Cozi Family Organizer Reviews

by R0tt0napples

This calendar does it work well with other calendars. It doesn’t exchange with other calendars well it’s all read only. Doesn’t work with Alexa. You can’t do much as far as settings when your not on a desktop. The “month view” is not color coded. It’s the most basic view and is hard to read. This could be so great but I feel like it was a waste of money. There’s really NO REASON to buy the subscription. The free version is essentially the same since the month view is lacking in every way. That’s the only thing you get with upgrade. I will not buy again next year. Thanks for the reply. I’ve already been in contact with Cozi. They have given me the same links. The information is available it simply isn’t helpful. It does nothing with Alexa except lists which, for all the “works with Alexa” excitement I found, is really misleading. It should say “only works with lists in Alexa” I expect a more IFTTT approach with a family calendar. I expected to pay the premium and have lots of extras. Instead, I paid and found out it’s useless with Alexa and it’s exactly the same as I was for free. I’ll know better next year. It’s unfortunate because it COULD be a really valuable tool if it did more. And add some vegetarian and vegan recipes please.
The one thing I can say, is you have great people working for you. They genuinely want to help. They are all very courteous and kind.

by Jimkcec

I have asked for help now for over six months!!

2 years ago all was well in the family plan I thought it would be a neat gift for the family so I added the gold and my account was charged for several years. My family and myself never got access as it was only placed on my email and not the family!! Once I realized this I was eliminated from the family plan and now almost a year of email cannot get back to see the family plan. This with covid and 2 daughter graduating from high school has made COZI useless to me and not worth the money for gold or aggravation. I would highly not recommend this software as they scam you into going Gold then lock you out of the account and the only support is through email and very slow! I am not the only one that has experienced this as their frequently asked questions states if this occurs get in touch with customer service! I would highly advise seeking better business bureau help and or cancelling your card as they do not respond in a timely manner!

The message I got was they see my plan and that I have paid for the service but they never attached it to the family plan and it has never worked!! Beware of the scam!!

by Ipodallthetime

When I found this calendar I was so excited. We have a really busy family and lots of moving parts. I was so happy I wouldn't have to send emails and texts as reminders anymore or field the when and where questions. It was all at our fingertips. Until I had to get a new phone. My old phone died. I got a new one and as is the usual I needed to sign back into CoziFamilyOrganizer . Only I can't sign back in. At all. I thought I had forgotten my password, but nope, my email address isn't recognized. I emailed customer service where I get an auto generated response telling me it will be at least 3 days before they will get back to me. If I am paying for CoziFamilyOrganizer (which Im not) it will be sooner. So after waiting 3 days I receive an email suggesting that I may have typed in the wrong email address or spelled it incorrectly. This is as if I'm bot intelligent enough to think of that on my own that I had to wait three days for someone to point it out. So I responded to the email letting them know what I tried and guess what...they will get back to me in 3-5 days. I will no longer be using CoziFamilyOrganizer. If I have to start a new account I would rather go to an app that cares about their customers and that realizes how important a family calendar is. So incredibly disappointed in CoziFamilyOrganizer and their level of customer service.

by HorribleSpider

I found CoziFamilyOrganizer looking for something to help with meal planning and was glad to see it had calendar features too.

Unfortunately the recipe suggestions and categories are useless if you're looking for vegetarian recipes -- and the idea of being able to search just for dairy free (or vegan) options is a joke. I tried to search for "vegetarian" and got zero results even though I'd already saved one recipe that claimed to be a veggie twist on a traditional meal... so maybe the recipes are there, they just don't make them easy to find. Lots of meat recipes though, if that's your thing.

But here's the real problem: I like a lot of the features, but was disappointed that some things I'd like to be able to do require annual membership payments. I'd be willing to just pay a flat fee for CoziFamilyOrganizer , but considering how much they're asking for monthly or yearly memberships they'd probably ask a ridiculous amount for a one-time purchase to unlock all features. My main issue with paying monthly to unlock features is that there are only SOME that I want to use. It's expensive to pay the subscription anyway, but when you only want one or two features...? Forget it. Maybe they could make cheaper, flat-rate purchase packs that unlock only certain things? I dunno, it seems crazy expensive to me for what it is and what I'd use it for. I'd rather just stick with google calendar and a free app or two to fill in the blanks (like to do and shopping lists).

by Annalynne

UPDATE:
with all of the free apps available these days, this one is outrageously expensive annually for the gold membership benefits.

I researched for months before getting this calendar. I’m a grandmother who babysits for multiple families. It’s very hard scheduling between us all over the phone and we needed a place where we could put our schedules that we could merge together and see who is available when. This one works very nicely even as the free version. But for our needs we upgraded to the paid version which I think is too expensive. The only problem I have with CoziFamilyOrganizer other than the high annual cost, is I find it very difficult to distinguish between the months , weeks and days. I think there needs to be a higher contrast visually as you scroll through. Sometimes I put my things in the wrong box because distinguishing between them is not that easy. The location of the date in the box is sometimes a little confusing. I just think there needs to be a better visual display separating the months, weeks and days. Especially for anybody with low vision but even for those with good vision. Otherwise it’s a nice app in the paid version offers many useful features.

by TheCrazyBernards

I really like CoziFamilyOrganizer for organizing and sharing a calendar between multiple people. We have 6 kids so they are everywhere, I especially like the feature where they can add something to the calendar and we all see it. My only complaint is the addresses; When adding an address to an event in the iphones basic calendar it pops up so you don’t have to type the whole thing, which CoziFamilyOrganizer doesn’t do - it’s lazy but I don’t want to type the whole thing in, lol. I also wish I could type in the location area the name and if it’s saved in my contacts once again....it pops up and fills out automatically. Also some events happen yearly that aren’t birthday, like my friends baby who died I like calling her every year to tell her I’m there for her for example. Events that happen weekly like various sports or church would be nice to have an icon like the birthday icon next to it. I’m trying the Gold for a year to see how I like it, but so far so good for the most part!! My notes would make things easier to handle or just thoughts.

by Mommacrocks

We started using the Cozi when our two oldest kids were in high school. Two varsity athletes and athletic club participants, a child in elementary school, and two parents who travel for work made for a daunting job of keeping track of all the commitments. Our bigs are now in college, youngest is just about to enter middle school and we both still travel for work. CoziFamilyOrganizer is perfect for any family with a ton of balls to juggle. Everyone (including the pets) are part of our group. We can keep track of every aspect we need to know for scheduling appointments, work trips, meals...literally everything. Before my husband or I agree to a meeting out of town, we can make sure no conflicts exist with our youngest child (someone is always home for her.) The notifications help keep everyone up to date on the latest changes immediately. Meal planning is simple as we can decide what kinds of meals will work best on any given day ( both of us out all day, crockpot meal; after school lessons, something quick ; just two for dinner, portion adjustment) Plus, having the meal plan allows whoever is home first to get dinner started since the recipe is also available in CoziFamilyOrganizer . Running to the store? Grocery list of needed items is available to confirm we have everything we need. Anything we do is in the Cozi, it is a great tool. It keeps us on track and running smoothly.

by Eaymsmg

I rely on my free version of Cozi a lot but when I try to update my calendar on my iPhone it has a years-long history of crashing and losing all my updates - I get a msg that somebody just made changes so my changes were lost or something like that - and every time I get this message I was the person who just made the changes (my husband never logs on). It also does not always place items on the date I selected when I opened the calendar post screen - I have to go back and search the calendar for the mistaken entry, or just place the item again in the right place & know there is a duplicate out there somewhere. When I have time to dedicate, I plan to transfer to a different app.

I currently don’t have the extra funds to go back to the paid version, but when I paid for it, the same things were happening. I have reloaded and changed my password several times to no avail. Not reliable enough for 5 stars, but was a helpful app before all the crashing, etc.

by Sky_Blue_Eyes

My husband and I have been using this calendar and list app to help simplify plans and communication. It’s great! This is a success because we used to constantly ask the other “What’s our plan tomorrow?” and similar questions. Now that’s more rare (it was all day, every day).
The grocery and to do lists are also helpful. I especially Love the combo of the calendar and the lists all in one app. I usually need one thing to create the other, so the duality of CoziFamilyOrganizer functions work for me.
There’s also an option to choose recipes within CoziFamilyOrganizer and have the food items needed loaded into a shopping list. Excellent add on that’s free!
—The recommendation I have to the developer is to include healthy recipes that focus on clean eating.
—Another recommendation is to create the ability to hide appointments and lists. For example, I need to use my iPhone calendar app to keep track of things throughout my day. Maybe it’s remembering to eat a snack, take a vitamin, or make a dr appointment. Regardless, it’s for me and not my husband. If only the administrator on the account could have that option then that’s fine, but ideally all users might need the option to keep things private. That would eliminate my need the to log my personal items and tasks in two places. Every. Single. Day. :) And it would make this my favorite organizational type app to date.

by Christytx52

My whole family uses CoziFamilyOrganizer and our teenage son adds his groceries and Christmas wish list to it. I put his chores on it. We use the to-do lists extensively. The problem is that periodically (once a month) one of us will be adding and item either to a shopping list or to-do list, it looks like it added, then all of sudden we get a message with a list of items that cozi couldn’t add (even though it already did - temporarily at least). Not sure if this is because Cozi doesn’t allow you to enter items while you are offline and then sync up later or what the deal is. So you have to pay close attention to the message to know what to type in again. Super annoying. Also, frequently I’ll be typing and I’m part way through a word and the item just closes when I’m part way through. I’ll start typing “Milk” but only get the “M” and the “i” entered and the item closes. So I have “Mi” on my list. It does that a lot. You have to reopen the item and finish typing. Other than those two items, though, it works pretty well for our family. The updates are in near real time - I can see my husband check off items while he’s shopping. And the rest of CoziFamilyOrganizer is stable. It does what we need it to do for the most part.

by Nickname102490

I found CoziFamilyOrganizer in a parent magazine and I do Not love it but i do like it.. One of the problems that I have is that I usually set two reminders for the appointments on my calendar and I usually don’t get the reminders I went to my settings in my phone to allow notifications and I still really don’t get them. One of the features that I love is the shopping my fiancé is not good at remembering things so when he does shopping it’s easy for me to add stuff to my grocery list and make it convenient with him keeping up with items that we need for the household.
Things that I think would be great is if it was an option to do cell phone notifications which will be helpful as well. Admin options will be good as well especially when you have teenagers so it does not give them the ability to be able to delete things and you can control what they have access to. The last thing I have an issue with is the fact that I do not see the option to contact you guys and I feel like that’s kind of unfair especially due to the fact that I spent money on your app and I can’t even communicate with the staff members from CoziFamilyOrganizer Especially if i do become unsatisfied with CoziFamilyOrganizer how would i go about getting a refund.

by K8e L8y

We are a blended family of 6, with split custody we share with 3 other parents. Plus the kids are in school and are in activities. First we tried a simple calendar on our kitchen wall, which is great for our 5 year old and if you want a giant visual monthly overview. But...we are always on the move and schedules change fast. CoziFamilyOrganizer has been a lifesaver! We even have the option for our kids’ other parents to join, once our relationship is at that level. And I can access it at work on my computer where I can’t have my cell phone!

The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because of the Lists. We need a satisfying “ding” after a job complete when we check the box. We make an audible noise ourselves and it’s just not the same. The ding makes the day! Also, it would be great if in list items, when you click one item, you could add subtasks and notes and things. That way a recipe could be listed, and then the ingredients could be within it. Or a task could have a person assigned and an explanation. We still use lists because we are set on using one app, but it’s not the best. Maybe you could partner with Wunderlist? They have it down!

Thanks so much!

by Tamar69

Pros: Calendar helps keep you & your kids on the same page with events, activities, appointments, due dates, etc. by facilitating ease of communication & a visual reminder. Shopping lists also allow all users to add & remove items, making shopping trips more productive.
Cons: Annoying ads everywhere with basic (free) version; some features only available with Gold (paid) version. When I added "laundry detergent" to my shopping list, Cozi "suggested" its ad brand and embedded the ad into my list. Yuck. Also, Calendar view isn't visually appealing/easy to look at.
SUGGESTIONS/REQUESTS: It would be SO much more convenient if the Grocery List had SECTIONS (e.g., Produce, Frozen, Deli, etc.) for items - it would really expedite the actual shopping process (no more backtracking 5 aisles to get that peanut butter you skipped!).
It would also be cool if the Lists could identify or track those items you buy on almost every trip to the store, and suggest said items each time a new list is started.

by Kristyn0417

My husband and I were looking for a good shared calendar to keep track of allllll the things. We found this and gave it a try. We upgraded to gold after we were using it for a bit and saw the value in the gold membership.
The “lists” portion of CoziFamilyOrganizer is absolutely incredible. We plan our out meals for the week and I just found that they have some preselected recipes so I was scrolling those and decided to give one a try. You can add all of the ingredients to your grocery list with one click (and just as easily delete the ingredients you don’t need to pick up for it). I thought that was so cool. But then I found something even COOLER! I was searching recipes online and I went to share one to my email so I could print it and I found that I can share it to the cozi app and it will create the recipe there for you so all you have to do is click a button and all the ingredients will go to your list again.

And that’s just ONE feature of CoziFamilyOrganizer. Definitely worth it. We love it.

by Mom Ellen

I’ve asked my teenage daughter for months to look into a calendar app for the two of us. Between scheduling appointments (for her, me, the dog, the car, etc!) social activities, random babysitting jobs for her and deadlines for me, it’s been a major challenge to stay organized. I’ve always used a personal calendar/planner, but that isn’t my daughter’s style, and the big wall or kitchen counter family calendar attempt was a complete fail. Enter COZI!!!! My daughter suggested it three days ago, and we’re hooked!! So easy to enter our own commitments, designate which one (or both!) of us is involved, log in events that repeat going forward, etc. And the ability to keep a grocery/drugstore list without forgetting to write an item down on paper or pick it up from the store?!?! Huge bonus!! Edits are simple, and the beautiful layouts and pleasing color combinations are wonderful too! Have not tried any features beyond the calendar and lists, and haven’t tried to print out a copy, but so far, so GREAT! Wish we had discovered CoziFamilyOrganizer earlier.....would have made scheduling and communicating changes throughout high school less stressful for both of us. It’ll make these weeks before my daughter heads to college SO much easier to navigate! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

by Kshoe14

My husband is always asking me, “do we have anything planned for next weekend!?” -after I have told him our plans almost daily for the last month- NOW i can say “check the cozi!!” My husband is a Samsung lover, and I’m an apple advocate, so this helps join our lives easily.

I also like the joined lists. My husband has a cleaning and to do list, and so do I. I like this because we know exactly what needs to be done, and it holds us accountable.

CoziFamilyOrganizer would get 10 stars if it had a pantry list, so when I’m at the store, I can also look to see what’s in my pantry and replenish if need be. I’ve tried other pantry apps, but the importance of having an app that shares this list would be HUGE. That way if my husband eats all the peanut butter, he could check it off, and that could get added to the shopping list automatically. Developers?!? I am currently using the free cozi, but if this was an option, and it ACTUALLY worked (a lot of the pantry apps Ive tried are crap) I would definitely pay!

by Wegots2kids

I highly recommend CoziFamilyOrganizer for anyone, but especially for busy families! We are a family if 4, which includes 2 adults, a teenager and a tween. All of which have super busy schedules. What we love the most is that we only get notified if something affecting the included family member gets scheduled. For instance if we plan a dinner with grandparents and all should be there, all will get notified or if said dinner gets canceled and deleted, all get notified. However, if my son (age 19) schedules a dentist app it’s just in the schedule, no notifications will be sent to the rest of us. With that said, we can all still access the calendar and see the schedules of each other, which makes planning group activities better.
CoziFamilyOrganizer is fantastic! It has greatly reduced scheduling overlaps within our family. Even reducing difficulty within the family, like needing to schedule something but not being able to reach others to get it coordinated.
The only thing that disappoints me with CoziFamilyOrganizer is that you have to pay for the subscription to be able to search for an appointment. I’d love to use that feature but just don’t feel like it’s worth the additional cost.

by Weareramsey

I love CoziFamilyOrganizer! I'm a busy mom of two pre-teens who's schedules get busier and busier, and a husband with a busy work calendar. I'm also an "old dog" who doesn't like to learn new tricks so transitioning was daunting for me. What I initially loved about Cozi was the ability to create tabs for each family member so each knows where they need to be and where others are. I also loved that I had an experience where I missed a "search" feature in the Calendar where you could search for the last time you went to the dermatologist, or changed the a/c filters, etc. Sent the feedback to Cozi and within a couple months saw that feature added in an update. Now my calendar works better than my previous calendar!

Another review remarked she had trouble moving items in a list. If I understand her complaint accurately, you should be able to do that by "dragging and dropping" the item up or down. I organize my grocery list (after writing it freestyle) then organize in the order my grocery store stocks them. Same with errands. I write them freestyle, then sort into the order I want to run them.

I'm always excited for updates to see what new features have been added. (Please note I am a Gold member and it's worth it to me for the upgrade!)

by Fun Rode

I downloaded the Cozy app for the summer so that I could keep my children's calendar organized for myself and our summer babysitter. I actually had the babysitter input all the different activities lessons and outings so that she would have firsthand knowledge and be more in tune with their schedule, which is crazy! It's been wonderful to be able to see what everyone has going on at a glance. It's also been nice for my husband who will ask me what's going on today and I can just refer him to the calendar. Our babysitter does some tutoring on the side so she was able to plug in her tutoring hours well in advance so that I could make sure we had a plan on the times we would be without her. The reminders are also very helpful. I told my children it was their responsibility to be up and ready for all activities so that the sitter could literally just pulled in the driveway and they would be ready and amazingly it has worked! I've even plugged in a few of my business meetings into the Cozi calendar as a second reminder for myself as I have so much happening between home and work. I haven't used a lot of the other functions yet but I'm excited to explore what else CoziFamilyOrganizer has to offer! Thanks for creating an app that keeps families communicating well and organized :-)

Kristel Ersan
Bettenforf Iowa🌽

by PERFECTION FOR ADHD'ers

As an adult with ADHD, this has been a Godsend app! I am a Gold member/subscriber and the fee has been ABSOLUTELY beneficial and WAY WORTH THE INVESTMENT. This is my second year using/utilizing the Cozi Gold app. I plan to continue and refer to many family, friends and colleagues. CoziFamilyOrganizer is extremely user friendly and has truly been a blessed for me in keeping organized and orderly tasks; appointments, to do list and has overall simplified my “overwhelming ability to stay focused, organized and daily, weekly and monthly responsibilities and tasks! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CoziFamilyOrganizer AND HAVE DONE SO TO MANY FRIENDS, FAMILY & COLLEAGUES! Thanks a million for helping me to stay focused, on time and improving my ability to overcome mishaps, missed appoints, detailed to do/ tasks lists that has been a tremendous app in keeping me on track with ability to complete what once caused unnecessary chaos, stress and anxiety in my daily routines. The gold subscription has been worth EVERY penny and more!
Sincerely,
Queen ADHD
P.S. I highly recommend anyone (moms, busy professionals, etc.) to give this top rated app!

by Wifid143

What a nightmare! You carefully schedule appointments, doctors, outings. Then one day you look up and a LOT OF THINGS you KNOW you put on the calendar are GONE! Yes, COZI has NO admin authority, so go ahead and schedule your life away. Then have your 10 year old open his calendar, leave the phone open an inadvertantly (or not) DELETE calendared events! This has been a nightmare resulting in TWO important events being deleted, info lost, and NO WAY TO RECOVER> When it first happened I contacted them and their reply was "oh yeah, we dont have a solution for that, anyone using CoziFamilyOrganizer can freely or mistakenly delete events" Now, it has happened a second time on a very serious appointment scheduled months in advance, and I am beyond furious. This is a FAMILY calendar. When it is only as strong as a 10 year olds fat finger mistake, its USELESS. They need to add an admin 4 # password to allow an event to be deleted. Trust me folks, the advantages quickly become a NIGHTMARE when your kid decides to muck around in CoziFamilyOrganizer thats supposed to bring families together. I am on the hunt for something new. We cant afford another screwup in CoziFamilyOrganizer that has no parental controls over deletions! They know about it and havent fixed it.

by BusyMomOfFourPlusAHubby

The good: It successfully fulfills the purpose of having a ‘family management app’ and it’s nice that it has the ability to notify family members of events with multiple reminders. I LOVE the recipe tab and like that it is easy to transfer those ingredients to the shopping cart. I appreciate that my husband and I can keep track of what’s going on and what’s needed all in one place.

The bad: not entirely super user friendly, in that it’s easy to do things but not as easy to undo them. Like when you transfer the ingredients to the shopping cart, you have to individually delete each item as needed rather than selecting multiple (at least on the mobile app, it sure how that part is on the desktop). You can’t just select an entire recipe and delete if you accidentally add it twice. Also, I putting a ton of appointments was way easier on a desktop (at initial startup) than on the phone, but adding individual events is fine. Lastly, I added my kids as family members only to keep my husband and I in the loop of who is where, and it’s frustrating to have to uncheck their names in the “notify” section because they don’t have their own emails so I was getting five “notifications” since it was mine plus 4 of them until I started removing them. It could be a little smoother in that aspect.

Overall though, the price is good for what you get (I NEVER pay for apps, but was willing to for this one!!) it’s been a life saver but could use some improvements.