Honest guide
Family caregiver apps compared.
Reviewed August 2026
Most roundups rank these apps as if they were competing for the same job. They are not. One broadcasts health updates, one organizes meal trains, one captures doctor visits, one keeps the daily record. This guide says plainly what each one is built for, what it costs, and where it falls short, so you can pick by your situation instead of by a score. Kinbase is on the list, with its own tradeoffs stated.
The apps at a glance
| App | Price | Best for | Keep in mind |
|---|---|---|---|
| CaringBridge | Free (nonprofit) | Posting health updates to a wide circle | A journal for keeping people informed, not a care record |
| Lotsa Helping Hands | Free | Organizing meals, rides, and volunteers | Coordinates helpers, not the care record itself |
| ianacare | Free (often employer-sponsored) | Mobilizing help and reaching a care navigator | Centered on support and guidance, not a running log |
| Caring Village | Free tier, around $15/mo | One broad dashboard for the whole care team | Broad by design, which asks more of whoever sets it up |
| Neela | About $12/mo (iOS and web) | Capturing what the doctor said at a visit | An assistant, so it helps as much as you feed it |
| Keepsake | Free (iOS) | A quick shared voice log on an iPhone | iPhone-only, and stays close to the log itself |
| Jointly | Small one-off price | UK carers on a small budget | Aimed at the UK; worth knowing if you are elsewhere |
| Kinbase | Free record; $19/mo Premium | Keeping the record straight across caregivers | Newest here; coordination is circle-only, no public meal train |
Prices and features change; confirm current details with each app.
What each one is for
CaringBridge
Free (nonprofit)
CaringBridge is a nonprofit, and it is free. It began as a way to post health updates to a wide circle during a crisis, and that is still what it does best. One person writes an update, and dozens of relatives read it and leave encouragement. It keeps people informed. It does not hold a medication list, a shared task board, or a caregiver handbook, so it sits alongside your care record rather than being one.
Lotsa Helping Hands
Free
Lotsa Helping Hands is free and built around a shared calendar. When a community wants to help and nobody knows how, it organizes the offers: a meal on Tuesday, a ride to the clinic on Thursday, someone to sit on Saturday. It runs a meal train well. What it does not do is hold the day-to-day record of medications and notes; it mobilizes people around the person, and leaves the record to something else.
ianacare
Free (often employer-sponsored)
ianacare is free to families and often reaches them as an employer benefit. It mobilizes a support network to take on tasks and adds access to care navigators, professionals who help you find resources and think through decisions. Its center of gravity is help and guidance. If what you need is a running record of the day-to-day, that is not what it is for.
Caring Village
Free tier, around $15/mo
Caring Village aims to be the all-in-one dashboard: a care team, a shared calendar, to-dos, a medication list, and document storage in one place. There is a free tier, with a paid plan around $15 a month for the fuller set. Breadth is the pitch and the thing to test, since an all-in-one tool asks more of the person who sets it up and keeps it current.
Neela
About $12/mo (iOS and web)
Neela is an AI assistant for caregivers, and its standout is doctor-visit scribing: it helps capture what was said at an appointment so you are not left relying on memory. It runs about $12 a month on iOS and the web. It leans on the assistant model, which means how much it helps depends on how much you bring to it.
Keepsake
Free (iOS)
Keepsake is a free iOS app built around voice memos and a shared log. You speak what happened, and the family shares the record. It is simple and fast, which is the point. Today it is iPhone-only, and it stays close to the log rather than building out reminders, a handbook, or an emergency sheet.
Jointly
Small one-off price
Jointly comes from a UK carers' charity and is priced as a small one-off purchase rather than a subscription. It brings together notes, a medication list, a calendar, and a circle for the people caring for someone. It is aimed at UK carers, which is the first thing to check if you are outside the UK.
Kinbase
Free record; $19/mo Premium
Kinbase is the newest of these and the most record-first. You log what happened by voice in about thirty seconds, and the record keeps a handbook, an emergency sheet, a medication list, and a shared circle. The honest tradeoffs: it has the shortest track record on this list, and its coordination is circle-only, with no meal-train sign-up sheet for the wider community the way Lotsa has. The working record is free with ninety days of history; the full history and the AI features are a $19 a month Premium tier, and some families get Premium through their home care agency at no cost.
How to choose, by your situation
Start from the job in front of you. Match your situation to the app built for it, and if you are doing two jobs at once, it is fine to run two tools.
Where Kinbase fits
Kinbase is the choice when the hard part is keeping the record straight as caregivers come and go. You log what happened by voice, and the handbook, the emergency sheet, and the medication list stay current for whoever reads them next. If you also want to organize a meal train or broadcast updates to a big circle, pair it with one of the tools above; those are jobs Kinbase leaves to them.
Common questions
What is the best app for family caregivers?
There is no single best one, because they are built for different jobs. Choose by what you are trying to do: broadcast updates, organize helpers, capture a doctor visit, or keep the care record straight. The comparison above pairs each common situation with the app that fits it.
Are family caregiver apps free?
Several are. CaringBridge, Lotsa Helping Hands, ianacare, and Keepsake are free, and ianacare is often sponsored by an employer. Caring Village and Kinbase have free tiers plus paid plans, Neela is a subscription, and Jointly is a small one-off purchase.
How is Kinbase different from these apps?
Kinbase is record-first: the point is a running, shared record of the day-to-day that keeps a handbook, an emergency sheet, and a medication list current on its own. It is the newest here, and it does not run a public meal train; coordination stays inside the family circle. The working record is free, with a $19 a month Premium tier for full history and the AI features.
Which app replaces CareZone?
CareZone closed, and families are still looking for somewhere to put the medication list and records they lost. Kinbase covers that ground with a record your family owns and can export. We wrote a fuller answer on the CareZone alternative page.
More on the CareZone question is on the CareZone alternative page.
Start your family’s record.
Name the book, invite the people who help, and the record starts keeping itself. Most families are set up inside ten minutes.
Free for families to start. Everyone you invite joins from a link or by scanning a code, and nobody has to install anything to read or write.