Sweepy Alternative for Families: From Room Scores to Paid Chores
Sweepy organises cleaning room by room, with household sharing behind a $19.99/year Premium paywall. Chore-List is the Sweepy alternative built for families with kids: organise by person instead of room, share with the whole household free, and attach real dollar pay to the work.
What Sweepy does - fairly
Sweepy (Premium $19.99/year or $3.99/month, as reviewed by Cubby, October 2026) tracks each room’s cleanliness, schedules recurring cleaning tasks, and keeps a household leaderboard. It’s a genuinely pleasant cleaning rota - for adults. Sharing that rota with your household requires Premium, and nothing in the model pays anyone, tracks a balance, or speaks to the actual family problem: a kid who sees no reason to care that the bathroom score dropped.
| Sweepy | Chore-List | |
|---|---|---|
| Organised by | Room | Person - photo + balance per list |
| Household sharing | Premium only ($19.99/yr) | Free - it’s the core model |
| Motivation | Cleanliness scores, leaderboard | Dollar earnings + a rewards store |
| Beyond cleaning | Cleaning only | Any chore - homework, pets, yard, errands |
| Recurring tasks | Yes | Daily / weekly / monthly, paying per occurrence |
| Photo proof & approvals | No | Yes |
| Wall display | No | Kiosk mode on any tablet |
| Price | Free tier / $19.99 per yr | Free |
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free Sweepy alternative that shares with the whole family?
Yes - Chore-List. Sharing is free and unlimited while in beta: every member gets a list and a login, the board is visible to everyone, and the kiosk mode puts it on a shared kitchen screen.
Can Chore-List handle a cleaning rota?
Yes - recurring chores with due times cover the rota (bathroom Saturdays, kitchen nightly), and the Open Chores pool lets anyone claim the jobs nobody owns. What it doesn’t model is a room’s cleanliness score over time; it tracks who did the work instead.
Why do families switch from Sweepy?
Most often: the sharing paywall, the cleaning-only scope (homework and yard work don’t fit a room), and motivation - a leaderboard moves roommates; a dollar balance moves kids.
Can adults use it without kids?
Absolutely - adults are admins with their own lists, and households of adults use the board and balances to split housework fairly.
Does the leaderboard idea exist in Chore-List?
Effectively, yes: balances are visible on the board next to each person’s photo, so earnings standing is public at a glance - with real stakes attached.
See also: the Sweepy & Tody family guide and the Tody alternative.
Every room clean - and somebody paid for it.
Free for the whole household.
Last updated October 15, 2026.