Babysits - Find Babysitters

Review by eFreeware

Babysits is for two groups of people at once: parents who need someone to watch their children, and babysitters who want to be found by those families. The developer pitches it as a community rather than a directory, and the app carries that idea through with search, messaging and an appointment planner in one place. If you are the one doing the hiring, this is a tool for narrowing a field of candidates and getting in touch with them. If you are the one sitting, it is a place to list yourself and wait for families to come to you.

The detail that stands out to me is that parents can look around before committing to anything. You can search the pool of sitters without signing up first, which means you get a sense of who is available in your area before you hand over any details. That is a small thing, but it separates the app from services that want an account before they show you anything useful.

How the search and matching work

The core of the app is a search tool with a wide set of filters. The developer describes it as the best search experience on offer, and the point of all those options is to let you narrow a large pool down to the handful of sitters who fit your situation. You are not browsing a short list someone else assembled; you are doing the filtering yourself and deciding what matters.

Profiles carry reviews and references, which is the part I would lean on most heavily when comparing candidates. Those are the closest thing to a track record you get before a first conversation. From there, the app expects you to screen and interview the people you are considering and make the final call yourself.

That structure makes the app a matching service rather than a placement agency. It puts the judgment in your hands, which is good if you want control and less good if you were hoping someone else would vet candidates for you.

Messaging and planning appointments

Once you have found someone worth talking to, the app handles the conversation. There is a messaging service built in, described as secure, and push notifications keep you in the loop when a reply comes in. For sitters, that means a family can reach out through the app.

The appointment planner is the other half of that. Rather than negotiating dates in a thread and hoping both sides remember, the app gives you a place to set up the booking itself. I would expect this to matter most for households that need care on a repeating schedule, where keeping track of who is coming on which evening gets messy fast.

What sitters get out of it

For babysitters, the app is free to use, and the developer is explicit that no commission is taken from what you earn. You set your own hourly rate and your own availability, and you negotiate the terms directly with the family. That combination is the main argument for using it over an agency, which typically takes a cut and assigns the work.

It lists you and lets families make contact, but the schedule and the rate are yours to manage, and so is the effort of responding and following up. The developer frames this as being your own boss, and that is a fair description of what the arrangement actually asks of you.

What parents pay, and what that buys

The app is free to download and contains no ads, but it does sell in-app purchases, and for parents the important one is a premium subscription. Upgrading is what allows a parent to contact babysitters and plan appointments; the service is affordable for parents and free for sitters. The subscription recurs, with pricing listed at $24.99 per month, $49.98 for three months or $99.96 for twelve, or the local equivalent.

So the split is straightforward: sitters browse and are contacted at no cost, while families pay to reach out and book. If you are a parent weighing this up, the annual rate works out considerably cheaper per month than paying monthly, which is the usual shape for this kind of subscription. Whether the cost makes sense depends on how often you need care, and that is a calculation only you can make.

It is also worth reading the subscription terms before you commit, since both a privacy policy and terms and conditions are available in the app.

The limits that come with the model

The app is a marketplace, and marketplaces are only as useful as the number of people using them in your area. A wide filter set helps you sort through a crowded pool; it cannot create candidates who are not there. If you live somewhere with few sitters signed up, the search will feel thin no matter how many options it offers.

Screening, interviewing and choosing are all steps the developer leaves to you, and that is deliberate. It means the quality of the match depends on how carefully you use the reviews, references and conversation the app puts in front of you.

The app gives you a profile and a way to be reached, and the rest is down to how families respond.

Who this fits, and how it stacks up

I would point parents who want to choose their own sitter, rather than accept an assignment, toward this app. The search filters, the reviews and references, and the ability to look before signing up all support that way of working. Families who need care regularly, and who would rather book it through the app than trade messages indefinitely, are the ones the planner is built for.

Babysitters who want to set their own rate and keep all of what they earn have a clear reason to list themselves here. The app has been around since 2016 and carries a 4.2 average from more than 13,000 ratings, with over a million installs, so it is an established option rather than a new experiment.

The subscription is the main thing to weigh if you are hiring. Parents pay to make contact, sitters do not. Anyone comfortable with that split will find a well-equipped tool.

A practical choice for families and sitters alike

Babysits does one job and does it with a reasonable set of tools: search with plenty of filters, profiles backed by reviews and references, messaging, and a planner for the booking itself. It is free for sitters and subscription-based for parents, and it leaves the screening and the final decision where they belong, with the family.

If you are a parent who wants to compare candidates on your own terms and book them without a middleman, this is a sensible place to start, provided the monthly or annual cost fits how often you need help. If you are a sitter who values setting your own hours and rate without commission taken off the top, the free side of the app is worth trying.

What's new in version 10.2.0

We have made further tweaks to the UI to make finding a babysitter and babysitting as easy as possible. We're always working to improve your experience.