How it all started
Monkly did not begin with a business plan, it began with frustration. My wife and I simply wanted one place where our shared life comes together. Appointments, tasks, groceries, all the small things that make up a household.
So we tried a lot of them. There are apps made specifically for families and households. But most of them could only do that one thing in the end, and often not even that well. Individual features were awkwardly built or simply confusing in their logic.
Even the small things were surprisingly complicated. There were list apps where you first had to define what kind of list it even was, and learn the whole system, before you could write down “milk”. For something that really should not need a manual.
And the alternative was just as tedious: a separate app for every area, ten logins, notes on the fridge, and still that feeling of losing track.
So we build it ourselves
At some point came the thought that changed everything: we can do this better. And I am a developer anyway.
So instead of testing the next app, I started building our own in 2024. The first line of code instead of the next download. From then on it was clear, I would build the household and family app we had wished for ourselves. One that does everything organizing a shared everyday life involves.
I am building the app we wished for ourselves. And we use it every single day.
What Monkly is
Monkly is the calm place for everything that belongs to a household. Calendar, tasks, lists and much more, in one app, without ten logins and without notes on the fridge.
Not overloaded, not loud, no glaring badges and no notifications constantly begging for attention. We believe organization is allowed to be quiet. You open the app, see what is coming up, and close it again.
Why privacy matters to us
One thing was clear from the start: your data stays with you. We all know the stories about what happens when data gets stolen, and what can be done with it afterwards.
For an app that knows a family’s entire everyday life, that is not a detail, it is the foundation. That is why the servers are in Germany, and your data belongs to you, not to us and not to anyone else.
Why “Monkly”?
The name has two little souls. One is the inner monk, that secret love of order most of us carry around. The other is the moon (Mond in German), for everything that has to do with the calendar and the rhythm of a day.
Love of order and the calendar became Monkly. The name stayed because it simply fit from the very beginning.
Where Monkly is heading
Monkly should run on every device that matters in your home. On your phone, your tablet and in the browser, wherever you happen to be.
There is one part I am especially looking forward to, it is called Board. Picture a display on your wall that shows at a glance what is due today, who is taking care of what, plus the weather and everything that matters to you. Fully customizable, like a hub for the entire household. We want to open Monkly up so it connects with smart-home systems, and we are even planning our own boards for the wall.
