Comparison · Cozi → Aule

What's the difference between Aule and Cozi?

Cozi is the 20-year-old shared family calendar that became the family verb - “did you check the Cozi?” - in tens of millions of households. Aule is a household intelligence layer that closes loops end-to-end. They are not the same category. This page is the honest side-by-side, written for the households who built a decade on Cozi and are looking at what comes next.

Last updated · 2026-05-19

TL;DR

Cozi is a 20-year-old shared family calendar app. Aule is a household intelligence layer that closes loops end-to-end. Different category - Cozi gets you to the calendar; Aule is what happens next. We will move your 10 years of Cozi history into Aule for you, free, as part of the founding-cohort onboarding call.

Context

What Cozi is.

Cozi was founded in 2005 in Seattle by Robbie Cape and Jan Miksovsky as a shared family calendar app - color-coded by family member, with a shared shopping list, a recipe box, a Sunday-night agenda email, and a journal. Twenty years later, it has 20M+ registered users, 4.7 stars across roughly 100K Google Play reviews, and 4.8 stars across roughly 388K App Store reviews. It is the rare consumer app that became a household verb - “did you check the Cozi?” - in mothers' vocabulary across the United States. It was acquired by OurFamilyWizard in May 2022.

Pricing today is free with ads, or Cozi Gold at $39 per year (roughly $3.25 a month). In May 2024, Cozi imposed a 30-day calendar viewing limit on the free tier - long-tenured users who had used the calendar past 30 days for years lost that view unless they upgraded. The reaction was severe; Trustpilot collapsed to roughly 2.1 stars; the App Store ratings held because the long tail of pre-paywall reviews dominated the average. The May 2024 inflection produced an addressable cohort of disillusioned 10-year loyalists in market for what comes next.

What Cozi got right

The family-adoption mechanic is the hardest problem in consumer apps for the home, and Cozi solved it - the second parent actually opens it. The shared shopping list with real-time check-off across devices is the most-praised feature across every review surface. Cross-platform reliability across iOS, Android, and web is unusual for an indie consumer brand at this age. The recipe box and Sunday agenda email are small features that carry significant retention weight. No learning curve - the on-ramp is genuinely flat.

Where Cozi is struggling

The May 2024 paywall change collapsed Trustpilot sentiment. Ads in the free tier - including brand suggestions embedded inside the shopping list - have been the recurring complaint for a decade. There is no real intelligence in the product: Cozi remembers what you tell it, and that is the limit. Google Calendar sync is read-only (events sync out, not in). The UI was last meaningfully refreshed around 2015. The only moat is the 10-year data lock-in - the data export Cozi does not offer.

The structural difference

What Aule is - and why Cozi is upstream, not adjacent.

The honest framing for Aule is that Cozi got you to the calendar - and the calendar is necessary, just not sufficient. Aule is what happens after the calendar exists. Four structural differences carry the rest.

01
Cozi stores the data. Aule closes the loop.
Cozi is data entry. You type the dentist appointment; Cozi stores the dentist appointment. Aule is the layer that places the call, books the appointment, sends the confirmation, holds the recurring schedule, and closes the loop. Examples today include meals from plan through Kroger or Instacart delivery, service appointments from quotes through payment, dinner reservations, summer-camp registration; travel ships at public launch through our partner stack. The category gap is the work between the calendar entry and the receipted close.
02
Cozi remembers what you tell it. Aule learns patterns.
Cozi's memory is the data you entered. Aule's memory is structural - a three-layer compounding system that holds not just the events but the patterns: which plumber the household trusts, which kid does not eat mushrooms, which hotels run too large, which Sunday turns into a real Sunday. The layer learns and strengthens monthly. The older the relationship, the more useful it is. The category definition lives here.
03
Cozi is passive (you have to open it). Aule is active.
Cozi's Sunday agenda email is a digest of what you typed in - a mirror, not a layer. Aule's nightly synthesis loop reads the day across calendar, household memory, and active workstreams, and produces the morning's “here is what is worth your attention” before the day starts pushing. The household does not have to remember to check anything.
04
Full auto by default - with the household in the seat where it matters.
The layer closes loops itself with per-household configurable approval gates. Full auto by default; confirmation before any grocery order; confirmation on any spend at or above $200; and a household-configurable layer where you decide which categories stay full-auto and which always escalate. The gates loosen as the layer earns trust. Founding Charter is $299/mo or $2,999/yr, locked for life for the first 250 households. For households with concierge-level requirements, Bespoke starts at $50,000 by inquiry. See the pricing page for the published math.

Migration · Cozi → Aule

We will move your 10 years of Cozi with you.

If you have used Cozi for years, we will move your history into Aule for you, free, as part of your founding-cohort onboarding call. Calendar, family roster, shared shopping list, recipe box, color-coded categories, birthdays. Brennan and Haley walk you through it on the call. Your household memory layer is pre-populated before Aule activates. The 10 years you spent on Cozi are the head start, not the price of admission.

Read the migration page →

Side by side

Cozi vs Aule, dimension by dimension.

The honest version. Cozi's row reflects the company's published surfaces as of the date below. Aule's row reflects the current published reality.

Dimension	Cozi	Aule
Status	Active; 20M+ registered users; owned by OurFamilyWizard since May 2022	Pre-launch; founding cohort of 250 households open by application
Founded	2005 (Robbie Cape and Jan Miksovsky, Seattle)	Pre-launch 2026
Category	Shared family calendar app (data-entry tool)	Managed household intelligence layer (closes loops end-to-end)
Pricing	Free with ads, or Cozi Gold at $39/yr (~$3.25/mo)	$299/mo or $2,999/yr - locked for life for the first 250 households
What the user does vs what the service does	The user enters every event, every list item, every recipe - the app stores it	The layer learns the household and closes loops on its behalf, with confirmation gates where they matter
Memory	Remembers what you tell it (10 years of typed events)	Three-layer compounding memory that learns patterns and strengthens monthly
Proactive layer	Weekly Sunday agenda email (a digest of your own input)	Nightly synthesis loop; the layer surfaces what you have not yet asked about
Closes loops end-to-end	No - the app does not book vendors, place orders, send emails on your behalf, or pay bills	Yes - examples today include meals through grocery delivery, service appointments quote-to-payment, dinner reservations, summer-camp registration
Approval gates	Not applicable (no autonomous action)	Full auto by default; confirmation before any grocery order and any spend at or above $200; per-household configurable
Two-way Google Calendar sync	Read-only out; events do not sync back in	Full two-way sync across Google, Apple, and Outlook
Privacy posture	Ads in free tier; OurFamilyWizard ownership; data export not supported	First-party only; not pooled, not shared, not for sale; one-click delete or full export on cancellation
For households at scale	Single product surface	Bespoke starting at $50,000 - by inquiry, three-to-six-month engagement, for households with concierge-level requirements

Sources: Cozi's capabilities, pricing, and ownership history are drawn from cozi.com, App Store and Google Play listings, public coverage of the OurFamilyWizard acquisition and the May 2024 paywall change. Aule's row reflects the current product as of 2026-05-19.

For long-tenured Cozi households

What this means if you have used Cozi for a decade.

You did not waste those years on Cozi - you built the family operating-system reflexes that Aule extends. Ten years of shared calendar discipline. Ten years of typing in the dentist appointments. Ten years of knowing which family member's color belongs to which schedule. Ten years of being the one who keeps the household's coordination running. That is the substrate Aule needs - and exactly the substrate Cozi gave you the practice of.

The next layer is not more data entry; it is the work that comes after the data entry. The Founding Charter at $299/mo or $2,999/yr is locked for life for the first 250 households. The migration is included. The onboarding call is the moment Aule becomes useful, not the moment you start over.

Common questions

Honest answers for long-tenured Cozi households.

01I've used Cozi for 10 years. Won't I lose my history?

No. The migration is built. We will move your Cozi calendar history, family roster, shared shopping list, recipe box, and color-coded categories into Aule for you during the founding-cohort onboarding call. Free, included in the Founding Charter. Your 10 years on Cozi are not the price of admission for the next decade - they are the head start. See the migration page for the full inventory of what we move and how.

02Why does Aule cost so much more than Cozi Gold?

Because the work is different. Cozi at $39/yr stores the calendar you typed in. Aule at $299/mo or $2,999/yr closes loops on your behalf - the meal plan and the grocery order, the service appointment from quote to payment, the dinner reservation, the camp registration - with a layer that learns your household, a nightly synthesis loop that surfaces what you have not yet asked about, and a backend QA loop targeting 95%+ closed-loop completion. The hours Cozi saves are the hours of typing; the hours Aule saves are the hours of doing. Different category, different price.

03Does my husband / partner have to use Aule too?

Aule serves the household, not a single person. The layer is reachable by voice, SMS, email, or chat - whichever channel each partner is already in. There is no app to install and remember to open. Cozi's well-known adoption problem (one parent uses it, the other does not) is a function of asking the second parent to learn a tool; Aule meets each partner in the channel they already use. The household memory layer holds both partners' preferences without either having to maintain the system.

04I don't want a service running my household - I just want a calendar.

Then stay on Cozi. Honestly. Aule is for households that have grown past the calendar tier - where the cognitive layer of coordinating meals, vendors, services, travel, schools, and the everyday loops is itself the work that the household needs help with. Cozi solves the calendar surface. If your household's pain is calendar coordination, Cozi remains an excellent answer at $39 a year. If your household's pain is everything upstream of the calendar - the deciding, the calling, the booking, the closing - that is the work Aule does.

05Will Aule replace my Google Calendar / Apple Calendar / Outlook?

No. Aule sits on top of the calendar you already own. Two-way sync across Google, Apple, and Outlook - meaning events Aule creates on your behalf appear in your calendar, and events you create directly in your calendar are visible to the layer. Cozi is read-only out (events sync out but not back in), which is one of the long-standing complaints. Aule's posture is the opposite: own the layer, not the surface.

06What if Aule shuts down?

Honest answer. Aule operates on a Charter model - founding members pay $299/mo or $2,999/yr, the founding rate is locked for life, and the household memory we accumulate on your behalf is yours to keep. Cancellation triggers a one-click delete or a full export of your household profile, vendor preferences, calendar history, and notes. We respect the 10 years you spent on Cozi; we will not put you in the position of being unable to take 10 years off of Aule if you decide to leave.

07How long is onboarding?

About 30 to 45 minutes for the call where the layer learns your household. Your Cozi history is migrated as part of that call. Most households that come from Cozi reach a useful baseline in the first week because they have already done a decade of the cognitive work of externalizing what runs their home; brand-new households typically take two to three weeks.

Other services to consider

If Aule isn't the right fit, look here.

A short, honest map. Cozi Gold remains the right answer at $39 a year if the household just needs the calendar to be shared. Apple Calendar or Google Calendar are free and excellent for households that already coordinate through one of those ecosystems. AI organizer apps like Ohai, Heynori, or Goldee sit between Cozi and Aule - they parse emails and PDFs into calendar events, but do not close loops end-to-end. See the comparison pages for the structural detail.

Two ways to keep going.

See your own number

Take the Mental Load Index.

A five-minute, peer-research-anchored assessment that scores your household's operating load. The number is the start of the conversation.

Open the assessment →

Migration page

Bring your 10 years with you.

The full inventory of what we migrate from Cozi, the onboarding call walkthrough, and what arrives on Day 1.

Read the migration page →

Written by Brennan McCloud, Founder, Aule. Last updated 2026-05-19. If anything on this page about Cozi is inaccurate, contact us and we will correct it - the goal is an honest map of the category, not point-scoring.

Continue with Aule

What's the difference between Aule and Cozi?

What Cozi is.

What Aule is - and why Cozi is upstream, not adjacent.

Cozi stores the data. Aule closes the loop.

Cozi remembers what you tell it. Aule learns patterns.

Cozi is passive (you have to open it). Aule is active.

Full auto by default - with the household in the seat where it matters.