Who pays for the app you use

Every app is paid for by someone. For an app that keeps your home’s records, there are four answers: you pay, someone pays for the referral, a pro or an agent pays, or advertisers pay. None of the four is a scandal. Each one changes what the app is for, and whose side it is on when the two differ. The app’s own pages usually say which it is, if you know where to look. Here are the four, what each means for you, and what fourteen home apps’ pages said when we read them between July and October 2026.

You pay

The plainest answer is a price on a pricing page.

• HomeZada’s Premium plan is “$118/yr or $21.98 / month”, with a free Essentials plan (homezada.com/homeowners/pricing, read November 2, 2026).
• HouseFacts is “$99 Per year, billed annually”, per property, after a 14-day free trial (housefacts.com/pricing, read October 25, 2026).
• Manse is “$288 / year”, with “No free tier.” and a monthly plan you can cancel any time (mymanse.ai/pricing, read October 25, 2026).
• Dib’s Pro plan is “$10 /mo per property”, with a free plan (dib.io, read October 15, 2026).
• HomeScore Pro “is $14/month or $140/year”, with a free plan (myhomescore.app/pricing, read October 19, 2026), unchanged when we read it again on October 23, 2026.
• Digital Home Manual’s Owner plan “is $9.99 per month, or $99.99 per year” for one home (digitalhomemanual.com/pricing, read October 15, 2026).
• Eave “is free for one home, forever”, and Eave Intelligence is “$2.99/mo” (eavehome.app, read October 15, 2026).

What it means: when the money comes from you, you are the customer, and the app answers to you. A price is also the easiest thing on these pages to check, so check the date on it; most of these had a free plan beside the paid one.

Several of the apps above have a second answer too. That is the part to read for.

Someone pays for the referral

A referral fee is money an app gets when you buy something it pointed you to: a contractor, an insurance policy, a product. When it is disclosed, it is in the privacy policy or the terms, not on the home page.

• Archer, the home app Ridley Technologies now runs under a new name, says nothing about referral pay in its privacy policy, effective October 16, 2026 (archerhome.com/privacy, read October 27, 2026); the company’s older policy, still up under the old name on October 27, 2026, says “Ridley may receive compensation in connection with these referrals.” (getridley.com/privacy, read October 27, 2026).
• Dib’s: “We may receive a referral fee for qualified insurance referrals.” (dib.io/privacy-policy, read August 11, 2026).
• Manse’s: “Some recommendations include affiliate links, disclosed where they appear.” (mymanse.ai/privacy, read July 24, 2026).
• Handyman.ai’s terms, section 4: “Handyman is free to use, and there’s no plan to buy.” and “The price Handyman shows you includes BuiltOS’s fee on top of the pro’s price.” (handyman.ai/terms, read November 2, 2026).
• For Hint, the line is TechCrunch’s, not Hint’s own: “The app today generates affiliate revenue from its partner network of service providers” (TechCrunch, July 29, 2026). Hint’s own pages, when we read them on October 14, 15 and 23, 2026, do not say.

What it means: the recommendation and the fee are in the same sentence. That does not make the recommendation wrong. It means the app has a reason to recommend something, and you should know what the reason is before you take it. The sentence to look for is “we may receive compensation”. If it is there, every suggestion in the app is also an offer.

A pro, an agent or a seller pays

Some apps are bought by a real estate agent, an inspector or a builder and handed to you.

• HomeZada sells to professionals at “$118 per property” (homezada.com/professionals/pricing, read November 2, 2026).
• HouseFacts offers professionals “Purchase packs at partner pricing”, a year of the app as a closing gift (housefacts.com/professionals, read October 15, 2026).
• Eave sells agents “A client seat” at “$2.99 per client per month”, and a one-time twelve-month gift (eavehome.app/partners, read October 15, 2026).
• Digital Home Manual sells agents gift codes at “Half price at $50 per home (normally $99.99)”, each with “a printable certificate that carries your name” (app.digitalhomemanual.com/realtors, read October 26, 2026).
• Homer Pro sells property managers a “Manager Seat (per manager)” at “$24.99 / mo” (homer.co/pro/pricing, read October 27, 2026). Its Partner Program says “Offers are reserved for paying members alongside carefully chosen partners.” and names no fee a partner pays (homer.co/premium-marketing, read October 27, 2026).

What it means: a gift is a good thing, and the person who gave it usually wants something that is also fair: their name in front of you when you next buy or sell, a renewal, a referral. The app’s customer is the person who paid. When your interest and theirs point the same way, which is most days, you will not notice. The day they point different ways is the day to know who paid.

Advertisers pay, or nobody does yet

• homeowner.ai says “The service is free for homeowners.” and, on the same page, “We may earn fees from advertisers or in-app purchases, when applicable.” (homeowner.ai, read October 25, 2026).
• Casa says “Casa is free to use! We also offer two subscriptions”, with no prices on the pages we read (trycasa.com, read October 15, 2026), and its privacy policy says it uses tracking “to deliver advertisements through the Service that may interest you or to advertise ourselves” (trycasa.com/privacy, read October 15, 2026).
• Hint is “Free to download.” (App Store, read October 25, 2026), and its terms say “Certain aspects of the Service are provided for free, while others, including certain products available on the Sites and/or Apps, are provided for a fee or other charge” (hinthome.com/terms-and-conditions, section 9.1, read October 14, 2026).
• Villadex is “Free on web and iPhone. No credit card.” (villadex.ai, read October 15, 2026), and its pages name no one else who pays.
• Archer says “Archer is free during early access.” and “We’ll always be clear about pricing before anything changes.” (archerhome.com, read October 27, 2026).

What “free” means: someone else is paying, or nobody is yet. A new company with investors and no revenue can be free for a long time, and that is fine. It just means the answer to “who pays” has not been decided, and nothing on these pages says you will be told first. If you keep your records in a free app, get them out on a day the app is still answering (what happened to Centriq), and know what its pages promise before that day: What to demand in writing if a home app shuts down.

How to tell from an app’s own pages

A pricing page means you pay, at least in part. A “professionals”, “partners” or “for agents” page means a pro can pay. In the privacy policy and the terms, search for “compensation”, “referral”, “affiliate” and “partners”; that is where referral money is disclosed. Search for “advertis” to find ads. If the pages say nothing, the answer is “not stated”, and “not stated” is not “no”.

Then look at the date. Centriq’s free plan held five items by late 2020 (what happened to Centriq). The answer to “who pays” changes as a company grows, and the pages change with it, usually without an announcement.

Who pays for Homaic

As a fact, with its source, as it reads today. Our terms of service, section 2: “Homaic is not a contractor marketplace. We do not route you to contractors, accept commissions or referral fees from contractors, or earn revenue from any third party for connecting you with them.” Section 5.1: “One house on Homaic is free.” (homaic.io/terms) Our privacy policy, section 0: “No ads, no ad pixels, no audiences.”, and section 2, that Homaic does not use your data to “take money for placement, ranking or referral, from pros, brands, insurers, lenders or AI platforms” (homaic.io/privacy)

So today the answer is: nobody pays. The terms rule out commissions and referral fees from contractors, and the privacy policy rules out ads and money for placement, ranking or referral from pros, brands, insurers, lenders or AI platforms. There is no paid plan yet. When there is one, it will be on these pages with a date, and this article will say so.