Coming from a shared calendar
You keep the app you already use — the schedule arrives as a subscribed calendar, so nobody has to learn anything new. The difference is you stop typing in every day and holidays stop being wrong.
How this compares
Custody Captain does one job properly: the schedule. If you want messaging, expense splitting, and journals in the same place, a full co-parenting app is a better fit — and you can still use this alongside it.
| Feature | Custody Captain | Shared calendar | Paper or spreadsheet | Full co-parenting app |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fills in future years from your plan | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Alternating holiday rules that move by year | Yes | No | By hand | Usually |
| Changes need the other parent's approval | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Handoff time, place, and method per day | Yes | In the title | By hand | Yes |
| Record of changes that can't be edited | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Overnight counts and percentage split | Yes | No | By hand | Sometimes |
| Shows up in the calendar app you already use | Yes | Yes | No | Sometimes |
| View-only link for grandparents or a sitter | Yes | All or nothing | No | Paid seats |
| Print a clean month-by-month PDF | Yes | Rough | Yes | Sometimes |
| Messaging, expenses, and shared journals | No | No | No | Yes |
| Free to start | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rarely |
Coming from paper or a spreadsheet
The pattern you keep re-typing becomes a rule, and the counts you tally by hand become a report. You can still print months for the fridge or for court.
Coming from a co-parenting app
If you only ever used it for the calendar, this is smaller, calmer, and cheaper. If you rely on the messaging and expense tools, keep those and use this for the schedule.
Try it with your own plan
It takes about ten minutes to set up, and you can print or export everything at any time.