Folly vs PlantIn: Which Plant Care App Fits You?
This is a closer comparison than most. PlantIn and Folly both care about outdoor plants and both warn you when the weather turns - PlantIn's own listing promises notifications for storms and freezing temperatures. Anyone telling you that weather warnings are unique to Folly has not read PlantIn's app description.
PlantIn is the broader tool. Alongside plant care it identifies mushrooms and weeds, and it puts you in touch with real botanists when something goes wrong. Folly is narrower and goes deeper into the schedule itself.
The honest difference comes down to three things Folly does that PlantIn does not appear to: separate growing sites each with their own weather, batching your care onto a chosen day, and showing you the arithmetic behind every watering interval.
The short answer
- Both apps handle outdoor plants and both send weather warnings. That is not a Folly advantage over PlantIn and we will not pretend it is.
- Folly runs up to 5 growing sites on Folly Pro, each with its own location and weather, so a garden and an allotment are not treated as one place.
- Folly shows its working - every watering interval breaks down into the 15 factors that set it, with the percentage each one added or cut - and batches tasks onto a chore day you choose.
- PlantIn connects you to real botanists, and identifies mushrooms and weeds. Folly does none of that.
When Folly is the better pick
Pick Folly if you grow across more than one place, want care batched onto a day that suits you, and want to see exactly why a schedule says what it says rather than being handed a number.
When PlantIn is the better pick
Pick PlantIn if you want a human botanist to answer your questions, or if you identify mushrooms and weeds as well as plants. Its light meter works today where ours is still to come, and its library and community are larger than anything Folly offers.
Folly vs PlantIn at a glance
| Feature | Folly | PlantIn |
|---|---|---|
| Plant identification from a photo | Instant identification from a photo, across a large plant database | Plant identification with a large species library |
| Mushroom and weed identification | Plants only | Mushroom identification, including offline, plus weeds |
| Access to human experts | No expert consultation | Ask the Botanist: consultations with gardening experts |
| Health diagnosis with treatment plan | Plant Doctor: 500+ diseases and pests, with step-by-step treatment, a recovery timeline and prevention tips | Disease and pest identification, with botanist follow-up |
| Care schedule type | 15 factors - weather, season, room, pot, soil, light and more - recalculated as conditions change | Watering calculator from a questionnaire, plus personalised care plans |
| 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 |
| Weather warnings | Frost, heat, wind and storm alerts naming the plants at risk, with a protection checklist | Notifications for storms, freezing temperatures and other conditions that may harm outdoor plants |
| 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 |
| Light meter | Coming soon | AR-based light meter that measures the surrounding light |
| Notes with progress photos | Included free | Keep photos and track care progress over time |
| Community and discussion | No community feed | Global plant community |
| 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 2020, actively updated since |
| Minimum iOS version | iOS 16.4 | iOS 16.4 |
| Platforms | iOS and Android | iOS and Android |
PlantIn 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 PlantIn wins
PlantIn puts you in touch with actual people. Ask the Botanist gets you a consultation with a gardening expert, with step-by-step instructions for your particular case. Folly has no equivalent - no expert chat, no botanist, no community to fall back on. When a plant is failing and you want a human opinion, that is worth more than any algorithm, and PlantIn has it where we do not.
It is also a broader identifier. As well as plants it does mushrooms - including offline, which matters when you are in woodland with no signal - and weeds. Folly identifies plants and nothing else. If you forage or you are trying to work out what has appeared in a border, PlantIn covers ground Folly does not go near.
PlantIn's AR light meter works today; Folly's light meter is still to come. And on weather, PlantIn is not behind us: its listing promises warnings for storms and freezing temperatures aimed at outdoor plants, which is the same job Folly's alerts do. This is the one comparison in our set where weather warnings are genuinely a draw.
Where Folly wins
Since both apps warn you about the weather, the useful question is what happens either side of that warning. Folly's alerts name the individual plants at risk and give you a protection checklist - what to move, what to cover, what to water first - rather than telling you that a cold night is coming and leaving you to work out which of your forty plants care.
Folly also treats your growing places as genuinely separate. On Folly Pro you can run up to five sites, each with its own location and its own weather, and up to 20 rooms inside each. An allotment two miles away gets its own forecast rather than sharing your flat's. The free tier covers a single site, so this is a reason to upgrade rather than something you get on day one.
The bigger difference is that Folly shows its working. PlantIn's watering calculator asks you some questions and produces an answer. Folly gives you the base interval for the species, then each of the 15 factors that moved it - pot material and size, soil, light, room, season, temperature, humidity, rainfall, maturity and the rest - 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 precisely why, and disagree if you want to.
And Folly batches care onto a chore day you choose, shifting due dates wherever a plant tolerates the move, so watering a large collection becomes one job rather than a trickle of notifications across the week.
One more, clearly marked as opinion: we think Folly is the more pleasant app to use. It was designed in 2026 around current mobile conventions, where PlantIn has been building on an interface first shipped in 2020, and it does fewer things with more care. That is a matter of taste and PlantIn does far more than we do - so try both and see which you prefer.
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.
PlantIn 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 PlantIn on the App Store.
Questions people ask
Is Folly a good alternative to PlantIn?
Yes, if what you want is depth in the schedule itself. Folly runs up to five growing sites on Folly Pro, each with its own weather, batches care onto a chore day you choose, and shows the full breakdown behind every watering interval. PlantIn is the broader app: it identifies mushrooms and weeds, has a light meter, and connects you to real botanists. Both send weather warnings, so that is not a reason to switch either way.
Does PlantIn have weather alerts like Folly?
Yes. PlantIn's App Store listing describes notifications warning you about storms, freezing temperatures and other conditions that may harm outdoor plants, so weather warnings are not something Folly offers and PlantIn does not. The difference is in the detail: Folly's alerts name the specific plants at risk and include a protection checklist of what to move, cover or water first.
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 PlantIn to Folly?
There is no automatic import, so you add your plants to Folly by scanning or searching for them. It is worth setting up your growing sites and rooms properly while you do, since that is what makes the schedules and weather alerts accurate. You can keep PlantIn installed alongside Folly if you want its botanist consultations or mushroom identification, which Folly does not offer.
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.
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