If you are searching "Planta vs Greg," you have narrowed a crowded category down to its two best-known names, and the frustrating part is that most comparisons treat them as the same app with different logos. They are not. Planta is a care system — it wants to run every task your plants need, on a schedule it adjusts to your weather and your windows. Greg is a watering brain with a community attached — it wants to get one number exactly right, and give you a room full of people to ask when something goes wrong.
This is an honest comparison of both. We make Succulent, a photo journal for succulent and cactus collections, so we will also be clear about the one case where neither Planta nor Greg is the right shape — but for a mixed indoor jungle, one of these two is almost certainly your answer.
The core difference: a routine vs a number
Everything else follows from this one split.
- Planta manages the routine. Photograph a plant, it identifies the species and builds a care plan — not just watering, but fertilizing, repotting, pruning and misting, each on its own schedule. Those schedules move with your local weather and the light in your rooms, measured with a built-in light meter. When a leaf yellows, Dr. Planta looks at a photo and walks you through a treatment. If you go on holiday, you invite someone to the plant and they see the tasks tick off in real time. It is a to-do system where the to-dos happen to be plants.
- Greg nails the watering. Its PlantVision scan does something Planta does not: it measures the pot and the distance to the nearest window, then uses species, size and your home to work out how much water — not just when. Reminders follow from that. Around it sits a genuinely active community: #Communities around interests, a social feed, and a troubleshooting channel where Greg says veteran growers answer in minutes. It is a watering calculator where the calculator happens to have friends.
That distinction predicts which one you will still be opening in three months. If your plants die of neglect — fertilizer never happened, the repot never happened, the fern dried out while you were away — Planta's task engine is the fix. If your plants die of overwatering and you never know whether the answer is "a splash" or "a soak," Greg's number is the fix, and the community is where you go when the number was wrong.
Planta vs Greg vs Succulent at a glance
| Planta | Greg | Succulent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it actually is | A complete plant care system | A watering planner with a community | A photo journal for succulents and cacti |
| Plant identification | Photo ID with a tailored care plan | PlantVision scan — species, pot size, window distance | None — you document plants you already own |
| Care tasks covered | Watering, fertilizing, repotting, pruning, misting | Watering, with amount as well as timing | Per-plant watering and photo reminders, always optional |
| Adapts to your home | Local weather, room light via a light meter | Species, pot size, distance to window | No — you set each plant's interval yourself |
| When a plant looks sick | Dr. Planta diagnoses from a photo | Ask the community | Compare two dated photos side by side |
| Social layer | Community, plus shared care with family | Feed, #Communities, troubleshooting | None — export a collage to share elsewhere |
| Growth record | Plant journal inside the care log | — | The whole app: timeline, Time Machine, growth playback |
| Platforms | iPhone, iPad, Android | iPhone, Android | iPhone and iPad |
| Track record | 4.8 stars from roughly 114,000 US ratings; Editors' Choice | 4.6 stars from roughly 20,000 US ratings | New and small — judge it on the mechanic, not the download count |
| Price | Free to download; subscription, price shown at checkout | Free to download; $29.99/year for precision watering, 7-day trial | Free, optional Premium; no account, data stays on your device |
Where Planta wins
Planta is the most complete plant care app on iOS and the numbers back that up: roughly 114,000 US ratings at 4.8 stars, an Editors' Choice badge, and a release cadence that had a new version out the week we wrote this.
Four things it does that Greg does not. It schedules more than water — fertilizing, repotting, pruning and misting each get their own reminder, which is the difference between a plant that survives and one that thrives. It adapts on its own: care reminders shift with your local weather and the light in each room, so a plant moved to a north window gets a different schedule without you editing anything. Dr. Planta turns "why are the leaves yellow" into a photo and a step-by-step treatment, which is faster than posting to a forum and waiting. And shared care means the person watering your plants while you travel sees the same task list you do and you see it completed.
It is also the broader product — a light meter for choosing spots, a plant journal, a community of its own, and, if you have Meta's AI glasses, the ability to add a plant by looking at it. If you keep thirty different species and want one app to run all of them, get Planta and stop reading.
Where Greg wins
Greg holds roughly 20,000 US ratings at 4.6 stars and has a specific thing it does better than anyone: the watering amount. Most apps, Planta included, tell you when to water. Greg's PlantVision scan measures the pot and how far it sits from the window, then tells you how much — "exactly how much each of your plants is thirsty for," in its own words. If overwatering is how your plants die, that number is the whole product.
Its second win is people. Greg's community is not a feature tab; it is half the app. Interest-based #Communities, a social feed of other people's plants, and a troubleshooting channel where the promise is an answer from a veteran grower in minutes. Planta has a community too, but Greg's is where the energy is, and for a beginner who does not yet know which questions to ask, a fast human answer beats a diagnostic flowchart.
Greg is also the more transparent of the two on price. Its listing says plant scans are free and puts a number on the subscription — $29.99 a year, 7-day trial, with a promise to ping you before the trial ends. Planta's listing does not publish a figure. One honest caveat in the other direction: Greg's most recent iOS release, at the time of writing, was three months older than Planta's. It is maintained, but Planta ships faster.
Where a smaller journal wins: when your plants want to be left alone
There is a third group these head-to-heads never serve — people whose collection is mostly succulents and cacti. Both Planta and Greg are built around the idea that plants have needs on a schedule. Succulents mostly do not. They want to dry out completely, they want to be watered less than you think, and a reminder engine calibrated for tropical houseplants is the single most common way people kill them.
What a succulent collection needs is not a plan. It is a record. When was this Echeveria last watered — not "when is it due," but when did it actually happen. Is the string of pearls stretching toward the window or is that just how it looked in March. Did the jade thicken over the summer. Those are questions you answer by looking, and by looking at two dates side by side.
That is the specific gap Succulent was built for. Every plant gets a profile and a photo timeline; the Time Machine puts two photos of the same plant next to each other so months of growth read in a few seconds; growth playback runs a plant's photos from first to latest. The care calendar records what you actually did — watered, repotted, propagated — and reminders are per plant and always optional: three weeks for the jade, ten days for the string of pearls, nothing at all for the cactus. There is no identification, no diagnosis, no community, and no account; everything stays on your device.
It is deliberately narrower than both. It does not tell you what to do. If you need a care plan, Succulent cannot give it to you and Planta is the better app. What it does is keep the story of a slow-moving collection in a form you will actually want to open.
The bottom line
Choose Planta if you keep a varied indoor collection and want every task — not just watering — scheduled, adjusted to your home, and diagnosed when something goes wrong. Choose Greg if watering is the thing you get wrong, you want the amount and not just the day, and you would rather ask a person than read a treatment plan — and if you want to know the price before you start. And if your plants are mostly succulents and cacti, the honest answer is that neither is built for you: what you want is a journal that remembers what you did and shows you what changed, not an app that keeps telling you what to do next.
Frequently asked questions
Is Planta or Greg better?
Planta is the more complete app: it schedules watering, fertilizing, repotting, pruning and misting, adapts those schedules to your local weather and the light in your rooms, diagnoses problems from a photo with Dr. Planta, and lets family share care while you are away. Greg is narrower and, on the thing it focuses on, arguably sharper: its PlantVision scan measures the pot and the distance to the nearest window to work out exactly how much water each plant wants, and its community will answer a plant question in minutes. Pick Planta if you want the whole routine managed; pick Greg if watering is the part you get wrong and you like asking people.
Is Greg free?
Greg is free to download, and its App Store listing says plant identification scans are free. The precision watering amounts, smart watering reminders, the indoor light gauge and seasonal care updates sit behind a subscription that the listing prices at $29.99 a year, with a 7-day trial. So you can identify plants and join the community for nothing, but the personalised watering plan that is Greg's main selling point is paid.
Is Planta free?
Planta is free to download with a premium subscription for the full feature set. Planta does not publish a price in its App Store listing or on its website — the amount shows at checkout and varies by country — so treat any dollar figure you see on a third-party page as unverified. Its listing does spell out the mechanics: the subscription auto-renews and is charged within 24 hours of the period ending unless you cancel in your Apple Account settings.
Do I need a plant care app if I only keep succulents?
Probably not one of these two. Succulents and cacti want to dry out completely between waterings and mostly want to be left alone, so a weekly reminder engine built for tropical houseplants tends to nag you into overwatering. What a succulent collection benefits from is a record — when each plant was last watered, and photos over months showing whether it is stretching, blushing or filling out. That is a journal job, not a scheduling job, and it is the gap a succulent-specific photo journal covers better than either general care app.
A journal, not a to-do list
Photo timelines, a Time Machine for growth, and per-plant reminders that never nag. No account, no data collection — built for succulent and cactus collections.
Download Succulent on the App Store →Want the wider field instead of a head-to-head? Read 5 Best Planta Alternatives and 5 Best Greg Alternatives, or see how each compares with a succulent journal in Succulent vs Planta and Succulent vs Greg. Official sites: Planta and Greg. Questions? Email us.