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Endearist vs Garden
A fair, specific comparison — written so you'd be comfortable if a Garden engineer read it.
Fairness pledge
Garden ("Garden: Stay in Touch") deserves real credit: launched in April 2018 by Zander Adell, it was one of the first apps to say out loud that relationships need tending like plants — set a catch-up frequency per person, get a gentle nudge, jot a note after you talk. No streaks, no guilt, no feed. TechCrunch and HuffPost covered it as the anti-Facebook way to stay close to people, and it was free. In spirit, Garden is an ancestor of Endearist, and we say that with respect. The honest part: as of June 2026 we can find no updates, release notes, or public activity from the developer since roughly 2020 — the last version we can trace is 1.1.8 — even though the App Store listing is still live. This page exists because people still search for Garden, and they deserve a straight answer about what they'd be installing.
Where your data lives
Garden: the app asks for an account at sign-up, so your reminder schedules and catch-up notes live (at least partly) on the developer's side — and after years of public silence, nobody can tell you who maintains that server or for how long. Your underlying contacts stay safe in iOS Contacts, but everything you typed into Garden itself is in limbo. Endearist: your device first — sync optional via your own cloud (Google Drive, iCloud, WebDAV) or Endearist Cloud (EU-hosted), end-to-end encrypted with a key only you hold.
How AI is accessed
Garden has no AI features — it predates the LLM era entirely and was never updated into it, which at least means it never sent your notes to a model either. Endearist's AI is opt-in and the app fully works offline without it: bring your own key (GPT, Claude, Gemini), or use Pro Cloud Light (~250 EU-routed actions/mo, €4.99) or Pro Cloud (~600 actions/mo + voice transcription, €9.99).
3-year total cost
Garden: $0 — it never charged anything, which is also part of why development stopped. The real cost over 3 years isn't money; it's the risk that an unmaintained app on an OS that keeps moving one day fails to launch, taking years of notes with it. Endearist Free: €0 up to 25 contacts. Endearist Pro Lifetime: €69 once. Endearist Pro Cloud Light: €4.99/month (~€180 over 3 years).
What we don't do
We don't match Garden's radical simplicity — Garden was essentially one screen and one idea, and Endearist is a bigger app by design (journal, warmth score, depth fields, cross-platform sync). Garden was also entirely free with no contact cap, while Endearist Free stops at 25 contacts. If what you loved about Garden was that it asked almost nothing of you, expect Endearist to ask slightly more.
Feature matrix
Side-by-side.
| Feature | Endearist | Garden |
|---|---|---|
| Local-first data storage | Yes — your device is the primary store. | Account required at sign-up; where that data lives today is a question nobody is answering. |
| End-to-end encrypted sync | Yes — AES-256-GCM, you hold the key. | Never advertised — no security documentation we could find. |
| Mobile native apps (iOS / Android) | iOS, Android (native Flutter). | iOS only — we could find no Android release. |
| Desktop native apps | macOS, Windows, Linux (native). | No — phone-only. |
| AI features | Opt-in: bring your own key (on-device) or Pro Cloud Light (~250 EU-routed actions/mo) or Pro Cloud (~600 actions/mo + voice). | None — the app predates the LLM era and was never updated into it. |
| Active development & support | Actively developed — paid tiers fund the roadmap; source-release pledge if we ever shut down. | No visible updates or public activity from the developer since around 2020; the App Store listing remains (last traceable version: 1.1.8). |
| Self-host option | Not currently — the desktop app is the local store. | No. |
| Pricing | Free up to 25 contacts. Pro Lifetime €69 once, Pro Cloud Light €4.99/mo, or Pro Cloud €9.99/mo. | Free — which also meant no revenue to sustain development. |
| Open source code | Source-release pledge on shutdown/acquisition. | No — proprietary, and with development stopped, the code is sealed. |
| Plain-Markdown export | Yes — readable without any app. | No export of any kind that we could find. |
| Voice-note transcription | Yes — on Pro Cloud (60 min/mo) or your own key. | No. |
| Journal / reflection | Built-in journal + weekly ritual + appreciation prompts. | Catch-up notes per contact; no journal surface. |
| Relationship depth (how-we-met, pets) | How-we-met, pets, custom pronouns, life events, debts, attachments. | Reminder frequency + free-text notes; no structured depth fields. |
| Calendar / messenger integrations | Read-only calendar (Google/Apple/Outlook); manual share-sheet capture for messenger context. | None. |
When to pick Garden
When Garden is the better fit.
Honestly: in 2026 we can't recommend starting fresh with Garden — installing an app with no visible maintenance since around 2020 means betting years of notes on a server nobody has publicly confirmed is still being looked after. But if you're a long-time Garden user and it still launches and still nudges you, there's no emergency. The idea was right, the design was kind, and it may keep working for a while yet. Our only firm advice is the same we'd give for any unmaintained app: make sure the notes that matter to you exist somewhere outside it, starting today. Whether that somewhere is Endearist, a text file, or a paper notebook is secondary.
Switching
Coming from Garden?
Garden has no export function that we could find, so the escape route is manual but short. Your contacts themselves were never trapped — Garden layered on top of your iPhone address book, so they're still in iOS Contacts (export them via iCloud.com → Contacts → select all → Export vCard, or just let Endearist read them on first run). What needs rescuing by hand are the catch-up notes and frequencies inside Garden: open the app while it still launches, go through your tended contacts, and copy the notes that still matter into Endearist (the share sheet or plain copy-paste both work). Most people find that an hour covers their genuinely active relationships — and Endearist's per-person cadence reminders pick up exactly where Garden's frequencies left off.
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Prices and positioning verified 2026-06-10.
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