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Lyven is a household app for couples that gives every job a single owner, weighted by real effort, so the work is split fairly and you can see how it lands. A spreadsheet is where a lot of couples start, us included. It's free, it's flexible, and it works right up until the week nobody opens it.
Written 7 August 2026 by the two people who built Lyven, in Melbourne.
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's something you run the week on, not a chart you check once and forget. There's no scoreboard and no points. Free while in beta.
Everyone already has one, it costs nothing extra, and it will model anything you can describe. No vendor, no account for your partner to set up, no feature you're waiting on. If you want to see a year of who did what, sorted and totalled however you like, a spreadsheet does that better than most software. Ours is still sitting in a folder.
Out of sight, out of mind. A spreadsheet sits in a folder and waits. Nothing brings it to you. You have to remember to go and open it, which means the remembering is still sitting exactly where it was before you built the thing: with whoever was already doing the remembering. Ours was immaculate for about three weeks. Then a fortnight went by where neither of us opened it, and by the time we did it was describing a household that no longer existed.
It can't remind anyone. A cell will happily hold a date. It can't do anything when that date arrives. So every nudge still has to come out loud, from one person to another person, which is the exact conversation the spreadsheet was supposed to end. A tool that needs you to chase it hasn't taken anything off you. It's added a tab.
This isn't an argument that spreadsheets are bad, or that you need software to run a home. It's one question worth asking of any setup, ours included. If you said nothing at all this week, would it still get done?
The useful distinction is between a tool that records the split and one that runs it. A sheet records beautifully. It has no view on what's due, no way to reach either of you, and no memory of who agreed to what back in March. Everything that makes it work is supplied by a person, and it's the same person every time.
Lyven's answer is to give each job one owner who carries deciding when it happens and what done looks like, and to put that split where you already are during the week, next to the shopping list and the meals. If you want your current starting point without building anything, the free Split Check takes two minutes and needs no account.
| Lyven | A spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Runs the split: owners, effort, the weekly rhythm | Records the split, exactly as you typed it |
| Reminders | The week comes to you, on your phone | None. A date in a cell is just text |
| Staying current | Updated as you tick things off during the week | Only as current as the last time someone opened it |
| Fairness | Effort weighted, one owner per job, no scoreboard | Whatever you build, maintained by whoever built it |
| Two people, one phone each | Both see the same thing, updated live | Workable, but someone owns the file and the format |
| Price | Free while in beta, full system | Free, or whatever your office suite already costs |
Curious how your own household 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 grid you shape however you like, with no vendor and no account. It will hold a chore roster, a cleaning schedule and a year of history, and it will still open in ten years.
Yes, and a lot of couples start there, us included. A spreadsheet will hold a roster, a cleaning schedule and a full year of history better than most software, for nothing. The limit isn't what it can store, it's that it only ever does something when a person opens it. It has no way to reach either of you and nothing happens when a date passes, so the chasing stays with whoever was already doing the chasing.
Two reasons, in our experience. It's out of sight in a folder, so nothing brings it to you and you have to remember to look, which leaves the remembering exactly where it was. And it can't remind anyone, so every nudge is still one person saying it out loud to another, which is usually the conversation the sheet was built to avoid. A fortnight of nobody opening it is enough for it to start describing a household that no longer exists.
The useful test is whether a tool records the split or runs it. Recording is what a sheet does well. Running it means the week reaches you rather than waiting to be opened, jobs have a lasting owner rather than a name typed in a cell, and the effort each job takes is counted so an hour doesn't score the same as four minutes. That's what Lyven is built to do, and you can see your current split in two minutes with the free Split Check at lyvenapp.com/split without setting anything up.
No. Start with the Split Check instead: ten cards, about two minutes, no account, and you'll have your current picture without copying a single row. Most people find the sheet was out of date anyway, so rebuilding from where you actually are today beats importing where you were in March.
Not for beta households. If you join during the beta, Lyven stays free for your household for life, with the whole system and no per person tier. When Lyven opens to everyone there will be paid tiers adding extra depth, such as projects and outsourcing, but beta households keep what they have and don't move onto them.
Yes. Lyven is private by design with Australian hosting. The Split Check requires no account, and beta data is handled under Lyven's privacy policy.
Two minutes, ten cards, no sign up. See how the work in your home divides today, on any phone.
Find your fair →