictureThis if identification and reference are what you actually need. Its encyclopedia is far deeper than ours, it has expert help on tap and a working light meter that Folly still lacks, and it runs on older iPhones than Folly does. For identifying something on a walk, it is the better tool and we would use it too.
Folly vs PictureThis at a glance
| Feature | Folly | PictureThis |
|---|---|---|
| Plant identification from a photo | Instant identification from a photo, across a large plant database | Its core feature, with a very large species encyclopedia |
| Plant encyclopedia and reference | Full plant care guide, included free | Extensive: plants A-Z, toxic plants, weeds, regional guides |
| Health diagnosis with treatment plan | Plant Doctor: 500+ diseases and pests, with step-by-step treatment, a recovery timeline and prevention tips | Diagnosis with prevention and treatment guidance |
| Access to human experts | No expert consultation | 24/7 access to experts |
| Care schedule type | 15 factors - weather, season, room, pot, soil, light and more - each shown with the effect it had | Watering and fertilising reminders with care tips and a water tracker; some adaptation, not the full set |
| Shows why the schedule changed | Every factor listed with the percentage it added or cut, grouped into what shortened and what lengthened the interval | Check app |
| Chore day grouping (tasks batched onto one day) | Shifts due dates onto your chosen chore day where the plant allows it. Included free | Reminders are not batched onto a chosen day |
| Weather risk alerts with protection steps | Frost, heat, wind and storm alerts for the plants at risk | Check app |
| Multiple growing sites, each with its own weather | Up to 5 sites on Folly Pro, each with its own location and weather; 1 site free, 20 rooms on either | Check app |
| Notes with progress photos | Included free | Yes |
| Light meter | Coming soon | Light exposure monitoring to check a plant's position |
| Monthly personalised care guide | Written for your collection and climate (Folly Pro) | Has a monthly guide, but less detailed than Folly's |
| Interface | Built in 2026 for current iOS and Android design conventions | First released 2017, actively updated since |
| Minimum iOS version | iOS 16.4, so older iPhones miss out | iOS 15.0 |
| Platforms | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
PictureThis details checked August 2026 from its own website and App Store listing. Features change — "Check app" means we could not confirm it either way, not that it is missing.
Where PictureThis wins
Identification is PictureThis's whole reason to exist, and it is one of the most downloaded plant apps in the world for good reason. If you want to point a phone at something in a hedgerow and get a confident answer, it is excellent at that, and its reputation for accuracy is earned rather than marketed.
The encyclopedia behind it is genuinely deep - its App Store listing claims over 400,000 species. Plants A to Z, toxic plants, weeds, regional guides: it is closer to a reference work than an app feature, and Folly's care guide does not attempt that scale. If you like reading about plants rather than only managing them, PictureThis gives you far more to read.
It is also more of a care app than a straight identifier. It has watering reminders and a water tracker, notes on your plants, a monthly care guide, and light exposure monitoring - a light meter, which Folly does not yet have at all. Ours is planned; theirs works today.
It also offers 24/7 access to experts, which Folly has no equivalent of at all. When something is wrong and you want a human to look at it, that is worth a great deal, and no amount of algorithmic diagnosis fully replaces it.
One practical point in their favour: PictureThis runs on iOS 15, while Folly requires iOS 16.4. If your iPhone is a few years old, PictureThis may install where Folly will not.
Where Folly wins
Identifying a plant is the easy part. Keeping it alive through a hot August or a cold snap is the part people actually struggle with, and that is the whole of what Folly does.
Folly's watering schedules are calculated from 15 factors - pot material and size, soil, light, room, season, temperature, humidity, rainfall, maturity and more - and recalculated as conditions change. PictureThis has watering reminders, a water tracker and care tips, and adapts to some of this; the difference is how much Folly takes into account and how often it recalculates.
Crucially, Folly shows its working. Open any plant and you see the base interval for the species, then every factor that moved it with the percentage it added or cut, grouped into what is making you water more often and what is making you water less. When Folly says nine days rather than a fortnight, you can see exactly why.
Then there are the weather alerts. When frost, heat, wind or a storm is forecast, Folly works out which of your plants are at risk and sends a protection checklist - what to move, what to cover, what to water first. And chore day grouping shifts due dates onto the day you have chosen, wherever the plant tolerates it, so care becomes one job rather than a trickle of notifications.
On Folly Pro you can run up to five growing sites, each with its own location and weather. The free tier covers a single site, so that is a reason to upgrade rather than something you get immediately.
And a point we will label as opinion rather than fact: we think Folly is the nicer app to use. It was designed in 2026 around current iOS and Android conventions, where PictureThis has been building on an interface first shipped in 2017. Taste is personal, so try both - but if how an app feels day to day matters to you, we would back ours.
Pricing
Folly is free to download and free to keep using. Chore day grouping, notes with progress photos and the full plant care guide are all included at no cost, with no trial attached. The free tier covers 5 scans a month, one growing site with up to 20 rooms, and a 7-day Folly Pro trial.
Folly Pro is £7.99 a month or £59.99 a year. It raises you to 30 scans a month, opens up to 5 growing sites each with its own location and weather, and adds the monthly personalised care guide. If you need more scans in a particular month, you can buy a one-off scan pack rather than move up a tier.
PictureThis is free to download and sells a paid tier inside the app. It does not publish its subscription prices on its website, and pricing varies by region, so we would rather send you to the source than quote a figure that might be wrong: check PictureThis on the App Store.
Questions people ask
Is Folly a good alternative to PictureThis?
It depends what you use PictureThis for. As a plant identifier and encyclopedia, PictureThis is deeper than Folly and we would not claim otherwise. As a care app, Folly does more: watering schedules built from 15 factors and recalculated as conditions change, weather risk alerts with protection steps, chore day grouping, and a full breakdown of why each schedule is what it is. Many people use an identifier occasionally and a care app daily.
Does Folly identify plants as well as PictureThis?
PictureThis is an identification specialist with a larger species encyclopedia, and for pure identification it is the stronger tool. Folly identifies plants from a photo too, and for the houseplants and garden plants most people own it works well - but identification is a feature of Folly rather than its whole purpose. If naming unfamiliar plants is your main need, PictureThis is the better fit.
Is Folly free?
Folly is free to download and free to keep using. The free tier includes 5 plant scans a month, one growing site with up to 20 rooms, and a 7-day Folly Pro trial, plus chore day grouping, notes with progress photos and the full plant care guide at no cost. Folly Pro is £7.99 a month or £59.99 a year, and raises you to 30 scans a month, up to 5 growing sites each with its own weather, and the monthly personalised care guide. Scans are capped on both tiers; if you need more in a given month you can buy a one-off scan pack.
Can I use both PictureThis and Folly?
Yes, and plenty of people do. They do different jobs: use PictureThis to identify something unfamiliar and read up on it, then add it to Folly to get a care schedule, weather alerts and reminders that fit where you actually grow it. Neither app prevents the other from working.
Does Folly work in my country?
Yes. Folly is available worldwide on the App Store and Google Play, and its schedules and weather alerts use your own location, so care advice reflects your local conditions rather than a UK default. Folly is built by Zohho Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales.
Also compare
