Plants August 2026

7 apps for keeping your first plants alive

Most first plants die of light or water, in that order, and usually before you work out which. These seven answer the three questions a beginner actually has: what is this, is it getting enough light, and when do I water it.

The apps for keeping your first plants alive are Photone, Succulent, Plant Daddy, Greg, Plantfie, Greener and PlantScope. I built Succulent; the other 6 are other developers’ apps.

MiaAppLog— an iOS developer who reviews other people’s apps
Published August 2026 · apps and prices last checked 13 October 2026

Four stars is my score for how well an app answers this moment. An app I built gets four and a half — that is a rule, not a comparison. The App Store’s own average is on each card beside it.

1. 

   Photone

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Utilities · App Store 4.6 (4,936)

   Photone turns the phone camera into a plant light meter: PAR, PPFD, DLI, lux and colour temperature, so you stop guessing whether that corner is bright enough.

   Skip it if you are measuring LED grow lights: anything other than daylight needs paying for, and reviewers dispute the readings on the newest phones.

   Official site ↗More lists with Photone

   
2. 

   Succulent Editor’s pick

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.5 · Free · Lifestyle · App Store 5.0 (10)

   Succulent is a photo journal for succulents instead of a watering spreadsheet. Every plant gets a diary worth looking back through, not a checklist.

   App Store ↗More lists with Succulent

   
3. 

   Plant Daddy

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Lifestyle · App Store 4.8 (317)

   Plant Daddy does just watering: add your plants, keep care notes, set reminders. It does not even ask you to make an account.

   Skip it if you have more than a handful of plants — the free tier stops at four, and reviewers have opened it to find the collection gone.

   Official site ↗More lists with Plant Daddy

   
4. 

   Greg

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Education · App Store 4.6 (20,667)

   Greg identifies your specific plant, then tells you how much water it needs and reminds you when, instead of a flat every-seven-days rule.

   Skip it if you would follow the watering schedule without checking it — several reviewers say it told them to water far too often, and identification sits behind the subscription.

   Official site ↗More lists with Greg

   
5. 

   Plantfie

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Education · App Store 4.5 (15,226)

   Plantfie identifies the plant from a photo, then hands you a care guide and reminders for that species rather than one generic schedule.

   Skip it if you are relying on the diagnosis: reviewers report it misreading both the plant and the problem, and the trial charges earlier than people expect.

   Official site ↗More lists with Plantfie

   
6. 

   Greener

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Lifestyle · App Store 4.5 (316)

   Greener takes three photos of the plant that looks off and tells you what to do next: overwatering, pests, light stress, or something else.

   Skip it if you took "free" at face value: reviewers are near-unanimous that the diagnosis needs paying for, and it asks you to agree to share your data first.

   Official site ↗More lists with Greener

   
7. 

   PlantScope

   ★★★★★★★★★★4.0 · Free · Lifestyle · App Store 4.6 (3,143)

   PlantScope diagnoses the leaf that looks wrong. Sick foliage, fungal issues and the usual troubles, identified from a photo.

   Skip it if you would forget to cancel: a short trial converting to a large charge is what almost every one-star review is about.

   Official site ↗More lists with PlantScope

   

Succulent is one of mine — everything else on this list is someone else’s app. How that works.