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LumaCare vs Caring Village: an honest comparison
Caring Village and LumaCare both give a family one shared place for a loved one's care. They are built for different situations. Here is how they compare on medication history, care-team scheduling, family communication, devices, pricing and privacy, and when a plain shared calendar is all you need.
We make LumaCare. Everything we say about Caring Village comes from its own website and App Store listing on October 27, 2026, with links to each source at the bottom of the page.
In short
- Several people give medication, and you need to see who gave which dose and when.
- Helpers or respite carers work in shifts, with handovers between them.
- You want to decide in detail what each person can see and do.
- You want to pay less: Family is €7.99 a month against $14.99 for Caring Village Circle, and Premium €12.99 against $24.99 for Village. Even paid yearly, Caring Village costs more.
- You want the data stored in the EU under GDPR, or you need the app in Danish.
The one thing to check first: Caring Village has an app in Apple's App Store; LumaCare runs on iPhone and iPad from Safari's home screen. If someone in your team will only install App Store apps, read the device section.
And if only one or two of you share the care, a shared calendar may be enough. See when a calendar is enough.
At a glance
| Topic | Caring Village | LumaCare |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | A family "village" around a loved one: calendar, to-dos, journal, medications and documents | A care team around a person of any age: daily log, medication, shifts and handovers |
| Medication | Today's doses at a glance, each dose marked as taken, missed-dose reminders | Schedules and reminders; each dose recorded as given, skipped, refused or missed, with who and when (Family and Premium) |
| Medication history | Current and past medications, adherence tracking | A dose log that is never overwritten: corrections are added beside the original. Limits for as-needed doses |
| Scheduling | Shared calendar, volunteers for appointments, to-dos you can claim, care plans | Shared calendar, shifts with swaps and give-aways, hours, coverage gaps, tasks you can claim |
| Communication | Group and private chats; journal updates with mood, symptoms and photos | 1:1 and group chat, messages that must be confirmed as read, comments on log entries |
| Devices | iPhone and iPad app, Android app, web | Web, Android app; iPhone and iPad from Safari's home screen (no App Store app) |
| Languages | English | English and Danish |
| Free plan | 1 village, up to 2 members | 1 care recipient, up to 3 caregivers including you; no medication reminders or dose log |
| Paid plans, per month | Circle $14.99 ($149.99 a year), Village $24.99 ($249.99 a year) | Family €7.99, Premium €12.99 |
| Where data is stored | Not stated in its privacy policy | European Union, on Microsoft Azure |
Caring Village: its website and App Store listing on October 27, 2026. LumaCare: our pricing page. Plans and prices change, so check before you decide.
See how LumaCare works
A short tour of the six things LumaCare does for your family - press play when you're ready.
Read the video transcript
Caring for someone you love is rarely a one-person job.
Everyone holds a piece of the puzzle. Questions fly, messages pile up, and the important things slip through the cracks.
Meet LumaCare. One shared place for everyone who helps care for her, so nothing gets lost.
On the phone or the computer, everyone sees the same picture, the moment it happens.
It’s built on six promises to your family. Here’s what each one means.
One. Everything gets written down.
Log a meal, a mood or a seizure in seconds, and everyone sees it right away.
And the good moments are kept too, in photos, video and sound.
Two. Everyone knows who does what, and when.
Shifts repeat by themselves. If nobody covers a day, LumaCare says so, and someone free picks it up.
Every shift ends with a handover, so the next person knows exactly what happened.
Three. Every caregiver gives the same care.
Bedtime, meals, what calms her down: short care guides any helper can follow from day one.
Four. The right dose, never forgotten, never doubled.
Confirm a dose right from the reminder, and everyone can see it’s been given. If one is missed, the family is told.
Five. The admin takes care of itself.
Snap a receipt, and it’s read and filed for you. When the paperwork is due, it’s one export, not a lost evening.
Six. The full picture, without digging.
Wondering how she’s really been sleeping? Just ask. The answer comes from everything your family has logged.
Or just say what happened, and it’s logged for you, fields and all.
Less time chasing information. More time for what really matters.
LumaCare. Care for your loved one, without the chaos. Start free today, and bring your whole team together.
Try it with your own care team. Free to start, no credit card.
Get started freeMedication administration history
The question that matters in a shared care team is not only "is there a reminder?" but "was the evening dose given, and by whom?" That is what a medication record is for.
- A medication list with today's doses at a glance, and tabs for current and past medications.
- Each dose is marked as taken; missed-dose reminders.
- As-needed medications are listed separately.
- Its App Store listing describes "detailed medication reminders" and adherence tracking.
- Its pricing page does not put medications behind a paid plan.
We found no mention of whether the record shows who marked a dose, how a mistaken entry is corrected, or limits for as-needed doses. That does not mean it lacks them: try it with your own medication list.
- Each medication has one or more schedules, such as three times a day. Whoever is on duty is reminded, and can confirm from the notification.
- Every dose is recorded as given, skipped, refused or missed, with the person who recorded it and the time.
- A record is never overwritten. A correction is added beside the original, and the history shows both.
- A dose nobody records is marked as missed after a grace period, and can alert a person you choose.
- As-needed doses have a daily maximum, which stops a dose too many, and a minimum time between doses, which warns the person about to give one.
- Alerts for low supply and for a course that is ending, and adherence in the care report for the doctor.
The free Starter plan has the medication list only. Reminders and the dose log are on Family and Premium.
What it means for you: if one person gives every dose, a "taken" checkmark is enough. If two or three people might give the evening dose, you want to see who gave it, and a record nobody can quietly change. Read more about medication in LumaCare.
Care-team scheduling
Coordinating appointments and coordinating people who work in turns are two different jobs. Caring Village is built for the first, LumaCare for both.
- One shared calendar for the whole village, with priority events and volunteer requests for appointments.
- To-dos with a named owner, an "I'll do it" button to claim one, and reminders.
- Care plans for daily and weekly routines, with answers logged during each visit.
- Calendar integration with Google, Apple and Outlook, and a printable care calendar, on the paid plans according to its app page. (Its pricing page lists the integration under Free.)
We found no mention of shifts, shift swaps or hours.
- A shared calendar with appointments and shifts: who is with whom, and when. Basic shifts are on every plan.
- On Family and Premium: swaps, give-aways, open shifts a helper can offer to take, hours and coverage gaps, recurring appointments and a shared task list with "I'll do it".
- Optional check-in and check-out, handover notes between shifts, and an AI briefing at shift start on Premium.
- A calendar feed to Google, Outlook or Apple Calendar on Family; two-way sync with Google and Microsoft calendars on Premium.
What it means for you: if your circle shares appointments, rides and errands, both apps work. If people take turns, such as a respite carer on Tuesdays and a paid helper at weekends, you need shifts and handovers. Read more about scheduling and handovers.
Family communication
- Village-wide and private chats, described as encrypted.
- A wellness journal for updates and daily check-ins, with mood, symptoms and photos.
- A journal export on all plans, according to its pricing page.
- 1:1 and group chat with live delivery, on every plan.
- A message can be sent as one that must be confirmed as read, and the sender sees who has confirmed it.
- Hearts and comments on entries in the daily log and on memories, so a question about Tuesday's seizure stays with that entry.
- Notifications you choose by category.
What it means for you: both keep the conversation out of scattered text messages. Neither is made for updating fifty relatives after an operation; a free service such as CaringBridge is better at that. Read more about family chat.
Device support
- An app in Apple's App Store for iPhone and iPad (iOS 17 or later).
- An Android app on Google Play.
- A web dashboard in any browser.
- In English.
- Any web browser on Windows, Mac and Chromebook, with nothing to install.
- An Android app on Google Play.
- On iPhone and iPad: open it in Safari and add it to the home screen, where it works like an app. There is no App Store app.
- In English and Danish; each person chooses their own language.
What it means for you: this is a clear point to Caring Village if someone in your team will only install apps from the App Store. One helper on the wrong device is one helper outside the system, so check every phone before you choose.
Pricing
Both apps charge the family, not each helper. The difference is in how many people each plan holds, and what the free plan includes.
- Free: 1 village with up to 2 members. Its FAQ says the free plan is ad-supported.
- Circle: $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year. Up to 2 villages, 5 members each.
- Village: $24.99 a month or $249.99 a year. Up to 5 villages, 50 members each on the pricing page (its FAQ says 25).
- Joining someone else's village as a member is free.
- Starter: free, no card. 1 care recipient, up to 3 caregivers including you.
- Family: €7.99 a month. Unlimited care recipients, up to 10 caregivers, medication reminders and dose log, full scheduling.
- Premium: €12.99 a month. Unlimited caregivers and all AI features.
- Prices include VAT and are billed monthly in euros. Every new family can try Premium free for 14 days.
Two examples
- Four people caring for one parent: Caring Village Circle at $14.99 a month (about $12.50 when paid yearly), or LumaCare Family at €7.99 a month.
- Twelve people around one child, including paid helpers: Caring Village Village at $24.99 a month (about $20.83 when paid yearly), or LumaCare Premium at €12.99 a month.
Even with Caring Village's yearly discount, LumaCare costs less each month, and in both apps the people you invite pay nothing.
Caring Village's prices are in US dollars as shown on its pricing page and App Store listing on October 27, 2026. See LumaCare's pricing for everything in each plan.
Privacy and data protection
A care app holds health information about someone who may not be able to speak for themselves. Ask where it is stored, whether it is used for advertising, and who in your team can see what.
- Its privacy policy (updated April 8, 2026) describes 256-bit encryption in transit and at rest, and says it never sells personal or health information.
- Data is shared with service providers under contract, such as hosting and analytics.
- You can ask to export or delete your data by email.
- Its FAQ describes role-based access, and that what is shared in a village is visible only to its members.
- The App Store privacy label lists "Identifiers" under data used to track you.
We found no statement of where the data is stored, and no mention of GDPR or HIPAA.
- All data is stored in the European Union on Microsoft Azure, encrypted at rest and in transit.
- Health data is processed under GDPR Article 9, with the family's explicit consent.
- No ads in the app, and no advertising tags inside the signed-in app. Our public website measures sign-ups from ads only after you accept cookies.
- Permissions for each role: you decide what a helper can see and do, and sensitive documents stay hidden from anyone you have not given access.
- A family can turn off every AI feature, so nothing of theirs is sent to an AI service.
- You can delete your account in the app, with 30 days to change your mind.
Read the privacy policy and how team permissions work.
Common questions
Is LumaCare a good Caring Village alternative?
For a care team, yes. Both put one person's care in one shared place. Caring Village is organized around a family circle with a calendar, to-dos, a journal and a medication list. LumaCare goes further where several people share the hands-on care: shifts, handovers, a dose record that shows who gave what, and permissions for each helper. If your circle is mostly relatives coordinating appointments, Caring Village covers that well.
Which is cheaper, Caring Village or LumaCare?
LumaCare. LumaCare Family is €7.99 a month against $14.99 for Caring Village Circle, and LumaCare Premium is €12.99 against $24.99 for Village. Even paid yearly, Circle works out at about $12.50 a month and Village at about $20.83. Both have a free plan: Caring Village's holds 2 members and LumaCare's holds 3, but LumaCare's free plan has no medication reminders or dose log.
Do they work on iPhone?
Caring Village has an app in Apple's App Store for iPhone and iPad. LumaCare does not: on iPhone and iPad you open it in Safari and add it to the home screen, where it works like an app. Both have an Android app on Google Play and work in a web browser.
Are Caring Village and LumaCare HIPAA compliant?
Neither website makes a HIPAA claim. HIPAA mainly applies to healthcare providers, health plans and the companies working for them, not to apps a family chooses for itself. The more useful questions are where the data is stored, whether it is encrypted, whether it is used for advertising, and who in your team can see what. The privacy section above covers both apps.
Can we move from Caring Village to LumaCare?
Caring Village lists a wellness journal export on all its plans, and its privacy policy gives you the right to export your data. If you can get your records out as a spreadsheet, LumaCare's import reads Excel and CSV files, suggests how the columns fit your event types and shows a preview before anything is saved.
Is this comparison biased?
We make LumaCare, so read it with that in mind. We have tried to be fair: everything we say about Caring Village comes from its own website and App Store listing, we link to each source, and we say plainly where it has something LumaCare does not. If something is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
How we compared, and our sources
We read Caring Village's own pages and App Store listing on October 27, 2026 and wrote down what they say. Where its pages disagree with each other, we say so. Where we could not find something, we say "we found no mention", not that it is missing. We did not sign up for a paid Caring Village plan.
- Caring Village home page
- Caring Village app page: features, plans and platforms
- Caring Village pricing
- Caring Village FAQ: plan limits, ads, security
- Caring Village privacy policy, updated April 8, 2026
- Caring Village on the App Store: version 2.1.6, compatibility, prices, privacy label
Caring Village is a trademark of its owner. LumaCare is not affiliated with it. Features and prices change; check with each provider before you decide. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us through support and we will correct it.
Try LumaCare with your own care team
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