Recovery residence software for operators who document what they do

A recovery residence and a sober living home describe the same thing: alcohol- and drug-free housing for people building a life in recovery. Ask a resident where they live and they will say "sober living." Ask an operator writing a policy manual and they will say "recovery residence."

The difference is emphasis, and it is a real one. "Recovery residence" is the language of the professional side of this field — the operators who think in terms of written standards, defined levels of support, and certification. It signals that a home has a documented model of care rather than just a set of house rules that live in the manager's head.

That shift has consequences for how a house runs. Once you commit to a standard, the question stops being "did we handle it?" and becomes "can we show how we handled it?" A resident is discharged for a positive UA — can you produce the test log, the signed agreement they violated, and the notes leading up to it? Someone questions a curfew decision six months later — is there a record, or is there a memory?

That is the gap this software fills. Not aspiration, not a philosophy of care — you already have that. Just the record.

Resident-facing tools are part of the standard of care

Most management software treats residents as records to be tracked. That is a defensible view if your only job is the back office — but it is an odd fit for a field whose entire premise is that recovery is something the person does, not something done to them.

Every resident of a home on Sober Living Companion gets our app free, forever. They count their sober days. They find meetings and check in by GPS. They see their house responsibilities. They sign their agreement. They pay their membership fee without handing cash to a manager. And there is a crisis button — "I need help now" — for the moment none of the rest of it matters.

We think that belongs in a conversation about quality of care. A residence where the resident can see their own record, their own responsibilities, and their own progress is running a different program than one where all of that is only visible to staff. And because we are a non-profit, the resident app costs the resident nothing and costs you nothing — it is included in your membership, not upsold.

Free for residents — on iPhone & Android