PlantIn alternatives, and how to cancel PlantIn first

What PlantIn costs on 2026-10-21

PlantIn is free to download with in-app purchases. Its US App Store listing showed these ten rows on 2026-10-21:

• Weekly Premium Plant Care: $6.99 (on the Subscriptions shelf it is described as access for one week and marked "Free Trial", with no trial length stated)
• Premium Access Weekly: $7.99 and $8.99, Premium access: $7.99, Premium Weekly: $17.99
• Premium Access Yearly: $29.99 and $39.99
• Season Pass: $19.99 (its 5.48.0 notes say a pass unlocks a season check for each plant)
• Lifetime Special Offer: $19.99 and Lifetime Premium Plant Care: $49.99

Apple's rows don't say which plan a given user is offered; the purchase screen in the app does. For scale: a plan named weekly that renews every week at $6.99 comes to $363.48 over 52 weeks, against $29.99 or $39.99 for the rows named yearly. PlantIn's subscription terms say a free trial is charged unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends, and that a subscription renews each period "until you cancel". Its FAQ lists what Premium includes (a care journal with notifications, the light meter, watering calculator, disease diagnosis, plant identifier and care guides, and an ad-free blog) and says Ask the Botanist requests are paid when you submit them.

PlantIn also sells on its website, where you subscribe, then log in to the app with the same account. That matters for cancelling: where you paid decides where you cancel.

What PlantIn's App Store reviewers complain about

We read the 500 most recent US App Store reviews of PlantIn through Apple's public review feed (posted 2026-02-05 to 2026-10-20). 320 gave four or five stars and 157 gave one or two. By our keyword count, 78 of the low reviews mention prices, trials, subscriptions or charges, and 33 mention cancelling or refunds. In our words, the recurring stories are:

• The trial and the weekly price. Reviewers expected a free app or a free trial and found a weekly charge, or were asked to pay before they could see what was wrong with a plant.
• Charges after cancelling. Several say they were billed after cancelling, or after deleting the app, and could not get a refund from the developer.
• Paying twice. Some lifetime buyers say diagnosis help or a botanist answer still cost extra.
• Diagnosis they didn't trust. 47 low reviews mention diagnosis or care advice, often that a healthy plant was called sick, a struggling one was called healthy, or watering was blamed every time.
• Wrong names. 35 say the app named a plant wrongly or not at all.
• Freezes and bugs, in 12 low reviews, several after a May 2026 update that left a pop-up stuck on screen.

These are reviewers' accounts, not facts we checked, and the five-star reviews praise the same app's reminders, light meter and care plans. Still, about half of the unhappy reviews are about billing, which is why the next section comes before the alternatives.

How to cancel a PlantIn subscription

The PlantIn app cancel-subscription steps depend on where you paid. Deleting the app cancels nothing: PlantIn's own terms say so.

Paid through the App Store (a charge from Apple). Apple's cancellation page gives these steps on iPhone:

1. Open Settings and tap your name.
2. Tap Subscriptions.
3. Tap PlantIn, then Cancel Subscription. You may need to scroll down.

Apple says to cancel a trial at least 24 hours before it ends if you don't want it to renew. No Cancel button, or an expiration message in red, means it is already cancelled. PlantIn's FAQ also points to Settings, then Membership, inside the app to see your plan.

Paid on PlantIn's website (a charge from PlantIn or PayPal, no Apple receipt). Its terms say to cancel in your website account settings or in PayPal; its FAQ names Settings, then Subscription Info, on the website. Apple's page adds that if you find no Apple receipt, another company bills you, and you cancel with that company.

Refunds. For App Store charges, Apple's refund page sends you to reportaproblem.apple.com, where you choose "Request a refund"; Apple says some purchases might be eligible. For website purchases, PlantIn's terms say payments are not refunded except where the law requires, with a separate note on the EU 14-day withdrawal right.

How we compared

We read each app's US App Store listing on 2026-10-21 (price line, Subscriptions shelf, In-App Purchases rows, description, version notes), plus PlantIn's website, FAQ and subscription terms and Apple's support pages linked here. The review counts above come from Apple's public review feed for PlantIn on the same day, sorted by keyword, so one review can count in several groups. We did not install the paid apps, start trials or run identification tests. Prices change and vary by country: check the listing on the day you decide.

Free research apps: Pl@ntNet, Seek, iNaturalist and Flora Incognita

These four show "Free" and no In-App Purchases section on their US listings (2026-10-21), and each is run by researchers or a non-profit.

• Pl@ntNet (listed as PlantNet) takes several photos of one plant and returns a ranked list of candidates. It runs on Android and in a browser too, and its downloadable offline model covers trips without signal. It is strongest on wild plants.
• Seek by iNaturalist needs no account, identifies plants and animals, and can identify without a connection.
• iNaturalist adds people: other members can confirm or correct your observation.
• Flora Incognita, from TU Ilmenau and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, is strongest on wild plants in Central Europe.

What you give up compared with PlantIn: no reminders, no care plans, no light meter and no botanists. The free apps comparison linked at the top of this page cites each of these points to the app's own pages.

All-in-one paid apps: PictureThis and Planta

If PlantIn's reminders and diagnosis were the point, these two do the same job, also as subscriptions, so the cancellation steps above apply to them too.

• PictureThis (listed as PictureThis - Plant Identifier) has the largest rating count of any plant app we measured: 1,120,486 US ratings averaging 4.8 on 2026-10-21, and an Editors' Choice badge. Its listing documents identification, diagnosis, reminders and expert advice "24/7". Rows: PictureThis Pro at $3.99, $7.99 and $39.99, and a Family Plan at $49.99, with PictureThis Pro marked "Free Trial".
• Planta (listed as Planta: Plant & Garden Care) is the care-first choice: 114,278 US ratings averaging 4.75 on 2026-10-21 and an Editors' Choice badge. Its listing documents custom care reminders, Dr. Planta diagnosis with step-by-step treatment and a light meter. Its In-App Purchases rows run from "1 month Premium Plant Care: $7.99" to a 12-month row at $45.99, and its Subscriptions shelf shows a 12-month plan at $47.99 marked "Free Trial" (2026-10-21).

PlantIn vs PictureThis, for people deciding between the two: both document identification, diagnosis, reminders and human experts, on iPhone, Android and the web. PictureThis has almost five times as many US ratings. PlantIn lists lifetime rows ($19.99 and $49.99), an Apple Watch app and lawn care; PictureThis lists a Family Plan and no lifetime row. Our PictureThis alternatives page covers PictureThis's own billing and reviews.

Plant Identifier, our app

Plant Identifier (listed as AI Plant Identifier Flower App) is free to download. The current App Store version, 1.0.6, shows no paywall or usage counter, and its US listing showed no In-App Purchases row on 2026-10-21. The developer may add paid features later, so we don't promise it stays free. It needs no account.

One photo gives the common and scientific name. The same photo can go through Diagnose (with a severity badge, treatment steps and prevention), Toxicology notes for people, dogs and cats, a Care Guide, Light and a Water Calculator estimate, with three suggested follow-up questions under every result and a Plant Expert chat tab. For what a photo can and can't tell you about a sick plant, see our plant disease identification guide.

Where we're not the pick

• You rely on reminders. Plant Identifier sends no notifications and keeps no care schedule. PlantIn, Planta and PictureThis do.
• You want a person to look. It has no botanists, only an AI assistant. PlantIn's Ask the Botanist and PictureThis's experts are people; iNaturalist's community is free.
• No signal. It sends your photo to a cloud AI model and needs the internet. Seek and Pl@ntNet's downloaded model don't.
• Android, the web or Apple Watch. It is iPhone only (it also runs on iPad in iPhone layout), with no account to sync.
• A ranked list of candidates. It returns one species per photo; Pl@ntNet shows several.
• Paying nothing as a rule. Pick one of the four research apps above.

A 15-minute test before you switch

1. Pick three plants you already know for certain: one houseplant, one garden plant and one with a visible problem, such as a yellow or spotted leaf.
2. Photograph each the same way: in daylight, sharp, with the leaf or flower filling the frame.
3. Run the same photos through PlantIn (if you still have access) and the app you're considering.
4. Note whether each names the right species, the right genus or neither, whether the problem advice matches what you know, and how many taps pass before a price screen.
5. If you are mid-trial, check the end date under Settings, your name, Subscriptions before you finish.

The app that does best on your own plants is the right one. For the full field, see our best plant identification apps comparison.

When to stay with PlantIn

Stay if you use what you pay for: care plans and reminders for a shelf of plants, weather warnings for outdoor ones, the light meter, lawn care, the Apple Watch app and an account that follows you to a new phone. No free app replaces all of that. If price is the only issue, look at the rows named yearly or lifetime against a weekly plan, and set a calendar reminder a day before each renewal.