PictureThis vs Greg is a comparison between two apps that barely overlap, which is why it is worth doing properly. One is the identification market leader; the other is the strongest of the newer care-first apps. This is a third-person comparison from the team behind Growli, an AI gardening assistant — we appear in the second half on the axis where both are weak.
Quick verdict — one sentence each
PictureThis wins if you regularly need to know what a plant is.
Greg wins if you own a manageable indoor collection, want the watering worked out, and like having people to ask.
Side-by-side
| PictureThis Pro | Greg (SUPER Greg) | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price (US) | $39.99 | Not published — tiers $1.99–$39.99 |
| Annual price (UK) | £34.99 | Not published — tiers £3.49–£49.99 |
| Free tier | Trial only, converts automatically | Genuinely usable |
| Species catalogue | ~400,000 claimed | ~30,000 with deep care matrices |
| Identification | Best in class | Good, plus PlantVision AR |
| Watering | Static per-species card | Adaptive — pot size, light, species |
| Community | None | Yes — roughly 24-hour answers |
| Symptom diagnosis | Photo-in, answer-out | Photo intake plus community |
| Localisation | US-leaning | US-leaning, USDA zones |
| Store rating | 4.81 (1.1M US) / 4.7 (166k GB) | 4.60 (20k US) / 4.6 (664 GB) |
The pricing problem, which is Greg's and not yours
This deserves its own section because every other comparison page gets it wrong.
Greg's App Store listing shows ten SUPER Greg in-app purchase products. On the GB storefront: £3.49, £5.99, £5.99, £6.49, £6.49, £16.99, £25.99, £26.99, £39.99, £49.99. On the US storefront the band runs $1.99 to $39.99. Apple publishes the duration of none of them.
That means nobody outside Greg can tell you what Greg costs per year. The £39.99 and $39.99 tiers are the likeliest annual plans by comparison across storefronts, and the £49.99 is plausibly a lifetime purchase — but those are inferences, and pages stating "Greg costs $29.99 a year" as fact are guessing. An earlier version of one of our own comparison pages did exactly that, which we corrected on 29 July 2026.
What this means in practice: you will find out what Greg costs at the paywall, and what you are shown may depend on the promotion running that week. PictureThis, whatever else is true of it, tells you the number up front.
Greg is a good app and this is a criticism of a listing, not a product.
PictureThis — what it is genuinely best at
Identification, and by a clear margin. A claimed 400,000-species catalogue, high-quality reference photography, and photo-to-confident-name in roughly two seconds. On garden centre labels, ornamentals and unfamiliar cultivars, nothing in this comparison is close. Paid tiers add a botanist-on-call feature for follow-up questions, which Greg does not have in the same form.
Where it falls down: the care side is a static per-species card. "Water every 7 days" does not know about your window, your pot, or the fact that your heating came on in October. Greg's watering engine is straightforwardly better at the thing PictureThis treats as a side feature.
And the billing. The 7-day trial converts automatically and unexpected charges dominate its reviews. Cancel through your phone's subscription settings; deleting the app does nothing.
Greg — what it is genuinely best at
Watering. Greg factors pot size, light exposure and species into a cadence and adjusts it over time, and the result is noticeably better than a fixed interval. If your plants die because you water on a rhythm that suits you rather than them, this is the fix.
The community. Greg's feed has experienced growers who answer questions within about a day, and it catches the edge cases algorithms miss — the specific cultivar, the odd pest, the "has anyone else's done this". No other app in this category has built a community that actually works, and it is a genuine moat rather than a marketing line.
PlantVision, its augmented-reality identification, overlays species names in real time. It is good, though it does not close the gap to PictureThis at the long tail.
The free tier is real. More usable than PictureThis's trial, which is not a free tier at all.
Where it falls down: the catalogue is ~30,000 against PictureThis's claimed 400,000. Chat is more lookup than dialog. And it is US-skewed — USDA zones, US-centric seasonal advice — so British and Irish gardeners are translating as they go, with no RHS hardiness ratings and no UK frost forecast.
Where both fall short
Neither app answers the question people actually arrive with: "something is wrong and I do not know what."
PictureThis returns a static species page. Greg returns a photo assessment plus, if you post it, a community thread — better, but it depends on a stranger being awake and interested, and the answer arrives in a day rather than a minute.
The underlying problem is that overwatering, underwatering, light stress and nutrient burn look alike in a single photograph. Separating them takes follow-up questions: how long, what changed, where is it standing, when did you last feed it.
That is what Growli is built around — conversational diagnosis that narrows overlapping causes by asking, a daily briefing that ties local weather to the day's tasks, and frost alerts ahead of cold nights. It is also the app in this comparison built for both the US and the UK natively, with RHS hardiness ratings alongside USDA zones, which matters if you garden in Britain and have been mentally converting Greg's advice.
On money we are not the cheap option: Growli Plus is $44.99 / £34.99 a year, above PictureThis in the US and level in the UK. Our free tier does not expire — garden plan, weather-timed care tasks, frost warnings, growing guides — while photo identification and diagnosis are the paid part. See the pricing page and what plant apps actually cost in 2026.
How to decide, in three questions
- Do you need names, or do you need schedules? Names — PictureThis. Schedules — Greg.
- Do you want to ask a person? Only Greg offers that, and it is genuinely valuable for edge cases.
- Do you garden in the UK? Both are US-leaning. Greg's watering advice still works; its seasonal and hardiness guidance needs translating. If that matters, RHS Grow and Growli are the two with native UK support.
The cheap combination worth knowing: PlantNet is free with no in-app purchases at all and handles identification well for most people. PlantNet plus Greg's free tier costs nothing and covers most of what people buy PictureThis for.
Common mistakes when choosing between them
- Assuming Greg is cheaper. It might be. Nobody outside Greg can say, because the durations are not published — and the £49.99 tier is above PictureThis's annual price.
- Comparing catalogue sizes. 400,000 versus 30,000 decides nothing if you own fifteen houseplants and Greg has all of them with deeper care detail.
- Buying PictureThis for care reminders. That is the part it does worst. If reminders are the goal, Greg's free tier already beats PictureThis's paid one.
- Ignoring the auto-renewal. PictureThis's trial converts by default and is the most complained-about thing about it.
Related articles
- What plant apps actually cost in 2026 — 9 verified — every price read from its own App Store listing
- PictureThis vs Planta — honest head-to-head — the other close call in this category
- PictureThis vs PlantNet — honest head-to-head — paid identifier against the free one
- PictureThis alternatives — 7 plant ID apps compared — the wider field
- Growli vs Greg — where we differ from the care-first leader
Prices verified against primary sources on 29 July 2026. Reviewed by the Growli editorial team.
Frequently asked questions
Is PictureThis or Greg better?
They are good at different things. PictureThis has the best identification engine in the consumer market — a claimed 400,000-species catalogue and near-instant results — but treats care as a static per-species card. Greg has a genuinely adaptive watering engine that factors pot size, light and species, a usable free tier, and a community where experienced growers answer questions within about a day, but a smaller catalogue and weaker long-tail identification. Choose PictureThis for identification, Greg for keeping a small indoor collection watered.
How much does Greg cost per year?
Greg does not publish it, which is an unusual and genuine problem. Its App Store listing shows ten SUPER Greg products — $1.99 to $39.99 in the US, £3.49 to £49.99 in the UK — and states the duration of none of them (checked 29 July 2026). The $39.99 and £39.99 tiers are the most likely annual plans by comparison across storefronts, and £49.99 is plausibly a lifetime purchase, but those are inferences. Any page quoting a single confident annual figure for Greg is guessing at it.
Does Greg have a free version?
Yes, and it is a genuine free tier rather than a trial — basic reminders, identification and community access keep working without payment. That is a meaningful advantage over PictureThis, which offers a 7-day trial that converts to a paid annual subscription automatically rather than any permanent free tier. If you want to test the watering engine that is Greg's main strength, you can do it for nothing.
Is Greg good for UK gardeners?
The watering engine works anywhere — pot size, light and species are not country-specific. The rest is US-skewed: USDA hardiness zones rather than RHS ratings, US-centric seasonal timing, and no British weather or frost integration, so UK users end up translating advice as they read it. For native UK localisation, RHS Grow is the official Royal Horticultural Society option with a free tier, and Growli carries RHS hardiness ratings and a British frost forecast alongside its US support.
Why do people get charged unexpectedly by PictureThis?
The 7-day free trial converts to a paid annual subscription automatically, and deleting the app does not cancel it — many people discover the distinction on a bank statement. It is the single most common theme in PictureThis's App Store reviews on both the US and GB storefronts. Cancel through your phone's subscription settings if you are unsure you will keep it; cancelling still leaves you access until the trial period ends.
Can PictureThis or Greg tell me what is wrong with my plant?
Neither does it well, for the same underlying reason: overwatering, underwatering, light stress and nutrient burn look alike in a single photograph. PictureThis returns a static species care page. Greg does better — photo intake plus a community thread — but the community answer depends on someone being available and typically arrives within a day rather than a minute. Separating those causes needs follow-up questions about watering history, recent changes, position and feeding, which is the approach Growli takes.
Should I pay for both?
Rarely worth it. If you want both identification and adaptive watering, the cheaper route is PlantNet — completely free, no in-app purchases at all — alongside Greg's free tier, which costs nothing and covers most of what people pay PictureThis for. Add a paid plan only once you know which of the two jobs you are actually doing every week.