Custody X Change app: what it costs, what it does, and what its journal records
- Custody X Change is a parenting plan and schedule tool first. Its two parent plans cost $72 or $144 a year, or about $10 and $20 a month paid monthly.
- There is no free plan for parents and no free trial, but there is a 30-day money-back window.
- Its apps for Windows, iPhone and Android are not in the app stores. They install from its website.
- The other parent does not have to sign up, except for messaging, which needs both accounts linked and paid.
- Its journal is private, but its help pages say an entry can be set to an earlier day, and nothing on its pages describes entries being locked or independently timestamped.
How much does the Custody X Change app cost?
$72 a year for the Bronze plan or $144 a year for Gold, on its purchase page. Both can also be paid monthly:
- Bronze, $6 a month billed yearly: custody and activity calendars, a record of each child’s information, messaging with the other parent once both accounts are linked, and printouts. The page says the yearly plan saves $48, which puts the month-to-month price at about $10.
- Gold, $12 a month billed yearly: everything in Bronze, plus a parenting plan written in court wording, expense tracking, time calculations, tracking of actual time against the schedule, and a private journal. The yearly plan saves $96, so month to month it comes to about $20.
Custody X Change says the price stays locked for as long as you stay subscribed, and that you can cancel online at any time. Figures verified on 10 October 2026.
One subscription covers one parent. Because most of the product does not involve the other household, a single parent paying for Gold is the common case, and the household total is often just $144 a year.
Is Custody X Change free?
Not for parents. There is no free plan on the purchase page.
Judges and court staff get its professional Gold plan without charge, according to Custody X Change. A parent can also share their data with a legal professional at no cost, so an attorney or mediator does not need to buy a plan to see what you have built.
Is there a free trial or a refund?
There is no free trial. Custody X Change offers a 30-day money-back window instead, claimed by pressing the refund button inside the app within 30 days of buying.
Read the next part before you use it. Custody X Change says a refund, like closing your account, deletes all of your data. A subscription that simply lapses keeps the data in place. If you have started a journal or a plan you might need later, export it first.
Why is Custody X Change not in the App Store?
Because it chose to stay out. Custody X Change has apps for Windows, iPhone and Android, but says they are not in the app stores and install directly from a browser instead, which avoids the 30% fee the stores charge.
In practice that means you will not find it by searching the App Store or Google Play, and you sign up on its website. Your data is stored online and encrypted, according to the company, so the same account opens on a computer and a phone.
What does the Custody X Change app do?
It builds the documents and numbers that a custody arrangement is made of, and keeps a few records alongside them:
- Parenting plan: a plan written in court wording, which Custody X Change says draws on more than 140 provisions. Gold only.
- Custody calendar: the schedule and activities, with printouts.
- Time calculations: the percentage of time and overnights each parent has under the schedule, which some child support formulas use. Gold only.
- Actual time: a record of the time that really happened, set against the schedule. Gold only.
- Expenses: shared costs and who owes what. Gold only.
- Journal: private dated entries with photos, documents, labels and search. Gold only.
- Messages: a thread with the other parent, with read receipts and a hostility monitor that asks you to reconsider before sending hostile language and shows it in bold on printouts.
If you mainly need a schedule and the time split worked out, our guide to calculating your parenting time percentage walks through the arithmetic by hand.
Does the other parent have to use Custody X Change?
No, with one exception. Custody X Change says the other parent does not need to be on board for anything except messaging, which works only when both accounts are linked and both are paid.
That makes it a different kind of product from OurFamilyWizard or TalkingParents, which are built around two linked accounts. Your parenting plan, your journal and your actual time are private from the other parent, according to its pages.
Can Custody X Change journal entries be changed or backdated?
Its own help pages describe both. If you write about an event a few days late, the journal lets you set the entry to the day it happened. Entries can be exported as a Word document to edit the formatting, and a lawyer you link to your account can edit and print your journal.
Those are useful features for drafting. They also mean that a printed journal entry shows the date you chose, not a date anyone else can confirm. Custody X Change’s pages say nothing about entries being locked after saving or timestamped by an outside party, and we have not tested its internals, so we describe only what its pages say.
Attorneys who advise on custody journals tend to say the same thing about backdating, whatever tool is used.
“Lastly, never backdate entries or attempt to recreate logs months after the fact. Reconstructing past events often leads to inaccuracies and creates gaps that opposing counsel can use to question your reliability. If you forget to make an entry for a few days, resume logging from the current date rather than filling in missing days with uncertain details.”
If you use the Custody X Change journal, the safe habit is to write on the day and leave the date alone. Our guide to keeping a contemporaneous record of parenting time explains why the timing of an entry matters.
Do courts accept Custody X Change parenting plans?
Custody X Change says parenting plans made with it have been accepted by courts in all 50 states. That describes plans accepted in individual cases, not an approval any court has given the software.
No app is court approved. A judge decides whether to adopt a proposed plan, and whether a printed calendar or journal is admitted as evidence, and how much weight it gets. Ask your attorney what your court expects. This is general information, not legal advice.
What are the pros and cons of Custody X Change?
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Builds a full parenting plan and calculates time percentages | No free plan and no free trial for parents |
| Works without the other parent, except for messaging | The plan, journal, expenses and time calculations need Gold, at $144 a year |
| Can be paid month to month, and the price is locked while subscribed | A refund deletes all of your data |
| Money back within 30 days | Not in the App Store or Google Play |
| Free sharing with legal professionals | Journal entries can be set to an earlier date, with no outside timestamp described |
How does Custody X Change compare with OurFamilyWizard?
They solve different problems. Custody X Change is for building and running the plan. OurFamilyWizard is a shared account for what passes between two households.
| Custody X Change | OurFamilyWizard | |
|---|---|---|
| Price, one parent | $72 or $144 a year, or monthly | $110 to $299.88 a year, no monthly option on its website |
| Other parent must join | Only for messaging | Yes, each parent has their own subscription |
| Parenting plan builder | Yes, on Gold | No |
| Refund | 30 days, and refunding deletes your data | First website purchase, within 30 days |
| In the app stores | No, installed from its website | Yes |
Both columns verified against each company’s own pages, Custody X Change on 10 October 2026 and OurFamilyWizard on 9 October 2026.
Our OurFamilyWizard review covers its plans and fee waiver in detail, and the full comparison of parenting apps sets the shared platforms side by side.
What does a parenting plan app not record?
The ordinary day, in a form nobody can redate.
A plan says what should happen, and a calendar of actual time says which days were yours. Neither says what you did with them. The school run, the dentist appointment, the evening spent on a science project: that is the part of parenting time a judge rarely sees, because it was never written down when it happened.
“In addition to exigencies like possible domestic abuse, every parent who is under a child custody order should get in the habit of journaling the most mundane daily events. These can establish routine care, departures from routine, and indicate when some problem may have taken root.”
Documented keeps that daily record. A short entry about your own day, sealed when you save it and independently timestamped by an outside authority under RFC 3161, so the date on it does not rest on your word or ours. The seal shows when an entry was written, whatever day it describes. Use it alongside whatever plan or app your order names.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Custody X Change cost?
On its purchase page, Bronze is $72 a year and Gold is $144 a year, or about $10 and $20 a month paid monthly. One subscription covers one parent.
Is Custody X Change free?
Not for parents. There is no free plan and no free trial. Judges and court staff get its professional plan free, and parents can share their data with legal professionals at no cost.
Can I get a refund from Custody X Change?
Yes, within 30 days, using the refund button in the app. Custody X Change says a refund deletes all of your data, so export anything you need first.
Is the Custody X Change app in the App Store?
No. Its Windows, iPhone and Android apps install directly from its website, which Custody X Change says avoids the app stores’ 30% fee.
Does my ex have to use Custody X Change?
Only for messaging, which needs both accounts linked and paid. The plan, calendar, journal and time calculations work for one parent alone.
Can Custody X Change journal entries be backdated?
Its help pages say an entry can be set to the day an event happened if you write it later. Its pages do not describe entries being locked or independently timestamped.
References
This article puts publicly available product information in context and explains general concepts. It is not legal advice, and Documented is not a law firm and is not affiliated with Custody X Change. Pricing and features were verified against Custody X Change’s own pages on 10 October 2026 and change without notice. Evidence rules vary by state and are applied by the court.
- Custody X Change: Frequently asked questions
- Custody X Change: Journaling help
- Custody X Change: Parenting journal
- Custody X Change: Messages
- Custody X Change purchase page, app.custodyxchange.com, read 10 October 2026
- OurFamilyWizard: Plans and pricing
- RFC 3161: Internet X.509 Time-Stamp Protocol
- The Marks Law Firm: Custody Journal Tips: What to Include and What to Avoid
- Miles Mason, Miles Mason Family Law Group, PLC: Parenting Journal: Prepping for a Custody Dispute
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Documented is a private, tamper-evident record of how you show up for your kids. This article is general information, not legal advice, and Documented is not a law firm.