A chore app only changes behavior if there's a real reason to finish the chore. Stickers, points, and reminder badges work for a while, then quietly stop. taskr is built around a consequence kids feel immediately:
How taskr stacks up against the sticker-and-points chore apps most families try first.
Feature
taskr
Typical chore apps
Keeping their own apps — they stay open until a chore's deadline, and come back once you approve the photo
Stickers, points, or virtual coins that lose their appeal
Apps lock automatically the moment a chore goes overdue
A reminder notification you still have to enforce yourself
A photo of the finished chore that you approve or reject
A checkbox the child taps themselves
Built on Apple Family Controls — runs on the device
Honor system, off-device
Shared across your Apple Family — every parent can approve
Depends on the app; often one account per parent
Free to try; Pro $9.99/mo or $49.99/yr
Varies — often free to download, with a subscription or in-app purchases
Chore created with a due time
Apps stay open before the deadline.
Deadline passes → apps lock
The Screen Time rules you chose fire automatically.
Kid finishes, snaps a photo
One tap from inside the task.
Parent approves → apps unlock
Or reject and the block stays on until resubmission.
taskr is built around an Apple Family, so every parent in the Family Sharing group can assign chores, watch progress, and approve completed tasks from their own phone. It fits the daily-chores stage and the homework-and-teenager stage alike — tidying and dishes for younger kids, homework deadlines for teens.
Setting it up for kids specifically? See the chore app for kids walkthrough, or compare taskr directly with Apple Screen Time on its own.
Still weighing up the options? For the full ranking, see our roundup of the best chore apps for kids, along with the best free chore apps and, if your family's old app stopped working, the OurHome alternatives that still work.
Sticker-and-points chore apps tend to work until the novelty wears off, and then they become another reminder you enforce yourself. A chore app keeps working when skipping a chore has a consequence the child cares about. taskr uses the device itself: apps stay open until a chore's deadline, the apps you chose lock if it passes without an approved photo, and they come back as soon as you approve the photo of the finished chore.
taskr is 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 two weeks are free. It runs on Apple's Family Controls framework, so there's no hardware to buy and no device-management profile to install.
Other chore apps reward chores with stickers, points, or virtual coins, and rely on the honor system for completion. taskr's consequence is real screen access, it happens automatically at the deadline, and completion requires photo proof you approve. It's built on Apple Family Controls, the Apple framework built for consumer parental-control apps, so the blocking happens on the child's own device.
taskr is an iOS chore app — it works on iPhone and iPad running iOS 16 or later. The parent runs taskr on their own iPhone, and each child installs it on their own iPhone or iPad and joins the family with a family code. The Screen Time consequence runs on the child's device.
Free on the App Store. iOS only. Built for families.