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Lyven is a household app for couples that splits the home fairly: single owner per job, no scoreboard. Jobs are weighted by real effort, so the work is split rather than just written down somewhere both of you can see it. Cozi is a shared family calendar. The two solve different problems, and it matters which one you actually need.
Checked 18 October 2026 against Cozi's in-app paywall on the Australian App Store and Cozi's own FAQ.
Every job in the house, from the school forms to the bins to who remembers the dentist, gets one owner. Not shared, not rotated. That owner carries the noticing and the planning as well as the doing, weighted by how much real effort the job takes, not how it looks from the outside. The split is fused with the shopping list and the meals, so it is something you run the week on, not a chart you check once and forget. There is no scoreboard and no points. Free to use.
Cozi has been the shared family calendar for over 20 years, the major player in this category by a wide margin, and a lot of households genuinely just need "we can both see what's happening and what we need from the shops". Cozi does that.
What it does not do is show whose job something actually is. There is no ownership, no weighting for effort, no sense of who is carrying the noticing and planning behind an event rather than just attending it. Two parents can look at the same shared calendar for years and one of them is still the one who actually remembered to put everything on it. Cozi shows the load. It does not split it. That is the whole gap Lyven is built to close.
If the shortlist in front of you is Cozi and Cupla rather than Cozi and Lyven, those two are judged against each other on Cozi vs Cupla, with nothing of ours in the running. The same goes for FamilyWall vs Cozi and Cozi vs Skylight.
Cozi's parent company is OurFamilyWizard, which took a growth investment from the private equity firm Spectrum Equity in 2020 and acquired Cozi in 2022 from its previous corporate owner, Dotdash Meredith. Before that, Cozi passed through Time Inc. Four owners in two decades is not unusual for software this size, and it is worth knowing who is actually deciding the product roadmap.
Lyven is built and owned by two parents running their own home in Melbourne, with no outside investors. Who built Lyven names them, and covers what the app does with your data.
Cozi's free tier gives you the shared calendar and the to do and shopping lists, with ads. Almost everything else on its own paywall is locked. Checked in the Australian App Store on 18 October 2026, free Cozi does not let you see a full month, search your own calendar, set more than one reminder for an event, track birthdays, plan more than 30 days ahead, filter by person, use shopping mode or add events quickly. It also does not tell your family when you add something new. On free, if you put the dentist in the calendar, you still have to tell your partner yourself.
Unlocking those is Cozi Gold, A$59 a year after a 14 day trial. Above it sits Cozi Max, A$129.99 a year, which adds an AI assistant to create calendar events from your emails, plan your meals and generate recipe ideas. Who Gold is worth paying for is on Is Cozi Gold worth it? Lyven is free to use, with no AI in the app. It is not a calendar, so not everything on that list has a Lyven equivalent, but nothing in Lyven sits behind a paywall, and telling your partner is free: they hear when you give them a job or add to a list. The quickest way to see it is the Split Check, a two minute, no sign up look at how the work in your home divides right now.
Cozi runs on one shared account. Per Cozi's own FAQ, each family member signs in with their own email address and the shared family password, and every member has full access, with no way to restrict what one person sees. Change the password and everyone has to be told the new one.
In Lyven, each partner has their own sign in. Your partner joins your home with an invite code, not your password.
| Lyven | Cozi | |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Splitting household work fairly, one owner per job | A shared family calendar, shopping and to do lists |
| Fairness concept | Single owner per job, weighted by real effort | None. Shows the load, does not assign it |
| Platform | Android app on Google Play, and the web on any phone or computer | iPhone, Android and web |
| Price | Free, full system | Free with ads, most features locked. Cozi Gold A$59/yr; Cozi Max A$129.99/yr |
| Tells your partner about something new | Free. Your partner hears when you give them a job or add to a list | Paid. "Notify family of new events" is locked on the free tier |
| Signing in | Each partner has their own sign in | One shared family password; every member has full access |
| AI | None in the app | Cozi Max, A$129.99/yr, turns emails into events and plans meals |
| Track record | New | 20+ years, the major player in the category |
| Ownership | Built and owned by two parents running their own home. No outside investors | Owned by OurFamilyWizard, growth equity backed by Spectrum Equity since 2020 |
Curious how your own household actually splits?
Find your fair →A single owner per job, weighted by real effort, fused with the shopping list, the meals and the running list of what the home needs, so the split is something you live in rather than something you check on.
A shared family calendar with colour coded events, shopping lists, to do lists and a recipe box, simple enough for every generation in the family to use.
Lyven gives every piece of household work a single owner, weighted by real effort, and shows how the load currently divides. Cozi is a shared calendar, shopping list and to do list. It has no concept of whose job something actually is. If you want the work split fairly and kept that way, Lyven. If all you need is a calendar everyone can see, Cozi does that.
No. Cozi shows a shared calendar and shared lists, so both partners can see what is happening, but it does not assign ownership or weigh who is actually carrying the work. It shows the load. It does not split it.
Per Cozi's own in-app paywall on the Australian App Store (October 2026), the free tier keeps the shared calendar and the to do and shopping lists, with ads. Locked behind Cozi Gold (A$59 a year after a 14 day trial): ad free, more than one reminder per event, the full month view, birthdays, searching events, planning more than 30 days ahead, filtering by person, notifying the family of new events, shopping mode and quick add. Cozi Max (A$129.99 a year) adds AI that turns emails into calendar events and plans meals. Lyven is free to use, and nothing in it sits behind a paywall.
Yes. Per Cozi's own FAQ, each family member signs in with their own email address and the shared family password, and every member has full access, with no way to restrict what one person sees. In Lyven, each partner has their own sign in.
Cozi's parent company is OurFamilyWizard, which took a growth investment from the private equity firm Spectrum Equity in 2020 and acquired Cozi in 2022 from its previous corporate owner, Dotdash Meredith. Before that, Cozi passed through Time Inc. Lyven is built and owned by two parents running their own home in Melbourne, with no outside investors.
Lyven is free to use. We may add paid extras later, and nobody is charged without choosing to. See Foundation membership.
Yes. Lyven is private by design with Australian hosting. The Split Check requires no account, and your data is handled under Lyven's privacy policy.
Two minutes, ten cards, no sign up. See how the work in your home actually divides today, on any phone.
Find your fair →