Comparison

AeroGarden vs RootBase

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

AeroGarden

Monitor and control your Wi-Fi enabled indoor garden from your phone. Receive alerts for water and nutrient needs, access gardening tips, and connect with a community of growers. Enjoy bigger, healthier harvests with smart convenience.

Highlights
  • Plant alerts for water and nutrients
  • Remote monitoring and control
  • Indoor gardening tips and FAQs
  • Connect with growing communities
  • Monitor multiple gardens
Features
Read full description

NEW FOR 2024 Now your plants can talk! With the free AeroGarden App your plants in a W-Fi enabled AeroGarden will tell you when they need water or nutrients with friendly alerts on your Phone. Enjoy bigger, healthier harvests by never missing a watering or feeding again! And unlock a full set of features for your AeroGarden Indoor Grow Lights! GROW SMARTER Timely tips delivered straight to your iPhone teach you our favorite indoor gardening secrets and guide you to growing healthier, more beautiful and abundant gardens. Includes a detailed set of FAQs that help you get the most from your AeroGarden. STAY CONNECTED Easily connect with growing communities of AeroGardeners on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and more. Or enjoy one-click access to our expert AeroGarden Customer Service specialists. Connect and monitor multiple AeroGardens from one simple interface for your biggest harvests ever! SIMPLE CONVENIENCE Wi-Fi technology lets you monitor, control and customize critical garden functions such as light, water and nutrients from anywhere in the world at any time. Just download the free AeroGarden App onto your mobile device with iOS 12.0 or higher.

About

RootBase

Organize and manage your plant collection with smart watering schedules that adapt to your habits. Track propagations, view a complete care timeline, and keep your plant data backed up.

Highlights
  • Adaptive smart watering schedules
  • Propagation tracking
  • Comprehensive care timeline
  • Organized plant collection management
  • iCloud auto-backup
  • Offline functionality
Read full description

RootBase keeps every plant you own watered, healthy and on schedule, from a single windowsill pothos to a shelf full of aroids and a jar of cuttings. YOUR PLANTS, ONE GLANCE Home shows exactly what needs you: what's past due, what's due today and what's coming up. Log a watering in one tap, or tap Not Yet when the soil's still damp and RootBase checks back later. SMART SCHEDULING THAT ADAPTS TO YOU No generic "water every 7 days." RootBase learns each plant's rhythm from when you actually water it, then adjusts as seasons and habits change. The more you log, the better it gets. Misting, soaking and self-watering refills get their own schedules too. TREAT PROBLEMS ON SCHEDULE Spotted thrips, rot or a nutrient problem? Open a health issue, add a treatment like neem oil, and RootBase tells you when the next application is due, on a fixed interval or with every watering. Resolve the issue when it clears and the record stays with the plant. PROPAGATE AND WATCH THEM ROOT Follow cuttings, leaves, divisions, offsets, seeds and more through every stage, and log water changes along the way. When a propagation is established, turn it into a plant in your collection, photos included. TRACK EVERY MOMENT OF GROWTH Watering, fertilizing, repotting, treatments and notes all land in each plant's care history. The Gallery lays out every photo by month, so you can see how far your plants have come. YOUR WHOLE COLLECTION, ORGANIZED Group plants by room, note pot size and growing medium, and find anything fast with search across plants, propagations, rooms and photos. ON YOUR HOME SCREEN The RootBase widget shows today's care at a glance, in light, dark or green. YOURS, AND PRIVATE No account and no sign-up. RootBase works fully offline, keeps a week of automatic daily snapshots on your device, and exports a complete ZIP backup, photos included, whenever you want one. Care reminders are optional and fully in your control. FEATURES • Adaptive watering schedule that learns from your habits • One-tap logging, with Not Yet for plants that aren't ready • Health issues with scheduled treatments • Propagation tracking from cutting to established plant • Fertilizing, repotting, misting and care notes • Photo gallery for every plant and propagation • Rooms, pot size and growing medium • Search across your whole collection • Home Screen widget • Optional daily care reminders • Light and dark themes • Daily on-device snapshots and full ZIP export • Works offline, no account required

Screenshots

AeroGarden4 screens
RootBase4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: RootBase at 100% against AeroGarden's 13%. RootBase also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.1) and update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks). AeroGarden's advantage is ratings volume (657 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.5 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

RootBase holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AeroGarden has 657 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 13% of AeroGarden's written reviews are positive against 100% of RootBase's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AeroGarden ships an update every 6 weeks, RootBase weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
AeroGarden versus RootBase: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAeroGardenRootBase
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (657 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews13.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings657 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeksWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.5 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size150 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScotts Miracle-GroRootBase Labs LLC

Customer experience

AeroGarden

All ratings657 ratings
Positive76.3%
Neutral2.9%
Negative20.9%
Written reviews134 reviews
Positive13.4%
Neutral6.7%
Negative79.9%

RootBase

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

AeroGarden

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Unable to connect to gardens
  • Light controls not working as expected
  • App crashing or freezing
  • Login/account issues

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to control light intensity and duration
  • Push notifications for garden maintenance
  • Retain login session for longer periods
  • Support for older devices and tablets

RootBase

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

AeroGarden

No in-app purchases

None

RootBase

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AeroGarden free?
AeroGarden is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is RootBase free?
RootBase is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, AeroGarden or RootBase?
RootBase is rated higher. AeroGarden averages 4.1 out of 5 from 657 ratings, while RootBase averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do AeroGarden or RootBase have ads?
Neither AeroGarden nor RootBase shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AeroGarden or RootBase?
AeroGarden ships an update every 6 weeks, and RootBase weekly. Most recently, AeroGarden was updated on October 15, 2026 and RootBase on October 8, 2026.

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