lyven
Fair Play alternatives

Fair Play alternatives: an app, a free list or another deck

Fair Play is Eve Rodsky's book and card deck, and it has no app. If you want the idea on your phone, Lyven is a free app built on the same rule: every job has one owner. If you only want the list, our free list of 68 household jobs is a good start. If you need one proper conversation, the deck is still good at that.

Checked 22 October 2026.

The app: Lyven

Lyven is a household app for couples that splits the home fairly: single owner per job, no scoreboard. Whoever owns a job notices it, plans it and does it, so one of you isn't left remembering everything. A ten minute check-in each week spots it when one of you starts carrying more again. Sorting the cards once can't do that.

We make Lyven. It isn't connected to Eve Rodsky, who created Fair Play, and doesn't use her cards.

Other Fair Play alternatives

1

A free list of the jobs

The household jobs list names 68 jobs around the house, with how often each comes up and how long it takes. Print it and you've got a list like the deck's, free.

2

A Notion template or a spreadsheet

Free, and fine if you already live in Notion. Nothing reminds you to sort it again. Keeping it current becomes one more job for whoever already does the most.

3

A different card deck

Gottman Card Decks is a free app of conversation cards for couples. It's good, but it's about your relationship, not who does the housework.

4

Chore apps

Tody and Homsy rotate jobs, so they tell you whose turn it is. Sweepy and Nipto use points, so they tell you who did more. Cozi is a shared family calendar. It doesn't say whose job something is. The test for any of them: does a job get one owner who notices it? Our comparison of ten chore apps covers each one.

Pick by what went wrong

A

You never got both of you to sit down

Buy the deck, or print the free list. Either one gets you to the table.

B

You sorted the cards and it slid back

A better sort won't fix that, because a sort only shows the day you did it. You need something that stays current. Read why a split slides back.

C

One of you doesn't see a problem

That takes a conversation first. How to explain the mental load helps you start it.

Questions people ask

Does Fair Play have an app?
No. Eve Rodsky's team doesn't make one. The apps you find when you search for one are made by other companies. Lyven is one. It's built on the same one-owner idea, but it isn't connected to Fair Play and doesn't use its cards.
Is there a free version of the Fair Play cards?
Not from Fair Play, which sells the deck. The free option is a list of the jobs. Our household jobs list names 68 of them, with how often each comes up and how long it takes.
What is the closest app to the Fair Play method?
Look for an app where each job has one owner who notices it and plans it, not just does it. Rotations only say whose turn it is. Points only say who did more. Lyven, the app we make, gives every job one owner and has no points or scoreboard. Apply the same test to us.
Do I need the deck to run the method?
No. The useful idea is that noticing and planning a job is work too. Any list will do. The deck's real strength is getting you both to sit down. If you've already had that talk and things slid back, a new deck won't fix it.

Get it out of your head and into Lyven today

Give each job one owner, noticing and planning included, and check in for ten minutes a week. Free on the App Store, Google Play and the web.

Start Lyven free →
Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play