Custody Captain vs OurFamilyWizard
OurFamilyWizard is a broad co-parenting platform built around court-ready communication: a message board, an expense ledger, a journal, and a calendar. Custody Captain does one job instead — the schedule. You describe your parenting plan once as rules, and it fills in every future day, alternates holidays by year, tracks handoff details, requires the other parent's approval for changes, keeps a record that can't be edited, and publishes a live link your normal calendar app subscribes to. If your disputes are mostly about messages and money, OurFamilyWizard fits better. If they're about whose day it is, this does that part more precisely and costs less.
OurFamilyWizard is billed per parent, per year, so a two-parent household pays twice. Custody Captain is one price for the whole household: $10 a month or $100 a year, with a 7-day free trial. Check each site for current pricing before deciding. Accurate as of September 2026.
Feature by feature
| Feature | Custody Captain | OurFamilyWizard |
|---|---|---|
| One price for both parents | Yes | Per parent |
| Rules-based schedule that fills future years | Yes | Templates |
| Alternating holiday rules that move by year | Yes | Yes |
| Changes need the other parent's approval | Yes | Yes |
| Record of changes that can't be edited | Yes | Yes |
| Live link your calendar app subscribes to | Yes | Limited |
| Layer school or sports calendars on top | Yes | No |
| Handoff time, place, and method per day | Yes | In notes |
| Overnight counts and percentage split | Yes | Yes |
| View-only link for grandparents or a sitter | Yes | Paid seats |
| Ask an AI assistant to update the schedule | Yes | No |
| Messaging with tone checking | No | Yes |
| Expense splitting and payments | No | Yes |
| Shared journal and document vault | Documents only | Yes |
When OurFamilyWizard is the better choice
- You need documented, court-friendly messaging between parents — that is their core product and it is not ours.
- You split expenses often and want reimbursements tracked in the same place as the calendar.
- Your attorney or a court in your case has specifically asked for OurFamilyWizard, which happens in some jurisdictions.
Common questions
- Is Custody Captain a replacement for OurFamilyWizard?
- Only for the calendar side. Custody Captain covers the schedule, holidays, handoffs, approvals, the change record, reports, and calendar sharing. It has no messaging or expense tracking, so if a court order requires those, keep OurFamilyWizard and use Custody Captain alongside it for scheduling.
- Which one is cheaper for two parents?
- Custody Captain, because it is billed once per household rather than per parent. OurFamilyWizard charges each parent separately for a full account, so a two-parent household pays roughly double its listed price.
- Can I see the custody schedule in Google Calendar?
- Yes. Custody Captain gives you a private calendar link you paste into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook. It refreshes on its own, so approved changes show up without re-importing anything.
- Does either app keep a record I could show a mediator?
- Both keep a history of changes. In Custody Captain every change to the schedule, a holiday rule, a handoff, or a note is written to a permanent record with who made it, when, and the before-and-after state, and nothing in the app can edit or delete those entries.
Set it up once, stop arguing about Tuesdays
Add your weekly pattern, holidays, and handoff details in about ten minutes. Everything after that is automatic.