TimeTree vs Equal House: a shared calendar, or the household shared out?
TimeTree is a free, popular shared calendar, and it does that job well. Here is how it compares with the Equal House app, where TimeTree is ahead, and how to move a TimeTree family across.
Updated 3 November 2026
The short version
- TimeTree
- Free with ads; Premium $4.49/month or $44.99/year on timetreeapp.com (the UK App Store lists £3.49 and £34.99), as of November 2026
- Equal House Pro
- £2.99/month or £29.90/year
Our honest verdict: TimeTree is the better choice if what you want is a free shared calendar, or several of them for different groups (the family, the football team, the grandparents), with a chat within each event. The Equal House app is the better choice if you want the calendar alongside meal plans, kids' chores with pocket money and the school run, with the household work shared fairly between the grown-ups.
Prices are as published at the time of writing — check both before you subscribe. Our pricing in full.
TimeTree is one of the most widely used shared calendars there is: its UK App Store listing says it is “loved by 75 million users worldwide”. It is free, it is simple, and it does one thing well: a calendar that a group of people can all see and add to, with a chat within each event.
The Equal House app covers the family calendar and then goes further, into the work that the calendar does not show: meals and the shopping, kids’ chores and pocket money, the school run, and who is actually doing what.
Where TimeTree is ahead
- The free calendar is the whole calendar. What Premium adds is listed as no ads, an hourly view and attached files. Equal House’s free plan plans 3 days ahead, rolling; looking further needs Pro.
- Several calendars, one per group. Its App Store listing offers calendars for “families, couples, work and other groups”, each shared with different people. Equal House has one household calendar, and links to other households (grandparents, the other side of a co-parenting arrangement) with Pro.
- Chat within events, so the conversation about Saturday sits with Saturday. Equal House has no family chat.
- Price. TimeTree is free with ads, and Premium (no ads, an hourly view and attached files) costs $4.49 a month or $44.99 a year on its own site. The UK App Store lists Premium at £3.49 and £34.99, and does not say which is monthly; it is likely the monthly and yearly prices, but check the store before you buy.
Where Equal House is ahead
- No ads on any plan. TimeTree’s free plan shows ads; its App Store listing says it contains advertising.
- A Fairness Score. Chores are weighted by effort, a live 0–100 Fairness Score shows how evenly the grown-ups are sharing the work, and Auto-Balance moves jobs to whoever has room. It is on every plan, and nothing like it is listed on TimeTree’s site or App Store listing.
- Meals and shopping. Meal plans from 6,031 recipes, or your own saved ones, with the shopping list filled in and sorted into UK aisle order, and the cooking shared out.
- Children have their own sign-in and their own board. A six-picture family code and an optional PIN, on a device a grown-up has approved, with stars, pocket money and money jars.
- The school run, set up from a directory of 30,654 UK schools (Pro). Term dates fill in for some schools; for the rest you add the closures once.
- Family documents and house notes, for the passport numbers and the boiler code.
Where they are level
- On a computer. TimeTree’s App Store listing says you can reach your calendars from a web browser. Equal House runs in a browser at app.equal.house, with the same Pro features as the phone app, a week grid for the calendar, and a Family Wall day overview for a spare screen. Kid Zone stays on phones.
Price
TimeTree is free with ads. As of November 2026, Premium is $4.49 a month or $44.99 a year on timetreeapp.com, and the UK App Store lists it at £3.49 and £34.99.
Equal House is free with a rolling three-day planning horizon. Pro is £29.90 a year, or £2.99 a month, for the whole household, on every phone and computer it uses. There is no automatic free trial: the free plan is free for as long as you like.
Moving from TimeTree
TimeTree cannot export its events, so moving takes an evening rather than a button:
- Link the calendars TimeTree was showing you. Google, Outlook or Apple events never belonged to TimeTree; paste that calendar’s iCal link into More → Calendar Sync in Equal House (Pro).
- Screenshot the rest, a month or two at a time, and let Magic Add read the screenshots into events you check before anything is added.
- Add the repeating ones once by hand: swimming on Tuesdays, bin day, birthdays.
- Invite the family, and keep TimeTree running for a week or two while everyone gets used to it.
The full walk-through is our guide to moving from TimeTree to Equal House.
Who should pick which
Pick TimeTree if: you want a free shared calendar, or several, and a chat within each event, and the job is keeping everyone’s plans in one place.
Pick Equal House if: you want the calendar, meals, kids’ chores and pocket money and the school run in one app with no ads, and the work shared fairly between the grown-ups rather than just written down.
Both are free to start, so a week of real use will tell you more than any comparison page, including this one. For the wider field, see the best family organiser apps in the UK.
Questions people ask
Is Equal House a good TimeTree alternative in the UK?
It is if you want more than a calendar. The Equal House app adds meal plans from 6,031 recipes, a shopping list in UK aisle order, kids' chores with pocket money and their own sign-in, the school run with a UK school directory, and a Fairness Engine with a live Fairness Score that shares the household work between the grown-ups, with no ads on any plan. TimeTree is ahead if you want a whole calendar for free (Equal House's free plan plans 3 days ahead), separate calendars for different groups, or a chat within each event.
Can I move my TimeTree calendar into Equal House?
Not automatically. TimeTree's own help says it can bring events in from Google, Apple or Outlook but cannot export its events, and it has no shareable calendar link, so no app can pull a TimeTree calendar across. Link any Google, Outlook or Apple calendar TimeTree was showing you with More → Calendar Sync (Pro), let Magic Add read screenshots of the rest into events you check first, and add the repeating ones once by hand. Our step-by-step guide covers it.
Does TimeTree work on a computer?
Yes. TimeTree's App Store listing says you can use your calendars from a web browser. So can Equal House: app.equal.house runs in a browser, with the same Pro features as the phone app. Children's Kid Zone stays on phones.
Does Equal House have a free trial?
There's no automatic trial, and the free plan is free for as long as you like. Families moving from another family app can claim 31 days of Equal House Pro with code SWITCH until 23:59 UK time on 31 March 2027: no card, nothing to cancel, it never turns into a subscription, and it works once per household, once per person and once per email address, limited to the first 10,000 households. See equal.house/switch for every condition.
TimeTree is a trade mark of its owner, which is not affiliated with Equal House and has not endorsed this comparison. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@equal.house and we will correct it.
