If you are looking at co-parenting apps, you have probably been told to look at OurFamilyWizard. It is the oldest, the best known, and the one most often named in court orders. We make Family Focus, so you should read this knowing that. We have tried to be fair, because the honest answer is that OurFamilyWizard is the right choice for some families and we are the right choice for others. Here is how to tell which you are.
The short version
OurFamilyWizard is a large, mature platform with many features, tiered pricing, and nearly universal recognition in family courts. Each parent pays for their own subscription, and the price per parent rises with the tier.
Family Focus is a smaller, simpler app built around four tools: permanent messaging, a shared calendar, expense tracking, and document storage, plus court ready PDF exports and view only access for attorneys and mediators. One parent pays $9.99 a month and the other parent joins free with full access.
If you want the most features and the most name recognition, and both parents are willing to pay, OurFamilyWizard is a safe choice. If you want the essentials done well, with no fight over who pays and nothing to learn, Family Focus is built for you.
Price and who pays
As of this writing, OurFamilyWizard's plans run from roughly $150 to $300 per parent per year depending on tier, and each parent subscribes separately. They offer fee waivers for parents who qualify financially, which is a genuine point in their favor. Check their site for current figures, since pricing changes.
Family Focus is $9.99 a month, month to month, for one parent. The co-parent joins free and gets every feature. There is no reduced second account, no tier that locks the other parent out of exports, and no annual commitment. There is a 7 day free trial.
The practical difference is not just the dollar amount. When each parent has to buy their own subscription, the parent who did not want the app in the first place often refuses, stalls, or picks the cheapest tier, and the whole thing fails to launch. One parent paying and the other joining free removes that argument entirely.
Messaging
Both apps keep messages permanent: once sent, a message cannot be edited or deleted by either parent. That is the core promise of any co-parenting app and both deliver it.
OurFamilyWizard adds ToneMeter, a feature that flags emotionally charged language before you send it, and tracks when a message was first viewed. Some parents find ToneMeter helpful; others find it patronizing. OFW also offers additional communication tools such as video calls on higher tiers.
Family Focus keeps one chronological thread per family, with server side timestamps and photo attachments. The permanence is enforced at the database level: our rules permit only creating messages, so not even our own team can alter one after it is posted. We do not have a tone analyzer. We think a thread both parents know is permanent does most of the work on its own.
Calendar and schedule
OurFamilyWizard's calendar is extensive: repeating custody schedules, formal trade and swap requests with approval workflows, holiday templates, and a journal of check-ins. If your parenting plan is complicated, with alternating weeks, split holidays, and frequent swaps, OFW's scheduling tools are more developed.
Family Focus's calendar is a shared monthly custody calendar, color coded by parent, where either parent can add or update events and the other is notified instantly. It handles pickups, exchanges, activities, and schedule changes well. It does not have a formal swap request and approval system. For most families, a shared calendar that both parents keep current is what matters; for families with highly structured or frequently traded schedules, OFW's tools are worth the extra cost.
Expenses
Both apps let you log child related expenses, attach receipts, and request reimbursement. OurFamilyWizard includes a payment feature on some tiers that lets parents pay each other through the app, which is convenient if both parents use it.
Family Focus logs the expense, attaches the receipt, splits it by any percentage your order uses, shows the live breakdown before you save, lets the other parent mark it settled, and keeps a running balance at the top of the list. Payment itself happens however you already pay each other. We chose not to build a payment processor; we did build the ledger that makes those payments provable.
Documents
OurFamilyWizard's Info Bank stores a wide range of family information: medical records, school contacts, clothing sizes, emergency contacts, and files. It is comprehensive.
Family Focus stores PDFs, images, and Word files in four categories, Court, Medical, School, and Other, visible to both parents. Simpler, but it covers what parents actually need to find quickly: the order, the insurance card, the report card, the passport copy.
Exports and court use
Both apps produce records that attorneys and courts regularly accept. OurFamilyWizard has the longer track record and is named in countless orders, which matters if your judge or your co-parent's attorney already knows and trusts it.
Family Focus exports messages, calendar ranges, expense histories, and document lists as a PDF for any date range, with server timestamps on every entry, from inside the app. Whether any record is admissible is a question for your attorney and the court, and we say that plainly everywhere on our site.
Access for attorneys, mediators, and the child's attorney
OurFamilyWizard offers professional accounts that let attorneys, mediators, and other practitioners access client families, with its own pricing for professionals.
Family Focus gives each family a separate observer code. A parent shares it with their attorney, the Attorney for the Child, or a mediator, who can then read everything, messages, calendar, expenses, and documents, and change nothing. Professionals can follow multiple families from one account. There is no separate professional subscription.
Where OurFamilyWizard is the better choice
- Your court order specifically names OurFamilyWizard, which some do
- You have a complex, frequently traded schedule and want formal swap requests and approvals
- You want in-app payments between parents
- You want the broadest possible feature set and are willing to pay per parent for it
- You or your co-parent qualifies for their fee waiver program
Where Family Focus is the better choice
- Your co-parent will not pay for an app, and you need them in it anyway
- You want something both parents can set up in a few minutes with a six digit code and start using the same day
- You want the four tools you will actually use and nothing you will not
- You want month to month pricing with no annual commitment
- Your attorney or mediator wants view only access without buying their own subscription
A note on who built this
Family Focus is made by ElevenFortyFive, LLC, whose principal is a practicing family law attorney and court appointed Attorney for the Child. The app was built around what he sees parents actually need in court: a complete, unaltered, chronological record, produced without a fight about who pays for it. That perspective shaped every choice above, including the ones where we decided not to build something. Our privacy policy includes specific protections for that relationship, and we do not read, sell, or train on your data.
Try it free for 7 days. If OurFamilyWizard turns out to be the better fit, we would rather you use it than use nothing. The point is the record.
Family Focus is a communication and record keeping tool, not a law firm. This article is general information and is not legal advice. Custody law varies by state, and whether any record is admissible is a question for your attorney and the court.