Rover vs TrustedHousesitters: Which Pet Care Model Wins

Rover and TrustedHousesitters both connect pet owners with people who will look after a dog or cat, but the two platforms run on almost opposite business models. Rover is a pay per booking marketplace: you pick a walker, sitter, or boarder and pay them directly for that job. TrustedHousesitters is a yearly membership where vetted sitters live in your home free of charge, and in exchange they care for your pet and your house while you travel. Neither model is universally better. The honest bottom line is that Rover suits people who need care occasionally or locally and are comfortable paying per visit, while TrustedHousesitters tends to pay off for owners who travel often, have a home worth sitting, and would rather trade lodging than write repeated checks.

How Rover actually works

Rover is built around individual bookings. You search for walkers, drop in visitors, in home sitters, or boarders in your area, compare profiles and reviews, message a few candidates, and book the one you like for a specific date range. Every booking has its own price, set by the provider, and you pay through the app each time you need care. There is no membership fee to browse or book on Rover, and joining as an owner costs nothing.

The pricing has two layers. The sitter or walker sets their own rate for the service, and Rover takes a service fee out of that provider's pay before it lands in their account. Separately, Rover adds a booking fee on top of the provider's price when the owner checks out. According to Rover's own support documentation, that owner side fee is calculated as a percentage of the booking and capped at a flat dollar amount, so a small overnight stay and a week long boarding stint are not charged the same flat rate. You can read the current breakdown in Rover's service fee explanation. See our full Rover review for how the booking flow, messaging, and Rover Guarantee actually play out in practice, and how Rover works for the mechanics of a first booking start to finish.

Because you are paying per job, Rover scales naturally with how much care you actually need. Book one weekend of boarding a year and you pay for one weekend. Book daily dog walks and you pay for daily dog walks. There is no ongoing commitment between bookings. Cancellation terms, refund windows, and any purchase protection also vary by booking type, so it is worth reading the specific policy attached to a listing before you pay rather than assuming every service on the platform is covered the same way.

How TrustedHousesitters actually works

TrustedHousesitters flips the transaction. Instead of paying a provider for a service, owners and sitters both pay an annual membership fee to join the platform, and then the sitting itself is free. A sitter travels to your home, stays there for the length of your trip, and cares for your pets and house in exchange for free accommodation. No money changes hands for the actual sit. TrustedHousesitters describes this directly as an exchange model on its own site: sitters do not charge for their time, and owners provide a place to stay instead of a paycheck, per TrustedHousesitters' own explanation of how it works.

Membership tiers vary by plan level and by whether you are joining as an owner, a sitter, or both, and pricing has shifted more than once as the company has restructured its plans, so treat any number as a ballpark to confirm on the site before you sign up. As a rough range, expect somewhere in the neighborhood of $130 to $300 a year depending on the tier and membership type, with higher tiers reducing or removing extra per sit booking fees that lower tiers still charge. That is a materially different cost shape than Rover: instead of a variable bill tied to how much care you book, you pay one fee up front and then use the platform as much or as little as you want for the rest of the year. Our TrustedHousesitters review covers the sign up process, profile verification, and what a typical sit looks like in more detail, and is TrustedHousesitters worth it walks through the value question on its own.

The tradeoff for that lower per sit cost is that you need a home a sitter actually wants to stay in, and you are inviting a stranger to live in your house, not just visit it for a walk. That changes the trust calculation considerably, which is worth thinking through before you compare price alone.

It is also worth noting what TrustedHousesitters is not. It is not a staffing agency that assigns a sitter to you, and it is not obligated to guarantee a match for every trip. You post your sit, sitters apply, and you choose from whoever is interested and available for your dates. Popular routes and desirable homes attract more applicants; remote locations or short lead times can mean fewer options, or none at all, which is a real planning risk that a paid marketplace like Rover does not carry in the same way.

The real cost math

Numbers make the difference concrete. Imagine an owner who travels four times a year for about a week each trip, and also books a handful of local dog walks the rest of the year. On Rover, a week of in home boarding or daily drop in visits commonly runs somewhere in the range of $25 to $75 a night depending on the city and the provider, plus the owner side booking fee added at checkout. Four weeklong trips at that range, plus routine walks in between, can realistically add up to several hundred to well over a thousand dollars across a year, scaling directly with how much care is booked.

On TrustedHousesitters, that same owner pays one annual membership fee, and the four weeklong trips cost nothing beyond that membership, assuming the owner can find and vet a sitter willing to take each trip. The math clearly favors TrustedHousesitters for owners who travel frequently and for extended periods, because the membership fee gets spread across more sits. The math favors Rover for an owner who only needs care once or twice a year, or who mainly needs short local visits rather than multi day house sits, since a single Rover booking or two will usually cost less than a full annual membership.

There is a nuance worth naming honestly: TrustedHousesitters only saves money if you can actually secure sitters. Popular destinations and short notice trips can be harder to fill than a paid booking, because sitters are choosing your listing among many free stays rather than being paid to show up. Owners in less traveled areas, or those who need care on short notice, may find the exchange model less reliable than a marketplace where money is the incentive.

There is a second cost to account for on the Rover side that owners sometimes forget: tipping. Tips are common for walkers and sitters who do a good job, and unlike the service price itself, tips are not subject to Rover's service fee, so the full amount goes to the provider. Budgeting an extra 10 to 20 percent for tips on top of the listed booking price gives a more realistic picture of what a year of regular Rover use actually costs, and it is a cost that simply does not exist on TrustedHousesitters, where the entire relationship is built on the exchange itself rather than payment.

Trust and vetting differences

Handing over your home and your pet to someone you found online carries real risk regardless of which platform you use, and no app can fully guarantee a stranger's behavior. Both platforms run some form of identity verification and reference checks, and both rely heavily on user reviews to build trust over time, but the shape of the risk differs.

On Rover, a provider comes to your home for a defined visit or picks up your pet, and you typically pay through the app with some purchase protection tied to the booking. You can screen candidates by reviews, background check status where offered, and a meet and greet before booking. On TrustedHousesitters, a sitter is given a key and lives in your home unsupervised for days at a time, which raises the stakes of getting the vetting right. Membership tiers differ in how much identity and reference verification is included, so it is worth confirming exactly what is checked at your plan level rather than assuming every member has been through the same screening.

General pet sitter vetting advice applies to both models: ask for references, do a video or in person meet and greet, check how long a candidate has been active on the platform and what their reviews actually say, and trust your own read of the person as much as any badge on their profile. The American Kennel Club's guidance on choosing a sitter and the AKC Pet Insurance tips for finding a pet sitter apply whether you are hiring on Rover or matching on TrustedHousesitters. The ASPCA's guide to choosing a pet sitter makes a similar point: interview thoroughly, ask about experience with your pet's needs, and never skip the meet and greet regardless of how a candidate was sourced. See our own is Rover safe breakdown for more on Rover's specific guarantee terms. Do your own diligence either way. Neither platform's badge or guarantee removes the need for it.

The reciprocal nature of TrustedHousesitters adds one more wrinkle worth naming honestly. Because sitters are also trusting you with a place to stay, and because reviews run in both directions, there is a soft social pressure that can make some owners reluctant to leave a fully candid negative review after a mediocre sit. Rover's purely transactional structure does not carry that same dynamic, since the provider is being paid regardless of whether the review is glowing.

Who each service actually suits

Rover fits owners who want care on their own schedule without a yearly commitment: occasional travelers, people who need daily dog walks while at work, or anyone who wants to book one sitter for one trip and be done. It also fits owners who are not comfortable with a stranger staying overnight in their home and would rather have a provider come for defined visits instead.

TrustedHousesitters fits owners who travel often, own or rent a home that a sitter would enjoy staying in, and are comfortable with the idea of a mutual exchange rather than a paid transaction. It tends to suit pets who do best staying in their own environment with round the clock company, since a sitter is typically present in the home the whole time rather than dropping in. It is a weaker fit for last minute trips, unusual locations, or owners who are uneasy inviting someone to live in their space for days.

Some owners end up using both: TrustedHousesitters for longer trips where the exchange math works, and Rover for shorter local needs like a single overnight or daytime walks between longer trips. That combination is common enough that it is worth comparing this pairing against the wider field before committing to one platform exclusively; see our house sitting vs pet sitting comparison for how the two care styles differ beyond just these two apps.

What to check before you commit to either one

Before booking on Rover, confirm the provider's cancellation policy, ask whether they carry any liability coverage beyond Rover's own protections, and schedule a meet and greet so your pet has met the person before the actual booking begins. Before joining TrustedHousesitters, read the exact membership tier terms, since verification requirements, per sit fees, and the number of active listings you can run at once all differ by plan, and those details change how much the membership is actually worth to you in a given year.

Neither platform is a substitute for a plan you have thought through yourself. Have a backup contact for emergencies, leave written care instructions regardless of how experienced the sitter is, and confirm how you will be reached if something goes wrong while you are away. Both Rover and TrustedHousesitters give you tools to find and vet care. Neither one removes the responsibility of choosing carefully.

Platform | Model | Typical cost | Best for
Rover | Pay per booking marketplace | About $15 to $30 per walk or drop in, about $25 to $75 per night for sitting or boarding, plus an owner side booking fee | Occasional or local care, short trips, owners who prefer a paid provider over a live in exchange
TrustedHousesitters | Yearly membership, sitter for accommodation exchange | Roughly $130 to $300 per year membership, no per sit fee at higher tiers | Frequent travelers with a home, longer trips, owners comfortable hosting a live in sitter

Frequently asked questions

Is TrustedHousesitters actually free once you pay the membership?

The sit itself is free. Sitters do not charge for their time, and you do not pay a nightly rate the way you would on Rover. You still pay the annual membership fee to join, and some lower tiers add a small per sit booking fee on top, so confirm your plan's exact terms before assuming every sit is completely free of extra charges.

Which platform is cheaper for someone who only travels once a year?

Rover is usually cheaper for infrequent travelers. A single Rover booking for one trip will typically cost less than a full year of TrustedHousesitters membership, since the membership fee only pays for itself once you use it across multiple trips.

Can I use Rover for a long house sit instead of hiring through TrustedHousesitters?

Yes. Rover offers in home boarding and drop in visits that can be booked for extended periods, though you pay the provider's rate for each night rather than a flat annual fee. It is a valid option for owners who want a paid, on demand provider rather than a membership based exchange.

Are TrustedHousesitters sitters as vetted as Rover providers?

Both platforms use some combination of identity verification, references, and reviews, but the specifics differ by platform and membership tier. Because a TrustedHousesitters sitter stays in your home unsupervised for days, it is worth confirming exactly what verification your membership tier includes and doing your own reference checks and meet and greet regardless of the badge on a profile.

Do I need to own a home to use TrustedHousesitters?

You need a home a sitter is willing to travel to and stay in, whether you own or rent, as long as you have the right to host a guest. Owners in less desirable or hard to reach locations may find it harder to attract sitters than owners in popular travel destinations, which is worth weighing against Rover's more consistent paid provider pool.