MyGarden vs Planta
Planta is the most established app in this category, and its light meter is genuinely useful. It is also the most conventional: a very good scheduler with identification bolted on, wrapped in a design people are used to calling the prettiest in plant care. We think that title is ours now, and that the more interesting difference is underneath — Planta has no companion that reads your plant's history and reasons about it.
What Planta does better than us
- Onboarding that gets you from install to a working schedule in a couple of minutes.
- A well-executed light meter and a clear, opinionated care flow.
- Mature on both iOS and Android, with a long track record.
- Priced below most rivals, at roughly $7.99 a month or $35.99 a year.
Where we differ
The better-looking app is ours
Planta's reputation was built on its looks, so let us be direct rather than politely modest: we think MyGarden is the nicer app to sit with. Hand-drawn illustration and a sprout that reacts to what you are doing instead of stock photography. Care plans set as real numbers — a dose in millilitres, an interval in days, a light target in metres from the window — rather than icons you have to interpret. Type that stays readable at the smallest size on the screen. Judge it yourself; that is the sort of claim you should not take on trust.
A companion, not a form
Planta wants you to fill in fields. MyGarden lets you describe the problem in a sentence — “the leaves nearest the window are going crisp” — and works out what to change, with your plant's whole history as context.
Diagnosis that reads your own photos
Photograph a struggling plant and it is compared with how that same plant looked before, not with a generic gallery. Insect identification and tracked treatments are part of the same loop.
Weather that reaches your balcony
Rain skips a watering. A cold night raises a warning tuned to the tenderest plant at that location rather than a fixed threshold, and forecasts are read in the location's own timezone.
Buying only in the app
Planta bills exclusively through the App Store and Google Play. We also sell on the web, so a subscription follows your account across platforms and is easier to manage.
Side by side
| Feature | MyGarden | Planta |
|---|---|---|
| Conversational AI companion | Yes | No |
| Light measurement | Yes, stored per measurement | Yes, point reading |
| Health diagnosis from a photo | Yes, against plant history | Yes |
| Insect identification | Yes | No |
| Weather-adjusted schedules | Yes | Partial |
| Propagation tracking | Yes | No |
| Buy on the web | Yes | No |
| Platforms | iOS (Android in development) | iOS, Android |
Pick Planta
Choose Planta if you want the settled, conventional option — a clean schedule, nothing to argue with, and a long track record on Android.
Pick MyGarden
Choose MyGarden if you want to ask questions about a specific plant and get answers that account for its past, its pot and this week's weather.
Claims about Planta were checked against its own site and store listing in July 2026. Apps change; if something here is out of date, tell us at hello@mygrdn.app and we will correct it.