Birdie is widely used in UK home care and is well regarded for its carer app. If you are choosing between Birdie and Carelo, or thinking about moving, these are the points we would want to weigh in your position. Written by Carelo, so read it as our side.
Agencies rarely change software because the current one is bad. They change because the rota is being planned in one tool and the care record kept in another, because the price rose with every client added, because the timesheet needs a spreadsheet before payroll, or because the commissioner asked for a report that took a week. Name the problem first; then ask both suppliers how they solve that one, on your data.
| Ask | Carelo's answer |
|---|---|
| Is the price public, and what is in it? | Yes. From £59 a month by carer band. Rota, call monitoring, eMAR, notes, incidents, timesheets, invoicing hours, the compliance Matrix, exports, and both apps are in every plan. Carelo AI is the one optional add-on. |
| Do I pay more as I take on clients? | No. Service users are unlimited. Your bill moves only with your carer band. |
| Is the rota the same record as the care notes? | Yes. The visit the co-ordinator drags on the board is the visit the carer checks into and records medication and notes against. One record, seen from the office, the carer's phone and the family's app. |
| What does the carer see? | Today's calls and this week's, each with the care plan, medication due, notes and check-in; offline when needed; changes pushed the moment the office makes them. The apps page shows it. |
| Is there a family app, and does it cost them? | Yes, and no. Families see the week's calls, who came, notes the office chooses to share and can message the office. Free. |
| Timesheets without a spreadsheet? | Yes: rostered, actual and payable minutes per call, travel and mileage from real routes, cancellation decisions applied automatically, exported per period. |
| Moving from Birdie? | Free. We load your export, verify it side by side, and you switch on a date you choose. How migration works. |
Ask us to do all three on the Carelo demo. Ask the same of anyone else.
We think the fairest answer is to try both. Carelo's app carries the day's calls, check-in, medication, notes, timesheets and time-off requests, works offline, and is free on iPhone and Android. Judge it on a real call.
Usually a couple of weeks from export to go-live for a mid-sized agency, most of it verification. You keep your current system running until the Carelo rota matches it.
Each client has their own funders and rates, and invoices are raised per funder from the delivered calls, with cancellation decisions honoured.