Kindred alternatives
No membership fee,and no fee per trip.
By Nate Truniger, cofounder · Updated October 2026
Short answer: Adopted Adults is a Kindred alternative where a stay costs nothing at all. Kindred charges no membership fee, which is the best thing about it, but every trip carries a cleaning fee and a service fee. Here there are no per-trip fees, because nobody moves out: your guest stays with you while you are home, so there is no turnover to clean and nothing to hand over. There are no credits to earn either. ID verification is required before any stay is booked and costs nothing, and a person reads every listing before it goes live.
You write an adoption, a plan for what you’d actually do with a guest, and you stay with members anywhere else for nothing. Everyone here puts something in, a home or the pass that pays for the app, so nobody is only taking.
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Adopted Adults at a glance
- How it works
- Members host each other in their own homes. You publish an adoption, a plan for what you would do with a guest, and you stay with members elsewhere. Nobody moves out: the host is home while the guest is there.
- Cost
- Staying is always free. Hosting is always free, with no subscription for anyone who opens their home. Members who cannot host can hold a Nomad Pass instead.
- Safety
- Government ID verification is required before any stay is booked, at no cost. Video calls are built into the app. Reviews stay hidden until both sides submit. A person reviews every listing before it goes live.
- Who it suits
- People who want a local host and are willing to host someone back. It is not suitable for anyone who needs a whole place to themselves, or a booking at short notice.
| Adopted Adults | Kindred | HomeExchange | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What a stay costs | Nothing. Staying is always free | A cleaning fee and a service fee, per trip | No per-trip fees; $235 a year |
| Membership fee | Free for adopters | None | $235 a year |
| Are you home? | Yes. That's the whole point | No, you're away | No, you're away |
| How a stay is earned | You ask. No credits, no points | 1 credit per night, earned by hosting | A swap, or GuestPoints |
| Can you buy your way in? | No. You host, or you hold the pass | No. Credits cannot be bought | Yes, GuestPoints can be bought |
| Cleaning | Tidy up, like a friend is coming | Arranged by Kindred, paid by the guest | Clean the house room by room yourself |
| Keys and a house manual | Neither. You're there to answer | Yes | Yes |
| A local who knows the place | Your host, who lives there | No. The home is empty | No. The home is empty |
Where Kindred is the better choice
Worth saying before the rest of it. If you want a whole home to yourself, Kindred gives you that and we do not. Nobody else is in it, the kitchen is yours, the kids can be loud, and it arrives professionally cleaned because Kindred arranges the clean and the guest pays for it. Its credits cannot be bought either, which means every member on it has actually hosted somebody, and that is a harder thing to build than it sounds.
If any of that is what you are after, go and use Kindred. The rest of this page is for people who looked at the per-trip fees, or at having to empty their home, and wanted something else.
What a stay actually costs
Kindred’s pitch is that there is no membership fee, and that is true. The cost moves to the trip instead: a cleaning fee and a service fee each time you stay somewhere. That is a reasonable way to run a swap, because somebody has to clean a home between two strangers who will never meet.
There is nothing to clean between guests here, because your host never left. Staying is free, always, for everyone. The app is free for adopters, and the pass exists for people who cannot host so that they are still paying their way rather than taking.
Nobody has to keep a balance
Kindred runs on credits: one per night, earned by hosting, and you cannot buy them. It is a fair design and it is also a balance you have to keep topped up before you can go anywhere.
Here the requirement is simpler and it is one-off: be willing to host. Once your adoption is live you can ask anyone, anywhere, as often as you like, and nothing is deducted when you do.
Common questions
What is the best alternative to Kindred?
It depends on what you want to stop paying for. Kindred has no membership fee, which is genuinely the best thing about it, but every trip carries a cleaning fee and a service fee, so a stay is never free. On Adopted Adults staying is always free, with nothing per trip, because nobody moves out and there is no turnover to pay for. If what you want instead is a whole empty home to yourself, professionally cleaned, Kindred does that and we do not.
Is Adopted Adults free if Kindred charges per trip?
Staying is always free for everyone, and the app is free for adopters: publish an adoption of your own and you are not charged to use it. There is no cleaning fee and no service fee, because your host is home and nothing has to be turned over between guests.
Do I need credits to stay somewhere?
No. Kindred runs on credits, one per night, earned by hosting and not purchasable, which is a fair system and also a scoreboard you have to keep topped up. Here you just ask. The only requirement is that you are willing to host someone back, which is the price of entry rather than a running balance.
Do I have to leave my home?
No, and this is the real difference. Every swap platform, Kindred included, needs your home empty while somebody else is in it. Here you stay put. Your guest is in the spare room, or wherever you have space, and you are there the whole time. No deep clean, no house manual, no key handover, and nobody in your place while you are not.
Is it safe to have someone stay while you're there?
ID verification is required before any stay is booked, and it is free. Video calls are built into the app so you can meet before you commit, reviews stay hidden until both sides have written one, and a person reads every listing before it goes live. Being home is itself part of it: you are not handing your keys to someone you have never met.
If that sounds like your kind of thing, it’s free for adopters. Add an adoption of your own and you’re not charged to use the app.
Create your accountFees and policies for Kindred and HomeExchange are taken from their own published help pages as of October 2026 and may have changed since. Check theirs before deciding.
