Porchlight vs Time To Pet
Everything Time To Pet does, without the per-staff bill
Time To Pet is a capable, mature product. It charges for every active user on its Team plan, treats text messaging as a paid add-on (per its help center), and its admin side is browser-based. Those are the reasons companies call us.
Your bill, side by side
Time To Pet’s pricing page lists Lite at $25 a month, Solo at $50, Team at $40 a month plus $16 for every active user (owners and office managers count), and a custom Large Team plan. Text messaging is not on the pricing page, but per Time To Pet’s help center it is a $10 a month add-on.
Prices checked October 2026 from each vendor’s public pricing page. Porchlight is a competitor of Time To Pet, so check their page too.
Sources: Time To Pet pricing page and Time To Pet’s help center (texting).
Time To Pet
$146
per month
- Team base$40
- 6 users × $16$96
- Text messaging add-on$10
Porchlight
$79
per month
- team plan
- Unlimited staff: the slider does not move this number
- 5,000 SMS segments included, no overage billing
You would keep
$804 a year
$67 a month at 6 people
Prices checked October 2026 from each vendor’s public pricing page. Time To Pet pricing and Time To Pet’s help center. Monthly list prices in US dollars, before card processing.
- One person uses Solo ($50). Two or more use Team: $40 plus $16 per active user (users 26 and up are $5).
- Every user is counted as active, including the owner. Time To Pet counts staff only in months they have a visit.
- Texting is not on the pricing page. Per Time To Pet’s help center, it is $10 a month to reserve a number, which includes 250 texts per active staff member, then $0.025 per text. We count the allowance as one shared pool, and charge nothing here when you send none.
- Card processing (3% + $0.30) is not included in either side of this comparison.
Where Time To Pet is genuinely stronger
If one of these is central to your business, they are the better choice and we would rather say so now than after you migrate.
Facility and boarding depth
If you run a kennel or a daycare alongside in-home visits, Time To Pet has a Facility plan built for it. Porchlight does not do boarding at all.
QuickBooks integration
Reviewers on Capterra praise their QuickBooks integration. We export CSV shaped for QuickBooks and offer a payroll API, which is not the same thing.
Onboarding help and track record
Reviewers also praise their onboarding team for importing data within days, and report cards and the scheduling tool come up often. They are an established product with years of support history.
What reviewers say about Time To Pet
These are themes from public reviews, mostly on Capterra, plus published pricing, paired with what we did about each one. They are individual reviewers’ experiences, not measured rates.
Per-staff cost growth
A Capterra reviewer said they understand paying for workers, but the per-staff fee is not friendly, including paying extra for a spouse to use it. Others note cost growth with seasonal sitters.
In Porchlight
Team is $79 a month for unlimited staff. Hiring a sixth sitter, or a twentieth, changes nothing on the invoice.
Add-ons on top of the plan
Texting is not on the pricing page. Per Time To Pet’s help center it is a $10 a month fee to reserve a phone number, which includes 250 text messages per active staff member, with overages at $0.025 a text. Card processing is 3% + $0.30.
In Porchlight
SMS is included on Solo and Team with a 5,000 segment fair-use ceiling shown as a meter. There is no add-on and no overage billing.
Missed request notifications
One 1-star Capterra review from January 2026 reports that new-client request notifications never arrived by email or app, and another reviewer found requests two months old. This is one reviewer’s experience, not a measured rate.
In Porchlight
Every request fans out to push, email and SMS, each send writes a delivery row, failures retry, and an unreviewed request escalates to the owner at a configurable threshold.
Mobile admin
A Capterra reviewer notes there is no dedicated admin mobile app and that mobile editing and scheduling is finicky, recommending a full desktop.
In Porchlight
Every admin action works on a phone, including invoicing, payroll and bulk reassignment.
Offline use in the field
We could not find offline visit completion described on their public pages. If your sitters work in basements, elevators or rural areas, ask them to show it working.
In Porchlight
The field app is offline-first. A whole visit can be completed in airplane mode and syncs when signal returns.
Invoice reminders
One Capterra reviewer wished invoices went out automatically with reminders for past-due balances.
In Porchlight
Invoices generate on the cadence you set per client, and overdue invoices trigger a reminder to the client.
Feature by feature
Including the rows where we lose. A comparison table that never gives ground is marketing, not information.
| Feature | Porchlight | Time To Pet | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price for a 6-person team | $79 a month on Team | $136 a month on Team ($40 + 6 × $16), or $146 with the $10 texting add-on | Porchlight |
| Staff accounts | Solo is the owner only. Team is unlimited, no per-user fee | Every active user is billed at $16 on Team | Porchlight |
| Text messaging | Included, 5,000 segments fair use, no overage billing | $10 a month add-on per their help center, 250 texts per active staff member, then $0.025 per text | Porchlight |
| Offline field app | Full visit completion offline: check in, checklist, photos, video, notes, check out | Not described on their public pages. Confirm with the vendor. | Porchlight |
| Mobile admin | Every admin action works on a phone | Reviewers on Capterra say there is no dedicated admin app | Porchlight |
| Invoicing cadences | Weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, monthly, per trip | Check their documentation for the cadences they support. | Even |
| Notification delivery ledger | Every send recorded per channel, retried on failure, escalated when unreviewed | Not described publicly. One Capterra reviewer reported missed request notifications | Porchlight |
| Data export | One click, every table, CSV plus JSON plus media manifest | Not described on their public pages. Confirm with the vendor. | Even |
| QuickBooks integration | CSV export shaped for QuickBooks and Gusto, plus a payroll API | QuickBooks integration, praised by reviewers | Time To Pet |
| Boarding and facility management | Not built. We do in-home sitting and walking | Facility plan with boarding and daycare tooling | Time To Pet |
| Years in market | New | Time To Pet is an established product with an existing customer base | Time To Pet |
Questions we get
Can I import my Time To Pet data?
Yes. Export clients, pets, vaccinations, services, rates, recurring schedules and outstanding balances as CSV, then drop the files into the Switch Kit. Columns are detected automatically, a dry run shows exactly what will be created, and rollback is one click.
What does Porchlight cost for a six-person team?
$79 a month on the Team plan, with unlimited staff accounts. The same six people on Time To Pet Team are $136 a month ($40 plus six active users at $16), or $146 with the $10 texting add-on (per Time To Pet’s help center).
Is Porchlight cheaper for one person?
Yes against Time To Pet Solo ($50 a month), but not against Time To Pet Lite ($25 a month). Porchlight Solo is $35 a month, or $350 a year. Solo is the owner alone: add a sitter and Team is $79 a month.
What does Time To Pet do better?
Boarding and facility management, which we do not build at all, and a QuickBooks integration that reviewers praise. They also have a far longer track record.
Does the field app really work with no signal?
Yes. Check in, run the checklist, capture photos and video, dictate or type notes and check out with the device in airplane mode. Everything queues in the browser and syncs when connectivity returns, with both device time and server time recorded so the record is auditable.
Move in under ten minutes
Export from Time To Pet, drop the CSVs into the Switch Kit, review the dry run, commit. If it does not look right, roll the whole thing back with one click.