Where we stand, before anything else. We make Stitch Keeper, a row counter for crochet and knitting. It is coming to Google Play as a free app with one banner ad on the project list, and it runs in a browser today. It counts rows and repeats and does not open patterns, so it covers a small part of what knitCompanion does. We take no referral fee from anyone on this page.
Partly. knitCompanion is free to download, and its Basics stay free with unlimited projects. The tools that mark up a pattern need Setup+Essentials, an annual subscription with a 7-day trial. In the US it is $29.99 a year on the App Store.
Where the price is
knitCompanion prints its own price. Its help pages describe Setup+Essentials as annual and add that “the App Store uses US $30/year as the base price for localization.” The stores are less clear.
| Surface | What it shows |
|---|---|
| knitcompanion.com, “Paid options and cost” | Annual, 7-day trial, “US $30/year” base price |
| Terms of Use | “annual auto-renewing subscriptions”, no figure |
| App Store, Information row | Setup + Essentials $29.99; Essentials $29.99. No billing period |
| App Store, promoted purchase | Under “Subscriptions”: Setup + Essentials, “Free Trial”, no price |
| Google Play | An In-app purchases badge only. No items-and-offers section and no per-item range |
| Both store descriptions | No figure |
Apple's two rows have different names and the same price, and only Setup+Essentials appears anywhere else. A reader of the store alone would not know the $29.99 comes back every year. Google Play was read once, on 13 October 2026.
What is free and what is paid
| Basics, free | Setup+Essentials, $29.99 a year |
|---|---|
| Unlimited projects | Magic Markers to count, highlight and color stitches |
| A row marker and progress along the row | Scribble and highlighting on the pattern |
| Counters, and a timer (Google Play's list) | Chart recognition, and joining charts to written rows |
| Links to Ravelry and Dropbox | Reminders for “at the same time” instructions |
| iCloud sync on Apple devices | Custom and inverted markers, and the key kept visible |
| Any PDF, and thousands of kCDesigns | Adding a PDF to an existing project, and hands-free voice commands on Apple devices |
“Add PDF” is on both sides of Google Play's list. The paid one adds pages to a project you already have, which the help pages suggest for the next clue of a mystery knit-along.
The subscription stays in one store
knitCompanion restores purchases through the store account that paid, and its help pages are firm about it: “You MUST use the same app store and store account across devices.” An iPad, iPhone and Mac can share one Apple subscription. An Android phone cannot use it, and needs a second one through Google Play.
Windows works only through BlueStacks, an Android emulator, which uses Google Play. Cancel in whichever store you paid, or from Upgrade, then Manage, in the app. The terms say a subscription renews unless auto-renew is off at least 24 hours before the period ends.
Why it is a subscription
Create2Thrive explains the choice in a help article first posted in 2017. It says subscriptions fund upkeep and keep the cost of starting low: “If you stop knitting or a better app comes along, you can simply move on.” That is a fair trade to put in writing. Over ten years, though, $29.99 a year comes to $299.90 (derived).
Other row counters, and how they price
| App | Apple ratings | What Apple lists | Data Used to Track You |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loopsy | About 17,000 | “Loopsy Pro” ten times, at seven prices from $4.99 to $99.99 | None listed |
| knitCompanion | About 6,900 | Two items, both $29.99 | None: “Data Not Collected” |
| My Row Counter | About 3,800 | Ten items, $2.99 to $14.99, including a yearly plan at $9.99, $12.99 and $14.99, and No Ads at $2.99 | Identifiers, Usage Data |
| Knit Row Counter | 138 | Nothing: free, no in-app purchases | None: “Data Not Collected” |
| Stitch Keeper (ours) | Not on the App Store | Coming to Google Play, free, one banner ad on the project list; the browser version has none | Not yet listed |
Next to these, knitCompanion's pricing is the plainest of the paid ones: one product at one price, and a help page that names it. Knit Row Counter, on the App Store since 2009, was last updated in February 2025.
What knitCompanion does better
- It works on the pattern itself. Charts and written instructions sit under a marker you move row by row, with stitches colored and counted. Stitch Keeper never opens a pattern.
- Both stores say it collects no data, and neither shows an ad label.
- It runs almost everywhere: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows through BlueStacks.
- The free tier has no project limit, so the Basics work for every pattern you own.
- It has a long record. Create2Thrive's copyright line starts in 2012, and its Ravelry group runs knit-alongs.
What we could not check
Nothing inside the app was read. So the Android price, the Upgrade screen and what happens to a marked-up project when a subscription lapses are all missing, and so is the difference between Apple's two $29.99 items. The Amazon listing was not read.
- knitCompanion — Documentation & Support, including “Paid options and cost”, “Can I use knitCompanion for free?”, “Restore an in-app purchase” and the device list
- knitCompanion — Subscriptions: Why we use them
- knitCompanion — Terms of Use, In-App Purchases
- App Store — knitCompanion knitting & more, the description, the promoted subscription, the App Privacy panel and the Information row
- Google Play — knitCompanion, the description, the rating and the data safety summary
- App Store — My Row Counter, Knit & Crochet, the Information row and the App Privacy panel
- App Store — Loopsy - Crochet & Knitting, the Information row and the App Privacy panel
- App Store — Knit Row Counter, by Lars Bergelt