VegPlotter vs Leaftide: Which garden planner fits your garden?
Both planners offer a free tier and help you organise your veg patch. But if your garden includes fruit trees, perennials, or you want GDD-based harvest predictions, here's how they stack up.
At a glance
What they share
- ✓ Visual drag-and-drop garden layout
- ✓ Personalised planting calendars based on location
- ✓ Companion planting suggestions
- ✓ Free tier available
Where Leaftide differs
- 🌳 Tracks fruit trees, shrubs, and permanent plants
- 📍 Climate data specific to your exact location, not just frost dates
- 📊 GDD-based harvest predictions that adapt to your season
- 🪴 Dedicated container planner mode
Feature comparison
| Feature | VegPlotter | Leaftide |
|---|---|---|
| Visual bed planner | ✓ | ✓ |
| Planting calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| Companion planting suggestions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Crop rotation warnings | ✓ | Coming soon |
| Month-by-month planning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Square Foot Gardening mode | ✓ | ✗ |
| Permanent plants (fruit trees, shrubs) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Pruning and care routines | ✗ | ✓ |
| Harvest predictions (GDD-based) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Container planner | ✗ | Dedicated mode |
| Climate data | Frost dates | Your specific location |
| Free tier | 20 plantings/year | Free forever |
| Keep data if you cancel | View only | ✓ |
Pricing: VegPlotter is free for layouts, paid plans from ~$22/year for unlimited plantings. Leaftide is free forever, or £5/month / £45/year for the full plan.
Key differences explained
🌳 More than just vegetables
VegPlotter is built around annual vegetables and does that well. But if your garden also has fruit trees, berry bushes, or ornamental shrubs, there's no way to track them. Leaftide handles permanent plants as first-class citizens, with pruning schedules, age tracking, and care routines alongside your veg.
📊 Harvest predictions that adapt to your weather
VegPlotter uses frost dates and average temperatures to suggest planting windows. Leaftide goes further with Growing Degree Day (GDD) calculations that use climate data specific to your exact location. This means your harvest predictions adjust based on how your actual season is progressing, not just historical averages.
🆓 Both free, but different limits
VegPlotter's free tier gives you unlimited garden layouts and up to 20 plantings per year. That's generous for a small patch. Leaftide's free tier has no time limit and your data stays fully accessible even if you downgrade from a paid plan. Both approaches are fair — it depends on whether you value more plantings or more features.
⚖️ Where VegPlotter does better
- VegPlotter has crop rotation warnings built in, flagging when you plant the same family in the same bed as last year. This is on our roadmap but not yet in Leaftide.
- Its interface is deliberately simple and approachable. If you're a beginner who only grows annual veg, VegPlotter's learning curve is very gentle.
- VegPlotter supports Square Foot Gardening with dedicated bed layouts and spacing, which Leaftide does not currently offer.
- It's completely free for garden layouts with no account limits on bed design, making it a solid choice if you just want to sketch out your plot.
Ready to try Leaftide?
Start free and see if it fits your garden.
Try Leaftide FreeFree forever. No credit card required.