Free alternative
OurFamilyWizard charges each parent separately. At the Standard plan, that's $99.95 per parent per year — roughly $200/yr for a co-parenting pair at minimum, $300/yr if either parent upgrades. If you've landed here, you've already seen that pricing and decided it doesn't work for you.
CustodyBuilder is genuinely free. No credit card, no 30-day trial that auto-renews, no "free tier" that locks the useful features behind an upgrade. The schedule builder, PDF export, and overnight calculator are all free with no time limit. Here's exactly what that means in practice, and where OFW's cost comes from.
Reviewed by CustodyBuilder Editorial Team Last updated July 2026 Not legal advice
OFW has two plans at the time of writing:
The critical word there is "per parent." Both parents pay separately. There is no family plan that covers a co-parenting pair under one subscription.
For a co-parenting pair where both parents are on Standard, the total annual cost is $199.90. If one parent is on Professional, it climbs to $249.90. If both are on Professional, it's $299.90 per year. That's before any add-ons.
OFW is built around features that require both parents to be subscribed and logged in: secure timestamped messaging, expense logs, a shared calendar, call recording, and journal entries that can be downloaded for court. Those features are genuinely useful if your co-parenting situation is high-conflict and you need documented communication. The pricing reflects that the platform is built for parents who need admissible records.
But not every co-parenting situation is high-conflict. And not every parent who lands on OFW's pricing page needs all of those features.
Two things come up repeatedly when parents explain what drove them to look for a co-parenting tool in the first place:
A clear schedule. Which days is each child with which parent? What does the holiday rotation look like? How does the transition day work? Many parents need to answer these questions so they can put a schedule in writing — either for their own reference, to share with family, or to attach to a parenting plan that goes to the court.
A parenting time percentage. Attorneys, courts, and child support calculations often ask for the percentage split. A parent who has the child 35% of nights vs 65% needs documentation of that number.
CustodyBuilder handles both of those for free.
Here's what you get with no payment, no account, and no time limit:
Build a repeating weekly schedule using common patterns: 2-2-3, week-on-week-off, every other weekend with midweek, and others. The generator shows you a calendar view of the full rotation so you can see what it looks like across a full year before you download anything.
Download the schedule as a formatted PDF. This is not a "print to PDF" workaround — it's a clean, formatted document you can attach to a parenting plan, share with an attorney, or file with the court. No watermarks, no branding that gets in the way, no upgrade required.
The tool calculates the number of overnights each parent has over any period you specify — a month, a year, the full rotation cycle. It also calculates the parenting time percentage. Both numbers appear in the PDF.
You don't register, you don't create a login, you don't provide an email address. You go to the site, build the schedule, download the PDF. That's the whole flow.
This is not a trial. The word "trial" implies there's a limit — 30 days, 3 downloads, something. There is no limit. The tool works the same way for someone who used it three years ago and comes back for a modification as it does for someone using it for the first time.
A number of co-parenting apps advertise a free trial. The standard setup is 30 days free, then an auto-renewal at the monthly or annual rate. You have to provide payment details to start the trial.
This matters for a specific reason: if you're in the middle of a custody agreement negotiation, a 30-day trial may feel long enough. But custody agreements often take longer than 30 days to finalize. Negotiations stall, attorneys have backlogs, court dates get rescheduled. By the time you need the schedule again, the trial has ended and you've been charged.
CustodyBuilder doesn't have a trial because there's nothing to trial. The tool is free. You use it when you need it, and you come back when you need to update the schedule. No payment details, no auto-renewal, no cancellation to remember.
A parent negotiating an uncontested divorce needed a schedule document to give their attorney. They knew the arrangement in advance: week-on-week-off with alternating holidays. They needed a PDF showing the calendar and the 50/50 overnight split confirmation. They didn't need timestamped messaging — they communicate by text without issue. They didn't need expense logs — they've agreed verbally on costs. They needed a clean schedule document. CustodyBuilder provided it in about 10 minutes.
A parent needed to document their custody percentage for a home refinancing. The lender wanted to see the parenting time split confirmed in writing. The other parent was cooperative but not nearby — there was no need for a shared app. A PDF from CustodyBuilder showing the overnight count and percentage served the purpose.
Neither of those situations required $200/yr in co-parenting app costs. They required a schedule document.
This page exists to explain what's free and why. It doesn't exist to argue that every parent should choose CustodyBuilder over OFW.
OurFamilyWizard is the right choice when:
In those situations, $200/yr for a pair of subscriptions is a reasonable cost for what OFW provides. The features exist and they work.
The parents who are overpaying for OFW are the ones who signed up because they needed a schedule document and found OFW first — not because they needed the communication tools. If that's your situation, you've been paying for features you don't use.
CustodyBuilder is a schedule builder. It is not a co-parenting communication app. It does not have:
If any of those features are part of what you need, see the best co-parenting app comparison for an honest look at the paid options and what each covers.
If you need to understand parenting time percentages more deeply, the custody percentage calculator covers the calculation methods courts use.
FAQ
Common questions about what's free on CustodyBuilder vs OurFamilyWizard.
Yes. The schedule generator, PDF export, and overnight calculator are all free with no time limit. No credit card, no trial period, no paywall on any feature. The tool is free to use as many times as you need.
OFW's Standard plan is $99.95 per parent per year. The Professional plan is $149.95 per parent per year. Both parents pay separately, so a co-parenting pair on Standard pays $199.90/yr combined. On Professional, $299.90/yr combined.
Yes. There's no account required, so both parents can use it independently. Either parent can go to custodybuilder.com, build the same schedule, download the PDF, and share it — no registration, no coordination of accounts, no payment.
No. There's no trial because the tool is entirely free. You don't enter payment details at any point. There's nothing to trial and nothing to cancel.
Yes. PDF export is included at no cost. The downloaded file is a clean, formatted document with the calendar, the overnight count, and the parenting time percentage. No upgrade is required and there are no watermarks.
CustodyBuilder focuses on schedule building. If you need documented, timestamped messaging, expense logs, or call recording for court purposes, see the best co-parenting app comparison for an honest breakdown of the paid options. OFW is still the right choice for parents who genuinely need those features.
CustodyBuilder produces a schedule document showing the custody calendar, overnight counts, and parenting time percentages. Whether any document is accepted in a specific court proceeding depends on the court's requirements and your attorney's guidance. Many parents use the PDF as a draft to review with their attorney before it becomes part of a formal filing.
This page is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For guidance specific to your situation, consult a qualified family law attorney.
Generate a dated custody calendar, calculate overnights, and download the PDF. Free, with no time limit.