Comparison

issho vs MLA

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

Head to head
About

issho

Features
Read full description

You're the only one who remembers everything. issho helps you stop managing your partner and start sharing the load, so chores get handled before they turn into a fight. Reminders come from the app, not from you. No nagging. No scorekeeping. Many tools turn the home into a scoreboard: streaks that break, red overdue badges, one person stuck assigning, reminding, and chasing. issho is built the opposite way. It is made for couples and housemates where one or both of you has ADHD, so the home gets shared instead of managed. How issho helps: • Reminders that nag, so you don't have to. They come from issho, not from either of you. Asking is off your plate. • The mental load finally leaves your head. Everything lives in one shared place you both work from, so it is not all on you to remember anymore. • See what is happening and what got done, in real time. The home is visible to both of you, so chores stop being invisible until they pile up, and it is easy to spot one and take it on. • Stay on the same team, not opposite sides. Chores get handled before they turn into a fight, so the home stops being a thing you argue about. • Shared, never scored. You see the effort as a team, never a "who did more" tally or a fairness scoreboard. • Big jobs break into small, doable steps, so the hardest part, starting, gets easier for whoever picks them up. • Add a task by voice, no typing. Say it out loud and issho captures it, then breaks it down. The brain dump finally has somewhere to go. • Body double, even from different rooms. Start a session and do chores side by side. Knowing someone else is on it too makes starting far easier. • One task for today's energy, not a wall of backlog. On a low day, issho shows one small thing. On a good day, everything is there. • Snap a photo of a messy room and issho turns it into clear, small tasks. • Nothing here punishes you. No streaks to break, no red overdue badges. Miss a day and your progress stays, with a friendly otter that celebrates the small wins. Who is issho for? Couples and housemates where one or both partners has ADHD, and anyone carrying the invisible mental load at home, whether it shows up as executive dysfunction, mess blindness, time blindness, or rejection sensitivity. issho (Japanese for "together"). Because you shouldn't have to run the home alone. Privacy: https://www.isshoapp.com/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.isshoapp.com/terms

About

MLA

Features
Read full description

Stop texting each other about what's on the calendar, or what's for dinner. Mental Load Assistant is a smart shared planner built around the way people actually share their lives. Instead of handing someone your entire calendar, you organize events with color-coded tags, then share exactly the tags that matter with exactly the people who need them. ā– ā– ā–  TELL MLA: SAY IT ONCE ā– ā– ā–  Type, or hold the mic and talk: "Dentist Tuesday at 3, soccer every Thursday, buy milk and eggs." MLA turns it into events, tasks and shopping items, and you check them before anything is added. Plans changed? "Move today's dinner to 7" or "Tag Dance with Chloe" updates the event you already have, for just that day or the whole series. Ask "What do I have after 12?" or "When is Colin's wedding?" and tap any event to see it. It all runs on your iPhone with Apple Intelligence; nothing you say is sent anywhere. ā– ā– ā–  YOUR DAY, IN PLAIN ENGLISH ā– ā– ā–  The top of Today tells you what's on and when the day picks up again, with what's due and what's left to buy. After your last event it moves on to tomorrow. Get it as a morning and evening notification too. Week Ahead opens with one line: a light, medium or busy week, your free days, and how the weekend looks. ā– ā– ā–  CREATE EVENTS THAT FIT YOUR LIFE ā– ā– ā–  Full recurrence support: daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, or patterns like "the first Saturday of the month." Add a location, notes, reminders and tags, and pick dates from a calendar with the time wheel right below it. ā– ā– ā–  TAG-BASED SHARING ā– ā– ā–  Create color-coded tags like "Family," "Work" or "Date Night." Share a tag with read-only access to stay informed or write access to collaborate. Revoke access instantly. No over-sharing. ā– ā– ā–  TASK LISTS THAT KEEP UP ā– ā– ā–  Shared to-do lists with due dates and repeating tasks. Give a list a place and get reminded when you arrive, so the hardware store list shows up at the hardware store. ā– ā– ā–  PLAN MEALS & SHOP SMARTER ā– ā– ā–  Save recipes with ingredients, steps, cook time and a photo, or snap a cookbook page or pick a PDF and MLA fills in the recipe for you. Drag recipes onto a weekly meal plan and turn it into a shopping list that combines duplicates and converts units. Items land under the store you bought them at last time. ā– ā– ā–  HANDS-FREE WITH SIRI (iOS 27) ā– ā– ā–  "Add an event in Mental Load Assistant." "What's on next week in Mental Load Assistant?" Siri adds events, tasks and shopping items, tells you what's coming up, and lets you undo with one tap. ā– ā– ā–  BUILT FOR TWO (OR MORE) ā– ā– ā–  Partners, co-parents, households or a small team: everyone stays on the same page without one person remembering everything. ā– ā– ā–  SMART, SECURE & NATIVE ā– ā– ā–  • Face ID / Touch ID • Push notifications and event reminders • Home-screen widget showing what's next • Quick Action: create a new event from your home screen • Dark and light mode • Optimized for iPhone and iPad ā– ā– ā–  GO PRO ā– ā– ā–  The free plan covers the basics, including the weekly summary and store-sorted shopping. Pro removes every limit on events, tags, lists and recipes, and adds Tell MLA, the daily summary, recipe import and weather on every event with a location. ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā– ā–  Mental Load Assistant is free to download. Set up your first event before you sign up; an account is needed to save and share. Tell MLA and recipe import need an iPhone with Apple Intelligence.

Screenshots

issho4 screens
MLA4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: MLA at every 2 weeks against issho's monthly. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. issho sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month and MLA sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

issho ships an update monthly, MLA every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
issho versus MLA: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterisshoMLA
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB36 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperLeon PawelzikJeffrey Kiyomura

In-app purchases

2 purchases

issho

Subscriptions2
  • Issho Premium (Monthly)$6.991 Month
  • Issho Premium (Annual)7 Days trial$44.991 Year
2 purchases

MLA

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Pro Yearly$19.991 Year

Questions

Is issho free?
issho is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is MLA free?
MLA is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do issho or MLA have ads?
Neither issho nor MLA shows ads.
Which is updated more often, issho or MLA?
issho ships an update monthly, and MLA every 2 weeks. Most recently, issho was updated on November 5, 2026 and MLA on October 31, 2026.

Other comparisons