A TimeTree alternative for family routines
TimeTree is a shared calendar: it’s for the dentist, the match on Saturday, the shift you can’t swap. If what your family really needs to share is the week’s repeating jobs, Ethos is a TimeTree alternative built for those: shared routines, turns on the bins and one shopping list, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, with no account and no ads. Many families will want a calendar as well, and Ethos can show the events already on your device beside your tasks. Ethos isn’t connected to TimeTree or to TimeTree, Inc.
Appointments or routines
A calendar holds things that happen once, at a time. TimeTree’s App Store page lists shared calendars for families, couples and work, with notifications, memos and to-do lists, chat inside events, shared photo albums and syncing with your device’s other calendars.
A household also runs on things that come round every week: the bins on a Tuesday night, the school run, the dishwasher. Ethos holds those as routines. You make a group, add the routines you keep together, and each one appears on Today for everyone it’s for, with a row of faces that fill in as each person ticks their part. A job that belongs to one person at a time can take turns, and only the person whose turn it is sees it. The family organiser page goes through it.
Side by side
- Devices. Ethos has apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. TimeTree’s UK App Store page lists iPhone, Apple Vision and Apple Watch under Compatibility. Its description mentions a web version, and its website links to Google Play for Android.
- Accounts. Ethos has no account: a group is shared through each person’s own iCloud, and invitations go by Messages, Mail or a link. TimeTree’s App Store privacy label lists a User ID, email address and name among the data linked to you.
- Adverts. Ethos has none. TimeTree’s App Store page lists Advertising under Contains, and TimeTree Premium is described as “No ads, hourly calendar, attach files”.
- Privacy label. TimeTree’s label lists Identifiers and Usage Data under “Data Used to Track You”, and location, contact info, user content, identifiers, usage data and diagnostics under “Data Linked to You”. Ethos has no account, no analytics and no tracking, and its developer never receives your planner.
- What’s shared. TimeTree shares calendars, memos, to-do lists, photos and chat. An Ethos group shares routines, turns, lists, notes pinned to a day and countdowns. Your own planner stays yours.
- Who’s done what. In Ethos you can see who has kept a shared routine, cheer them when they have, and nudge them once its time has passed. A Live Activity on the Lock Screen shows everyone’s faces filling in.
- Your own week. Ethos is also a daily planner and a habit tracker for each person, with reminders and Rhythm, a gentle score for how settled your routine is.
Who should stick with TimeTree
If your family mixes iPhone and Android, TimeTree works on both and Ethos is only on Apple devices. Ethos needs iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26 or later, so older devices can’t run it.
Stay with TimeTree if the calendar is the thing you share: one-off plans, several calendars for different groups, chatting about an event inside it, or photos attached to the day. Ethos doesn’t keep appointments of its own, and it has no chat or albums. It also suits groups beyond the home, such as work shifts, which TimeTree’s page lists among its uses.
Ethos suits a household on Apple devices whose week runs on the same jobs, who want to see who’s done their part without asking, and who’d rather not make an account. Many families will use both: the calendar for appointments, Ethos for the routines in between. A chore rota that goes round shows how turns work.
Where the TimeTree facts come from
Checked on 25 October 2026 from TimeTree’s App Store page and website:
- “TimeTree: Shared Calendar” by TimeTree, Inc. on the UK App Store, version 15.33.0: its description, its Compatibility, Contains and subscriptions sections, and its App Privacy label.
- TimeTree’s own website, timetreeapp.com.
Apps change. If something here no longer matches TimeTree’s own pages, theirs is the one to go by. Everything about Ethos comes from the app itself.
Questions
Is Ethos a shared calendar?
No. Ethos shares routines, turns, lists, notes and countdowns. If you turn on “Show calendar events”, it shows events from the calendars on your device beside your tasks, without changing, saving or sending them.
Can I use Ethos and TimeTree together?
Yes. Plenty of families keep a calendar for appointments and Ethos for the routines in between. Ethos can show events from any calendar set up on your device, such as iCloud or Google, and only ever reads them.
Does Ethos work on Android?
No. Ethos is for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch, and everyone in a group needs it on their own Apple device, signed in to iCloud.
Does everyone have to pay?
No. Joining a group is free. Making a group and inviting people comes with Ethos Plus. Questions go to support.
More from the blog
- A chore rota app for the bins and the school runTo keep a chore rota in Ethos, add the job to your family group as a shared routine, turn on “Take turns”, and tap the people on the rota in the order it should go round.
- A Cozi alternative for iPhone, Mac and Apple WatchIf your whole household uses Apple devices, Ethos is a Cozi alternative built around the jobs a family repeats: shared routines, turns on the bins, and one shopping list, on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
- A daily planner for Mac that lives in the menu barEthos for Mac puts today’s count in the menu bar as a small ring, so you can see how much of the day is kept and tick the next thing without opening a window.