Vera: Plant Care Made Simple Reviews

by Pad1lls

Trying to sign up with an email address sticks me in an endless loop as many have mentioned in your app ratings for months now. I get the emailed link, click it (from the same device the apps is on: my phone), it opens in the browser, and I can’t get it to sync with Vera . I had to I click all those options just to set a password/login online, but still can’t get it to sync with Vera . I work in app development. There’s no excuse for it to take this long to fix, especially for something so basic that every site has. Just let the user sign into Vera with their email & password created in the browser...don’t make it auto-open Vera on the same device, That leaves a huge opportunity for something to go wrong across all the devices and OS’s out there, especially with continuous updates across all of them.

Additionally, there is no way to delete my account from the web. That is simple, and should have been one of the first things developed after the basics were done.

by Clrtaco

UPDATED REVIEW:
Vera has vastly improved with more recent updates. I’d still like to be able to group plants together or select multiple to be able to log the same care. However, I went in to log some care this morning before work and all of my plants were gone. It says I have no plants. I have been logging care and pictures for a year now and now it’s gone? I am wildly frustrated and if I can’t get it back I’m probably done with Vera.
**
I have really been enjoying Vera . It’s a great way to log care and keep track of when I last watered. I don’t use the water schedule as I read my plants leaves instead of sticking to a schedule. A big feature that would vastly improve Vera would be to be able to group plants together like in an arrangement. I group and regroup and move my plants around relatively often and I would like to be able to say I watered these 5 plants that are together rather than log their individual care. Another thing would be to sort plants alphabetically (without compromising plants that are shown on the screen at once) and make it stay sorted however the user wants each time they open Vera .

by Jillcicle

This is an aesthetically pleasing app with some nice functionality (plant timeline allows for multiple photos, plants are grouped by location, etc) but the number of species in their database is tiny and unpredictable, excluding some entire very common houseplant species and having 5 detailed entries for cultivars that are different only in appearance for others. This turns out to be because Vera is “by Bloomscape” and only includes species that they sell (for like $65 PER PLANT LOL) on their site, thus 5 kinds of Rex begonia but no wax begonia in the plant lookup. There is no option for you to enter a plant to the database itself for future inclusion, only to create your own personal entry.

Even for plants that have care data in Vera , this doesn’t prepopulate in the care schedule set up, unfortunately. Vera is a great idea and I’m yet to find a truly functional houseplant app, but I’m not sure it’s worth the energy to just use this as a note/reminder app and hand enter all my plant details even for the most mainstream species - at that point I could just use the phone calendar.

by MrMeeegan

I really like Vera for naming all of my plants and keeping them in order. It helps me remember when I watered last and I treat my plants like little humans so I love to name them—but! I miss the old interface. It was so much easier to upload my plants into the system and, now, if I choose a picture from my camera roll, it just crashes every single time. It takes me double the amount of time to input plants because it’ll crash four times before I can finally input one and I kind of have started avoiding this app because of it. I just realized last night that I have so many plants that I haven’t named and set into Vera yet and it’s all because adding them this new way is so much more exhausting. If I was rating Vera before, it would have five stars. Now, I’ve knocked it down because of app crashes and easy of usability. Please bring the old uploading back. I miss it so much.

by I LIKE PINA COLADAS

First off, I am so happy to finally find an app that has a feature to log care. All the other apps I’ve tried just set a watering schedule, which isn’t helpful since I water based on feeling the soil. However to keep track of care it’s so nice to have a well organized place to do it (using spreadsheets or paper journals just gets so messy).

That said, their plant database is a bit lacking (seems to be based off of just what they sell?). I hope as time goes by it continues growing.

I would also really love to see a widget available for Home Screen on iOS. It’d be nice to have one sort of like the calendar app where you can see upcoming tasks.

by Kyleh6180

Would be great if it included oh level, which is very important for most plants. Also does not include soil type. Would be nice to see a little info about sprouting new plants from a leaf or stem. Other than that it’s a great app and includes a lot of information to take proper care of plants. I love that it includes the option to add notes and different pictures. Would be great if it had a category section. For example, I have many of the same type but in different stages of growth. It would be great to have each of those under one category like “ Arabica”. Then list each plant considering different sizes require a different watering, misting or food schedule.

by Oltanit

I’ve been enjoying in Vera and I really appreciate the simple, straightforward layout. There are just a few things that I think would make it better:

1) It would be helpful if under “Schedule”, you could tap and open up days in the future like tomorrow or the day after tomorrow to see what plants may need watering. This is especially helpful for vacations or when I know it’s been a hot week and I’m trying to get ahead on watering or to adjust for the weather.

2) I wish you could somehow easily filter/sort so that you can organize the “Schedule” by room or if you could go to the Plants tab and see at a glance how many days left until watering (instead of just “Overdue” or “Up to date”). I have plants all over my house and it’s much easier to go room by room.

by Chickmunk99

Vera has been great to help me keep track of when my plants need watering or the last time I treated them for pests. It is visually appealing and pretty thorough.

A couple suggestions: I would love if on the page with all my plants listed if under each plant it would say something like “last watered 6 days ago” rather than “up to date”. Sometimes I don’t necessarily want to have a set schedule for a plant, but it is helpful to see right off the bat how long it has been since I’ve watered a plant.

Another suggestion is to allow to go back further to record the last time a plant was taken care of. Because I have almost 40 plants, sometimes I miss recording a plant when I take care of it, but I can only record that it was done within the last three days or so.

by Strictly Rootz

I like that I can organize my plants by room and create a watering schedule with Vera. It’s visually very lovely and easy to use for my purposes. Few issues so far that I recognize:

When I sort plants by room, it doesn’t recognize the same location for some reason in some plants. Like I have 5 plants in “Kitchen”. I go to add the 6th plant in the Kitchen and when I sort the plants by room, I have 5 under “Kitchen” and the 6th one in a separate room name “Kitchen”. So for some reason it doesn’t recognize locations that are spelled the same? I don’t get it.

Second thing I realized is that the feedback “submit” button doesn’t work. So the send feedback button serves no purpose.

Third thing—when you open any notifications from the notification center, Vera opens to opening screen and then shuts down. I had three notifications this morning in my Notification Center and a few yesterday and selected each one. They open to the screen that says “this app” and then shuts down. So you can see you have a notification but can not open the notification in Vera from the Notification Center.

The last thing is that there is no way to edit journal entries. You only have the option to delete and do it over which is odd. Why no option to edit?

So far I’m liking Vera . Maybe some updates will make it seamless.

by OneBigFishStory

I’ve just moved into a new home in the last couple of months, and I’m filling the indoors and outdoors with plants. I grew up having plants all around, but this is the first time I’m the one in charge of their care. So Vera provides a way for me to keep track of all my new plants, so I don’t forget to water or fertilize any of them, and allows me to visually track progress with photo uploads. I like that I can add notes whenever I want.

One thing I’d love to see in an app update is the ability to set a sound for notifications, instead of only having silent screen notifications. Sometimes I miss the notifications I’ve set, because I don’t notice the silent banner/badge alerts. But overall, I’m really enjoying this simple, easy-to-use app, and recommend it!

by KatGamer5439

I am a new plant parent, I love plants and finally got a few of my own! I seem to forget to water my precious plants and was looking for an app that would remind me. this app does just that. I love the simplicity of Vera and the fact that every aspect of it is easy to use. My plants are happy and healthy. There is one suggestion though: it would be quite convenient to have a fertilizer tracker. This way it helps prevent over or under fertilizing your plants. Otherwise this is an amazing app! Thank you 😊
Edit: Once again this app has made their app even better and more appealing with their recent update adding a fertilization tracker. I have accumulated many plants since when I first wrote this review such as a new dusty Rose succulent as well as a few philodendrons and foliage plants as well as others. And this app has been the most helpful when serving as my assistant helping my plants look healthier than ever!

by Fateforever545

Vera has been wonderful for making notes and keeping track of all of my plants. I mostly use it as a way to show people my plants as I really like the photo feature to make each entry unique and how you have the info for some types of plants. I have had Vera for about 4 months now and the plants that didn't have info in the beginning still have nothing, I know it is a lot of research so I get it. One thing I think would be absolutely ideal would be to add a window of months to the fertilizer schedule mechanism, so like if I only need to fertilize my orchid from June to august, I wouldn't have to go in and change it once the fertilizer season is over. Just an idea!

by Madame Siri

This is definitely hands-down the best plant reminder I’ve ever used. The best part is not that it’s FREE but that you get an IMMEDIATE RESPONSE if you ever have a problem with this FREE APP!! I had to contact customer service/app developers twice. They responded to my email quickly and walked me through resetting Vera (which solved the problem). The second time they were way ahead of me. They had discovered a bug. They also notified me directly when the issue was resolved. It’s a FREE APP and they keep up with it!
(Just so you know I don’t waste my time (or money) on glitchy apps. If it’s not user friendly or Vera has weird problems I don’t bother!)

by Terenë

I’ve recently acquired a few new houseplants, and I’ve reached that number where keeping track of schedules on my own would be a challenge. Having an app like this ensures that my plants get the care they need on time. Vera itself stands out from the competition with its attractive and intuitive interface. I love the personalization options, like being able to name each plant and add multiple pictures.

One feature I’d love to see in future is the ability to schedule misting. Currently, I’m noting how often I want to mist each plant in its note section, but to go through and check those against the log gets a little cumbersome.

All in all, this is a solid app that’s a joy to use.

by Caliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Everything I could have asked for to help me take care of my plants! I’m fairly new to the plant world but over covid I have acquired quite a few plants all over my house. This has been so helpful to make sure I don’t forget any of them and remind me when to take care of them. It’s like keeping a journal to learn and figure out what did and didn’t work, only better since you can store photos, progress and track more specific things you might not think of. Also the blogs and plant care that links up with your plant has already helped me figure out what was wrong with a plant and save it!

by Calsprite

Unlike some of this app’s competitors, this app lets ME decide my plant’s care and scheduling. I love that this app does provide vasic care information for my plant, but it doesn’t force a watering or feeding schedule onto me. this app lets me create the schedule and alter as needed. It also lets me keep a journal of each of my plants for any changes, such as repotting, new growth, wilting, change of environment, etc.
It’s very organized and easy to use. this app makes plant care simple and acknowledges that not all plants are going to thrive on a schedule. There are many factors that contribute to a watering schedule, so apps that tried telling me to water my plant every 6 days were actually killing my plant! this app sends a gentle reminder (that I requested), and gives me the option to skip a watering and postpone the reminder if it’s not required.
Thanks this app, for letting ME control MY plants’ care!

by Gilliane W

From someone who has a busy schedule and can barely remember to feed my dog sometimes, I needed an app that would help me remember my plants. I found this app and decided to give it a try and wow it’s awesome. You put in individual profiles on each of your plants and you can make a watering/fertilizer schedule specific to each plant and then Vera will send out a reminder to do those things! You can also choose at what time of the day you want the reminder which I enjoy as I can water my plants in the morning before work and then not forget about it. I also love that Vera is free, it’s great quality for it being free.
My only thing that I’d like for the developers to add is a way to send your plant information to other people because when I leave for a trip I’d love to be able to send the information to a friend so they know exactly when to water my plants. That’s the only thing so far that I’d add in.

by Zchsinemetu

Thank you! Finally an app that doesn’t cost me more money to simply help me take care of my plants. I started a big garden this summer and have also acquired quite a few house plants and outdoor plants. I LOVE the idea of naming my plants! Idk why I didn’t think about that before but it inspired me on a whole new level. All plants have names now - named after gods and goddesses or other names that translate to represent their colors, and of course my veggies have names now too, like Tiny Tomato for my cherry tomatoes. It actually helps me keep up with what each plant needs without getting them mixed up and I love referring to them by name...like, “let me go check on Iris and Eris (my two periwinkle plants) and Gaia and Rhea (my two petunia plant)” sounds way more fun and exciting than, “I gotta water my flowers”. Seriously, thank you so much for the inspiration and providing something that helps me succeed in one of the only hobbies I have that truly brings me joy and peace. Thank you ❤️

by Julia98-16

I am new to houseplants - got my first one a month ago - and I wanted an app to help me track watering, fertilising, repotting…all the plant-y things. I tried a few others, but didn’t like how limited they were due to wanting you to pay for them. (We are a young, single income family, so we definitely don’t have the budget to be dropping $30 on an app!) Cue Vera, this app; I saw it featured in an article online and gave it a go, despite it being labelled more for established plant folks. I love it, and think it is totally beginner friendly!

The layout is open and aesthetic, and I really like all the updates you can add to your plants. The reminders and snooze buttons are nice as well. I like that you can name your plants and give them a profile picture; it’s cute, fun, and useful for if someone else needs to care for a plant while you’re gone or something. I have repotted 5 plants, and like that you can track each one as well. (They all seem to be doing really well, which is shocking and makes me so happy! Never thought I could do this.)

I really don’t have any cons for Vera. It’s exactly what I wanted, and I love that it’s free. I would recommend to anyone that has houseplants. :)

by Wiggly Platypus

This is the first time I write a review for an app (that I can recall, at least) so it should mean something (“Thanks Ron!”, I hear you). This is just a really good, really easy app that helps you keep track of the watering and fertilizing schedule of your plants. You get to name your plants (Relevant? Not really... Enjoyable? Absolutely), add notes on them, and take pictures of their growth. You can organize your plants by their locations in your home which is nice as well. Vera tells you what a great plant parent you are every time you water something which, again, is not needed but oh so very welcomed! All together, I love it (no, I wasn’t paid to write that). Thank you!