← Comparison hub · Co-parenting apps · Checked October 26, 2026

Is AppClose free? Not anymore — here's the real math

You're here because you've got a very difficult person on the other side of your kids, and you're trying to protect those innocent lives with evidence that's buried in text message threads.

Take a deep breath. You're in the right place. I've been there personally myself. We're here to help.

AppClose gets recommended in parent groups as “the free one.” That advice is now out of date.

That matters. You're already going through a frustrating time, and the last thing you need is a surprise paywall in the middle of it.

I've been there personally. That gap — between what I expected a tool to cost and what it actually cost — is part of what pushed me to build something with the price on the front door.

The facts, from its official site

AppClose now has one all-inclusive plan with no tiers, checked October 26, 2026:

• $7.99/month subscribed on the web ($83.88/year, or $143.76 for two years)

• $8.99/month in the app ($98.99/year)

• Each parent needs their own active subscription. So two parents on web annual plans is $167.76 a year, calculated from those official prices.

• The free part is real but temporary: 60 days free, no credit card. Plus fee waivers for financial hardship and domestic violence survivors.

Here's the part I want to state plainly, because it's fair — and it separates AppClose from TalkingParents:

• AppClose moved to paid-only active use on January 1, 2026.

If your subscription ends, your account goes read-only and your records stay exportable at no cost, in AppClose's own store listing wording. Lapsed accounts keep free read-only access: sign in, view past activity, and export past records, including Certified Electronic Business Records, at no charge — just no communicating.

• But if your subscription lapses, you're not locked out of your own records.
• You can still sign in, view your past activity, and export your past records — including Certified Electronic Business Records exports — at no charge.
• You just can't communicate until you're paying again.
• That's a real difference from TalkingParents, where PDF records cost $95 without a subscription. Credit where it's due.

Inside the plan you get:

• timestamped in-app chats
• search by date or keyword
• digitally signed Certified Electronic Business Records PDFs with a unique Export ID for US users
• Co-Parent Assist — added in May 2026. It's draft-time only: real-time guidance to review tone and clarity before you send. It's not search over your record, not AI questions with citations, and not case reports.

Two things AppClose does that TalkingParents doesn't — and if your case involves an attorney, the second one matters:

• AppClose Solo. You can reach someone who isn't on AppClose, by text or email, and log the attempt even if they never reply. But know this before you send: a Solo link expires 10 days after you send it, and once it's sent, you can't withdraw it.
• AppClose Pro. You can bring professionals — including your attorney — into your circle. TalkingParents offers no direct attorney access at all. That's a genuine difference, not a footnote.

Two limits worth knowing:

• Call recordings aren't part of records exports and aren't certified.
• Like every app here, the record covers only what happens inside AppClose.

What real users say — the good, the bad, and the ugly

Lifetime ratings and recent written reviews tell two different stories. I'm showing you both:

Ratings: Google Play lifetime 4.32/5 · 30,382 ratings · Recent written reviews avg 2.20 · 59% 1-star in that subset (Chrome-Stats mirror, labelled separately) · App Store via AppBrain 4.74/5 · 39,381 ratings

App Store figures above are via AppBrain, labelled as such.

The good

About: Low-contact communication and calendar “Really helpful and good way to communicate even when you don't want to. Now setting up dates on the calendar so that will be helpful for us both.” Reviewer name not shown in source · star rating not shown in source — Chrome-Stats / Google Play mirror. Source: Chrome-Stats - AppClose Google Play reviews mirror

About: Calendar, messages, receipts and calls (second-hand quote) “It's free. Calendar, messages, receipts and [payment] section. My attorney can monitor the chats. It also allows for calls… I blocked [him] from my phone and only communicate through the app.” Second-hand via Bonobology, originally Reddit · author unnamed · star rating not shown in source · no date in source. The pre-2026 “free” framing is outdated. Source: Bonobology - co-parenting apps (second-hand quote)

The bad

About: App not working and support “Completely useless app. Mine hasn't been working properly for 4 months. I contacted customer servive and they didn't respond for 2 months. They finally got back to me and sent the issue to IT, but they still haven't done anything to help me. I've contacted them a few times and they keep saying it's been sent to IT and nothing else.” TJ Hunt — Google Play, 29 Apr 2026 · star rating not shown in source. Spelling “servive” is as in original. Source: Google Play - AppClose

About: Paid-only shift “Changed to paid only, pretty disappointing. Update: Saying you are giving people free trials doesn't change that you were pretty much the last co-parenting app that was free, & that is no longer the case. Especially since I only recently started needing a co-parenting app for a difficult situation, and now I will have to pay money because of a situation out of my control. It's great you've been an app for 9 years, but that doesn't change that you are now going to paid only options.” Azzy Belle — Google Play, 4 Dec 2025 · star rating not shown in source. AppClose reply same date: $8.99 all-inclusive plan started 1 Jan 2026 with 60 days notice, fee waivers, 60-day free trial. Source: Google Play - AppClose

About: Login and support “This app started out great, then all of a sudden, I couldn't log in. I contacted 3 different people through their help/Support and none of them could fix my problem. They didn't even really try. They told me to do the standard things: clear cache, un-install/reinstall, etc., but none of that worked and when I told them that, they just stopped communicating with me. I even created a new account and the same thing happened regarding the app issues. It seems to be an Android app version problem.” Meredith Jones — Google Play, 26 Oct 2025 · star rating not shown in source. Source: Google Play - AppClose

The mixed

About: Calendar fixed, then still sync issues “Updating my review as IT have resolved the calendar sharing issue, its overall a good app for purpose and being free but still some issues being ironed out especially in the calendars with updates applying on both parents ends.” Matt and Sarah Sutherland — Andro.io mirror · star rating not shown in source · date not shown in source. Mirror caveat applies. “Being free” is pre-January 2026. Source: Andro.io mirror - AppClose reviews

About: Pricing and private notes “over priced for what it is but lets face it, its a court ordered app so they can charge what they want for a captive audience. needs a way to put personal notes i to a conversation that are not sent to the other party, for later use in court or affidavits etc rather than having to correlate between this app and another apps notes when backtracking for court purposes” Reviewer name not shown in source (unnamed) · star rating not shown in source — Chrome-Stats. Source: Chrome-Stats - AppClose Google Play reviews mirror

Why TextEvidence is better here

I'll be direct. AppClose only keeps what you create inside the app, after setup and matching.

Your story didn't start that day.

• We cover before and outside. Everything before the app, plus old SMS, iMessage and WhatsApp, in one searchable record you can hand your attorney.
• Dated AND line-numbered PDF from the Free Text-to-PDF Tool. The Free Text-to-PDF Tool turns an iPhone backup, an Android SMS Backup & Restore (.xml), or a WhatsApp/chat export (.csv/.xml/.json/.txt) into that PDF, in your browser only. Messages never leave your device, nothing's saved on page close, free to 1,000 messages, no account. You pick a thread, filter by conversation and date range, preview shows first 50 rows.
• Paid platform goes further: whole-history search, AI questions with citations, and reports — paid features, not in the Text-to-PDF Tool.
• Start free, literally nothing to lose. No account, no credit card for the Text-to-PDF Tool.

We're the record layer in the middle, not a court-ordered messaging channel. Keep using what the court ordered for new messages. I'm not promising a court will accept any printout.

— Matt

Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool — up to 1,000 messages

Related comparisons

• OurFamilyWizard vs. the history before it
• TalkingParents, honestly
• Back to the comparison hub
• Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool first

Before and outside

While it's a helpful tool, my frustration was never the feature list.

It was that years of ordinary texts and WhatsApp threads — often the most important part — sit outside it. With no way in.

Cover that history separately, starting free. And let AppClose do the forward-looking job it's built for.

Use the Free Text-to-PDF Tool — 1,000 messages, no account

Turn your iPhone, Android, or WhatsApp messages into a dated, line-numbered PDF — free up to 1,000 messages, in your browser, nothing saved, no account needed.

General information, not legal advice. We're not promising here that a court will accept any record.

Sources: https://www.appclose.com/ · https://www.appclose.com/pro/features/ · https://support.appclose.com/hc/en-us/articles/45803225192091-AppClose-Subscription-Fee-Waiver-Frequently-Asked-Questions · Line-numbered PDFs: NOT VERIFIED on official pages.

By Matt Cretzman

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This article is general information, not legal advice. TextEvidence is software, not a law firm, and nothing here promises a court will accept any printout — that decision is always the court's. Prices change — confirm on the vendor's site before you buy anything, including ours.