What it does
Planto is a comprehensive plant care assistant. Its core function is to help users identify plants using their phone's camera, diagnose potential diseases from photos, and access a rich encyclopedia of plant information. The app also serves as a garden manager, allowing users to add their plants to a digital 'garden,' set reminders for watering and fertilizing, and get personalized care advice.
Where it shines
Planto excels by turning generic plant care advice into actionable, personalized tools. The watering calculator (05:15) is a standout example, providing a precise water measurement based on the user's specific conditions, which builds significant trust. The plant diagnosis feature (02:05) is also powerful, allowing a user to upload photos of a sick plant and receive a ranked list of possible diseases, complete with detailed treatment information. This moves the app from a nice-to-have to an essential problem-solving tool.
UX highlights
- Task-oriented start: The app immediately asks what the user wants to do (00:00), segmenting them into either identification or care management from the first screen.
- Integrated knowledge: Plant detail pages (01:21) seamlessly integrate general information, care guides, and links to common diseases, keeping information highly contextual.
- Location-based organization: Users can assign plants to specific rooms or locations (01:51), which is a natural mental model for organizing a home garden.
- Actionable diagnosis: After identifying a disease (02:36), the app provides detailed descriptions, treatment options, and prevention tips, closing the loop from problem to solution.
- Granular care tracking: The app allows users to set reminders for various tasks beyond just watering, including fertilizing, pruning, and rotating (04:11).
- Clean, focused UI: The interface is uncluttered, using cards and clear hierarchies to present a large amount of information without overwhelming the user.
Monetization & growth
The app employs a soft paywall strategy with a free trial. During onboarding, after a brief personalization and social proof screen (00:03), the user is presented with a paywall for a 7-day free trial that converts to a weekly subscription (00:10). The value propositions are clearly listed. After subscribing, the app presents a warm-up screen for ad tracking (00:24), framing it as a way for the app to 'stay free for you,' which is a slightly confusing message for a premium app, but likely aimed at maximizing ad revenue from users who don't subscribe. The premium features are the core of the app's functionality.
Who it’s for
Planto is designed for a broad range of plant owners, from beginners who need help identifying what they bought and how to care for it, to experienced hobbyists who want a tool to meticulously track the health and care schedules of their collection. The disease diagnosis feature makes it particularly valuable for anyone who has struggled with a sick plant and spent hours searching for answers online.
Notes & opportunities
The user flow for adding a plant and then setting up care is a bit fragmented. After adding a plant to a location, the user is returned to the search results (02:01), not the plant's detail page or their garden. They have to navigate separately to their garden to find the plant and enable tracking (04:09). Streamlining this by prompting the user to set up care immediately after adding a plant could create a smoother, more guided experience.