A Custody X Change Alternative

Same job, different pricing model. Here is the honest comparison.

Custody X Change is the established dedicated custody schedule and parenting plan builder. It has been doing this for years, it's mature, and it does a lot. If you've found this page it's probably because you priced it up and wondered whether a subscription is the right shape for a document you need once.

That's the main difference. Custody X Change is sold as a subscription; CustodyPlan is sold as a one-time purchase for the export, with a subscription only if you want ongoing revisions. Which one is cheaper depends entirely on how long your case runs.

Below is a straight comparison, including the places where Custody X Change is the better choice.

Who wrote this

Custody X Change is a capable product with a deeper feature set than ours in several areas: expense tracking, messaging logs, and a larger library of state-specific provisions. This page is written by a competitor, so weigh it accordingly and check both products yourself.

Side by side

	CustodyPlan	Custody X Change
Pricing model	One-time $39 for the export, or optional Pro subscription	Subscription, around $9.97/month
Cost for a parent who needs it once	$39 total	One or more months of subscription, depending on how long you take
Cost over a long, contested case	$99/year with Pro	Around $120/year at the monthly rate
Free before paying	Full calendar, overnight counts, holidays, watermarked plan preview	Build for free, pay to export the finished plan
Visual calendar	Month and year views, tap a night to move it, live overnight counts	Yes, with a broader set of calendar views
Overnight and parenting-time calculations	Exact annual counts and percentages, recalculated live	Yes, with additional time-based breakdowns
Provision library	Model wording for every core clause, plus state terminology	A larger library of optional provisions
Expense and messaging tracking	Not offered, deliberately out of scope	Included
Interface	Rebuilt in 2026, works properly on a phone	Established and functional, more dated in places
Per-parent pricing	One price per plan	One price per account

Highlighted cells indicate which product we think genuinely wins that row, in both directions.

Choose Custody X Change if

You want expense tracking and a communication log in the same product
You are in a long contested case and want the deepest provision library available
Your attorney already uses it and wants files in that format
You need calendar views or reports we don't offer

Choose CustodyPlan if

You need the document once and don't want a subscription
You want to see the whole thing: calendar, counts, plan preview, before paying anything
You are doing most of this on a phone
You want the pricing to be a single clear number

Common questions

Is CustodyPlan cheaper than Custody X Change?

For a parent who needs the document once, yes: $39 one-time against a subscription. Over a long case it depends on how you pay them: their monthly rate works out around $120 a year against our $99-a-year Pro, while their annual Bronze plan at $72 a year is cheaper. If you expect to need revisions for a year or more, price both. Competitor pricing and features are taken from publicly available information and may have changed. Check directly before deciding.

Can I export my Custody X Change plan into CustodyPlan?

There is no direct import. Rebuilding the schedule takes a couple of minutes because you pick the pattern rather than re-entering every night, and the holiday rotation is a set of toggles.

Does CustodyPlan do everything Custody X Change does?

No. We don't do expense tracking or messaging, and their provision library is larger. We focus on the schedule, the overnight math and the exported document.

Which one do courts prefer?

Neither. Courts care about the content of the plan, not which software produced it. What matters is that the schedule is specific, the overnight counts are correct, and the required sections are present.

Document preparation only: not legal advice. Not affiliated with any court. Custody X Change is a trademark of its owner and is not affiliated with Handler Labs LLC. Details are from publicly available information as of August 2026 and may have changed.