The best family caregiver apps in 2026, compared

We make LumaCare, so read this list with that in mind. We have tried to make it useful anyway: every app here is live in October 2026, we say what each one is good at, and we say where another app is a better choice than ours. What we state about the other apps comes from their own websites.

The apps, compared

List prices per month when you pay month by month, as shown on each app's own website in October 2026. Several apps are cheaper when paid yearly. LumaCare's prices include VAT. Prices and plans change, so look before you decide.

Why LumaCare comes first for a shared care team

Most caregiver apps are built around one caregiver and their notes. LumaCare is built around the fact that care is usually shared: a parent and a grandparent, three siblings and a home helper, a family and a team of personal assistants. The hard part is rarely remembering one thing. It is that the person who knows is not the person who is there.

• One daily log that everyone writes in: meals, sleep, seizures, mood, whatever you choose to track. The helper who arrives at four can read what the helper at eight saw.
• Medication that is confirmed, not only reminded. Doses are scheduled, the person on duty marks them as given, and everyone can see it. That is how a team avoids both the missed dose and the double dose.
• Shifts and appointments in one calendar, so it is clear who is there when, and what the day holds.
• Care guides that describe how things are done, so the care is the same whoever is there.
• Permissions for each helper. You decide what a weekend helper, a grandparent or a paid assistant can see and do.
• A report for the doctor, made from what you have logged over the weeks, instead of from memory in the waiting room.
• Any age. It works for a child with a disability, an adult with special needs and a parent with dementia. Many apps in this list are written with aging parents only in mind.
• One subscription for the whole team. The people you invite pay nothing.
• Data stored in the European Union, encrypted, and handled under GDPR as health data.

Read more about coordinating care with multiple helpers, which is the problem LumaCare was made for.

When another app is the better choice

LumaCare is not the best answer to everything. Pick something else if:

• You want the app to listen to the doctor's appointment and write the summary for you. That is what Neela does. In LumaCare you log the visit yourself, as an event type with your own fields for what was said and what happens next, and you can dictate the note instead of typing it.
• You mostly need to tell thirty relatives how the operation went. CaringBridge is made for exactly that, and it is free.
• You need neighbors to sign up for dinners and school runs. Lotsa Helping Hands does that with very little setup.
• You only need pill reminders for yourself or one other person. MyTherapy or the Medications feature on an iPhone is enough.
• You insist on an app from the App Store. On iPhone and iPad, LumaCare is opened in Safari and added to the home screen. There is an Android app on Google Play.
• You need help finding your way through US insurance and benefits. A care navigator service such as ianacare is built for that.

The other apps, briefly

Neela

An AI assistant for family caregivers. It organizes medical records, tracks appointments and symptoms, and can capture a doctor visit and summarize it. A good fit for an adult child managing a parent's medical care, often from a distance. It has no free plan: after a 7-day trial it is $12 a month for up to four people, or $24 a month for unlimited members.

Caring Village

A family hub with a calendar, a medication list, a wellness journal, messaging, document storage and an AI assistant. It is the closest to LumaCare in idea. The difference is in the depth around helpers (shifts, handovers and confirming each dose) and in the price of a larger team: the free plan holds two members, and the paid plans are $14.99 and $24.99 a month. LumaCare's free plan holds three caregivers, and its paid plans are €7.99 and €12.99 a month. Read our detailed comparison of LumaCare and Caring Village.

CaringBridge

A donor-supported nonprofit, free to use, where you share a health journey with the people you choose and can ask them for help. It solves one problem well: you write the update once, and nobody has to phone around. It is made for communication, not for logging the daily care or the medication.

Lotsa Helping Hands

A care calendar where a community signs up for meals and other help, with announcements and well wishes. Free, and easy for people who are not close family to join.

ianacare

A care navigation service in the United States. It pairs families with a care navigator and resources, and is a partner in Medicare's GUIDE program for dementia. Access often goes through an employer or insurer.

Medisafe, MyTherapy and Apple Health

Three ways to be reminded about medication. MyTherapy is free and adds a diary for symptoms and measurements that you can show the doctor. Medisafe gives medication and refill reminders and interaction warnings, and lets you follow a family member's medication too; Premium is $4.99 a month, and outside the US a subscription has been required since January 2026. The Medications feature in Apple's Health app is already on the iPhone: you set a schedule, get reminders and log each dose, also from an Apple Watch. All three are about medication only. They do not cover shifts, handovers or the rest of the day.

How to choose

1. 1
   Count the people. If you are alone with it, a simple app is fine. From three people up, you need shared logs and clear responsibility.
2. 2
   Name the thing that keeps going wrong. Missed doses, nobody knowing who comes on Friday, the doctor asking questions you cannot answer. Choose for that, not for the longest feature list.
3. 3
   Check every phone. One helper on the wrong device is one helper outside the system.
4. 4
   Look at who pays. An app that charges per person gets expensive with a large team, and helpers will not pay to do their job.
5. 5
   Try it with real information for a week, with two people, before you invite the rest.

Three privacy questions to ask of any app

• Who can see what? You should be able to give a helper the routines and the medication without the documents, and remove a person at once.
• Where is the data stored, and under which law? Health information about a family member is sensitive. Read where the servers are and whether the company sells or shares data.
• Can you get your data out, and delete it? Care lasts years. You should not be locked in.

Common questions

Are family caregiver apps free?

Several are. CaringBridge, Lotsa Helping Hands and MyTherapy are free. LumaCare has a free plan for one care recipient and up to three caregivers, and paid plans at €7.99 and €12.99 a month for larger teams and more features; see pricing. Every new family can try the paid features first. Among the paid family apps in this list, monthly prices run from $12 to $24.99.

Can we use more than one app?

Yes, and many families do: one app for the daily care and one for updates to the wider circle, for example. The cost is that information lives in two places. If you find yourself typing the same thing twice, it is time to gather it.

How do we get everyone to use it?

Start with one job, usually the calendar or the medication list. Fill it with real information before you invite anyone, so the app is not empty when they open it. Then ask people to use it for that one thing for a week.

Is there an app for parents of a child with a disability?

Most caregiver apps are written for adult children of aging parents. LumaCare is used for children as well as adults: you choose what to log, and grandparents, respite carers and helpers can be invited with their own permissions. Read the first steps after a child's diagnosis.

How LumaCare can help