An honest comparison · checked October 2026
Quilt or OurFamilyWizard?
OurFamilyWizard is the co-parenting app most courts know, and it is good at what it was built for. Quilt is newer, costs a family a fraction as much, writes the custody calendar for you, and puts an assistant on each parent's side. Here is what each one does, in the same words, with the places the other one is stronger.
Pick Quilt if
You want the calendar to be right without maintaining it, one price for the whole family, the kids on their own devices, and help reading and writing the hard messages.
Pick OurFamilyWizard if
Your order names it, you need documented or recorded phone calls, GPS check-ins at exchanges, or a login for your attorney inside the app.
The same in both
Messages that can't be edited or deleted, timestamps from the server, change requests with a yes or no, expense tracking, and PDF records for a lawyer or a judge.
What a family pays in a year
Co-parenting apps are mostly priced per parent, so the number that matters is what two parents pay. These are the yearly plans as listed on each site in October 2026; monthly plans cost more.
Quilt
$79
a year, the whole family
Both parents, every kid, viewers. Or $9.99 a month. Free for one home. 30 days free.
OurFamilyWizard
$300
a year, two parents on Essentials
$149.99 per parent. Premium is $432 for two; Max is $600.
TalkingParents
$168
a year, two parents on Essentials, paid monthly
$7 a month per parent; about 8% less paid yearly. Enhanced is $384 for two; Ultimate is $768.
AppClose
$192
a year, two parents
$7.99 a month per parent on the web; $8.99 in the app.
OFW and TalkingParents both offer fee waivers for parents in financial need; Quilt is free for families under one roof. Prices change: check each site before you buy.
Feature by feature
The same job in each column. ✓ does it well, ~ does part of it or on a higher plan, – doesn't do it. Quilt does 13 of 16 outright; the rest is written below, not hidden.
What a family pays
Quilt
$79 a year or $9.99 a month, once, for both parents, every kid and any grandparent or sitter. 30 days free. Free for families under one roof.
OurFamilyWizard
Each parent buys their own plan: $149.99 (Essentials), $216 (Premium) or $299.88 (Max) a year. Two parents on Essentials: about $300 a year. A fee waiver exists for parents in need.
The custody calendar
Quilt
Written from your order once: the rotation, holidays by odd and even year, school breaks, hand-off times. It stays right years ahead, and every day is coloured by whose day it is.
OurFamilyWizard
Built from schedule templates, with holidays and exceptions entered by hand, and kept up by hand.
Asking for a change
Quilt
Tap the days on a month tinted by whose day it is: cover for me, I can cover, swap (with flexible days back), I'll be away, make-up time. One tap to answer. Pending changes show on the calendar itself.
OurFamilyWizard
Schedule and parenting-time change requests, approved or declined in the app.
Messages
Quilt
Conversations with the other parent, the whole family or one kid, laid out like iPhone Messages. Read receipts. Photos and PDFs. Reply to one message. Tag someone with @.
OurFamilyWizard
Messages with first-viewed timestamps, attachments, and ToneMeter, which flags heated wording as you type.
Keeping it calm
Quilt
A heated draft gets a cooler version with the same facts before it goes. Then the assistant: tap the other parent's message to see what's really being asked and what to watch; say what you mean, rough or not, and it writes the reply; check your own draft for what it commits you to. Both parents get it.
OurFamilyWizard
ToneMeter flags emotionally charged wording. A Writing Assistant on Essentials and above suggests calmer phrasing.
Finding things later
Quilt
Ask in plain words ("every time pickup was changed on the day") and the assistant reads every message you can see, returns each match quoted with its date, shows the pattern, and writes the email to your attorney with a matching PDF.
OurFamilyWizard
Search within messages; records are exported as PDFs for a lawyer to read through.
The record
Quilt
Every request, answer, message and expense is stamped by the server the moment it happens and can't be edited or deleted, by anyone: the database itself refuses. Any date range downloads as a court-ready PDF (case header, page numbers, a SHA-256 fingerprint so a copy can be checked), with the messages you choose or all of them.
OurFamilyWizard
Unalterable messages and logs with unlimited PDF downloads on Essentials and above. Premium and Max add certified records: notarized, printed and mailed.
Expenses and paying back
Quilt
Snap a receipt and the amount, date, store and category fill in. Set the split, send a batch, the other parent approves or rejects each line, then one-tap Venmo, Cash App, PayPal or Zelle with the amount filled in, and mark it paid. Every step in the record.
OurFamilyWizard
Expense log with reimbursement tracking, and OFWpay for paying inside the app (a limited number of payments on Essentials, unlimited on Premium and above).
The kids
Quilt
Pair a kid's phone or tablet with a six-digit code and their own Quilt opens every time: whose house, the week, chores with stars and rewards, messages with the family, a widget for the home screen. No account to make or remember.
OurFamilyWizard
Free child accounts with limited, view-only access.
School and activities
Quilt
Paste the school's calendar link (FACTS, a team, a church) and Quilt keeps it in step every day: breaks into the custody schedule, each kid's homework to that kid. Or drop in the teacher's newsletter.
OurFamilyWizard
Entered by hand, or imported on Premium and above.
Your other calendars
Quilt
Two-way Google Calendar sync: a "Quilt" calendar appears in Google and edits go both ways. Apple and Outlook subscribe with one link.
OurFamilyWizard
Export to outside calendars; event import on Premium and above.
Around the house
Quilt
Home Screen widgets on iPhone and iPad, up to the iPad's extra large size. Wall mode for a kitchen tablet. "Alexa, open quilt family" and an Echo Show widget.
OurFamilyWizard
iPhone, Android and web apps.
Calls and check-ins
Quilt
No calling, no call recording, no GPS check-ins. Quilt keeps to the written word and the calendar.
OurFamilyWizard
Documented audio and video calls (minutes depend on the plan), optional recording and transcripts on Max, and GPS-verified check-ins at exchanges.
Attorneys and professionals
Quilt
Your attorney gets the record PDF and the assistant's email, which reference the same messages. There is no separate professional login yet.
OurFamilyWizard
Free accounts for attorneys, mediators and mental-health professionals to view activity inside the app.
Families it fits
Quilt
Co-parents, parents under one roof, blended families, grandparents and sitters as viewers. Same app, and free when there's one home.
OurFamilyWizard
Built for separated and divorced parents.
Age
Quilt
New in 2026. Built for phones first, with the record as the foundation rather than a feature added later.
OurFamilyWizard
Since 2001. The app most family courts, attorneys and mediators already recognise by name.
Will Quilt's record hold up?
Records are judged on how they were made. Quilt's are created by the system at the moment each thing happens, stamped with server time, never editable or deletable (the database itself refuses), include the email provider's delivery IDs for every notification, and export with a SHA-256 fingerprint that proves a copy is unaltered. The PDF carries a case header, page numbers and a certification page. That is a stronger set of guarantees than a printout of a message log, and it is the same whether you export the whole period or only the messages that matter.
What Quilt doesn't offer is a notarized, mailed copy. If your attorney wants one, OFW provides that on its higher plans.
Where the day-to-day is different
- The calendar is written from your order, holidays and school breaks included, instead of typed in and kept up.
- Changes are asked and answered in one tap and show on the calendar while they wait.
- Each parent has an assistant: read her message, write the reply, check your draft, find anything, email your attorney.
- The kids have their own Quilt on their own devices, with chores and messages, and no account.
- It syncs both ways with Google, sits on the iPad as a widget, and answers on Alexa.
- One price covers the family, and the same app works when everyone lives under one roof.
Moving from OurFamilyWizard
An evening, in four steps. Your OFW history stays with OFW; download it before you go.
- 1
Download your OFW records
Export the PDFs you might ever need while your plan is active. Nothing from OFW moves into Quilt's record, and it shouldn't: a record is only good if it was made where it says it was.
- 2
Enter the order once
Pick the custody template, set the hand-off times and the holidays by odd and even year. Quilt writes the calendar through next year and beyond.
- 3
Bring in the rest
Connect Google Calendar, paste the school's calendar link, import a calendar file from anywhere else. Or type it: “swim Tuesdays 6 to 7 on Ava's calendar.”
- 4
Add the family
The other parent signs in with Apple, Google or an email link; one plan covers you both. Pair each kid's device with a six-digit code. Give grandparents a view.
And the other four people ask about
Also from their public pages in October 2026.
TalkingParents
From $7 a month per parent (Essentials); $16 (Enhanced) and $32 (Ultimate). No free plan since March 2026; 30-day trial.
Built around the unalterable record: messages, documented calls, a calendar, an info library. The Ultimate plan adds a sentiment scanner and writing assist.
Next to Quilt: Strongest if documented phone calls are the point. The calendar is a shared calendar, not a custody schedule written from an order, and there is nothing for the kids themselves.
AppClose
$7.99 a month per parent on the web ($8.99 in the app). 60-day trial, monthly billing, fee waivers.
Time-stamped messages neither parent can edit, calendars from templates, expenses with reimbursement requests, free in-app payments, signed PDF exports, calls, and Co-Parent Assist for neutral wording.
Next to Quilt: Good value for a documented channel. Like OFW, the schedule is built and maintained by hand, and the record is per parent. Quilt's one price covers the family and writes the calendar for you.
Skylight Calendar
A $300-and-up display, plus Skylight Plus at $79 a year for the full feature set.
A touchscreen for the kitchen wall that shows the family calendar, chores and lists. Loved for being always on where everyone can see it.
Next to Quilt: Quilt's wall mode does the same on any old iPad: whose house, the next hand-off, the week in two colours, today's list, and the kids' chores, with the custody engine and the record behind it. $79 a year covers both homes, and the iPad you already own is the display.
Cozi
Free with ads, or Cozi Gold at $39 a year.
A family organiser: a colour-coded calendar, shopping and to-do lists, recipes. Loved for the lists.
Next to Quilt: Not a co-parenting app: no custody schedule, no change requests, no record, nothing a court could use. If that's what you need, Quilt is the one that also does the lists.
Questions people ask before switching
Will a court accept Quilt's record?
Courts weigh records on how they were made, not on whose logo is on them. Quilt's are created by the system at the moment each thing happens, stamped with server time, never editable or deletable, and exported with a fingerprint that proves a copy is unaltered. Many orders name OurFamilyWizard specifically; if yours does, that's the app to use, and you can still run the calendar in Quilt. Quilt is a record-keeper, not legal advice.
Can I use Quilt if my co-parent is on OurFamilyWizard?
One parent can run the whole calendar in Quilt and share the kids' pages and links. Change requests and the record are only complete when both parents are in it, so the honest answer is that it works best when both switch. One plan covers both of you, so the other parent pays nothing.
Does Quilt have something like ToneMeter?
Yes, and more. A heated draft gets a cooler version with the same facts before it goes. Beyond that, the assistant reads the other parent's message for you, writes a reply from what you mean, checks your draft for what it commits you to, and finds anything in the history. Both parents get the same assistant.
What does Quilt not do that OurFamilyWizard does?
Phone and video calls, call recording, GPS check-ins, notarized records by mail, and a separate login for attorneys and professionals. If any of those are required by your order, OFW is the one that provides them.
How do I move from OurFamilyWizard to Quilt?
Download your OFW records first; your history stays with them. In Quilt, enter the custody template and holidays once and the calendar writes itself. Connect Google or import a calendar file for the rest, add the other parent by email, and pair the kids' devices with a code. Most families are set up in an evening.
Is the price really for the whole family?
Yes. $79 a year or $9.99 a month covers both parents, every kid and any viewers. One parent pays. Families under one roof pay nothing.
See it before you decide.
A live demo calendar with no sign-in. Then 30 days free, one plan for the whole family.
OurFamilyWizard, ToneMeter and OFWpay are trademarks of OurFamilyWizard, LLC; TalkingParents, AppClose, Skylight and Cozi belong to their owners. Quilt is not affiliated with any of them. Their prices and features are taken from their public websites in October 2026 and may have changed; nothing here is legal advice.