Best chore chart apps for families in 2026: Cozi, OurHome, Homsy, Skylight, and Kinhold compared
Five chore-tracking apps compared honestly: Cozi, OurHome, Homsy, Skylight, and Kinhold. Hands-on use, official documentation, and design tradeoffs, with a clear answer per family type.
Quick read.
- Best overall (most families): Cozi if the calendar is your bottleneck; Kinhold if chores + rewards + family ops are.
- Best for young kids: OurHome. Visual, simple, free.
- Best wall-mounted: Skylight Plus. Physical presence buys compliance.
- Best for routine-driven kids: Homsy. The streak gamification works.
- Best free option: OurHome (full-featured) or Cozi (calendar-first).
- Honest disclosure: This blog is published by Kinhold. The comparisons below come from hands-on use of each app, public documentation, user reviews, and the design tradeoffs each team has made. Not a controlled multi-week study. We use Kinhold ourselves and have opinions; where a competitor does something better, we say so.
If you’ve stuck a paper chore chart on the fridge, watched it work for a glorious nine days, then quietly fail while everyone pretended not to see it, you know the problem. (We wrote a whole post on why chore charts die in week 2. The short version: the chart is bad software.) The app version of that chart can do better, but only the right app for your family. Five common candidates, one principle that beats them all.
How we evaluated
We didn’t run a formal trial. What we did was use each app long enough to form a working opinion, read the official documentation cover to cover, dig through App Store and Play Store reviews for patterns, and compare the design choices each team has made against the criteria parents actually care about: setup friction, age-fit for the kids in the household, reward mechanics, fairness across siblings, and long-term sustainability when the novelty wears off.
We ship Kinhold, so a hand-on-the-scale is real and worth disclosing. Where a competitor is genuinely better at something Kinhold doesn’t try to do, we’ll say so and point you to it.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Standout feature | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cozi | Calendar-first families | Shared calendar with light task module | Free; Cozi Gold $39 |
| OurHome | Young kids (4–9) | Avatar-based UI kids actually open | Free; check site for current |
| Homsy | Routine-driven kids | Streak + leaderboard gamification | Subscription; check site for current |
| Skylight Plus | Wall-mounted, visible-to-everyone households | Touchscreen calendar + chore display in the kitchen | Hardware purchase + optional Plus subscription; check site for current |
| Kinhold | Tech-fluent families wanting one system | Chores + points + calendar + vault + AI in one (open-source) | Free self-host; hosted plan TBD |
Two notes on this table. Pricing as of May 2026; verify on the product page before signing up because subscription prices on these apps change more often than you’d expect. And no one app is “best” in a vacuum. The rest of this post is about which one is best for your family, which is a different question.
Cozi
Key features
Shared family calendar (the original feature, used by millions of households). To-do and shopping lists. Recipe box. A basic chore module that lives inside the to-do list. Color-coded per family member. iOS, Android, web.
Where it shines
Cozi nails the calendar. If the calendar is the actual bottleneck in your household (sports practices, school events, two working parents juggling pickups), Cozi has owned that problem for years and is genuinely good at it. The chore module is free, and it piggybacks on a calendar your family is already opening daily. Lowest possible friction to start.
Where it falls short
The chore tracking feels like a checklist add-on, not a system. There’s no real reward mechanic, no streaks, no leaderboard, no point conversion. Kids don’t open Cozi for chores; they open it because Mom told them to. That’s fine for a 7-year-old who’ll comply on a routine, but it’s the wrong shape for a tween who needs the reward loop to engage.
Who it’s best for
Calendar-driven households where chores are a secondary priority and the kids are young enough that compliance follows from visibility, not from gamification.
OurHome
Key features
Pure chore tracker with avatars, points, and a rewards store you configure. Kids see only their own tasks. Everything is free. Mobile-first; no real desktop interface.
Where it shines
OurHome is the easiest thing to get a 6-year-old engaged with. The avatars do real work. There’s something about a tiny blue character with a backpack that makes a 6-year-old willing to tap a “I made my bed” button five days running. The rewards store is configurable enough to model anything from “10 minutes of TV” to “movie night.” And it’s free, so the cost of trying it is zero.
Where it falls short
The ceiling is low. It works beautifully for ages 4–9 and starts feeling juvenile somewhere around age 10. There’s no real calendar integration; you can’t tie a chore to a specific date or see how the chore load is distributed across the week. And while there’s an active community, development pace has slowed. Features that were promised in 2023 are still listed as “coming.”
Who it’s best for
Households where the youngest kid is the one most resisting chores, and you want a fast win for under-9s. Plan to age out of it around middle school.
Homsy
Key features
Chore-focused app with explicit streak tracking, a per-kid leaderboard, and a structured rewards economy. Cleaner UI than OurHome; aimed at slightly older kids. Subscription-based.
Where it shines
The gamification actually works. Streaks compound visibly, the leaderboard is sibling-safe (no one is “losing”), and from what we’ve seen using it, kids open Homsy on their own at a higher rate than the chore module of any of the calendar-first apps. For a 9–13-year-old who responds to game-like loops, Homsy outperforms its category.
Where it falls short
It’s a single-purpose app. It does chores well and nothing else. If you’re already paying for Cozi for the calendar and considering Homsy for chores, you’re managing two apps for the same household, which is exactly the multi-app fatigue most families are trying to escape. Also: the subscription is per-family, not unreasonable, but it adds up next to free competitors.
Who it’s best for
Routine-driven kids in the 9–13 sweet spot whose households don’t need a calendar or vault and are willing to pay for the polish.
Skylight Plus
Key features
A 10–27” wall-mountable touchscreen that displays a shared family calendar and chore chart. Hardware purchase ($159–$299 depending on size) plus an optional Plus subscription ($59/yr) that unlocks chore chart features, list sync, and meal planning.
Where it shines
Physical presence. Skylight is the only product on this list that also solves the prompt problem the moment you mount it on the wall. Kids walk past it ten times a day. For households that have tried digital-only and watched the kids forget the app exists, the wall-mounted form factor changes the failure mode entirely. The 15” model in the kitchen is the version that gets the most rave reviews.
Where it falls short
The cost. Between hardware and subscription, you’re at $200–$350 in year one. Meaningful money even before you decide whether the system actually works for your family. The chore chart features are also less powerful than dedicated apps; you’re paying mostly for the display, not the chore engine. And while you can use Skylight without Plus, the chore chart specifically is gated behind the subscription.
Who it’s best for
Households with the budget who’ve already tried digital-only and watched it fail on the prompt-visibility axis. The tablet-on-the-counter alternative is worth trying first. Same effect, much lower cost.
Kinhold
Key features
Open-source family management system covering chores, point-based rewards, shared calendar, encrypted vault, meal planning, and an AI assistant accessible via MCP. Elastic 2.0 license. Free self-hosting for one family; hosted version in development. Web + mobile.
Where it shines
The integration is the value. A chore tap updates the kid’s point total on the same dashboard that shows the family calendar; the AI assistant can answer “how many points until I have enough for the LEGO?” without you mediating; the vault means the kids’ insurance card or pediatrician’s number is one search away from anyone in the family. For tech-fluent parents who already self-host things and are tired of stitching five SaaS subscriptions together, this is the shape of the answer.
Where it falls short
Honest assessment: Kinhold is younger than every other app on this list. The kid-facing mobile UI is less polished than OurHome’s avatar-driven design. If you don’t want to self-host and the hosted version isn’t out yet, you’re waiting. There’s no banking integration for older teens; Greenlight and GoHenry win that lane outright, and nothing we ship today will close the gap. And if your bottleneck is just the calendar, Cozi is genuinely better at that one job and Kinhold won’t change your mind in week 1.
Who it’s best for
Tech-fluent households (especially ones already running Home Assistant, a Plex server, or anything similar), families who want one system instead of five, and anyone who values open-source and data ownership enough to put the self-host hour in. Less right for: families who want a turnkey hosted product today and don’t want to wait.
How to choose
Five questions, in order:
1. What’s actually breaking: calendar or chores?
If you blow up at “who’s getting whom from soccer” more than at “who emptied the dishwasher,” your bottleneck is the calendar. Cozi or Skylight win that round, and you don’t need a chore-specialist app. If chores are the breakdown point, Homsy and Kinhold are the closer fits.
2. How young is the youngest user?
Under 7: visual avatar-driven matters more than logic; OurHome beats everything. Over 9: logic and points start mattering; Homsy and Kinhold both work. Mixed ages 5–13: pick the app that scales up, not down. OurHome will frustrate the 11-year-old; Kinhold’s per-kid views handle the spread better.
3. Do you need the chart to be physically present?
If you’ve already tried mobile-only and watched the kids forget it exists, Skylight’s wall-mounted form factor genuinely solves that. If a tablet on the kitchen counter would solve the same problem (often it does), save the $300 and don’t buy the hardware.
4. Are you willing to self-host?
If yes, Kinhold gives you data ownership and no subscription. If no, you’re choosing between Cozi, OurHome, Homsy, and Skylight, and waiting on hosted Kinhold for now.
5. Do you want chores tied to actual money?
If your priority is teaching banking and money management, this whole post is the wrong list. Greenlight and GoHenry are debit cards for kids with chore modules attached. Their chore engine is thinner than the apps above, but the banking integration is the actual point, and that’s a category none of the five apps here genuinely compete in. We’d link to a real comparison; that post is on the editorial calendar but unwritten.
Final word, by family type
- Two-working-parents, calendar chaos: Cozi.
- Multi-kid, ages 5–10, screen-time conscious: OurHome.
- Wall-mount-loving, “where everyone can see it” households: Skylight Plus (with budget for the hardware).
- Streak-driven kids, structured routines: Homsy.
- Tech-fluent, multi-app fatigue, want one system: Kinhold.
- Teens learning money management: Greenlight or GoHenry. Not on this list, but it’s the right answer.
The principle that beats every app on this list: the best chore app is the one your family will actually use after the first three weeks. Pick one, commit to 30 days, and don’t switch unless something is genuinely broken. Switching costs are real, and most “this app didn’t work” stories are actually “we never made it past day 9” stories, which is a chart-design problem, not an app-selection problem. (How to design a chart that actually survives the Friday Stress Test is the long version of that argument.)
If you’ve picked an app and you’re now staring at the question of how much each chore should be worth, that’s a separate problem worth its own post, and it’ll save you from a 12-year-old earning their way to a $400 LEGO set in three weeks.
Frequently asked questions
Are any of these chore apps actually free?
OurHome and the base Cozi tier are genuinely free. Homsy and Skylight Plus are paid. Kinhold is free if you self-host; the hosted version’s pricing isn’t published yet but is intended to have a free family tier.
Do these apps work on Android and iOS?
Cozi, OurHome, Homsy, and Kinhold all ship on both. Skylight is Android-based on the device itself but works alongside any phone.
What’s the difference between a chore chart app and a rewards app?
A chore chart app tracks who did what. A rewards app tracks redemption (kids spending earned points or money). Cozi, Skylight, and OurHome lean chart-first; Homsy and Kinhold are more rewards-integrated. Greenlight/GoHenry are rewards-first with chores attached.
Can siblings see each other’s chores and points?
Yes, in OurHome, Homsy, and Kinhold by default, and the visibility is usually a feature, not a bug, because friendly comparison drives engagement. Cozi and Skylight are less sibling-aware. If you want strict per-kid privacy, Kinhold’s permission model lets you scope it down.
Do any of these integrate with Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link?
Not directly, in any case we’ve used. The chore apps and the screen-time tools live in separate worlds today. The integration story across all of them is weak; this is the open opportunity for whoever builds it first.
Is it worth paying for one of these vs. a paper chart?
If your paper chart is alive at week 4 and the family is happy, no. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. If you’ve watched two paper charts die in a month, the per-month cost of the cheapest paid option (about $5) is a rounding error against the time you spent designing the chart, and the digital UX advantages are real. Try OurHome (free) before paying anything.
Pick the app that fits the bottleneck you actually have, commit for 30 days, and don’t switch unless something is genuinely broken. Switching costs are higher than feature gaps.
