Chickadee Bandit vs. 2houses
Two ways to share the cost: one family account, or two private homes and a shared space.
Compare › Chickadee Bandit vs. 2houses
Which is a better fit?
Choose 2houses if you want one shared account for the whole family and a mediator who can see all of it. Chickadee Bandit fits parents who want each home kept private, an append-only shared record either parent can export, and the other parent joining free.
Where 2houses shines — and where it doesn't
2houses is a co-parenting app from a Belgian company, built for separated parents who get along. One parent pays, and the whole family joins: both parents, the children, grandparents and step-parents, and a mediator. It covers the custody calendar, messages, shared expenses, an information bank for the children's details, and a journal and photo albums, on the web, iPhone and Android.
We share its pricing idea: one parent pays and the other does not. Where we differ is shape. 2houses is one shared account for the family; Chickadee Bandit gives each parent a private household and puts only what they co-manage in a space between them.
Side by side
| 2houses | Chickadee Bandit | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $169.99 a year (about $14.17 a month) on its website; its App Store listing also sells a $27.99 monthly plan. Fourteen-day trial, which needs a credit card. No free plan. | One household plan from $6/mo (or $60/yr). One parent sponsors the co-parenting space and the other parent joins free. 30-day free trial with no card. |
| Who one payment covers | One subscription covers both parents, the children, third parties and mediators. Either parent can take over paying. | The sponsoring parent's plan covers the space. The other parent joins free and needs no plan of their own. |
| Two homes, one record | One shared family account. Both parents have the same rights, and there is no account administrator. | Each parent keeps a private household — their own calendar, chores, and new partner — and the space between them holds only what they co-manage. Neither home can see into the other. |
| Messages | Messages with the other parent, a child or a mediator. Its pages say conversations can be archived or printed but never deleted; they do not say whether a message can be edited. | Co-parenting spaces are append-only: no member can edit or delete a sent message, and the setting cannot be loosened by one parent. Timestamps on send and on the recipient's first view are set by the server and appear in the exported record. |
| Custody schedule | A wizard to set up the custody arrangement, recurring visits, sync with iCal, Google Calendar and Outlook, school holiday import, and change requests the other parent accepts or answers with another date. | Rotation patterns (2-2-3, week-on/week-off, alternating weekends, custom) with countersigned swaps: a swap is a proposal until the other parent approves, then it locks and lands on both calendars. Calendar sync with Apple, Google, and Outlook. |
| Expenses & payments | A running balance of who owes whom, payment invitations to the other parent, spending categories and a wish list. Its pages do not say whether money moves inside the app. | Log a cost with a receipt photo, split evenly, by exact amounts, or by saved category percentages, and request reimbursement through two-party approval. No payment processing and no transaction fees. |
| Records | Expense reports export as CSV or PDF, and conversations can be printed. Its pages describe no court-ready or certified records. | Either parent can export the space's records at any time without the other's approval: the custody record, the parents' messages, schedule history, swaps and handoff notes as one print-styled document with a cover page and checksums (downloaded as a PDF, or as a verified copy anyone can check for seven years), each custody report as CSV, or a ZIP archive of machine-readable files. Not a certified package. |
| Mediators & professionals | Free professional accounts. A mediator gets read-only access to the whole family account, and professionals can create and manage client accounts. | No practitioner accounts. A parent can hand a mediator or attorney a verified copy of the record, which they can check at chickadeebandit.com/verify. |
| Kids' details | An information bank for contacts, clothing sizes, medical details and Social Security numbers, plus a journal and photo albums. | Family records vault for the custody agreement, insurance cards, consent forms, sizes, allergies, doctors, and school contacts, shared with the adults who currently hold access to the space. |
| Privacy | Each parent has their own login. Its Google Play data-safety section states "Data isn't encrypted". Hosted on Amazon, OVH and Google infrastructure. | Each household's data lives in its own encrypted database. No ads and no data selling. |
| Beyond co-parenting | Co-parenting only; one web account can hold several families. | Over 100 installable household apps for each parent's own home, on the same plan. |
Comparison reflects each product's published pricing and features and widely reported user feedback as of October 2026. Products change — always check the other product's site for current details.
Weighing more than these two? See every 2houses alternative we'd point you at.
Or step back from both: every co-parenting app compared, by what each is for.
When 2houses is the right call
If you and the other parent get along and want one account the whole family shares — grandparents and step-parents included — 2houses does that on one subscription. If a mediator should be able to see everything, its read-only mediator access does that too, and we have no equivalent. Its website is in six languages, which matters for a family split across countries.
Where we differ
Chickadee Bandit keeps each parent's home private and puts only the shared record in the space between them: append-only messages, countersigned custody swaps, and expenses both parents approve. Either parent can export that record at any time. We make no claims about admissibility; that is a court's decision, and we do not produce certified records. If your case needs those, see how we compare with OurFamilyWizard.
Moving from 2houses
Your 2houses history cannot be imported. Its privacy page says you can export a backup of your account from your subscription page; do that before you cancel. Then create a space, choose Co-parenting, and send the other parent a join link. See the co-parenting overview for what the space sets up.
The feature list is not fixed
Every other product on this page is a fixed set of features: it does what it does, and a need it did not anticipate gets a no. Chickadee Bandit is built from small apps, and a household can add one of its own. An admin describes the app in a paragraph on the Apps page and the hub builds and installs it, using the AI credits that come with every plan; someone who writes code can start from any of the open-source apps and install their own version from a URL. A custom app gets the same checks as the ones we ship: it declares what it reads and writes, keeps its data in your household's own database, and the hub refuses anything it did not ask for.
Two private homes, one shared record
30-day free trial. One parent's plan covers the space, and the other parent joins free.
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