Chickadee Bandit vs. TimeTree
A free shared calendar that millions of families use, against a household plan that costs money and does more than the calendar.
Compare › Chickadee Bandit vs. TimeTree
Which is a better fit?
Choose TimeTree if a shared calendar is all you need and free matters more than ads: it is free, polished, and a calendar can hold 500 people. Chickadee Bandit fits a household that wants its Google, Apple and Outlook calendars kept in sync automatically, the family's events back out in every adult's own calendar app, no ads for anyone, and chores, lists and the rest of the week in the same $60 a year.
Where TimeTree shines — and where it doesn't
TimeTree is one of the most widely used shared calendars in the world, and it earns it. You make a calendar, invite people, and everyone sees the same events, with comments and photos on each one, memos for shopping lists and to-dos, and widgets on iPhone and Android. Event Scan reads a photographed flyer or newsletter into an event. The free tier carries ads; Premium removes them and adds file attachments, pinned events and a vertical day view for $4.49 a month or $44.99 a year, bought in the app, per account. There is no family plan, so two adults who both want it ad-free pay twice.
Where it is weakest is the edge of the calendar. TimeTree reads your phone's own calendar, but only onto your private Home view; copying those events into a shared calendar is a manual import that does not update. And nothing goes the other way: its help centre says events cannot be exported and cannot be reflected automatically in another calendar. If an adult lives in Google or Outlook for work, the family's TimeTree calendar stays a second place to check.
We cost money and TimeTree does not, and for a family that wants a calendar and nothing more, that settles it. What you would be paying us for is the sync in both directions, no ads, and a household app around the calendar: chores, lists, meals, reminders and a wall display.
Side by side
| TimeTree | Chickadee Bandit | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free with ads. Premium $4.49/mo or $44.99/yr, bought in the iPhone or Android app, per account — no plan covers the family. One-month free trial for first-time subscribers. | One household plan from $6/mo (or $60/yr) covering up to 10 members, with every feature included. 30-day trial, no card. No free tier. |
| Ads | On the free tier, served by third-party ad networks, and its own pages say behavioral targeting may be included. Premium removes them. | None, on any plan. |
| Shared calendars | Up to 20 calendars per account and 500 members per calendar, with comments, photos and a per-calendar album. The calendar's creator can remove members; otherwise every member has the same permissions. | One household calendar for up to 10 members, filterable by member, with visibility per event. Spaces for a co-parent's home, a team or a club put that group's events in each member's own day. |
| Google, Apple & Outlook in | Reads the phone's own calendar onto a private Home view that only you see. Copying events into a shared calendar is a manual import that does not update, so a changed event can arrive twice. | Connects Google, Apple, Outlook and any CalDAV or ICS calendar directly and keeps them synced into the shared family calendar, for everyone in the household to see. |
| Getting events out | Its help centre says events cannot be exported and cannot be reflected automatically in an external calendar — each has to be copied by hand. | Writes the family's events into a calendar of their own in your iCloud or Outlook account, or publishes a private subscribe feed for Google and any other calendar app. |
| Capture | Event Scan reads event names, dates and times from a photo of a poster, flyer or newsletter. TimeTree says scanned events are not used for AI training. | Forward an 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. |
| Lists & to-dos | Memos on each calendar, usable as a shopping list or to-do list, and checklists inside an event. No assignees or due dates. | Separate grocery, task and list apps. A task has due dates, recurrence and subtasks, and belongs to the person it is assigned to. |
| Kids | Virtual members — labels for a child, a pet or a car, with no login — to tag events with. No chores or rewards. | Children are members who sign in on their own phone, or on the kitchen tablet with their own PIN, and see their own day. Chores, routines, allowance, piggy bank and rewards apps, with kid-friendly checklists on the wall display. |
| Platforms | iPhone (iOS 18 or later), Android (10 or later), Apple Watch, and a web version without external calendars or list view. | Any browser, plus iPhone and Android apps. Wall-display mode turns a tablet you already own into a family command center. |
| Privacy | Run by TimeTree, Inc., which processes and stores user information in Japan. Its privacy policy lists personalized advertising and analysis of user interests, including with large language models, among its uses, and says it does not sell user information without consent. No self-serve export. | Each household gets its own isolated, encrypted database. No ads, no data selling, and a full export in machine-readable files whenever you want one. |
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 TimeTree alternative we'd point you at.
When TimeTree is the better buy
If the calendar is the whole job, TimeTree does it for nothing, and the ads are the price. That is a fair trade for a lot of families and we would not talk you out of it.
It is also the better tool for a big, loose group: the extended family's birthdays, a youth choir, a building. A calendar holds 500 people, nobody pays to join, and each person has their own account on their own phone. Our household plan stops at ten members; a space can hold a team or a club, but the person running it needs a plan.
The calendar at the edge
The question that decides most switches is whether the family calendar has to meet the calendars the adults already keep. TimeTree keeps its events to itself: nothing exports, and a shared calendar does not update from Google or Outlook on its own. We sync those calendars in continuously and send the family's events back out, so an adult who never opens the hub still sees Thursday's pickup in the calendar they check at work. The one-calendar guide walks through the setup.
Moving from TimeTree
TimeTree has no export, so its events cannot be carried over in bulk. Connect each adult's Google, Apple or Outlook calendar first — whatever lived there arrives on its own — then re-enter the recurring family events by hand: practices, lessons, bin day. Memos become grocery and task lists, and virtual members become real members who sign in. Keep TimeTree open beside the hub for a few weeks until nothing new is landing there.
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.
One calendar that meets the ones you already keep
30-day free trial. One price for the whole household, and your data leaves with you if it isn't the one.
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