Home List vs OurGroceries

OurGroceries writes the list. Home List runs everything that happens after it — the trip, the shop, and the record of what it cost.

A list app stops where the shopping starts

OurGroceries does one job: a shared list, with ads unless you pay to remove them. It has no idea when you are at the shop, no idea what anything cost, and nothing to say about the rest of what a household has to keep track of.

Home List closes the loop. The list is written by whoever thinks of something, from their own phone. It sorts itself into departments so a big shop reads in the order you walk it. When someone arrives at a shop with items outstanding, their phone tells them — and the household is told too, so whoever is at home can add the forgotten thing while that person is still inside. On the way out, the receipt is photographed and read: line items matched to the list, prices recorded. Within a few weeks it starts telling you what you are about to run out of, and that goes back on the list.

The alert that arrives without anyone opening anything

Pin the shops you actually use. Turn up with items unchecked and the notification arrives on a locked screen, with the app closed — posted by native code rather than a web view that has to be awake. We verified it on a real drive with the app force-quit throughout.

That is the whole difference between a list you have to remember and a list that remembers for you. OurGroceries does not attempt it.

It keeps what a list throws away

Tick an item off a list and the fact that you bought it is gone. Home List scans the receipt instead: what each thing cost, which shop was cheaper, what the household spent this month against last, and which items are due. All of it exportable.

That record is what turns a shopping list into something that tells you about your household rather than just reminding you about milk.

One app instead of three

Chores that rotate on their own schedule and can be claimed with a tap, so nobody has to keep the rota in their head. A shared calendar everyone can see, which subscribes into Google, Apple or Outlook. Multiple lists, per shop or general.

And no ads — not on the free tier, not on any tier, not ever. There is a Premium ($2.99 a month, $24.99 a year) for more than two shops, spending analytics and restock predictions, and it unlocks for the whole household at once. Everything else on this page is free.