lyven
Honest comparison · 2026

Chore apps for couples, honestly compared

The short answer: there is no single best chore app. There are different problems. If tasks get done but one of you carries all the noticing, you want a fairness app built on ownership (that's Lyven, or FairShare on iOS). If your household runs on friendly competition, Nipto's points game is good at exactly that. If the issue is cleaning rotas, pick Sweepy. If you need whole-family logistics like calendars, school runs and meals, Maple and Cozi are organisers first and chore tools second. Below: all eight options, what each does well, and who should pick it.

Last verified alive and re-checked: 17 July 2026. We only list apps we confirmed are live and shipping. This category has "best of" lists that still rank apps which no longer exist.

Read this first: who's writing. We built Lyven, one of the apps on this list. Almost every "best chore app" ranking you'll find is published by one of the apps on it, with itself at #1, and this page is no exception in authorship. We're naming the bias instead of hiding it. What we promise in return: every app below is described by its real strengths, we tell you plainly when a competitor is the better fit, and we don't invent statistics. Where we quote numbers, they're linked to the source.

Start with one question: scoreboard, or owner?

Every app here sits in one of two philosophies, and the right choice depends on which one fits your relationship.

All eight at a glance

AppApproach to fairnessPlatformsPrice (July 2026)Best for
Lyven that's us Single owner per job, weighted by real effort. Deliberately no points or scoreboard Web / PWA (iOS + Android) Free invite-only beta Couples where the doing is shared but the noticing isn't
FairShare Fair Play-style cards + a "Noticing Score" for the invisible load iOS US$8.99/mo or US$59.99/yr (7-day trial); US$149.99 lifetime iPhone couples who want the mental load itself measured
Fair Play deck The original 100-card ownership system. A book and physical deck, not software Paper About US$25 one-off for the deck Having the conversation offline before choosing any app
Nipto Points, leaderboards, weekly winner. Fairness through competition iOS + Android Free tier; premium US$1.99/mo, US$12.99/yr or US$17.99 lifetime Households (incl. kids and housemates) motivated by a game
Sweepy Cleanliness tracking per room, auto-generated schedules iOS + Android Free tier; premium US$3.99/mo or about US$20/yr Couples whose actual fight is about cleaning standards
Maple Organiser-first: AI assistant, calendar, meals, lists; chores included iOS + Android + web Tiers from about US$5 to US$10/mo; exact plan shown in-app Parents who need full family logistics in one place
Cozi Organiser-first: the veteran shared calendar + lists; no fairness features iOS + Android Free with ads; Cozi Gold US$39/yr removes them A simple shared calendar at zero cost
Roost Chore rotation + a Fairness Score + expense splitting Android (beta); iOS "coming soon" Free public beta; no paid tier published yet Android couples who also want expenses in the same app

Each app, honestly

Lyven the one we built

Web app / installable PWA · free invite-only beta · built and hosted in Australia

Lyven is a household app for couples that splits the home fairly, with one owner per job and no scoreboard. You split the deck once, weighted by what each job really takes; then the split stays wired into daily life (groceries, meals, the week ahead) and a ten-minute weekly check-in keeps it honest. The free Split Check shows your current split in two minutes, no account needed.

Strong at
  • Moving the invisible work, not just the tasks. Ownership includes the noticing and planning
  • Not decaying: the split lives inside the lists you use daily, not in a separate app you stop opening
  • No scoreboard to argue about. Fair is the split you chose on purpose, not a points race
Honestly, not for you if
  • You're not comfortable being a beta tester. Lyven is invite-only while we prove it with real households (the waitlist is free)
  • You want a native app-store app today. Lyven is a web app you install from the browser
  • Competition is what actually motivates your household. See Nipto below, genuinely

FairShare: Couples Mental Load

iOS · US$8.99/mo or US$59.99/yr after a 7-day trial · US$149.99 lifetime

The closest app to Lyven in philosophy. It's explicitly built on Eve Rodsky's Fair Play method, with 100+ cards owned end to end. Its signature idea is the Noticing Score: a number for how much of the household's noticing lands on each partner, making the gap between "who notices" and "who does" visible.

Strong at
  • Measuring the mental load itself. The Noticing Score is a clever lens
  • Fast capture: a brain-dump feature turns a spoken stream of worries into cards
  • Actively developed, shipping updates frequently as of July 2026
Worth knowing
  • iOS only. No Android or web version
  • Subscription from day 8, so run the trial deliberately, together
  • It measures the load well; the daily-life side (groceries, meals, the week) isn't its focus

Fair Play: the deck and the book

Physical cards + book by Eve Rodsky · about US$25 one-off for the deck

Not an app, and it earns its place here anyway: the original 100-card system that named the problem this whole category is trying to solve. One partner holds each card completely, from conceiving to planning to executing, so the mental load moves with the task.

Strong at
  • The conversation itself. Dealing physical cards across a kitchen table is a disarmingly good format
  • The vocabulary: "invisible work" and full ownership, explained better than any app onboarding
Worth knowing
  • Paper doesn't remind, reschedule or carry a grocery list. Most couples do the deck once, then need somewhere for the split to live day-to-day. That's the job apps like Lyven and FairShare exist for

Nipto

iOS + Android · free tier; premium US$1.99/mo, US$12.99/yr or US$17.99 lifetime · hundreds of thousands of downloads

The opposite philosophy to ours, executed well: chores earn points, the week has a leaderboard, the winner claims a reward. Works for couples, and unusually well for families and flatshares, because kids and housemates will play a game they'd never play as "a fairness conversation".

Strong at
  • Motivation. If your household likes to compete, this creates real energy
  • Getting reluctant participants (kids, housemates) to engage at all
  • Scale and polish, as one of the most-downloaded apps in the category
Worth knowing
  • A scoreboard is still a scoreboard: points get contested, and quiet work (booking the dentist, remembering the gift) scores poorly against visible work
  • Someone still runs the system. The mental load of the game itself doesn't appear on the leaderboard

Sweepy

iOS + Android · free tier; premium US$3.99/mo or about US$20/yr

A cleaning app, not a fairness app, and the best at what it does. Sweepy tracks how clean each room is, generates schedules automatically, and ends the "does this actually need cleaning?" debate with a visual answer.

Strong at
  • Cleaning rotas specifically: effort-weighted scheduling that adapts to your home
  • Defusing the standards argument. The app says what's due, so neither partner has to
Worth knowing
  • Cleaning is only part of running a home. Meals, admin, kids' logistics and the noticing live elsewhere

Maple

iOS + Android + web · subscription tiers from about US$5 to US$10/mo, shown in-app

The most ambitious family organiser in the space: an "operating system for modern families" with an AI assistant, shared calendar, meal planning, lists and chores. Recommended by mainstream press and an Apple "App of the Day". If your problem is volume of logistics rather than who carries them, this is the strongest tool here.

Strong at
  • Breadth: calendar, meals, email-to-task, lists and chores in one place
  • The AI assistant does real work, turning school emails into calendar entries and tasks
Worth knowing
  • The exact price only shows once you're inside the app, so check it before you build your family's routine on it
  • It organises the load; it doesn't measure or rebalance who carries it

Cozi

iOS + Android · free with ads; Cozi Gold US$39/yr removes them · 20+ years old

The veteran. A shared colour-coded family calendar with shopping and to-do lists, used by millions of families. If all you need is "we can both see the calendar and the shopping list", Cozi does it for free and has for two decades.

Strong at
  • Simplicity and price. The free tier covers the core, and everyone's parents can use it
  • Longevity. It will still exist next year, which matters for a tool your family runs on
Worth knowing
  • No fairness concept at all. It shows the load; it doesn't split it
  • The free tier carries ads, and recent redesigns have frustrated long-time users

Roost

Android · free public beta; no paid tier published yet · iOS listed as coming soon (as of July 2026)

The newest direct attempt at fairness-plus-everything: chore rotation, a Fairness Score, mental-load tracking, grocery lists and expense splitting in one app. Ambitious scope, still in beta.

Strong at
  • Breadth of the fairness idea. It's the only app here that also splits expenses
  • Price: the beta is free
Worth knowing
  • Android only for now, and the iOS date has been "coming soon" for a while
  • Rotation plus a score is the scoreboard philosophy. See the section above for whether that fits you
  • Beta software for a tool your household depends on is a real trade-off

Why this is worth getting right

The stakes are bigger than a tidy kitchen. The numbers below are the reason this category exists, and each is linked to its source.

~55%
Australian Treasury research finds women's earnings fall by around 55% on average in the first five years of parenthood, one of the steepest "motherhood penalties" in the developed world. Treasury working paper: Children and the Gender Earnings Gap
~$100k
Grattan Institute analysis puts the lifetime-earnings cost of a six-month career break at roughly $100,000. The household system usually decides who keeps taking that break. Grattan Institute: the motherhood penalty
1970s
Wharton economist Corinne Low's 2026 research finds men's time on housework has barely moved since the 1970s, regardless of who earns more. Her framing matters: it's a structural problem, not a personality problem. Which means structure, not blame, is the fix. Fortune, April 2026

Questions couples actually ask

What's the best chore app for couples?
It depends what's broken. If chores get done but one partner carries the noticing and planning, choose a fairness app built on ownership: Lyven, or FairShare if you're iPhone-only. If your household is motivated by competition, Nipto. If the fight is about cleaning specifically, Sweepy. If you need whole-family logistics, Maple or Cozi. There's no single best app; there are different problems.
What's the difference between a chore app and a mental-load app?
A chore app tracks tasks: who did the dishes, whose turn to vacuum. A mental-load app tries to move the invisible work of noticing what needs doing, planning it, and remembering it. Rotating a task still leaves one person managing the rota. Ownership systems (Lyven, FairShare, the Fair Play deck) give each job a single owner who carries the noticing too, and that's the part that actually changes how the load feels.
Do points and leaderboards actually work?
For some couples, yes. Nipto's scale is proof, and a game can kick-start engagement that a "fairness conversation" never would. The risks are also real: points get contested, invisible work scores poorly, and someone still carries the meta-work of running the game. We built Lyven without a scoreboard for those reasons. But if competition energises your home, the honest advice is to pick the points app.
Is there a free way to just see our split first?
Yes. That's exactly what the Split Check is: two minutes, no sign-up, no account. It shows how the work of your household currently divides, weighted by real effort. Do it together; the number is a conversation starter, not a verdict.
What is the Fair Play method?
Eve Rodsky's system for dividing household labour: about 100 cards, each a complete job held end-to-end by one partner, from conceiving to planning to executing, so the invisible work moves with the task. It started as a book and physical deck. Several apps build on the single-owner idea, each differently. FairShare stays closest to the card metaphor; Lyven wires the split into daily lists and a weekly check-in so it doesn't decay after the first month.
Which of these work in Australia?
All except Roost (Android-only beta, US-focused). Lyven is the only one built in Australia with Australian data hosting. FairShare, Nipto, Sweepy, Maple and Cozi are in the Australian app stores; most price in USD.

Start with the two-minute question

Before you pick any app, ours included, it helps to see the split you're actually running today. The Split Check is free, takes two minutes, and needs no sign-up.

See your split — free →    Join the Lyven waitlist