Maple closes on 31 December 2026 and deletes all data, so anything you want to keep needs saving before then. For the replacement, the useful question isn’t which app has the most features; it’s whether you used Maple as a calendar or as a way to share the mental load, because those lead to different apps.
There’s a specific kind of irritation in this one. Apps close all the time. What makes this different is that Maple had taken over a job nobody else in the house was doing and the deadline comes with deletion, not just a login that stops working.
So there are two separate tasks: get your information out, and pick where to go. Most articles on this only do the second one.
What do you need to do before 31 December?
Save anything that exists only inside Maple, and do it now rather than in the last week.
The routines are the part people underestimate. A list of tasks is easy to rebuild; what’s hard to rebuild is the pattern which things recur and when, and who had quietly taken ownership of what. Write that down as plain sentences: Sam owns the appointments. School admin is mine. Bins are Tuesday. Ten minutes, and it saves you renegotiating the whole arrangement from scratch in January.
Check Maple’s own notice for whether an export is offered and in what format. If there isn’t one, screenshots of your recurring setup are unglamorous and entirely adequate.
One piece of timing advice: don’t leave the move to December. A household needs a fortnight of everyone actually using something new before it sticks, and December is the heaviest month of the year for exactly the work you’re trying to keep shared.
Why the obvious replacement might be the wrong one
Because people didn’t choose Maple for a calendar.
There are dozens of family calendars, most of them free. Maple’s users came to it because it took the unseen half of running a family seriously the noticing, planning and remembering that happens before anything reaches a calendar. That’s a much smaller group of apps, and it matters when you pick the next one.
So before comparing anything, answer one question: what did you actually use Maple for? If it was mainly the shared schedule, a calendar app will cover you and this is a short decision. If it was the load, a calendar will feel like a downgrade about three weeks in.
How the alternatives actually differ
Three different kinds of product, not one list ranked by features.
| Calendar apps (Cozi, FamilyWall) | Measuring apps (familymind) | Famant | |
| Shared family calendar | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Shared lists | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| Recipes, sports schedules, messaging | ✓ (varies) | — | — |
| Built around the mental load | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| A score for how the load is divided | — | ✓ | — by design |
| Whole areas get a named owner | — | — | ✓ |
| Records who noticed and planned, not only who did | — | — | ✓ |
| Thanks the effort, ranks nobody | — | — | ✓ |
| Free tier | Cozi free with ads — check current plans | Free to start | Check current plans |
Two notes on that table. Calendar apps win the top rows outright, and if your family lives off sports schedules and recipes, that’s where to go. And a measuring app does something real it turns “I feel like I do more” into a figure two people can look at together, which sometimes ends an argument that words couldn’t.
There’s also Google’s household agent, which is free but it’s a Labs experiment, US only, adults only and behind a waitlist, so for most families it isn’t yet an option.
When a calendar app is the right move
Straightforwardly:
● You mainly used Maple for the shared schedule
● Children’s activity schedules are the bulk of what you track
● You want recipes or family messaging in the same place
● Nobody in the household feels like they’re carrying more than their share
An app only helps with the problem you have. If the work already feels fairly shared, a mental-load app is answering a question your house isn’t asking.
When Famant is the closer fit
Famant is a family app made by Antutive AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. It makes the unseen work of family life visible and shares it fairly, using Care Points to recognise who noticed, planned and remembered.
It’s the closer fit if Maple was solving the load rather than the diary. Three things work differently.
Thoughts go in raw. Say it or photograph it the moment it arrives mid-drive, halfway through cooking rather than sorting it into a list, a date and an owner first. That friction is what kills good intentions at exactly the moment your hands are full.
Areas get owners, not tasks. You’ve got everything dentist-related moves the noticing along with the job. Can you book the dentist? doesn’t, you’re still the one who remembered it needed booking. That distinction is most of what separates a shared household from a busy one.
The thinking is recorded and thanked. Famant Care Points mark who noticed something, planned around it and told everyone the half of the work that leaves no trace and let a family thank it. Nobody is scored and nobody is ranked. If you’ve tried an app with points and leaderboards and found it made things tenser, that’s the difference.
What switching actually involves
A fortnight, realistically, and nothing imports your habits.
What you’re moving isn’t data so much as an arrangement. Start from the sentences you wrote down who owns what and set those up as owned areas rather than re-entering every task. Then expect a couple of weeks of both adults using it before it settles, and expect some things to be done differently. That’s the price of an actual handover.
If it helps, our mental load checklist is a twenty-minute way to work through who currently carries what, together, before you move anything.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly does Maple close?
31 December 2026, and all data is deleted. Check Maple’s own notice for whether any features stop working before then, and don’t leave the move to the final week.
Can I export my data from Maple?
Check Maple’s notice that’s the only reliable source, and it may have changed. In practice most families rebuild rather than import, which is far less painful if you’ve written down the recurring routines and who owns what.
What’s the best Maple alternative?
It depends what you used it for. For the shared calendar, a calendar app covers it. If you chose Maple because it addressed the mental load, look for an app built specifically for that coordination and fairness are different problems and most apps only solve the first.
Is there a free Maple alternative?
Some family apps have free tiers, usually ad-supported or with the useful parts behind a paid plan. Check what a free tier includes before moving a household onto it switching twice in one year costs more effort than a subscription saves.
What should I do first?
Save whatever exists only inside Maple, write down the recurring routines and who owns each area, then choose a replacement while you still have weeks rather than days.
The bottom line
The deadline is real and it deletes things, so the saving comes first.
Then the honest question isn’t which app replaces Maple feature for feature. It’s whether you need a better diary or whether you need the household to stop living in one person’s head.
Family life, a little lighter.
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