Chickadee Bandit vs. Maple
Maple is closing at the end of 2026. This page is for the families who used it and need somewhere to go.
Compare › Chickadee Bandit vs. Maple
Which is a better fit?
Maple's own site says it has been acquired by Wander and will sunset on December 31, 2026, when accounts close and data is deleted. If you used it for a shared calendar, school email, meal plans and chores, Chickadee Bandit covers the same ground for one household price — but move what you need out of Maple first, because its notice describes no export tool.
Where Maple shines — and where it doesn't
Maple was a family organizer built around an assistant: a shared calendar that could pull in Google, Apple, Outlook and TeamSnap events, a link to Gmail that imported school emails from senders you approved, meal plans and a recipe library that turned into a shopping list, chores and to-dos, and suggestions from its AI that you accepted or ignored. It had a free tier with ads and a Maple+ subscription, covering a household of up to five.
Its home page now carries a sunset notice. Maple has been acquired by Wander and will sunset on December 31, 2026. Annual subscriptions will not renew, monthly subscriptions stay active until that date, and after it the account will be closed and all data deleted with no way to recover it. Its App Store and Google Play listings are no longer available. The notice recommends exporting before the date, but does not describe how.
So the comparison below is not a choice between two products. It is what Maple did, what we do in its place, and where we would send you instead when we are not the right fit.
Side by side
| Maple | Chickadee Bandit | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Acquired by Wander; sunsets December 31, 2026. Annual plans do not renew; monthly plans run until that date. No longer in the App Store or Google Play. | An independent household app, $6/mo or $60/yr for up to 10 members with every feature included. 30-day trial, no card. |
| Your data | After December 31, 2026, its notice says the account closes and all data is deleted with no way to recover it. The notice recommends exporting first but names no export tool. | Each household gets its own isolated, encrypted database, with a full export in machine-readable files whenever you want one. |
| Calendar | A shared calendar with views side by side for each family member, and integrations with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, TeamSnap and Microsoft — the external sync on Maple+. | A shared calendar on every plan. Google, Apple, Outlook and any CalDAV or ICS calendar sync in, and the family's events go back out to a calendar in iCloud or Outlook, or as a subscribe feed for Google and anything else. |
| School email | Linked to Gmail and imported emails from senders you approved, on Maple+. | Forward any email to the Family Inbox, or photograph a flyer or a handwritten note, and it proposes events, grocery items and tasks. Nothing is written until you confirm, and every confirmation has an undo. No mailbox link needed. |
| Meals & groceries | A meal planner and recipe library that made a shopping list, with AI meal suggestions on Maple+. | Family Meals plans the week from your recipe book, assigns who is cooking, and sends the ingredients to the shared grocery list. |
| Chores & to-dos | Daily chores, shared notes and to-dos, organised into project folders. | Chores with rotation and kid-friendly checklists, tasks assigned to a person, plus routines, streaks, allowance and rewards apps if you want them. |
| Household size | Maple+ covered a household of up to five users. | Up to 10 members on the household plan. |
| Ads | On the free tier; Maple+ was ad-free. | None, on any plan. |
Comparison reflects each product's published pricing and features and widely reported user feedback as of October 2026. Products change — always check the other product's site for current details.
Weighing more than these two? See every Maple alternative we'd point you at.
Before December 31: get your data out
Do this first, whatever you move to. Maple's notice says the data is deleted after the sunset and cannot be recovered, and it does not describe an export tool, so plan on copying by hand what you cannot lose.
- Events synced from Google, Apple or Outlook are still in those calendars; you only need to save the ones created in Maple itself. Write down the recurring ones: practices, lessons, custody days.
- Copy recipes you wrote or edited, and any notes or project folders you rely on.
- Screenshot the chore chart, so whoever sets up the next one does not start from memory.
- If you linked Gmail, remove Maple's access from your Google Account once you have moved.
When we are not the right replacement
If the assistant was the point — asking in plain language and having the week reorganised for you — we are not that. Our capture proposes and you confirm; nothing rearranges your week on its own. If you only used Maple's calendar, Google Calendar may be enough on its own, and our guide to whether Google Calendar is enough says when. If school flyers were the main job, Calendara does that on its own, on iPhone.
Moving from Maple
Connect each adult's Google, Apple or Outlook calendar, and whatever Maple was reading from them arrives on its own. Re-enter the recurring events you wrote down, then install the meals, grocery and chores apps and carry over the recipes and the chart. From then on, forward school emails to the Family Inbox as they arrive, instead of linking a mailbox. Most families can finish in an evening; do it well before December 31, while Maple is still there to check against.
The feature list is not fixed
Every other product on this page is a fixed set of features: it does what it does, and a need it did not anticipate gets a no. Chickadee Bandit is built from small apps, and a household can add one of its own. An admin describes the app in a paragraph on the Apps page and the hub builds and installs it, using the AI credits that come with every plan; someone who writes code can start from any of the open-source apps and install their own version from a URL. A custom app gets the same checks as the ones we ship: it declares what it reads and writes, keeps its data in your household's own database, and the hub refuses anything it did not ask for.
Somewhere to land before Maple closes
30-day free trial. One price for the whole household, and your data leaves with you whenever you want it to.
Start a free trial