Busy season
Hiring your 5th sitter? Your software bill shouldn’t grow.
Holidays and summer mean more sitters. Per-staff pricing means more software cost for every one of them. Porchlight Team is $79 a month for unlimited staff, whether you have two sitters or forty.
What each new sitter does to your bill
Monthly list price, owner plus sitters. Time To Pet Team is $40 plus $16 per active staff member, and the owner counts. At owner plus five sitters that is $136 a month against $79, or $684 more a year.
| Sitters (plus you) | Porchlight | Time To Pet | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| None, just you | $35 | $50 | Porchlight saves $15 |
| 1 | $79 | $72 | Time To Pet saves $7 |
| 2 | $79 | $88 | Porchlight saves $9 |
| 3 | $79 | $104 | Porchlight saves $25 |
| 4 | $79 | $120 | Porchlight saves $41 |
| 5 | $79 | $136 | Porchlight saves $57 |
| 8 | $79 | $184 | Porchlight saves $105 |
| 10 | $79 | $216 | Porchlight saves $137 |
| 15 | $79 | $296 | Porchlight saves $217 |
| 24 | $79 | $440 | Porchlight saves $361 |
Fair warning: with one sitter, Time To Pet Team ($72) is cheaper than Porchlight Team ($79). Porchlight pulls ahead from the second sitter. Above 25 people Time To Pet uses custom pricing, so we show no number. Payroll, texting and card fees are not included on either side.
Prices checked Oct 2026 on timetopet.com. Sources: pricing, payroll, staff management. Porchlight competes with Time To Pet, so check their pages too.
Invite by link
Send each new hire a link. They set a password and their schedule is ready.
Set the role
Pick sitter, office manager or trainee for each person.
Pay them your way
Per visit, percent of service or hourly. Payroll reports export to QuickBooks and Gusto.
More on the numbers: Time To Pet pricing, Time To Pet alternative, Porchlight pricing.
Questions we get
Does Porchlight charge more when I add a sitter?
No. Solo is $35 a month for the owner alone. Add a sitter and you are on Team at $79 a month, with unlimited staff accounts. The fifth sitter and the fortieth cost the same as the second.
What does Time To Pet charge for extra sitters?
Team is $40 a month plus $16 for each active staff member, and the owner counts. Owner plus five sitters is $136 a month. Prices checked Oct 2026 on timetopet.com.
What if my seasonal sitters only work some months?
Time To Pet counts staff who have at least one scheduled service in the billing period, so a sitter with no visits in a month should not count that month. Porchlight does not meter staff at all, so there is nothing to track.
Can my new hires use the app on day one?
Yes. Invite them by link, set their role, and they see their own schedule in the field app, which works with no signal.
Can I move over from Time To Pet before the busy season?
Yes. Export your clients, pets, services and recurring schedules as CSV and drop them into the Switch Kit. A dry run shows what will be created first, and you can roll it back.
Hire the sitters. Keep the bill.
Try Porchlight free for 30 days, no card. Bring your Time To Pet data over with the Switch Kit.