The best all-in-one lifestyle apps compared, and one with an expert for every part of your life

The short answer

Start with what you want “all-in-one” to mean. If you want one place to keep everything, a family organiser or a life organiser will do it well, and some are free. You still do the thinking: what goes where, what clashes and what has to move when your week changes. If you want one app that knows each part of your life and does the joining up for you, from Thursday’s outfit to the dinner that’s ready after leg day, you need every expert in one place, all knowing you. That’s what we’re building Retenna to be.

What “all-in-one” usually means, and what it should

Most apps that promise to run your life fall into one of three kinds, and each is good at something different:

• Family organisers, such as Cozi and FamilyWall, put a household’s calendar, lists and meals in one shared place.
• Life organisers, such as Notion and TickTick, give you somewhere to hold your tasks, habits and notes, in a system you set up yourself.
• General AI assistants, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, answer anything you ask and can connect to your email and calendar.

What they share is that the joining up stays with you. A late meeting on Tuesday moves leg day, which changes when you need a big dinner, which changes the food shop, which changes what you need from the fridge before you go away on Friday. An organiser holds each of those things in a different list. An assistant can help with each one, if you remember to ask.

A real all-in-one lifestyle app knows:

• Each part of your life, properly: what suits you, how you train, what you eat, how you sleep, what your skin reacts to.
• You, in one picture that grows as it learns, not a profile you fill in once.
• Your week: your calendar, the weather where you’ll be and how long it takes to get there.
• The people you love: their dates, their tastes and what they can’t eat.
• Your rules: what it can simply do, and what waits for your yes.

Then it plans every part around the others, ahead of time, and tells you why.

The top all-in-one apps at a glance

We looked at the apps people use most to run several parts of life at once: two family organisers, two life organisers and the two biggest AI assistants. They’re chosen by reach and by how much of life they try to cover, not ranked.

App by app

Family organisers

Cozi

Cost

Free with ads; Gold $39 a year, Max $79 a year

Where

iPhone, iPad, Android, web

App Store

4.8 from 402K ratings

Cozi calls itself “the surprisingly simple way to manage everyday family life”. The whole family shares one account, with a colour-coded calendar, shared shopping and to-do lists, and a recipe box that adds ingredients to the list and meals to the calendar, plus a daily or weekly agenda by email. Gold removes the ads and adds a birthday tracker. Max adds three AI tools: a meal planner built around your family’s cuisine and protein preferences and your busy schedule, an event import that turns emails into calendar entries, and a recipe creator.

Worth knowingCozi organises the household’s logistics rather than each person in it: there’s no space for training, sleep, clothes or skin, and remembering what each person likes beyond meals isn’t mentioned. The free version shows ads, and its privacy policy allows advertising and sharing with partners. One upgrade covers the whole family. We compare it for birthdays in our birthday and gift reminder guide.

FamilyWall

Cost

Free; Premium from $44.99 a year

Where

iPhone, iPad, Android, web

App Store

4.8 from 24K ratings

FamilyWall promises “one place for your whole family’s plans”: a shared calendar that syncs with Google and Outlook, shopping and to-do lists, a meal planner and recipe box, a budget tracker, a family messenger, private photo sharing, and a map of where children are, with alerts when they arrive at home or school. You can set up separate groups for your family, your wider family and your friends.

Worth knowingAI isn’t mentioned on its product or Premium pages: it shares and syncs, but doesn’t learn or plan for you. Its privacy policy allows advertising identifiers and sharing with partners, and says location can be imprecise or out of date.

Life organisers

Notion

Cost

Free for personal use; Plus from $10, Business from $20 a member a month

Where

Phone, Mac, Windows, web

App Store

4.8 from 90K ratings

Notion describes itself on the App Store as an “AI-powered all-in-one workspace” for notes, tasks and projects, free for personal use, with “thousands of templates” to start from. That makes it as flexible as you like: you can make a page for any part of your life, and Notion Calendar is included on every plan. Its Notion Agent can do multi-step work across your pages: “Anything you can do in Notion, your Notion Agent can do for you.”

Worth knowingNotion is only as good as the system you build and keep up. It holds whatever you put in, but it doesn’t know your wardrobe, training or sleep unless you type them in. The Free and Plus plans include a trial of its AI; the full Notion Agent comes with Business, alongside team features such as meeting notes and workplace search.

TickTick

Cost

Free; Premium $49.99 a year

Where

Phone, tablet, computer, watch

App Store

4.9 from 47K ratings

TickTick puts to-do lists, a calendar with several views, a habit tracker, a Pomodoro focus timer, countdowns for birthdays, anniversaries and exams, an Eisenhower matrix and sticky notes in one app, with reminders that keep ringing until a task is done. You can share lists and assign tasks. Its AI turns what you say into tasks with dates and priorities, and voice notes into summaries.

Worth knowingThe free plan caps you at 9 lists, 99 tasks per list and 5 habits. TickTick organises your time very well, but planning anything for you, or knowing your meals, training or clothes, isn’t mentioned.

General AI assistants

ChatGPT

Cost

Free; Go $8, Plus $19.99 and Pro from $100 on the App Store

Where

iPhone, Android, web

App Store

4.8 from 11.6M ratings

ChatGPT is the assistant most people try first. It can remember things you tell it and draw on past chats, connect to Gmail and Google Calendar, and run scheduled tasks such as reminders and a daily briefing. Ask, and it will draft a week of meals, a workout or a trip in seconds.

Worth knowingIt helps when you ask, one conversation at a time, and there’s no space in it for your wardrobe, your training log or your skin. Ads now appear on the Free and Go plans. We compare it with the other assistants in the best ChatGPT alternatives, and side by side with us in Retenna vs ChatGPT.

Google Gemini

Cost

Free; optional Google AI plans

Where

iPhone, Android, web, Windows, Mac

App Store

4.7 from 2.4M ratings

Gemini is Google’s assistant, and its strength is your Google account. Connect Gmail, Calendar, Photos, YouTube and Search, and it can add and change calendar events when you ask, run schedules you set up, such as a morning digest, and remember what you’ve told it. In the US, Daily Brief gives you a personalised summary each morning from Gmail, Calendar and your chats.

Worth knowingIts most personal features depend on where you live: Personal Intelligence isn’t available in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or Nigeria, and Daily Brief is US-only, in English. With Keep Activity on, your chats can help train Google’s models, and some are read by human reviewers. More in Retenna vs Gemini.

Meta’s new agent, Muse, which books, buys and follows up with your OK, is covered with the other AI agents in our AI agents comparison.

Which parts of your life each one covers

This is where “all-in-one” gets tested. The organisers cover the calendar, lists and meals well; the assistants will talk about anything. Retenna is built to give every part of your life its own space, with real tools and an expert who knows your part of it. The key is under the table.

Built in

Its own space in the app, with real tools and an expert who knows this part of your life. The line underneath says what’s in it, and every space plans together with the others.

Yes

The maker documents a dedicated feature for it.

Partly

A lighter version you run yourself: a shared shopping list rather than a shopper (Cozi, FamilyWall), a birthday tracker or countdown rather than someone who knows what each person loves (Cozi, TickTick), or a family directory, messages and location alerts (FamilyWall).

You build it

Notion is a blank workspace: you can make a page for anything from its templates, but you fill it in and keep it up to date.

Ask in chat

A general assistant can help when you ask, in the conversation or through apps you’ve connected, but there’s no space for this part of your life in the app.

With Google Calendar

Both can work with your Google Calendar once you connect it, and Gemini can add and change events when you ask. Their cells are otherwise the same, so they share a column.

–Dash

No dedicated feature in the maker’s own materials. You could still keep a list or a note for it.

In Retenna, try-on from your photos, health features such as counting calories and nutrients, and buying are for adults (18+). Retenna’s experts, like the apps compared here, aren’t doctors, registered dietitians, physiotherapists or therapists, and plans that respect allergies don’t replace checking labels.

Where Retenna goes further

These are good apps. Cozi and FamilyWall keep a busy household on one page, Notion and TickTick keep you organised, and ChatGPT and Gemini will help with almost any question. Retenna is built to cover what they cover: your days, to-dos and habits, a shared calendar and lists with your partner or household, your occasions and trips, your meals and your shopping, with your calendars, email, health apps, photos, receipts and orders connected, and your history brought over from other apps.

Then it goes further. Retenna runs its own AI, built deeper for everyday life, so each part of your life has an expert with the depth of a dedicated app, and your everyday questions are answered by something that already knows you. Every expert shares one living model of you, so they plan together, get ahead of your week and act inside rules you set.

Yes

The maker documents it. ChatGPT and Gemini both remember what you tell them; Gemini’s Personal Intelligence isn’t in the UK or the EEA.

Partly

A lighter version: reminders, agenda emails, arrival alerts or briefings you set up, rather than plans made ahead for you; Cozi Max’s meal plans, which fit around your family’s schedule; agents on the top plans that act with your approval, ChatGPT’s Dots on Pro and Business Premium and Gemini Spark on Google AI Ultra; or pages and lists you share and set up yourself (Notion, TickTick), rather than a calendar and lists made for a household.

Ask in chat

It can help if you explain the rest of your week in the conversation.

–Dash

Not mentioned in the maker’s own materials. That doesn’t prove it can’t.

The organisers hold your life in lists, and the assistants answer when you ask. None of the six mentions giving each part of your life its own expert, planning every part around the others, or a reason and an Undo for everything it does. That joining up is the work most people still carry in their heads.

One change, and every part of your life moves with it

Here’s what “planning together” looks like. Your launch is on Thursday at 10:00, presenting to the whole company. Ten days out, Retenna has arranged ten things across seven parts of your life: deck time, a rehearsal, the outfit, a haircut, training, sleep, meals, groceries, a call home and a celebration after.

What it ruled outWorking on the deck in the evenings, because your focus drops after 19:00. A haircut the day before, because yours takes a few days to settle. Leg day on Wednesday, because you’d be stiff and sore on stage.

In a set of separate apps, that one change is four edits in four places, and a text you’d have to remember to send. Here it’s one plan that changes as a whole, with a reason for each move and an Undo.

The everyday jobs one app takes off your hands

Every expert has its own space, with the depth of a dedicated app, and its own share of the work that usually lives in your head.

How it learns you

Most apps know one part of you, or only what you type in. Retenna learns from what you do, what you choose and what you tell it, and joins it all into one living model of you that every expert shares. Each fact says where it came from:

• You feel your best in the navy blazer. From your wear notes.
• You’re sore for two days after leg day. From your training log.
• Big work weeks end in short nights. From four months of sleep.
• Priya, your closest friend, collects ceramics. From you.

The longer it knows you, the less it needs to ask. Say your sister is in town for one night on Thursday:

1. Day one It asks. “Your sister is in town on Thursday night. What would you like to do?” You plan and book it, and it remembers.
2. Within weeks It suggests. “You always make time for family. Dinner with her on Thursday at 19:00, and move your gym session to Friday lunchtime?” One tap.
3. In time It decides the way you would. Dinner booked at the place you both like, near her hotel, and your gym session moved to Friday lunchtime. The invite for your sister waits for your yes.

It keeps learning from every plan you keep, change or undo. You can see, change or forget anything it has learned.

How you shape it, and stay in charge

Your rules, in your own wordsYou choose what it simply does and tells you about after, and what waits for your yes. To start with, your own plans and places you’ve used before are done for you, while anywhere new and new spending ask first. Friends and family always ask first, and that rule can’t be switched off. Change a rule, and your week changes with it.

A reason and an Undo, every timeLeg day moved to Tuesday comes with why (so you’re not stiff on stage on Thursday) and an Undo. Undo it, and it learns from that too.

It notices what you undoIf you keep changing what it plans for one part of your week, such as Sunday mornings, it says so and suggests a rule, like asking you first. Accept it, and Sunday’s long run arrives as a question instead.

You choose what it connects toYour calendars (Google, Outlook and more), your email, your contacts, your health and activity from Apple Health, Health Connect, Samsung Health and more, your photos, receipts and orders, your bookings and travel, live travel times, the weather and more. For email, you choose: share just the emails you pick, or connect your inbox. And it brings your history over from other apps, such as your food diary, your workout history and your wardrobe, so you don’t start from scratch.

How to choose

If you want one place to keep things, an organiser will serve you well. If you want one app that runs every part of your life with you, learns you and does the joining up, that’s Retenna.

For a household

• CoziA shared family calendar, lists and recipesMax adds AI meal plans and turns emails into events.
• FamilyWallCalendar, meals, budget, messages and arrival alerts for a family

To build your own system

• NotionA blank workspace you shape from templatesFull AI comes with the Business plan.
• TickTickTasks, calendar, habits and a focus timer in one app

For help with anything you ask

• ChatGPTThe all-rounder, with memory and scheduled tasksSee the best ChatGPT alternatives.
• GeminiIf your life already runs on Google’s appsIts most personal features aren’t in the UK or the EEA.

For every part of your life, in one mind that knows you

How Retenna works

Questions

Sources

• Cozi: website, plans, privacy policy, App Store
• FamilyWall: website, Premium, privacy policy, App Store
• Notion: pricing, Notion AI, desktop apps, App Store
• TickTick: website, Premium, App Store
• ChatGPT: memory, Google apps, scheduled tasks, ads, Dots, App Store
• Google Gemini: Personal Intelligence, Daily Brief, schedules, calendar actions, release notes, privacy, App Store

Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we’ll fix it.