it's 8:47pm. u finished the deep clean at 6, sat in traffic for 40 min, ate something standing up, and now ur supposed to send the invoice tonight because the customer asked nicely.
so what happens. u open notes, type the job description, scroll to find ur venmo handle, screenshot the whole thing, text it to the customer, and feel weird about how unprofessional it looks. they pay 4 days later. ur fine.
this works at 2 clients. it stops working at 6.
what breaks when u outgrow notes app
it's never the cleaning that breaks. cleaning u know how to do.
what breaks is the spider web of small admin moments around it. who wanted eco products. who's paying cash. who needs the dog put in the bedroom. who said "every other tuesday" but never made it onto a real calendar. who paid u three weeks ago but u can't remember if it was for the move-out clean or the regular.
a free app for ur cleaning business should solve that spider web. not feature creep, not "comprehensive operations platform," just stop the leakage.
if a tool gives u these 5 things it's enough to run a real solo cleaning business:
- calendar that actually knows who the customer is, not just a time slot
- recurring jobs (because cleaning runs on weekly + biweekly)
- customer notes attached to the job, not floating in messages
- invoices u can send from ur phone, looking like a real business
- payment status u don't have to remember in ur head
"free" software isn't actually all the same thing
u'll see a few different shapes when u search.
some are scheduling tools dressed up as cleaning software. setmore is a good one, generic enough that hairdressers and yoga studios use it too. it does the booking part. it doesn't really know what cleaning is. their free plan handles up to 4 users + 200 appointments/month, and pro starts at $5/user/mo annual ($12/user/mo monthly).
some are scheduling-first with a free solo plan. fieldvibe falls here. it's free forever for solo service pros (1 user, 1 device, tap-to-send sms reminders), focused on routes + reminders, decent if all u need is "tell me where to go next." paid plans are $20/mo for solo pro and $50/mo for crews. invoicing + customer history exist but recurring billing isn't really their center of gravity.
some are full janitorial platforms. cleanguru is the obvious one, paid plans starting around $75/mo. that's a real product, just probably not for the solo cleaner with 4 weekly clients.
then there's tools like yvori. free up to 5 jobs/month, then $25/mo + $10/seat. built around the actual workflow (job → customer → quote → invoice → payment) instead of bolting those things onto a calendar.
what u're actually choosing between
| tool | what it's really for | starts free? |
|---|---|---|
| Yvori | running cleaning jobs end-to-end (schedule, customer, quote, invoice, payment, recurring) | free up to 5 jobs/month, then $25/mo + $10/seat |
| FieldVibe | scheduling + reminders for solo service pros | free solo plan, $20/mo solo pro, $50/mo crews |
| Setmore | generic appointment booking, many industries | free plan up to 4 users, pro from $5/user/mo annual |
| CleanGuru | full janitorial platform with bidding + inspections | paid plans start around $75/mo |
ur not choosing the best one. ur choosing the one that matches what ur actually doing.
if ur a solo cleaner doing 4-15 jobs a week with a few recurring clients, the right answer is something free that handles the whole job lifecycle, not a calendar with reminder texts.
why recurring is the part everyone underestimates
one-off cleans are easy to run on memory. the deep clean for the airbnb host, the move-out, the post-construction. those are big-ticket and rare so u remember them.
recurring is what kills u.
every other thursday at the murray's. monday + friday at the office on dale st. first sunday of every month at the airbnb on 4th. these don't feel important when u set them up. but compound them across 8 clients and now ur tracking 23 different schedules in ur head while also doing the actual work.
a tool that handles recurring properly:
- saves the schedule once
- pre-populates the calendar
- attaches the customer + their notes + their pricing
- generates the invoice when the job's done
vs a tool that doesn't handle recurring properly = ur copy-pasting jobs into google calendar every week. which is what u were already doing in notes app, just prettier.
yvori handles recurring jobs as a first-class thing. that's most of the reason it's worth the switch from "i have a system that kinda works."
what u can claim, what u can't
let's be honest about scope because i hate when saas marketing isn't.
yvori does:
- schedule jobs, one-off or recurring
- save customer profiles with addresses, notes, contact info
- send quotes for the bigger gigs (deep cleans, move-outs, commercial)
- send invoices and collect payment via stripe
- track expenses + mileage per job
- mobile apps on ios + android so u can do all this from ur truck
- public booking page at yourname.yvori.app so customers can request you
yvori is NOT:
- bookkeeping software
- a tax tool
- a replacement for an accountant
- payroll
- a janitorial inspection platform
- enterprise dispatch
it covers the day-to-day job finance: estimates, invoices, payments, expenses, mileage, job costing. for end-of-year taxes u still talk to a real accountant. quickbooks integration is on the roadmap, not shipped yet.
when free is enough vs when u should pay
free up to 5 jobs/month is real. it's not a 14-day trial in disguise. u can run ur first few clients on it forever if u stay under 5 jobs/month.
most solo cleaners blow past 5 jobs in week 1 once they have any momentum. so realistically the free tier is "try it on a few jobs to see if it actually saves u admin." if it does, $25/mo is cheaper than the time u were losing to invoice screenshots.
if it doesn't, u're out nothing.
the answer to "what's the best free cleaning app"
depends what ur doing. if ur a hair salon that decided to also offer cleaning, setmore. if ur a solo who literally just needs route reminders, fieldvibe. if ur a 6-person janitorial crew bidding commercial contracts, cleanguru.
if ur a cleaner running real jobs and ur tired of the admin spider web, yvori. free up to 5 jobs/month, then $25/mo when ur ready.
if u want a broader comparison view beyond free-tier intent, read our best cleaning business software guide.
faq
is yvori actually free?
yes, free up to 5 jobs/month with no credit card. after that it's $25/mo + $10/seat for unlimited.
what counts as a "job"?
one scheduled visit. so if u clean the murrays every other thursday, each thursday is one job. recurring schedules don't count as one job.
can i use yvori for recurring cleaning?
yes, recurring is a first-class feature. set the cadence once, the schedule populates forward, the customer + pricing + notes stick to it.
does yvori replace quickbooks?
no. yvori handles invoicing, payments, expenses, mileage, and job-level costing. for full books + taxes u still want quickbooks or an accountant. quickbooks integration is planned but not shipped yet.
can i give my cleaners their own login?
yes, $10/seat to add team members. each gets mobile access to their assigned jobs.
what if i'm already using google calendar?
yvori syncs to google calendar both ways. so the schedule stays consistent across both.
start free, see if it saves u admin
run ur next 5 jobs through yvori. schedule them, save the customers, send the invoices, take payment.
if it makes the admin lighter, ur ready for $25/mo. if it doesn't, u haven't paid anything.