Fair Divider splits a rent between the people sharing a flat when the rooms aren't equal. Here are the questions that come up before people use it for the first time.
It splits a rent between roommates and works out which room each person gets and how much they pay. Instead of dividing the total evenly, it prices each room according to what each person values.
How many people is it for?
Two to ten people, with one room per participant.
Does it cost anything? Do I need an account?
It's free, and you don't need an account, sign-up, or email.
Can I split the deposit, electricity, or internet too?
Yes. There's a shared-costs field where you enter that amount and it gets split along with the rent.
What's the difference between splitting shared costs evenly and splitting them by rent?
Split evenly, everyone pays the same share of costs. Split by rent, whoever has the pricier room covers a bigger share. You choose which one when you set up the split.
Can I use my own currency?
Yes, you pick it at the start. The same currency shows for every participant and in the result link.
While you're splitting
What's the "adjustment" shown while we're splitting?
It shows how settled the split is at that point. The smaller the number, the closer each room is to its final price.
What's the interim proposal?
When a workable split comes up, the app shows it to you and lets you accept it or keep refining. If the adjustment already looks close enough, you accept and you're done.
Why do the amounts come out rounded?
Each amount is rounded to the cent on its own, so adding the displayed numbers by hand can land you a cent off from the total. The underlying split still covers the exact total.
Together or each on your own phone
Do we all need to be in the same place?
No. There are two modes: one device passed around, or everyone on their own phone from wherever they are.
How do I invite my roommates?
Share the invite link, the QR code, or the division code.
On separate devices, who decides when it's finished?
Everyone does. When a proposal comes up, every connected participant has to accept it.
Once it's done
Can I share the result with someone who wasn't part of it?
Yes. It generates a link with the split that you can send to anyone.
Can we start over?
Yes, there's a restart button. It asks you to confirm first, since everything done so far gets lost.
Does it save if I close the app?
The split in progress is still there when you come back.
The app
Can I change the language or the theme?
Yes. Nine languages, and a light, dark, or system theme.
Does it give the same result on the web, iPhone, and Android?
Yes. The calculation is the same across all three, and the result is presented the same way.
When to use it
There are three of us and one room is a lot better than the others. Does this work for us?
Yes, that's exactly the case it's built for. The more the rooms differ, the less it makes sense for everyone to pay the same.
One room has a private bathroom, another looks out onto an interior courtyard.
Those are exactly the kind of differences it accounts for. Each person values what matters to them, and that shows up in each room's price.
We're a couple plus one person on our own in a three-bedroom flat.
It works by treating the couple as a single participant with one room. You're splitting between two parties, not three people.
It's a student flat and we're all moving in at the same time.
That's the best moment to use it, before anyone's settled in. It's harder to bring up again once people have moved in.
Someone's leaving mid-lease and a new person is moving in.
You can redo the split with the new group. It's a natural moment to revisit the prices without it sounding like a complaint about anyone.
Is it useful for anything besides rent?
It's useful for splitting any fixed total between unequal shares. A vacation rental among friends with rooms that aren't equal is the other common case.