Best Chore Chart Apps in 2026

Quick answer: a chore chart app has to do three things the paper chart on the fridge cannot — put a named person on each job, repeat it without anybody re-entering it, and keep a record of whether it happened. Most apps stop after two. Homsy does all three and rotates the jobs nobody wants, at $19.99 a year, with a free plan covering 2 people and 3 repeating chores. Cozi will assign a repeating chore for nothing, but it will not rotate one and it lives only in the phone apps. Tody is the pick if the argument is about how clean is clean, and sharing it costs $24.99 a year, not the $9.99 everybody prints — that tier is called Premium Solo. One warning before you shop: OurHome, which nearly every chore chart list still recommends, could not be found in either store on 21 August 2026 or on 27 August, and the app now carrying the name in both stores is a different product from a different developer.

The paper chart on the fridge worked for about a week. Everybody knows why it stopped working, and it was not the paper — it was that nothing happened when a square went unticked. No reminder, no record, no consequence, and no way to settle the argument about whose week it was.

A digital chore chart is worth installing only if it fixes that specific failure. Most of them fix half of it. This page is about which half, with prices and versions read off each vendor's own pages and store listings on 21 August 2026, and figures left out wherever a vendor does not publish one.

The Three-Part Test

Use this before you look at any feature list, because it disqualifies most of the category in about a minute.

Does each job get a named owner? Not a shared list everybody can see — an owner. A list without owners is the fridge chart with a backlight, and it fails the same way.

Does it repeat by itself? Household work is repeating work. If somebody has to rebuild the week every Sunday, that somebody has become the household's chore manager and you have moved the mental load rather than shared it.

Does it keep a record? This is the one almost everything fails, and it is the one that matters. "I always do the bins" is either a fact or a feeling depending on whether anything wrote it down. An app that keeps completion history turns a fairness argument into a two-second check. An app that only shows today cannot.

A fourth question decides whether the whole thing survives a month: where does the chart live when nobody has opened the app? A chart people have to go looking for is a chart people stop looking for. This is the question the category is worst at, and it has its own section below.

What Changed in 2026

OurHome appears to have gone, and something else answers to the name. It was the standard recommendation for gamified children's chores, on this page included. On 21 August 2026 its App Store listing returned no result in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada or Germany, the Google Play link printed on its own website returned a 404, and the site itself would not load over HTTPS. Re-checked on 27 August 2026: still nothing from Apple for its old bundle, both store links on its own site still dead, the site still plain HTTP only. Nothing has been announced, so this is what we found rather than a verdict. And do not install the app that now sits in both stores under the same name: it comes from a different developer, Elusios, at version 1.8.0 updated on 15 July 2026, and it is a shopping list and task list for roommates — a separate product that has reused the name, not the chore-and-rewards app the old reviews describe. Homsy vs OurHome covers what the original did, for households looking to replace it.

The chart moved onto the wall. Skylight sells a kitchen calendar as a physical screen, and its chore handling is better value than it looks: chores and routines work with no subscription at all, in Skylight's own words, while the star-and-reward layer on top needs Calendar Plus, which Skylight describes as a $79.99 a year value. Hardware comes in 10-inch, 15-inch and 27-inch sizes and is bought separately. FamilyWall has a household screen of its own on a waitlist. See skylightframe.com for current hardware prices, which move.

Cozi quietly grew a third tier. Its plan page now lists Free, Gold at $39 a year and Max at $79 a year. Most chore-chart advice still describes a two-tier Cozi.

The dedicated chore apps got big. The largest by App Store rating count are now Chorsee at 11,530 ratings and Sweepy at 10,403; Nipto sits at 862. None publishes pricing on a page we could reach, so they are named as part of the landscape rather than ranked — worth a look if the shortlist below does not fit, and worth checking the price before you commit.

Where the Chart Actually Lives

This is the section that changed most this year, and it is the one that decides whether any of the apps below survive past week two. We checked what each vendor says its widgets and screens actually display.

The result is worse than the marketing suggests: most home-screen widgets in this category show the calendar, not the chore list. Cozi's iOS widget shows the next upcoming event, and Cozi says plainly that it is for Gold subscribers; its list widgets are an Android feature documented on a page last touched in 2023. TimeTree's widgets — home screen and lock screen, both free, plus an Apple Watch app — show the schedule, never its memo and to-do lists, so a chore only becomes visible there if somebody enters it as a dated event. Tody has no widget at all; the word does not appear anywhere in its own store listing or on its site.

Four things do put a real chore list where people look. Homsy's widgets, on both iOS and Android, show today's chores, tasks, shopping and bin day. FamilyWall ships a free Tasks widget, and added a Timetable widget in version 12.2 in August 2026, though the schedules that widget displays are themselves a Premium feature. Google's Android Tasks widget is the most interactive of the lot — Google's own help says you can find, create and manage tasks inside it. And a Skylight on the wall owns its chores outright, which is the only version of this that works for a child with no phone.

One trap worth naming, because families keep falling into it: piping your chores to a wall screen through a calendar feed does not work. FamilyWall's own help centre says its bridge to Skylight and similar hubs carries calendar events only, one way, refreshed every 15 to 60 minutes — tasks do not travel. Google's Nest Hub help states that imported and iCal calendars are not supported on a display at all. The chart reaches the wall only when the wall device holds the chores itself.

The Field at a Glance

Prices are each vendor's published figures, read on 21 August 2026 and re-read for Tody on 27 August 2026. "Not published" means the vendor does not state it on a page we could reach.

1. Homsy — The Chart That Keeps a Record

Homsy passes all three parts of the test, which is why it leads this page. Each chore carries a named owner, a schedule, and a completion record you can look back through. Rotation is the part that separates it from everything else here: set a job to cycle between two children or two adults and it moves on its own, so nobody has to be the person who reassigns the bins and nobody gets it twice running.

On the fourth question, it puts the chart where people are. Home-screen widgets on both iOS and Android show today's chores, tasks, shopping and bin day without anybody opening the app, and the chores screen itself shows daily progress rings rather than a flat list. It runs on iOS, Android and the web, in 26 languages, and works offline. Version 1.0.21, from 5 August 2026, added account-less members, so a child with no phone still has a name, a colour and their own chores.

The honest limits. The free plan is a two-person plan, not a family plan: 2 household members, 3 repeating chores, 10 active tasks, 2 shopping lists. No advertising, and it does not expire, but a family of four will hit the ceiling on the first evening. Pro at $19.99 a year, $3.99 a month, or $34.99 as a one-time purchase lifts all of it. There is no points-and-rewards layer for young children, which is a deliberate choice and the wrong one for some households.

Best for: any household where the argument is about fairness rather than forgetfulness.

2. Cozi — The Free Chart for a Whole Family

Cozi will do the first two parts of the test for nothing and has no published member limit, which makes it the honest answer for a family of five with no budget. Put a repeating job on a named person's list and it comes back every week, alongside the shared calendar, shopping lists and recipe box.

It fails the third part. There is no completion history, so the app cannot tell you who did the bathroom last month, and the chores live only in the phone apps. It is mixed on the fourth: Android gets Shopping, To Do and Calendar widgets, but the iOS widget is a Gold feature by Cozi's own account and shows the next event rather than the chore list. Month view on a phone and calendar search are also behind Gold, at $39 a year, which is what removes the advertising too. There is now a third tier, Max, at $79 a year.

Best for: families whose problem is remembering the chores rather than dividing them. If the budget is the whole constraint, the best free family chore app compares the free tiers on the cap that actually bites.

3. Tody — When the Argument Is About Standards

Tody reframes the problem. Instead of a chart of jobs, it tracks how long since each area was last cleaned and surfaces what is due, which moves the disagreement off the people and onto the calendar. It is excellent at that, and version 6.6.7 landed on 20 August 2026 against 10,636 App Store ratings on 27 August, so it is well maintained.

Two things to know. It is cleaning only — it will not hold the school run, the bins or the admin. And its free version is, in its own words, feature complete for a single user: syncing with anybody else is Premium, advertised on Tody's site as "from 9.99$ /year". The "from" is doing work. The App Store purchase list, read on 27 August 2026, names the tiers: Premium Solo $9.99, Premium+ Duo $24.99, Premium+ Family $39.99, Premium+ Team $79.99. Solo is one person, so a chore chart two people can both write to starts at $24.99 and a family at $39.99. As a household chore chart Tody is a paid app, and dearer than the headline suggests. Homsy vs Tody runs the two side by side.

Best for: households arguing about what counts as clean rather than about whose turn it was.

4. FamilyWall — Tasks Alongside Everything Else

FamilyWall carries tasks next to its real strengths, which are location sharing and family messaging. It does better on this page than its reputation suggests: the chore checklist sits in the free tier, and so does the Tasks widget, which is one of the few in the category that puts an actual list rather than a calendar on the home screen. Version 12.2, in August 2026, added a schedule widget as well.

Where it stops is the third part of the test — no rotation, no completion history. Its budget, meal planner and schedules are Premium, and it does not publish the Premium price anywhere we could reach; see familywall.com.

Best for: families who want a chore list as a side effect of an app they are installing for other reasons.

5. Skylight Calendar — The Chart Back on the Wall

The one product that answers the fourth question by design. Skylight's own help centre is clear about the split: keeping track of chores and routines needs no subscription, while awarding stars and redeeming rewards for them needs Calendar Plus, which Skylight puts at a $79.99 a year value. A chore can be assigned to one or more people, and the screen carries day and week views.

For a household with young children and no phones, this is the closest thing to the fridge chart that actually enforces itself. Treat it as an addition to a phone app rather than a replacement, and check current hardware prices at skylightframe.com before deciding.

6. Google Tasks and a Shared Sheet — The Free DIY Chart

A shared spreadsheet with names, jobs and checkboxes is free, infinitely customisable and works on everything. It also has no assignment logic, no reminders and no rotation, and somebody has to maintain it every week. That somebody is doing the household's chore management as an unpaid job, which is the problem a chore chart exists to solve.

Google Tasks is the better half of this pairing and the one part of it that beats most paid apps at the fourth question: its Android list widget lets you find, create and manage tasks without opening anything, which is more than Cozi's iOS widget or TimeTree's will do. It still has no owners, no rotation and no record, so it holds a chore list rather than running one.

Worth it if you enjoy spreadsheets. Not worth it otherwise.

Choosing in One Line

• "Nobody remembers the chores." Cozi, free. Reminders and a repeating list are the whole fix.
• "Nobody does their fair share." Homsy. Rotation and a completion record are what settle that.
• "There are only two of us." Either free plan works — the best chore app for couples is the narrower comparison.
• "Star charts are not the problem I have." The best chore app for adults skips the confetti entirely.
• "We argue about how clean is clean." Tody, and budget for Premium if more than one of you will use it.
• "My children do not have phones." A screen on the wall. Skylight's chores work without a subscription; the rewards layer does not.
• "I want one app for the chores, the calendar and the shopping." A household task app that carries all three, rather than a chore tracker bolted to two other subscriptions.

The Part the App Cannot Do

The chart is the easy half. The system underneath decides whether it survives.

1. List everything first. Every recurring job, written down before anybody is assigned anything. Most households are surprised by the length, and the surprise is the point — see how to split chores fairly for the conversation that follows. Our chore split calculator will do the division by how long each job takes rather than by how many jobs there are.
2. Balance by time, not by count. Five two-minute jobs are not one two-hour job, and a chart that counts squares will quietly hide that for months.
3. Assign by preference where you can. People do the jobs they mind least. Save the rotation for the ones nobody will volunteer for.
4. Include the invisible work. Remembering, scheduling and noticing are chores. If they are not on the chart, they are still being done by somebody — fair division of household labor is about that half.
5. Review it monthly. Five minutes. What is not getting done, and who should it move to?
6. Match the chart to the age. Age-appropriate chores is the difference between a chart a child can complete and a chart that teaches them they cannot.

If what you actually want is a cleaning rota rather than a chore chart, our cleaning schedule generator builds one for your rooms in a browser with nothing to install.

FAQ

What is the best chore app in 2026?

It depends which failure you are fixing. For fairness, Homsy — it is the only app here that rotates jobs automatically and keeps a completion record, at $19.99 a year with a free plan for two people. For a whole family at no cost, Cozi, which assigns repeating chores and is free with advertising. For cleaning standards specifically, Tody — but sharing it is $24.99 a year, since the $9.99 tier is single-user.

Do digital chore chart apps actually work?

They work when two things are true: everybody in the household uses the app, and the division underneath it is fair. An app fixes visibility and reminders. It cannot fix a split where one person does most of the work — it will just show that clearly, which is useful but uncomfortable. Fix the split first, then use the app to hold it.

What should a chore chart app cost?

Between nothing and about $40 a year. Cozi is free with ads and $39 a year without them. Homsy Pro is $19.99 a year or $34.99 as a one-time purchase. Tody Premium is $9.99 a year for one person and $24.99 for two. Anything charging more than that is selling you a calendar or a hardware screen alongside the chart.

Is a chore chart app better than a paper chart?

For households with older children or adults, yes — a paper chart cannot remind anyone, cannot rotate a job and keeps no record of who did what. For young children a paper chart on the fridge still has one real advantage: it is seen by everybody walking past. The apps that close that gap put a widget on the home screen or a screen on the kitchen wall.

How long should I trial a chore chart app before deciding?

Two full weeks, with the whole household in it. One week only tests novelty. The second week is when people stop opening the app unprompted, and that is the information you actually need. Install two at once if you can, and keep the one that is still being used without reminders on day fourteen.