Comparison · Updated August 2026

How taskr compares to the big family apps

Greenlight, Bark, Qustodio, OurPact, Unrot, Cozi, BusyKid and OurHome get grouped together as “family apps”, but they solve four different problems. Here is what each one actually does, what it costs, and where taskr fits — including where it does not.

Four different problems, one shelf

Before comparing prices, work out which of these you are actually trying to fix. Buying the wrong category is the most common mistake in this market.

  • “What is my kid seeing?” — monitoring and filtering. Bark, Qustodio, Net Nanny.
  • “How do I teach them about money?” — allowance and banking. Greenlight, BusyKid.
  • “Where is everyone supposed to be?” — calendars and lists. Cozi.
  • “Why is the trash still not out?” — chore enforcement. This is the one taskr is built for.

App by app

taskr vs. Greenlight

Scale:
4.8 stars from roughly 488,000 App Store ratings
Price:
Free app, $5.99–$19.98/month subscription
What it does:
A kids' debit card and money app with chores attached. Assign a chore, the child checks it off, allowance pays out automatically. Also does savings, investing, and location sharing.
Where it stops:
It does not control screen time or block apps at all — its parental controls are over spending, not devices.

If you want chores to pay pocket money, Greenlight is the more complete product and it is not close. If the reward that actually motivates your kid is their apps rather than cash, that is a different tool.

Full taskr vs. Greenlight comparison

taskr vs. Bark

Scale:
A widely used parental-control and monitoring service
Price:
Bark Jr $5/month or $49/year; Bark $14/month or $99/year
What it does:
Content monitoring. It scans messages, email, and 30+ social platforms and alerts you when something concerning appears. Screen time scheduling and web filtering come with the full plan.
Where it stops:
On iPhone, Bark's message and photo monitoring does not run live on the phone: according to Bark's iPhone help pages, it scans the device every few hours when it is on the same Wi-Fi as a Bark Home or a computer running Bark's desktop app, or plugged into a Bark Sync charger. So alerts arrive after your child has already seen something. It has no concept of a chore.

Bark answers 'what is my kid seeing?'. taskr answers 'why is the trash still not out?'. These are different jobs, and plenty of families run one of each.

taskr vs. Qustodio

Scale:
An established cross-platform parental-control service
Price:
Limited free tier (1 device, reports only); Basic $59.95/year for 5 devices; Complete $109.95/year
What it does:
Web filtering, app blocking, time limits, and activity reporting across iOS, Android, Windows and Mac. Strong cross-platform coverage.
Where it stops:
Blocks run on schedules and categories. Nothing ties a block to whether a specific chore was finished, and there is no photo-proof approval step.

Qustodio is the better pick for a mixed-device household that needs filtering and reporting. taskr is iOS-only and does one narrower thing.

taskr vs. OurPact

Scale:
4.4 stars from roughly 37,000 App Store ratings
Price:
Premium $6.99/month or $69.99/year; Premium+ $9.99/month or $99.99/year, 14-day trial
What it does:
App and website blocking, block schedules, a daily screen-time allowance, an instant block button, a web filter and a family locator, across iOS and Android from one dashboard. Premium+ adds screenshots of the child's screen.
Where it stops:
Every block comes from the clock or from you pressing a button. Its pricing page and App Store listing never mention chores, tasks or rewards.

The better buy for a mixed-device household that wants filtering, scheduling and location in one place. It will not tell you whether the dishwasher got emptied.

Full taskr vs. OurPact comparison

taskr vs. Unrot

Scale:
4.7 stars from roughly 57,000 App Store ratings
Price:
Free to download, with Full Access purchases listed from $9.99 to $69.99
What it does:
The best-known earn-your-screen-time app. The user picks which apps to lock, earns coins by completing habits such as a walk, homework or a chore, and spends the coins on time in TikTok, YouTube or games. iOS 18 or later.
Where it stops:
It is built for the person holding the phone: tasks are self-chosen and self-verified, and we could not find a parent dashboard or a parent approval step described on its listing or its site.

Genuinely good for a teen who has decided to cut their own scrolling. Not the tool for a chore a child did not volunteer for.

Full taskr vs. Unrot comparison

taskr vs. Cozi

Scale:
One of the most widely used family organizers
Price:
Free with ads; Cozi Gold $39/year. Cozi's FAQ says the free version lets you enter calendar events for the next 30 days.
What it does:
Shared family calendar, grocery and to-do lists, and meal planning. The chore feature is a shared to-do list.
Where it stops:
Nothing enforces anything. A chore in Cozi is a line of text somebody has to remember to tick off.

Cozi is a great calendar and a weak chore app. Most families who use both keep Cozi for scheduling and add something with teeth for chores.

taskr vs. BusyKid

Scale:
Established name in the chores-and-allowance category
Price:
Paid subscription, with an optional kids' debit card
What it does:
Chores tied to real money — complete a chore, a parent approves, and the payout lands in the child's account to spend, save, share or invest.
Where it stops:
Like Greenlight, it is a money product. It does not touch screen time or app access.

Choose on what motivates your kid. Some children will do anything for $3. Others will do anything for their phone back.

taskr vs. OurHome

Appears abandoned
Scale:
Was the go-to free chore app for years
Price:
Was free; the original app is not listed in the US App Store as of September 2026
What it does:
Chores, points, rewards, shared lists and a family calendar, on iOS and Android.
Where it stops:
It appears abandoned — unpublished from Google Play in September 2023, no meaningful updates since 2020, and users report being unable to log in due to server problems.

If you are here because OurHome stopped working, you are not imagining it. We wrote up where to go instead.

OurHome alternatives that still work

When taskr is not the answer

taskr is iOS-only, because it is built on Apple Family Controls and there is no Android equivalent. If your household is mixed, you need something cross-platform for the Android phones.

It also does not monitor messages, filter web content, or pay allowance. If any of those is the actual job, buy the tool built for it. taskr does one thing: it makes a chore deadline mean something, automatically. Everything else on this page does a different job well.

Apple's own Screen Time settings are free and worth setting up before you buy anything — our guide to parental controls on iPhone walks through them.

Common questions

What is the best alternative to Greenlight just for chores?

Greenlight's chore feature is bundled with a paid money product at $5.99–$19.98 per month as of August 2026. If you want chores without the debit card, taskr is free to try on iOS and rewards chores with app access instead of allowance. taskr Pro is an optional subscription at $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year, and the first month is free. If the allowance is the point, there is no free equivalent to Greenlight — that is the product.

Is there a free alternative to Bark or Qustodio?

Not a like-for-like one. Bark and Qustodio do content monitoring and web filtering, which is expensive to run, so the free tiers are thin — Qustodio's covers a single device with reports only. Apple Screen Time is free and handles time limits and app blocking well. taskr is free to try and adds chore-based enforcement on top; taskr Pro is an optional subscription at $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year. That combination covers a lot of what parents buy Qustodio for, but it does not monitor messages.

What happened to OurHome?

OurHome was unpublished from Google Play in September 2023 and has had no meaningful update since 2020, and users widely report login and server failures. It has not been formally announced as shut down, but it is not a safe app to build a family routine on in 2026.

Which chore app actually enforces the chore?

Very few. Most chore apps — Cozi, OurHome, and the sticker-chart apps — track chores without any consequence attached, so enforcement is still you. Greenlight and BusyKid attach money. taskr attaches app access through Apple Family Controls: when a chore goes overdue, the apps you chose lock until you approve a photo of the finished chore.

Do I have to choose just one of these?

No, and most families do not. These tools overlap less than their marketing suggests. A common setup is a calendar app for scheduling, Apple Screen Time for the daily cap, and one app that actually enforces chores. They run side by side without conflicting.

Keep comparing

See taskr vs. Apple Screen Time, taskr vs. Greenlight, taskr vs. Choreio, taskr vs. OurPact, taskr vs. Unrot, or the ranked roundup of the best chore apps for kids.

Free to try on the App Store

taskr Pro is an optional subscription at $9.99 a month or $49.99 a year, and the first month is free. iOS only. Built on Apple Family Controls.