About
Plant-it is an open source, self-hostable gardening companion app primarily targeting Android users, with a web frontend also available. Built under the GPL-3.0 license and hosted on GitHub, the project has earned over 1,300 stars from the plant-enthusiast and open source communities. Unlike prescriptive plant-care apps, Plant-it is designed as an activity logger — it records what you do with your plants rather than dictating what actions to take. This philosophy puts the grower in charge, making the app suitable for hobbyists with varied plant collections and care routines. Key capabilities include logging plant care events (watering, repotting, fertilizing, pruning, etc.), uploading photos to track visual growth over time, and receiving notifications as reminders for upcoming care tasks. Users can maintain a personal plant diary and manage an entire collection of plants in one place. Because Plant-it is self-hosted, all data stays on your own infrastructure, making it a strong choice for privacy-conscious users. The project has reached a stable maturity level, meaning the core feature set is solid and production-ready, though large new features are unlikely. It is ideal for individual plant enthusiasts, hobbyist gardeners, and developers who want a transparent, customizable tool they can extend themselves.
Key Features
- Plant Care Activity Logging: Record watering, fertilizing, repotting, pruning, and other care events for each plant in your collection.
- Watering & Care Reminders: Receive push notifications reminding you when upcoming plant care tasks are due.
- Plant Photo Gallery: Upload and organize photos for each plant to visually track growth and health over time.
- Multi-Plant Collection Management: Manage an entire collection of plants from a single dashboard, with individual care histories per plant.
- Self-Hostable & Open Source: Deploy on your own infrastructure for full data ownership. GPL-3.0 licensed with full source code available on GitHub.
Use Cases
- Maintaining a detailed care log for a large indoor houseplant collection
- Tracking photo-documented growth progress of seedlings and new plants over months
- Setting personal reminder schedules for watering, fertilizing, and repotting across multiple plants
- Self-hosting a private plant journal without sharing data with any third-party service
- Developers building or customizing their own plant tracking tools using Plant-it as a base
Pros
- Completely Free and Open Source: No subscriptions, no ads, and no vendor lock-in — the entire codebase is publicly available under GPL-3.0.
- Privacy-First by Design: Self-hosting ensures all your plant data stays on your own server, with no third-party data collection.
- Stable and Production-Ready: The project has reached a mature, stable state with a reliable core feature set suited for daily use.
Cons
- Maintenance Mode — Limited New Features: Active development has slowed; new feature requests are unlikely to be implemented, limiting future growth.
- Requires Self-Hosting: There is no managed cloud version, so users must set up and maintain their own server infrastructure.
- Android-Only Mobile App: The native mobile experience is Android-only; iOS users must rely solely on the web frontend.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Plant-it free to use?
Yes. Plant-it is fully open source under the GPL-3.0 license and free to download, use, and self-host with no cost.
Does Plant-it tell me when and how to water my plants?
No — Plant-it is intentionally designed as an activity logger rather than a recommendation engine. You log what you do, and it can remind you based on your own schedules, but it does not prescribe care actions.
How do I install Plant-it?
Plant-it is self-hosted. You can find installation instructions and Docker setup guides in the README on the GitHub repository at github.com/MDeLuise/plant-it.
Is there an iOS version?
Currently, the native mobile app is Android-only. iOS users can access the web frontend through a mobile browser.
Can I contribute to the project?
Yes. Pull requests and small bug fixes are welcome. However, large new feature requests are considered with difficulty given the project's stable maintenance phase. See contributing.md in the repository for guidelines.
