The whole list at once — free
Not item-by-item. One tap sends every unchecked item on your list to Instacart together, so nothing gets left behind because you got bored halfway through retyping it.
Grocery list → Instacart
Build the list together during the week — anyone in the family can add to it from their phone. When you're ready to order, one button turns the whole thing into a shoppable Instacart cart. No account linking, no retyping. Free.
One family account · No credit card · Free forever
Ordering from Instacart is easy. Getting your family's actual list into Instacart is the annoying part. Most people end up with the list in one place — a notes app, a group text, the whiteboard — and then rebuild it item by item in Instacart's search box, which is where things get forgotten.
FamilyDash closes that gap. The grocery list is shared and live: your partner adds "eggs" from work, the kids' snack requests land on it, ingredients from this week's meals flow in automatically. Then Shop on Instacart hands the entire list over at once — names, quantities, and units — and you pick your store on Instacart and check out there.
There's no account to connect. FamilyDash doesn't ask for your Instacart login, and you don't have to authorize anything before you can use the button. It builds a shoppable list page, you choose from the stores Instacart covers in your area, and delivery or pickup works exactly the way it normally does.
The whole thing is free. Instacart checkout isn't behind an upgrade in FamilyDash, and it isn't a trial — it's part of the free tier and stays that way.
Not item-by-item. One tap sends every unchecked item on your list to Instacart together, so nothing gets left behind because you got bored halfway through retyping it.
Nothing to authorize, no OAuth screen, no password handed over. FamilyDash builds a shoppable list page and you pick your store and check out on Instacart's own site.
"2 lbs chicken thighs" arrives as 2 lbs, not as a bare search for chicken. Shopper notes like "ripe" ride along too, so the person picking your produce knows what you meant.
You pick the retailer on Instacart after the list is handed over — the same store selection you'd get ordering directly, covering around a thousand retail banners depending on your area.
Put meals on the week's plan and their ingredients flow into the grocery list with quantities scaled to your servings. Review what's already in the pantry, then send the rest to Instacart. Planning dinner and ordering groceries stop being two separate chores.
The list is shared in real time across every phone in the household and the fridge tablet. Whoever's placing the order gets what the whole family actually needs, not just what one person remembered.
After the handoff you choose the store on Instacart, so anything Instacart covers at your address is available — around a thousand retail banners nationally. A few big names route through Instacart even when you order from their own websites, which makes the FamilyDash list a direct line to them:
Instacart runs two separate storefronts, instacart.com and instacart.ca, with different catalogues. FamilyDash checks your household's location and sends Canadian families to instacart.ca, so the store picker shows Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Walmart, Costco, Metro and the other retailers available through Instacart in Canada. Same-day delivery via Instacart reaches roughly 90% of Canadian households across all ten provinces.
Instacart operates only in the United States and Canada, so the Shop on Instacart button appears for households in those two countries and stays out of the way everywhere else.
Several list apps can get you to Instacart. The differences are where you can press the button, how the list travels, and whether you have to sign in before you start.
| FamilyDash | Skylight | GroceryTap | AnyList | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where you press it | Any screen: fridge tablet, laptop, or phone browser | Skylight phone app only | iPhone only | iOS and Android apps only |
| Countries | US and Canada | US only | US and Canada | US only |
| How the list travels | Whole list at once, as a shoppable web page | Whole list at once; opens the Instacart app, which must be installed | Whole list at once, into checkout | One item at a time, searched inside AnyList |
| Sign in before you start | No — you sign in on Instacart only at checkout | No sign-in in Skylight, but the Instacart app must be on the phone | Not stated | Yes, with your Instacart credentials inside AnyList |
Checked against each product's own documentation on 4 September 2026: Skylight's help article on adding grocery list items to Instacart, GroceryTap's App Store listing, and AnyList's online-shopping help page. If one of them has changed, tell us and we'll correct it.
In FamilyDash, build your grocery list — items can be added by anyone in the household from any device — then tap Shop on Instacart. FamilyDash turns the entire list into a shoppable Instacart page with your item names, quantities, and units already filled in. You pick your store there and check out on Instacart as usual. It's free and requires no account linking.
Yes. FamilyDash is a free shared grocery list for families with built-in Instacart checkout. The list is real-time across every family member's phone and any fridge tablet, sorted by store department, and one button hands the whole list to Instacart. The Instacart feature is on the free tier — it is not a paid upgrade.
No. FamilyDash never asks for your Instacart credentials and there's no authorization step. It generates a shoppable list page from your items; you open it, choose your store, and sign in to Instacart there only when you're ready to check out — the same as ordering directly.
No. Instacart checkout is part of the FamilyDash free tier, along with the grocery list, meal planner, chores, and calendar. There's no upgrade required and no per-order fee from FamilyDash. Instacart's own delivery and service fees apply as normal.
Yes. Add meals to the weekly plan and their ingredients flow into the grocery list automatically, with quantities scaled to your serving count. You get a chance to review the list — including unchecking pantry staples you already have — before sending it to Instacart.
You choose the retailer on Instacart after your list is handed over, so you get whatever Instacart covers where you live — around a thousand retail banners nationally, though availability varies by area. Delivery and pickup both work the way they normally do.
Yes. ALDI, Publix, Wegmans and Sprouts all fulfil their online grocery orders through Instacart, and Costco same-day delivery runs through Instacart too, so each of them shows up as a store choice on the Instacart page after your list is handed over. Pick the store there. Which of them you see depends on what Instacart covers at your address.
Yes. If your household is set to a Canadian city, Shop on Instacart opens instacart.ca rather than the US site, so the store picker shows Canadian retailers — Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstore, Walmart, Costco and Metro among them. The two sites have separate catalogues, which is why FamilyDash routes you by your household's location. Instacart operates only in the United States and Canada, so the button doesn't appear for households elsewhere.
No. Shop on Instacart opens a web page, so it works from the fridge tablet, a laptop, or any phone's browser. There's nothing to install and nothing to pair.
The items you sent are marked as sent — neither checked off nor still open — so nobody re-adds them. FamilyDash then asks once, on the grocery card, whether the order arrived. Tap yes and everything sent is checked off; uncheck the one or two things that were out of stock and they stay on the list. Tap "I didn't order" and the items go back to normal. FamilyDash never sees the Instacart order itself, which is why it asks.
The list works just as well in the store. Items are grouped by department — produce, dairy, frozen, household — and the department order is configurable per store, so you walk the aisles in sequence instead of doubling back. Check items off as you go and they disappear from everyone else's view too.
Free forever for your whole household — Instacart checkout included. Pro from $2.92/mo when you want recipe scanning and unlimited calendars.
Push notifications when chores are due, a meal’s checked off, or someone forwards a school email — and the same shared dashboard, just in your pocket.