thePlus.so vs Apption.co
A directory of other people's widgets, or one tool that owns its own.
Free plan, no card required.
Side by side
2 of these 9 rows go to Apption.co. We marked them that way on purpose.
| Feature | Apption.co | thePlus.so |
|---|---|---|
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What it is
Two different kinds of product, not two versions of one
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A directory of other makers' widgets
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Widgets we build and host ourselves
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Ready made widgets
If you want something finished and specific, a directory wins
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132+ categories
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Three building blocks
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Finding something niche
If it exists anywhere, a directory is where you find it
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Their whole purpose
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Only what you build
|
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What you can make
Their catalogue is a fixed list. Ours is a set of parts.
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What the maker shipped
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Whatever you can design
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Who maintains a widget
A directory cannot fix a listing that breaks
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Whoever built it
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We do, all of them
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If a widget disappears
The failure mode a directory cannot protect you from
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Outside their control
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Our problem, not yours
|
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Consistent look
Widgets from five makers bring five design languages
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Varies by widget
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One design system
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Accounts to manage
Every provider wants its own signup
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Usually one per widget
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One login
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Support
Someone who is obliged to answer
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The individual creator
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One inbox, the founder
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Pricing on both sides is checked against public sources and kept current. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
Start Free →Apption.co and thePlus.so get listed side by side often, but they are two different kinds of product, and knowing the difference will save you a bad decision.
Apption.co is a directory. It catalogues 132+ categories of embeddable widgets built by many different people and companies, and points you at them. It covers the space well: by their own counter, over 539,000 widgets have been created and those embeds have been viewed more than 84 million times.
thePlus.so is a tool. We build, host and maintain a smaller set of widgets ourselves. Fewer options, but one company is responsible for every one of them, and that company is reachable.
What happens when a widget maker disappears
A popular Notion widget service called WidgetBox.app shut down, and every widget it had ever served went blank inside people's Notion pages at the same moment. Clocks, calendars, counters, all replaced by empty frames. That is the structural risk in assembling a dashboard from many third party widgets: your page is only as durable as the vendors inside it, and you do not control any of them. A directory cannot protect you from this, because the directory does not run the widgets. We could go away too, but you have one dependency to evaluate, and we publish our real numbers and live uptime so you can judge it.
Counting widgets is the wrong measure
A directory counts finished things: 132 categories, each one somebody else's idea of what the widget should be. Counting ours the same way gives you three, and that number is misleading. Image, Text and Announcement are not three widgets, they are three parts. A Text widget with 1,500+ Google Fonts, four themes, any hex colour, free rotation and Markdown is closer to a blank canvas than to a product. Two people using it end up with things that look nothing alike. So the honest comparison is not 132 against 3. It is a fixed list against a set of parts, and which one suits you depends on whether you want the thing already made or want to make it.
One account, one bill, one inbox
The hidden cost of the directory model is administrative. Five widgets from five providers is five sign ups, five billing relationships, five password resets, and five different people to email when something breaks, assuming each one still answers. thePlus.so is one account and one subscription, and support goes to a single inbox that the founder reads. You get a smaller catalogue and a lot less to manage.
Where Apption.co is the better pick
A comparison page that only flatters its author is not worth reading. Here is the honest side.
- For discovery, Apption.co beats us. No single vendor can match the breadth of a directory.
- 132+ categories means there is probably something there for a niche need we do not cover.
- It is a good place to research what a Notion embed can do before you commit to anything.
- Many of the widgets it lists are free.
Choose thePlus.so if
You want your widgets to look like they belong to the same page.
You would sooner depend on one vendor you can evaluate than several you cannot.
You are tired of a separate account and invoice for every widget.
You want a person to answer when something breaks.
What thePlus.so costs
No per-widget upgrades. One plan, everything on.
1,500+ Google Fonts, 5 MB uploads, basic analytics. Forever.
Or $60/yr (~$5/mo). Unlimited widgets, full analytics, logo removal.
Pay once, keep it. Capped at 1,000 seats, with no renewals ever.
Questions
Is Apption.co a competitor or a directory?
A directory. It lists widgets built by many different providers and does not build them itself. thePlus.so is one of the providers it lists. Comparing us really means comparing two approaches: assemble from many sources, or use one tool that owns its stack.
Can I use both?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Use a directory to find a niche widget nobody else makes, and use thePlus.so for the core pieces you want to look consistent and keep working. Nothing about the two conflicts.
How much does Apption.co cost?
There is no single answer. Pricing is set by each widget's own provider, so it varies widget by widget and can change without notice. thePlus.so is $6 a month, $60 a year, or $149 once.
What happens to my thePlus.so widgets if you shut down?
A fair question to ask any widget vendor, and one worth asking more often after WidgetBox.app closed. We publish live revenue and usage numbers at /open and real uptime at /uptime so the answer is something you can check for yourself.
Try it before you decide
The free plan needs no card and takes about a minute. Build one widget, put it in a page, and see whether it feels right.
9,200+ people · 1.2M+ widget uses · see the real numbers