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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 does my data live with Garden versus Endearist?
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: not publicly available yet. The primary copy is intended to stay on your device. End-to-end encrypted sync over storage you run yourself — a local or shared folder, or a WebDAV server — is planned for v1. Google Drive as a destination is not decided yet. Managed sync on Endearist Cloud is planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only.
How does each tool access AI?
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 planned as strictly opt-in, and the app is designed to work fully offline without it: your own key (GPT, Claude, Gemini), or managed AI in a proposed Pro Cloud subscription. AI with your own key: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised.
What do Garden and Endearist cost over three years?
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 cannot be bought yet; its proposed prices are Free at €0 up to 25 contacts, Pro Lifetime at €69 once, and Pro Cloud Light at €4.99/month (~€180 over 3 years). Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local core and data export. The proposed 25-contact limit is not a confirmed entitlement. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local app and AI with your own key (planned for v1). Sync over your own storage is planned for v1. Managed cloud services are not a lifetime feature. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised.
What doesn't Endearist do?
We don't match Garden's radical simplicity — Garden was essentially one screen and one idea, and Endearist is being designed as a bigger app (journal, depth fields, sync across your devices). Garden was also entirely free with no contact cap, while the proposed Endearist Free tier 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 | Designed so the primary copy lives on your device, not on a server. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Account required at sign-up; where that data lives today is a question nobody is answering. |
| End-to-end encrypted sync | End-to-end encrypted sync over storage you run yourself — a local or shared folder, or a WebDAV server — is planned for v1. Google Drive as a destination is not decided yet. Managed sync on Endearist Cloud is planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only. | Never advertised — no security documentation we could find. |
| Mobile native apps (iOS / Android) | Flutter apps in development; nothing to install yet. Native Android app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native Windows app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native iPhone and iPad app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native macOS app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native Linux app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. | Source check for Garden (2026-09-30): Listed platforms: iOS. Native availability for Android, macOS, Windows, Web, Linux is unverified. Garden: Stay in Touch, by Meaning Labs; the similarly named Garden: Keep in Touch is a different app. The iPhone listing is not verified for macOS. Check current availability and account/region limits with the vendor. We have not tested the apps ourselves. |
| Desktop native apps | Native desktop apps in development; nothing to install yet. Native Android app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native Windows app: planned for v1. The first release is intended for Android and Windows. Native iPhone and iPad app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native macOS app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. Native Linux app: planned for later. The first release is intended for Android and Windows only. | Source check for Garden (2026-09-30): Listed platforms: iOS. Native availability for Android, macOS, Windows, Web, Linux is unverified. Garden: Stay in Touch, by Meaning Labs; the similarly named Garden: Keep in Touch is a different app. The iPhone listing is not verified for macOS. Check current availability and account/region limits with the vendor. We have not tested the apps ourselves. |
| AI features | Planned as strictly opt-in — your own key, or managed AI in a proposed Pro Cloud subscription. AI with your own key: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised. | None — the app predates the LLM era and was never updated into it. |
| Active development & support | Under active development, not released yet — the proposed paid tiers are meant to fund the roadmap, and a source-release pledge covers a shutdown. Endearist is not publicly available yet. The launch list is a notification signup, not app access or a purchase. Platforms and capabilities have separate release approvals. | 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 | No — there is no server component to host; the local store is meant to be the app itself. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | No. |
| Pricing | Proposed, not purchasable yet: free up to 25 contacts; Pro Lifetime €69 once, Pro Cloud Light €4.99/mo, or Pro Cloud €9.99/mo. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local core and data export. The proposed 25-contact limit is not a confirmed entitlement. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: local app and AI with your own key (planned for v1). Sync over your own storage is planned for v1. Managed cloud services are not a lifetime feature. Proposed plan, not purchasable yet: managed AI (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only) and Endearist Cloud (planned for after v1, as part of the Pro Cloud subscription only). Specific budgets, routing and prices require approval. Family sharing: not decided yet; no included family seat is promised. | Free — which also meant no revenue to sustain development. |
| Open source code | Pledged: we release the source if we shut down or get acquired. | No — proprietary, and with development stopped, the code is sealed. |
| Plain-Markdown export | Planned — plain Markdown you can read without any app. Markdown, CSV and vCard export: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. The documented implementation has a separate readable ZIP export with media and a report of omissions; legacy exports remain partial. This is not device or release acceptance. | No export of any kind that we could find. |
| Voice-note transcription | Planned — on-device, or with your own key. On-device transcription: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | No. |
| Journal / reflection | Journal, weekly ritual, and appreciation prompts are meant to be built in, not built by you. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Catch-up notes per contact; no journal surface. |
| Relationship depth (how-we-met, pets) | Designed with ready-made fields: how-we-met, pets, custom pronouns, life events, debts, attachments. Local-first vault, fully offline: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1. | Reminder frequency + free-text notes; no structured depth fields. |
| Calendar / messenger integrations | Not decided yet: a read-only calendar overlay and manual share-sheet capture for messenger context are ideas, not commitments. Read-only calendar overlay: scope and availability are not confirmed. Status: not decided yet. Share-sheet capture: scope and availability are not confirmed. Status: not decided yet. | None. |
When to pick Garden
When is Garden the better choice?
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 a text file, a paper notebook, or — once it is released — Endearist is secondary.
Switching
How do I switch from Garden to Endearist?
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). 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 a file you control — a plain text document or your notes app is enough for now, because Endearist is not released yet. Most people find that an hour covers their genuinely active relationships. Endearist's per-person cadence reminders are planned to do the job Garden's frequencies did, and vCard import is planned too. vCard and CSV import: not publicly available yet. Status: planned for v1.
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Prices and positioning verified 2026-06-10.
Platform information updated 2026-09-30; source-check dates are shown in the table.
Sources for the platform review
Endearist is in development.
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