Folly vs Planta: Which Plant Care App Fits You?
Planta and Folly both build care schedules that react to your home and your local weather, rather than nagging you on a fixed timer. They are closer than most plant app comparisons would have you believe, and which one fits comes down to how and where you grow.
Planta is the more established app, with a deeper plant database, a light meter, a community and years of polish behind it. Folly is built for people growing across more than one place - a flat and an allotment, a garden and a greenhouse - who want to be warned before frost, heat or storms actually damage something.
Both will keep your plants alive. The clearest difference in daily use is that Folly shows its reasoning: every watering interval breaks down into the factors that set it, with the percentage each one added or cut.
The short answer
- Folly sends per-plant risk alerts with a protection checklist when frost, heat, wind or a storm is coming, and on Folly Pro you can run up to five growing sites, each with its own location and weather.
- Folly shows its working. Tap any plant and you see the 15 factors behind its schedule, each with the percentage it added or cut. Planta draws on more parameters than Folly does; Folly shows you what every one of its own did.
- Planta requires iOS 18. Folly runs on iOS 16.4, so it works on iPhones Planta has left behind.
- Both are free to download. In Folly, chore day grouping, notes with photos and the full care guide cost nothing; Folly Pro raises scans from 5 to 30 a month and opens up multiple growing sites.
When Folly is the better pick
Pick Folly if you grow across more than one place, want warnings before frost or heat damage something, or your iPhone cannot run iOS 18.
When Planta is the better pick
Pick Planta if you grow entirely indoors in one home and want the biggest plant database and the most polished experience. Its light meter, community and species coverage are genuinely better than ours, and at £32.99 a year against our £59.99 it is cheaper too. If that is what you need, it is the right app.
Folly vs Planta at a glance
| Feature | Folly | Planta |
|---|---|---|
| Plant identification from a photo | Instant identification from a photo, across a large plant database | Instant identification from a photo |
| Health diagnosis with treatment plan | Plant Doctor: 500+ diseases and pests, with step-by-step treatment, a recovery timeline and prevention tips | Dr. Planta diagnoses and sets up a treatment plan |
| Care schedule type | 15 factors - weather, season, room, pot, soil, light and more - each shown with the effect it had | Over 30 parameters, plus local climate and weather data |
| Daily task overview | Included free | Todo tab with a daily overview and overdue markers |
| 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 | Check app |
| Notes with progress photos | Included free | Plant journal: log care, monitor health, document growth |
| Share care with family or friends | Check app | Invite others to help and see completed tasks in real time |
| Community and discussion | No community feed | Discussion forums and shared care with other growers |
| Light meter | Coming soon | Measures room light to guide placement |
| Plant suggestions for your conditions | Matches plants to a room's conditions and your existing plants | Recommendations by room type and measured light |
| 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 |
| Full plant care guide | Included free | Step-by-step care guides and articles |
| Monthly personalised care guide | Written for your collection and climate (Folly Pro) | Check app |
| Interface | Built in 2026 for current iOS and Android design conventions | First released 2018, actively updated since |
| Minimum iOS version | iOS 16.4 | Requires iOS 18, so older iPhones are not supported |
| Platforms | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
Planta 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 Planta wins
Planta has been at this longer, and it shows. Its plant database is broader than ours, its care articles are more thorough, and the app is more polished in the places that only come from years of iteration.
Planta also has a community, and Folly has none at all. If you like asking other growers why your monstera is sulking, or reading what worked for someone with the same plant in the same kind of room, that is a real reason to choose Planta and we cannot match it. It lets you invite family or friends to help with care while you are away, too, which Folly does not.
And Planta is cheaper. Its App Store listing prices a year at £32.99 against Folly Pro at £59.99. Monthly the two are close - £7.49 against our £7.99 - but if you pay annually, Planta costs a good deal less. That is worth weighing honestly: if budget is the deciding factor, Planta wins it.
The light meter is the clearest example. Point your phone around a room and Planta measures the actual light, then tells you which plants will cope there. We do not have an equivalent, and for someone working out what will survive on a north-facing shelf, that is a better tool than anything Folly offers.
Planta's scheduling is also genuinely adaptive, not a fixed timer. It draws on over 30 parameters plus local climate and weather data. If you have read comparisons claiming otherwise, they are wrong. If you grow indoors in a single home and want the deepest species coverage available, Planta is the stronger choice.
Where Folly wins
Folly is built around the idea that you do not grow in one place. On Folly Pro you can run up to five growing sites, each with its own location and its own weather, and up to 20 rooms inside each one. A windowsill in a warm flat and a greenhouse two miles away are genuinely different environments, and Folly treats them that way rather than averaging them into one home. The free tier covers a single site, so this is a reason to upgrade rather than something you get on day one.
The weather alerts are the feature people stay for. When frost, heat, wind or a storm is forecast, Folly works out which of your plants are actually at risk and sends a protection checklist - what to move, what to cover, what to water first. That is a different job from using weather data to time a watering reminder: it is about preventing damage before it happens.
Folly also batches your care onto a chore day. Rather than just listing what is due, it shifts the calculated due date onto the day you have chosen, wherever the plant tolerates the shift, so watering forty plants becomes one Saturday job instead of a trickle of notifications all week.
Most plant apps hand you a number and ask you to trust it. Folly shows its working. Open any plant and you get the full breakdown behind its watering interval: the base figure for the species, then each of the fifteen factors that moved it - pot material, pot size, soil, light, season, temperature, humidity, rainfall, maturity and the rest - with the percentage it added or cut. They are grouped into what is making you water more often and what is making you water less, with a plain-English summary of the combined effect and a note of when the schedule was last tuned.
That means when Folly says nine days rather than a fortnight, you can see it was the terracotta pot and the warm week that did it, and decide for yourself whether you agree. Planta draws on more parameters than we do, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What Folly offers is the ability to check every one of its own.
Practically: Folly runs on iOS 16.4, while Planta now requires iOS 18. If your iPhone is older than an XS, Planta is not an option and Folly is.
One last thing, and we will flag it as opinion rather than fact: we think Folly simply looks and feels better. It was designed in 2026 around how iOS and Android look now, where the alternatives have been iterating on interfaces laid down years earlier. Taste is personal and Planta's polish is real, so download both and judge for yourself - but this is the part of the comparison we would happily be measured on.
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.
Planta is free to download, with a paid tier at £7.49 a month or £32.99 a year.
Questions people ask
Is Folly a good alternative to Planta?
Yes, particularly if you grow in more than one place or outdoors. Folly Pro gives you up to five growing sites, each with its own weather, and Folly sends per-plant alerts with protection steps when frost, heat, wind or storms are forecast. It groups care tasks onto a chore day you choose, and it shows the reasoning behind every schedule: each factor that set the watering interval, with the percentage it added or cut. It also runs on iOS 16.4, while Planta requires iOS 18. If you grow entirely indoors in one home and want the largest plant database, a light meter and an active community, Planta remains the stronger app.
Does Folly work on older iPhones that Planta no longer supports?
Yes. Folly requires iOS 16.4 or later. Planta requires iOS 18, which rules out every iPhone older than the iPhone XS. If your phone cannot update to iOS 18, Folly will still run.
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 switch from Planta to Folly?
There is no automatic import, so you add your plants to Folly by scanning or searching for them. Most people find this quick, and it is a good moment to set up your growing sites and rooms properly so that schedules and weather alerts are accurate from the start. You can run both apps side by side while you decide.
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
