Pick Pookie if the app is for you and your partner and you want a pet, widgets, games and a private vault with no ads. Pick Widgetable if you want the biggest widget library around and you want friends and family co-parenting pets too, and you can live with the ads.
These two get compared a lot because they look similar from a distance. Both have a pet you raise with someone else. Both put that pet, a mood and a distance counter on your home screen. Both are free to download and both have a subscription. The difference is what each app wants from you once you're in.
What Widgetable does well
Widgetable has the biggest widget library of any app in this space. Pets, plants, a mood bubble, a mood jar, a distance widget, a sleep widget that shows when your bestie is asleep, a status widget, a "miss you" counter, and a Pin It feature for firing snaps, emojis, doodles and texts onto someone's screen. There are wallpapers and themes to match with a friend. It is genuinely charming and it is rated 4.9 on the App Store with hundreds of thousands of ratings, which is not nothing.
It is also not just for couples. You can co-parent a pet with your best friend, your sister, your group chat. If you want your home screen to look like a scrapbook of everyone you love, Widgetable is built for that.
What people complain about
We pulled the recent one and two star reviews on both stores. The theme is not subtle. Almost every low review is about ads and the coin grind.
- Ads on every action. People describe watching two or three ads to feed a single pet, an ad to open the app, ads to get water and sunlight for a plant. One reviewer said feeding three pets without Pro took about an hour of playing mini-games a day.
- Pets that get upset. The pet gets hungry, gets sad, and tells your co-parent you're not looking after it. Several people said it stopped feeling like a game and started feeling like a chore, or worse, a guilt trip.
- Paying and still paying. Multiple reviews from people who bought premium, including lifetime premium, and still had to watch ads or buy diamonds for items. A couple of people said they lost their pets and plants after subscribing or after a subscription lapsed.
- Support silence. Auto-renew charges after a trial, emails to support with no reply, a lifetime weather widget that stopped updating.
- Widget size. A smaller one: the widget is a fixed size and some people cannot fit it where they want on Android.
What Pookie does instead
No ads. Not in the free tier, not anywhere. Feeding, watering and playing with your pet is free and there is no ad to watch first. Nothing inside Pookie is sold on.
The pet is not a hostage. You still need to look after it, that is the point, but the care games rotate so it does not become a daily tax, and there is a plant alongside it that you both keep alive. Hearts come from levelling up and daily rewards and you spend them on new pets, plants, pots and backgrounds. You can buy hearts if you want to unlock things sooner, but the pet does not starve because you skipped an ad.
One subscription for two people. Premium is $4.99 a month or $24.99 a year and it covers both of you. Your partner does not pay. It adds optional extras on top of a free tier that already has the games, the whiteboard and all 10,000+ questions.
It is a couples app, not a besties app. That is a real trade-off. Widgetable lets a whole friend group co-parent. Pookie is built for exactly two people, which is why it has a passcode-locked memory vault, a relationship map, check-ins you answer separately and compare, and a whiteboard that lands on your partner's lock screen. If you want your friends in there too, Pookie is the wrong pick.
Where Pookie has no answer: Widgetable's widget library is bigger, with sleep tracking and matching wallpapers that Pookie does not have. If widgets are the whole point and you don't mind the ads, that library is hard to beat. For couples who are apart, our long distance app comparison covers both apps side by side with the rest.
Pookie vs Widgetable: feature by feature
| Feature | Pookie | Widgetable |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier includes | Pet, plant, games, whiteboard, quizzes, doodles, moods, photo vault, widgets, check-ins | Pets, widgets, moods, Pin It, with ads on most actions |
| Premium price | $4.99/mo or $24.99/yr | Subscription, price varies by region |
| One sub covers both | ✓ | Not stated |
| Ads | - | Yes, in the free tier |
| Real-time games | 14 games: Ludo, Pool, Battleships, and more | Solo mini-games to earn coins |
| Widgets (home + lock) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Virtual pet | Twelve pets, raised by two people | Many pets, co-parent with friends |
| Shared whiteboard/doodles | Doodles and live whiteboard | Pin It doodles |
| Private photo vault | Passcode, free | - |
| Daily questions | 10,000+, plus daily check-ins | - |
| Date ideas library | - | - |
| iPhone + Android | ✓ | ✓ |
Pick Pookie if
- It is for the two of you, not a friend group.
- You do not want to watch an ad to feed a pet.
- You want games, a whiteboard and a private photo vault as well as widgets.
- You want one subscription that covers both partners at $4.99 a month.
Pick Widgetable if
- You want the widest possible widget library, including sleep and status widgets.
- You want to co-parent pets with friends and family as well as your partner.
- You want matching wallpapers and themes.
- Ads do not bother you, or you are happy to pay to reduce them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Widgetable or Pookie better for couples?
Pookie is better if the app is for you and your partner and you want a pet, widgets, games and a private vault in one place with no ads. Widgetable is better if you want the widest widget library and you want friends and family co-parenting pets alongside your partner.
Does Widgetable have too many ads?
In the free tier, yes, that is the most common complaint in its recent one and two star reviews. People report watching two or three ads to feed one pet and an ad just to open the app. A subscription removes most of them. Pookie has no ads in the free tier or premium.
Is Pookie free?
Yes. The pet and plant, doodles and notes, moods, the passcode-protected photo vault, widgets, daily check-ins and streaks are all free. So are the online games, shared whiteboard and all 10,000+ questions. Premium is $4.99 a month or $24.99 a year, one subscription covers both partners, and it adds optional extras.
Can you raise a virtual pet with your partner in Pookie?
Yes. You hatch an egg together, name it, and feed, water and play with it as a shared job. There are twelve pets including cats, dogs, pandas, penguins, capybaras and a dragon, plus a plant you keep alive together. Your pet shows up on your home screen widget.
Does Pookie work on both iPhone and Android?
Yes. Pookie is on the App Store and Google Play, and home screen and lock screen widgets work on both. One partner can be on iPhone and the other on Android, and one premium subscription still covers both.
Pookie is free to download on iPhone and Android and used by 250,000+ couples. Download Pookie on the App Store or Google Play. The games, whiteboard and full question library are free, and if you do add premium, one subscription covers both of you.
This is one of a series. See how Pookie compares to every type of couples app, or read the honest comparison of the best couples apps in 2026.