SitterCity

SitterCity Review:

SitterCity connects baby sitters, nannies, pet sitters, house keepers and caregivers for adults with people willing to hire them. Both caregivers and clients can set up on the site for free. But clients who want to communicate with sitter prospects need to pay a membership fee.

How it works for sitters

For sitters, there is no cost to sign up and list a profile. The site will encourage you to pay for a background check, which could set you back  $24 – $60, depending on the type of background check you choose. (The site maintains that the more extensive one is a selling point for families that may hire you.) Neither is required, however. So you have the ability to list services on the site completely free.

Once accepted to the site, sitters can search for open jobs, or they can wait for a family to contact them.

When hired, sitters are paid directly by the family, so there’s no commission paid to the site. You work our your payment schedule with the hiring family and get 100% of the earnings you are promised.

Notably, this site also allows you to advertise your availability for elder care, dog-sitting and other household services. However, there may be better sites to list these services. (See “recommendations” below.)

How it works for families

Technically, families seeking help can register for free too. But if they want to communicate with caregivers — and that’s why they’re there, after all — they need to pay for a membership.

Membership fees range from $15 – $39 per month, depending on whether they buy an annual or a monthly plan. (Monthly plans are more expensive.) If, however, you work for Bright Horizons, you get a membership for free as a corporate benefit.

Overall

Like many nationally-available job sites, this one seems to work better in some communities than it does in others. However, there’s little risk for nannies and babysitters here, since you can sign up for free. However, your ability to get a job without even the basic background check ($24) may be limited.

But realize that if your background check reveals anything negative about you, you’ll immediately be booted from the site. The site bumps caregivers for violations as mundane as a traffic ticket.

This is, by far, the biggest complaint that nannies/caregivers have about the site. If you know you’ve got background issues, don’t waste your time by registering here.

Otherwise nannies and babysitters rate this site highly on both Glassdoor and Indeed.

Recommendations

Would you trust your kids to someone that didn’t have a background check? Probably not. So, if you sign up here, we’d suggest you pay for one. The $24 costs doesn’t seem like much of an impediment.

Competitor site, Care is likely to have more traffic and opportunities. (It’s older and more established.) However, it requires a membership from nannies, as well as from clients. The membership fees for nannies are reasonably priced though — $24 for a semi-annual subscription, which comes with a background check. So, again, not much of an impediment.

If you’re looking for the maximum number of opportunities, we’d suggest you sign up with them both.

You can sign up with Care here. 

You can sign up with SitterCity here.

Pet sitters should list with Rover.

What their users say: (from Indeed)

There are many work opportunities and fortunately I found a job that I loved and was flexible with me. There are many work opportunities but the app can use some improvement!

i love working with kids and it doesn’t feel like “work” which i love. and if you find a good family, you’ll want to do this forever. i cant imagine not doing this. the pay is really decent. this is the best pay i’ve ever had by a long shot. i get free food and flexibility.

Know your worth

You have to know exactly what you’re worth before you apply for jobs because parents will try to undervalue you to get cheaper labor. If you can find a good family, willing to pay you what you’re worth, and set up a nanny contract with them, then you can make some really good money, and really great memories. If you’re underpaid, you’ll burn out in a few months and wonder why you took the job in the first place.

Working with Sittercity was easy, as I was able to find a job that worked for my schedule. Especially while attending school and working other jobs, it really helped me make extra money. It allows you to easily negotiate your rates and is flexible around your needs

Not much work

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.

Love kids

“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.”

“SitterCity 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

From SiteJabber

Do you see all these BAD reviews? ALL of these people cannot be wrong. This service is not good for the person providing the service nor for the person who is trying to receive a service. Just a hot mess of a scam. These reviews have warned you; wish I had seen them before WASTING my time PAYING $.

Customer Service, Specifically Jessica G, is no help. Take note of alllllll these reviews of sitters who have done an amazing job and got bamboozled by SitterCity. Silly that a background check is a more important way to authenticate a person rather than an ID, social card, or 5 star reviews.

Bumped for a traffic ticket

I am an extremely experienced and qualified nanny/babysitter who has always received stellar reviews and recommendations from the families I have worked for. I ran a background check through sittercity and was banned from the site due to a minor traffic violation I received SEVEN years ago. Absolutely ridiculous. No wonder families have trouble finding good applicants. Luckily the families I had been in communication with before I was banned thought this was ridiculous as well and are still hiring me.

I spend money for basic criminal check because apparently that’s the only way to complete your profile? Weird. But anyway, I got charge and minutes later, I got an email saying something went wrong with my payment EVEN THOUGH I GOT CHARGE. It’s stressful and not worth it to try. Customer service sucks, everything sucks and never get my money back.