Should I Build It Should I Build It
18 Jul 2025
Productivity

An app that reminds users to water their plants or take care of their ...

...pets

Confidence
Engagement
Net use signal
Net buy signal

Idea type: Freemium

People love using similar products but resist paying. You’ll need to either find who will pay or create additional value that’s worth paying for.

Should You Build It?

Build but think about differentiation and monetization.

Your are here

You're entering a market where people appreciate the idea of simplifying pet or plant care through technology, but they're also wary of paying for it, as suggested by the Freemium category. With 14 similar products already out there, the competition is significant. Although there are similar solutions, there is also a decent amount of engagement, indicating that users are actively looking for these types of solutions. The existing similar products have sparked discussions around simplicity, affordability, and differentiation, suggesting these are critical factors for success. You'll need to find ways to stand out while providing real value, and figure out what features users will pay for, as many are content with free solutions or simple reminders.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by deeply understanding your target user. For plant care, identify who struggles most – is it beginners, owners of specific plant types, or those who travel frequently? For pets, is it new pet owners, people with busy schedules, or those managing pets with chronic conditions? Knowing this will guide your feature development.
  2. Focus on a niche initially to differentiate yourself. Instead of a general plant or pet care app, consider specializing in a specific area, such as exotic plants, urban gardens, senior pet care, or specific breed needs. This can attract a loyal user base and make marketing more effective.
  3. Develop a genuinely useful free version. Address common pain points with basic features that are immediately helpful. For plants, this might include identification and basic watering reminders. For pets, it could be vaccination tracking and weight monitoring.
  4. Identify premium features that create clear value. Consider features like advanced diagnostics (e.g., identifying plant diseases via image analysis, AI-powered analysis for pet health), personalized care plans based on breed or plant type, or integration with local vets and pet supply stores. Address the criticisms found for similar products (e.g., lack of vet integration) in your premium tier.
  5. Explore tiered pricing or micro-transactions. Instead of a subscription, consider offering one-time purchases for specific features (e.g., plant identification scan, consultation with a pet nutritionist). This approach addresses user resistance to subscriptions, as noted in the competitive analysis.
  6. Build a community aspect into your app. Allow users to share their successes (e.g., plant growth photos, pet health milestones) and ask questions. This can increase engagement and provide valuable social proof.
  7. Prioritize user feedback. Actively solicit and respond to user reviews and comments. Use this feedback to iterate on your features and address any issues. Monitor competitor feedback closely, too, to learn from their mistakes and capitalize on their shortcomings.
  8. Consider a partnership strategy. Collaborate with local nurseries, pet stores, or veterinary clinics to offer bundled services or discounts. This can drive user acquisition and create additional revenue streams.

Questions

  1. Given the crowded market, what is your unique selling proposition beyond basic reminders? What underserved niche can you target effectively?
  2. How will you acquire users initially, and what's your strategy for converting free users into paying customers, considering the general aversion to subscriptions in this space?
  3. What data privacy and security measures will you implement, especially if you're handling sensitive pet health information, to build trust with your users?

Your are here

You're entering a market where people appreciate the idea of simplifying pet or plant care through technology, but they're also wary of paying for it, as suggested by the Freemium category. With 14 similar products already out there, the competition is significant. Although there are similar solutions, there is also a decent amount of engagement, indicating that users are actively looking for these types of solutions. The existing similar products have sparked discussions around simplicity, affordability, and differentiation, suggesting these are critical factors for success. You'll need to find ways to stand out while providing real value, and figure out what features users will pay for, as many are content with free solutions or simple reminders.

Recommendations

  1. Begin by deeply understanding your target user. For plant care, identify who struggles most – is it beginners, owners of specific plant types, or those who travel frequently? For pets, is it new pet owners, people with busy schedules, or those managing pets with chronic conditions? Knowing this will guide your feature development.
  2. Focus on a niche initially to differentiate yourself. Instead of a general plant or pet care app, consider specializing in a specific area, such as exotic plants, urban gardens, senior pet care, or specific breed needs. This can attract a loyal user base and make marketing more effective.
  3. Develop a genuinely useful free version. Address common pain points with basic features that are immediately helpful. For plants, this might include identification and basic watering reminders. For pets, it could be vaccination tracking and weight monitoring.
  4. Identify premium features that create clear value. Consider features like advanced diagnostics (e.g., identifying plant diseases via image analysis, AI-powered analysis for pet health), personalized care plans based on breed or plant type, or integration with local vets and pet supply stores. Address the criticisms found for similar products (e.g., lack of vet integration) in your premium tier.
  5. Explore tiered pricing or micro-transactions. Instead of a subscription, consider offering one-time purchases for specific features (e.g., plant identification scan, consultation with a pet nutritionist). This approach addresses user resistance to subscriptions, as noted in the competitive analysis.
  6. Build a community aspect into your app. Allow users to share their successes (e.g., plant growth photos, pet health milestones) and ask questions. This can increase engagement and provide valuable social proof.
  7. Prioritize user feedback. Actively solicit and respond to user reviews and comments. Use this feedback to iterate on your features and address any issues. Monitor competitor feedback closely, too, to learn from their mistakes and capitalize on their shortcomings.
  8. Consider a partnership strategy. Collaborate with local nurseries, pet stores, or veterinary clinics to offer bundled services or discounts. This can drive user acquisition and create additional revenue streams.

Questions

  1. Given the crowded market, what is your unique selling proposition beyond basic reminders? What underserved niche can you target effectively?
  2. How will you acquire users initially, and what's your strategy for converting free users into paying customers, considering the general aversion to subscriptions in this space?
  3. What data privacy and security measures will you implement, especially if you're handling sensitive pet health information, to build trust with your users?

  • Confidence: High
    • Number of similar products: 14
  • Engagement: Medium
    • Average number of comments: 8
  • Net use signal: 5.5%
    • Positive use signal: 18.5%
    • Negative use signal: 13.1%
  • Net buy signal: -14.7%
    • Positive buy signal: 0.0%
    • Negative buy signal: 14.7%

This chart summarizes all the similar products we found for your idea in a single plot.

The x-axis represents the overall feedback each product received. This is calculated from the net use and buy signals that were expressed in the comments. The maximum is +1, which means all comments (across all similar products) were positive, expressed a willingness to use & buy said product. The minimum is -1 and it means the exact opposite.

The y-axis captures the strength of the signal, i.e. how many people commented and how does this rank against other products in this category. The maximum is +1, which means these products were the most liked, upvoted and talked about launches recently. The minimum is 0, meaning zero engagement or feedback was received.

The sizes of the product dots are determined by the relevance to your idea, where 10 is the maximum.

Your idea is the big blueish dot, which should lie somewhere in the polygon defined by these products. It can be off-center because we use custom weighting to summarize these metrics.

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https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=adamaskun

Wow, this really opened my eyes! I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective. hank you so much for helping me see that! I will completely remove subscription, change pricing model to credits, pay as you go.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=albumen

Just tried comparing pictures of two trees (inc leaf closeups) between PictureThis and native Photos app. PictureThis got it right, was consistent re species when comparing closeups to wide tree shot, and gave lots of extra info. Photos app got the genus right but different species for the closeup and wide shots; not very helpful. The lack of organised extra info is also a pity. One of the nicest features of PictureThis is how it shows your photo vs other matching photos from its database, letting you visually confirm if the result is accurate.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=nilawafer

I just use Google lens in the Google mobile app for this because the price is right

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=adamaskun

Thanks for sharing this thoughtful perspective! You’re absolutely right. What I’m thinking is to train the app with user input and gradually build a more region-specific database on top of existing models.Thanks for highlighting this, it really helps guide where I can take the app!

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=adamaskun

yes LLM, we use vector databases, adding now databases for non-western plants and system to learn if output is bad.

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=adamaskun

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https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=adamaskun

This one looks really good, thanks. It's looks like i want my app to go the same way as picturethisai.com

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