Joining the beta
Live · This works today.
Anyone can make a free GardenTrack account with just their email. The beta is a little different. It has room for 100 gardeners, who get every paid feature free until Tuesday, July 13, 2027, and who try new features as they come out and tell us how they’re going now and then. To join, fill in the short form at gardentrack.app/beta and you’re in right away. If you were sent an invite code, it still works. Tap I’m a beta user under the email box and enter it there. It costs nothing, and no card is asked for.
How to join the beta
Anyone can make a free GardenTrack account with just their email. The beta is a little different. It has room for 100 gardeners, who get every paid feature free until Tuesday, July 13, 2027, and who try new features as they come out and tell us how they’re going now and then. To join, fill in the short form at gardentrack.app/beta and you’re in right away. If you were sent an invite code, it still works. Tap I’m a beta user under the email box and enter it there. It costs nothing, and no card is asked for.
You only ever need an invite code once, on the sign-in that creates your account. Every time after that you need the six-digit code alone, and the invite box is not shown to you at all — it is only read for an address with no account yet, so for everybody else it was a field that took your typing and dropped it.
There is no separate sign-up
You do not choose between signing in and signing up. You put your email in, we send you a six-digit code, and you type it back. If you have been here before, that signs you in. If you have not, that same step makes your account. The screen the first interview ends on is headed Save your and the name of your first spot, because that is what it is about to do, but the steps are the same ones.
What the messages mean
“That invite code is not right.” The code did not match. Check the invitation you were sent — capital letters do not matter, and neither do spaces at the ends.
“That invite code is not right” when you meant to sign up normally. You do not have to use the invite door at all. Leave the invite door and make a free account the ordinary way.
“One more thing — your invitation has a code on it.” Not an error, and you will only see it if you opened the invite door. Your address is new, so the app asks for the code at the moment it needs it.
“The beta is full right now.” All 100 beta places are taken. If you filled in the beta form, we’ve kept your request. When a place opens up, we’ll let people in in the order they asked and email you. If you came in with an invite code, fill in the form at gardentrack.app/beta so we have your request. You can use GardenTrack Free in the meantime, and your garden comes with you if you join later.
“That code did not match.” This one is about the six-digit code, not the invite code. Ask for a new one — they expire.
“Sign-up is not open yet.” The invite door specifically is not switched on at that moment. Making a free account is unaffected, and anyone who already has an account can still sign in as normal.
Why there is a limit at all
If everybody got in, it wouldn’t really be a beta. We want a person to read every note a beta tester sends and write back, and that only works if the group stays small, so the beta has 100 places. The limit is only on beta places. Anyone can use GardenTrack Free, and paid plans open to everyone on Jan 5, 2027.
Telling us something is wrong
Use the button inside the app. It attaches everything we would otherwise have to ask you for — which screen you were on, which plant, which version you are running, whether you were online — so you only have to describe the problem.
You can attach a picture. Take a screenshot the way you normally do on your phone, then tap Add a picture on the report. It does not use up any of your diagnoses — those are for asking about a plant, and telling us something is broken should never compete with that.
Everything you send is listed in your Profile, newest first, under What you told us. Each one says when you sent it, what it was about, and whether it has reached us yet. A report written with no signal is saved on your phone and goes up on its own when you are back in range; until then it says waiting to send.
When somebody answers you, the answer turns up on your own report in Profile, under the words you wrote. Most notes get read, acted on and never replied to — a bug that gets fixed needs no answer, and you see the fix rather than a message about it.
Common questions
- The first interview ended on a screen asking for my email. Is that different from signing in?
Same steps, a different heading — updated 6 October 2026. The first interview ends on a screen headed Save your and the name of your first spot: your email, the code we send, and, because the address is new, the invite code from your invitation. That first sign-in is what makes the account, exactly as it always was. Everything you told setup is already saved on your phone, and the screen says how many changes will back up the moment you are in. If you already have an account, tap Sign in on the very first screen instead and you go straight to the ordinary sign-in.
- Can I sign in with Google or Facebook?
Only when you can see the button. The sign-in screen asks the server which ways in are switched on and shows a button for each; email and the six-digit code are always there. If there is no Google or Facebook button, that way in is not switched on yet, and we would rather show you nothing than a button that does nothing. When one is switched on it appears on its own — nothing to update.
- Profile and Talk were completely blank this afternoon. What was that?
Ours, and it is fixed. For a few hours today, anyone signed in got two empty screens with no tabs along the bottom. Both of those screens check how much of your allowance is left, and that check was also tidying away an out-of-date figure stored on your phone — but on those two screens, saving something is what makes them look again. So they looked, tidied, looked, tidied, and never finished drawing. Nothing of yours was lost; the screens could not paint, that is all. The tidying now happens once, when your plan changes, rather than every time a screen asks. It could only happen while signed in, which is why it reached a real phone before it reached us — everything we check automatically runs signed out.
- I already have an account. Do I need the invite code?
No — and from 17 August 2026 you are not even shown the box. The code is only read when an email address has no account yet, that being the moment it creates one, so for everybody else it was a field that took your typing and dropped it. Now it does not appear at all: type your six digits and you are straight in. Everyone who has been here before signs in with the six-digit code alone, exactly as they always have, whatever happens to the invite code or the limit afterwards. That was the part built most carefully, because a gate that can turn away the people already using something is worse than having no gate at all: it would lock out the people who most need to get in, on the day it matters most.
- I’m in the beta. What happens when it ends?
The beta runs until Tuesday, July 13, 2027, and every paid feature is free until then. When the beta ends, you can pay for GardenTrack and keep going as you are. If you don’t, your account moves to GardenTrack Free on Wednesday, July 14, and the app keeps opening like always. Beta testers who use the app and tell us how it’s going can get a big lifetime discount on GardenTrack. Your beta welcome email has the details.
- It says the beta is full. Will you keep my request?
Yes. If you filled in the beta form, your request is saved. When a place opens up, we’ll let people in in the order they asked and email you. We can’t say when that might be, so please don’t hold off on your garden while you wait. GardenTrack Free is open to everyone, and your plants and journal come with you if you move into the beta later.
We keep the beta small so a person can read and answer every note you send. If you were sent an invite code, it hasn’t expired. Codes count toward the same 100 places, so if the beta is full when you use yours, fill in the form and we’ll keep your request.
- The sign-in screen only asks for my email. Where do I put the invite code?
Right after the six-digit code, and the app says so before you get there. Put your email in and tap Email me a code. Type the six digits we send. If your address is new, the invite box appears at that point and asks for the code on your invitation. Nothing is wrong and you are not in the wrong place — it is one step, then the next. The box is not shown before then, and it is never shown to anyone who already has an account, because it would be ignored and a box that ignores you is worse than no box.
- What is the difference between the invite code and the six-digit code?
The six-digit code is how you sign in, every single time — we email it to you and it expires quickly. The invite code is on your invitation, does not expire, and is only used once, the first time, to create your account. If the screen says that code did not match, that is the six-digit one and you should ask for a new one. If it says that invite code is not right, that is the one from your invitation.
- If my paid plan or the beta ends, do I lose my garden?
No, and we’d like to be clear about that before it ever happens to anybody. If a paid plan or the beta ends, your account moves to GardenTrack Free and the app keeps opening. GardenTrack Free holds 10 active plants. If you have more than that, the app asks you to pick the 10 you want to keep going. The rest are hidden but saved, and they all come back if you move to GardenTrack later.
And it does not need a signal to decide. Once your phone knows you are on a plan it keeps working offline — we never lock you out of your own garden because a check could not reach us.
- None of this is working and I still cannot get in. How do I tell you?
There is a link on the sign-in screen itself: Not working? Tell us. It is on the step that asks for your email and on the step that asks for the six-digit code. Tap it, say what happened, tap Send. It needs no account and no code — which is the point, because everything else in the app is behind the door you are stuck at. Your email is a second box and it is optional; leave it blank and the message still reaches us. Before 23 August 2026 there was nothing on that screen at all, so somebody who could not get in had no way to say so and we had no way to tell them apart from somebody who never tried.
Shipped 2026-08-15. Last checked 2026-10-06. Something here wrong or out of date? Tell us — support docs going stale is a bug.