What: Sitter City connects parents with nannies, baby sitters, dog sitters, elder care workers, companions and housekeepers. 

Pay: $10 to $50 per hour (you set the rate)

Husl $core: $$$

Where: National

Requirements:

  • Be 18 or older;
  • have a clean background;
  • child, adult companion or pet-care experience

Review:

Sitter City connects baby sitters, nannies, pet sitters, house keepers and caregivers for adults with people willing to hire them. The site charges employers, not caregivers, so there is no cost to use the site.

You set your own rates and keep 100% of the money you earn. The only potential cost to the worker is optional. You can ask them to run a background check on you ($15) to give employers more confidence that you’re a good choice. You can also browse the available jobs in your area for free.

The only catch is that the available jobs might not pay what you want to earn. In fact, when we signed up to get a better view of what workers were offered, we found that most of the advertised child care positions paid between $10 and $15 per hour. Available jobs were scattered widely over a 50 mile radius.

Our guess is that they don’t have the scale of other sitter/care sites, which may make it tougher to find work. But since you don’t pay to list, there’s no downside to signing up when you’re on a job hunt. 

If you want to do child or adult care also consider signing up with Urban Sitter, Trusted or Care.com; if you want to pet sit, take a look at Rover. 

What their users say:

(from Indeed)

Didn’t really get much work with the app because i was in competition with other sitters I also did not have a car and a lot of the jobs required that I have a car. I am also not cpr certified and a lot of clients required that. Everything was first come first serve.

I’ve had great relationships with many of the moms and dads I’ve worked for through Sitter City because the site does a pretty good job of helping nannies sift through to find kind and caring parents. Nannying requires a lot of patience, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. 

“Allows me to create my own schedule and set my own compensation. The most enjoyable part of this job is that kids are involved and it opens your eyes as to how to handle an infant. It allows you to explore different areas of the city due to play dates and walks around the neighborhood.”

“Sitter City made it easy to find a parent who was interested in my schedule to watch over their child(ren). I was lucky to have babysat a child who lived very close to me, making it very easy to pick up and drop off the child if I ever had to. Setting up dates and specific times made me feel very secure using the site