Beacon Co-Parenting App

Overview

Beacon Co-Parenting App brings everyday coordination and shared recordkeeping into one service for separated parents and guardians in Ireland. It is strongest for adults who want schedules, messages, expenses, and child records together, with a free plan for both parents. Mandatory identity checks and the possibility of data storage outside the EEA make its privacy terms a central part of the decision.

Key features

The shared calendar supports repeating access schedules, handover planning, and change requests. That combination gives parents a practical way to record both routine arrangements and proposed adjustments. Calendar sync is supported, though the service is designed around parents sharing care in Ireland.

Secure messages cannot be edited or deleted by parents or staff. This creates a consistent conversation history, but leaves no in-place fix for a message sent in error. The free AI Tone Check privately suggests calmer wording for a draft before sending, a useful prompt when conversations are tense.

Parents can log and approve shared child expenses, record repayments, and track maintenance payments separately. Document storage, a child information bank, and a private incident log extend the record beyond money and scheduling; a community forum supports discussion, and a free parenting-time summary helps review care arrangements.

Beacon can generate a tamper-evident PDF of account history with a data-integrity fingerprint. A separate one-off purchase creates a court-formatted summary of expenses and maintenance payments. The record’s integrity features may help preserve a history, but Beacon says legal advisers should assess whether a PDF is admissible in court. A parent can also give a named solicitor time-limited, read-only access to the shared record and withdraw it at any time.

Pricing

The Everyday co-parenting app plan is €0.00 per free for both parents, with no subscription and no credit card required. It includes the everyday tools, such as messaging, scheduling, expense tracking, document storage, and the free parenting-time summary. There is no free trial because the core plan is free; the trade-off is that court-formatted downloads cost extra.

Form 51A Financial Exhibit costs €49.00 per once. It suits parents who need a court-formatted summary of child expenses and maintenance payments without buying a full account-history download.

Court-Ready Record download costs €129.00 per once, with the price confirmed before purchase. It provides the complete account history, and the same base record can be downloaded again at no charge for 24 hours. This fits a parent seeking a consolidated record, but the PDF is not a guarantee of court admissibility.

Platforms

Beacon runs on Android, iOS, and the web. The shared record can be accessed across those platforms, while a named solicitor can be invited for read-only access.

Who it's for

Beacon is intended for parents or legal guardians aged 18 or older who share care of at least one child in Ireland. Children do not have accounts. It is a poor fit for families outside Ireland or anyone unable to provide official ID or proof of address: every parent must submit one for verification, and the document is deleted within 14 working days after verification.

The privacy policy says traffic is encrypted, passwords are hashed, and personal data is neither sold nor used for advertising. It also says Beacon runs on Replit cloud infrastructure using Google Cloud data centres, and data may be stored outside the EEA, including in the United States. Families with strict data-location requirements should weigh that alongside the identity-document requirement. The professional support and moderation team can review escalated messages, and account-specific issues can be sent to [email protected].

Pros and cons

• Pro: Both parents get the everyday toolkit free, with no subscription or card requirement, including scheduling, expenses, messaging, and shared records.
• Pro: Uneditable messages and a tamper-evident account-history PDF support a consistent record; optional solicitor access is read-only and can be withdrawn.
• Con: Identity verification requires official ID or proof of address from every parent, a meaningful hurdle for privacy-conscious users.
• Con: Data may be stored outside the EEA, including in the United States, which may not suit families seeking EEA-only storage.
• Con: Court-related PDFs cost €49.00 per once or €129.00 per once, and the record download does not establish admissibility.

Alternatives

For more options, browse Co-Parenting Apps. Choose Custody X Change if you need macOS or Windows support; its free version is limited without a subscription. AppClose is another Android, iOS, and web option, with a fee-waiver account for financial hardship and domestic-violence survivors. Consider BestInterest for a free plan with secure messaging, Solo Mode, coaching sessions, inbound calls, a shared calendar, tasks, and expense tracking. CoreParent may suit people who want a free plan capped at 15 expenses and five court dea[truncated in source], or a partner plan for attorneys and mediators. Peaceful CoParenting Messenger is a messaging-focused option with attachments, sent and seen timestamps, a bad-words filter, and flagged messages on its free plan; communication limits and a PDF repository require subscription. CustodyTrac offers all features free forever for both parents with no per-parent fees. dip is free forever for both parents, with no ads or data sale. Fayr has a free Lite plan and a Premium plan on request for geo-location logs, file vault, and PDF exports.

Verdict

Beacon is a strong fit for eligible parents in Ireland who want a free shared workspace for schedules, communication, expenses, and child records, with paid options for formal summaries and a complete history export. Its clear recordkeeping tools are the main reason to choose it. Look elsewhere if mandatory ID checks or possible storage outside the EEA conflict with your privacy needs, or if you need a court document whose admissibility is assured.