Home care agency software costs anything from under a hundred to several hundred a month for a small agency, and the AI may be a separate line. Birdie starts from 200 pounds a month excluding tax, with its AI tools metered per recording hour. ShiftCare charges 8 to 25 AUD per user a month with AI notes included. Others only quote.
The useful habit is to price the base system and the AI separately. A vendor who bundles them into one number makes it hard to see what you would lose by saying no to the AI. Most agencies need the rostering, care plans and invoicing first; the AI is a second decision.
Three pricing shapes you will meet
Home care software is sold three ways, and comparing across them is where most owners go wrong.
| Model | Example | What drives the bill | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per scheduled hour | Birdie | Hours of care you schedule each month | Growth raises the bill; ask where the tier breaks fall |
| Per user per month | ShiftCare | Every login, care workers included | Minimum five staff; add-ons priced per user or per client |
| Quote only | Care Control Systems, Nourish Care | Modules, sites, staff and clients | AI listed in the demo but not on the quote |
I checked all four vendors' public pages in November 2026. Two publish figures; two ask you to book a demo. That does not make the quote-only ones expensive, it only means you cannot compare them until you have asked.
Birdie: plans by hours, AI as a separate meter
Birdie says each plan has a monthly cost based on the hours of care you schedule, and the page states the price "from 200 pounds per month" excluding tax. It lists four tiers. Starter covers digital assessments and care plans, drag-and-drop rostering, invoicing and payroll, carer and family apps, and electronic medication records. Core adds analytics, digital body maps, auditing forms and multi-payer invoicing. Advanced adds secure carer messaging, workflow automation and outcome monitoring. Plus adds custom workflows and premium support. Exact prices per tier are not published; live chat support is free, and Premium Support costs extra.
The AI sits outside the plans, under a heading called SmartTools. Two are named: SmartPlans, for first assessments, and SmartMeetings, for supervisions and team meetings. Two ways to pay:
- Pay for use: 3 hours free, then 3.50 pounds per recording hour, billed monthly with no minimum.
- Subscription: from 2.75 pounds per recording hour with a monthly commitment, and unused hours roll forward.
The page does not say whether any tier includes the SmartTools, so ask. It also does not describe "AI notes" or an assistant by name, so do not assume either exists when a salesperson mentions one.
A sum for the Birdie AI meter
Illustrative: an agency takes on four new clients a month, and each first assessment takes about 1.5 recording hours. That is 6 hours. Supervisions: 12 care workers each have one roughly every two months, an hour each, so about 6 hours a month. One 1.5-hour team meeting. Total: 13.5 recording hours.
On pay-for-use, if the 3 free hours apply every month, the other 10.5 hours cost 10.5 times 3.50 pounds, which is 36.75 pounds a month. The page does not say whether the free hours are monthly or a one-off allowance; if they are one-off, all 13.5 hours are charged from the second month, which is 47.25 pounds. Ask, and write the answer on the quote. On the subscription, 13.5 hours at 2.75 pounds would be 37.13 pounds, but only if the commitment fits your volume; the page gives no tier sizes. So at this volume the two routes cost about the same, and pay-for-use carries no commitment. The subscription pays off only when your recording hours run well above the free allowance every month.
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Buy nowShiftCare: per user, and every login counts
ShiftCare's prices are AUD, excluding tax, per user per month. Every person with a login counts, care workers included, and plans have a five-staff minimum. Clients are unlimited.
| Plan | Annual billing | Monthly billing | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $8 | $9 | Rostering, GPS clock in and out, offline app, AI notes |
| Professional | $13 | $15 | Adds vacant shift offers, bulk invoicing, reporting, team messaging |
| Premium | $20 | $25 | Adds shift costing, family portal, care plans, medication records |
| Enterprise | Custom, for 250 or more staff | Single sign-on, open API, dedicated manager | |
Add-ons: ShiftCare HR $2 per user per month, Certifications $3 per user per month, a per-client Support at Home charge of $5 a month on Premium and Enterprise, and $0.10 per text message. Annual plans are paid up front for twelve months; monthly plans are cancellable, and there is a seven-day trial with no card.
What ShiftCare says its AI does
ShiftCare lists 14 AI features in its comparison table, with Basic and Professional each including 10 and Premium all 14. The page does not say which four are held back, so ask. It names AI note transcription and a link to Claude or ChatGPT as included on every plan, and AI progress notes, voice transcription and a "Completeness Coach" on Basic. Other rows in the table include AI note rephrasing, an AI client handover summary, a one-click client summary, AI-generated forms and documentation, AI reminder messages, and AI dashboards for billing, client health and cancelled shifts. Unlike Birdie, the AI is inside the per-user price, not metered separately. The catch is that you pay per user even if only the office team uses the AI.
The quote-only vendors: what to ask for
Care Control Systems describes "ethical, transparent pricing" without a figure, and says its features come as standard with no hidden fees. Its home page names two AI products, MargoAI and Care Control Intelligence, with no detail on what either does. Nourish Care has no price on its page; its AI page describes Nourish Confidence, which it calls its next AI product, offering AI-assisted care plan reviews, with no price and no word on whether it is included in a subscription. Treat both as questions for the demo rather than features you can count on. What I can give you is the list of items to put in the quote request, which works for any vendor:
Please quote, with each line priced separately:
1. Base platform: care plans, rostering, invoicing, payroll export
2. Medication records module (if separate)
3. Family or client app
4. Each AI feature by name, with what it does and how it is charged
5. Onboarding and data migration, one-off
6. Training, one-off or included
7. Support hours and response times
8. Contract length, notice period and price-rise cap
9. Data export on leaving: format, cost, timescale
We have 15 staff logins and about 30 clients. We schedule about 600 hours a month.Give every vendor the same four numbers: logins, clients, scheduled hours, and how much of your care is medication-related. Without them, you will get three quotes that cannot be compared.
A worked comparison for a 15-person agency
Illustrative numbers. An agency has 12 care workers and 3 office staff, so 15 logins. It has 30 clients and schedules roughly 600 hours of care a month. It wants rostering, care plans, medication records and invoicing, and is curious about AI notes.
ShiftCare, Premium (the tier with care plans and medication records listed), at 15 users: monthly billing at $25 is $375 a month; annual billing at $20 is $300 a month, paid as $3,600 up front. Add HR at $2 times 15, $30, if you want it. Texts: 200 reminders a month at $0.10 is $20. So roughly $300 to $425 a month, in AUD, all-in with the AI included.
Birdie: the page gives only "from 200 pounds" and says the price tracks scheduled hours, so for 600 hours the quote may be higher than the starting point. Add the SmartTools at about 37 to 47 pounds a month as computed above. The honest summary is that the Birdie base is unknown until you get a quote, and the AI adds modestly.
The decision rule: if the AI is a nice-to-have, compare base plans only, then add the AI line. If you really want AI notes for care workers, ShiftCare's all-in per-user pricing has fewer surprises. If assessments and supervisions are the time sink, Birdie's pay-per-hour meter is cheap to try because the first three hours are free.
Hidden costs that sit outside the price page
- Data migration. Moving 30 clients' care plans from paper or a spreadsheet may cost a one-off fee or several days of office time. Ask who does it.
- Parallel running. Plan a month of two systems. At 10 office hours a week extra, that is about 40 hours.
- Training time for carers. Say 12 carers at one hour each, paid. That is 12 hours of wages before the first visit is logged.
- Price rises. Ask for a cap in the contract.
- Per-user creep. On per-user pricing, each new carer is a new line. A 10 per cent staffing rise is a 10 per cent software rise.
- Hours creep. On per-hour pricing, taking on a large package raises the bill the month it starts.
Cheap, middle and high scenarios for the same agency
Using the 15-login, 30-client agency again, here are three ways to spend, all illustrative and in the currency each vendor uses. Treat the figures as shapes of spend, not quotes.
| Scenario | What you buy | Monthly cost shape | What you give up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheap | ShiftCare Basic on annual billing, no add-ons | 15 users at 8 AUD = 120 AUD | Care plans and medication records sit outside the system or in another tool |
| Middle | ShiftCare Professional, monthly billing, HR add-on | 15 at 15 AUD = 225 AUD, plus 15 at 2 AUD = 30 AUD, so 255 AUD | Care plan and medication modules sit in Premium |
| Higher | Premium, annual billing, plus Birdie-style AI meter or equivalent for assessments | 15 at 20 AUD = 300 AUD, plus the AI line of your chosen vendor | Twelve months paid up front |
The cheap scenario can be the right one for a new agency with a handful of clients and paper care plans it is happy with. The mistake is buying the cheapest tier and then finding that the thing you actually bought software for, medication records or care plans, is one tier up. Check the feature table row by row against your three must-haves before looking at the price.
A six-person agency versus a forty-person agency
Scale changes which pricing shape wins. Illustrative figures again.
Six logins (five carers and one coordinator), eight clients. ShiftCare's five-staff minimum is met. On Basic annual billing that is 6 times 8, or 48 AUD a month; on Premium monthly, 6 times 25, or 150 AUD. A per-hour model can be dearer here, because a starting price such as Birdie's 200 pounds a month is a floor, not a unit price. For an agency this size a quote only wins if it gives a lower floor.
Forty logins, 120 clients. Per-user pricing grows in a straight line: 40 times 20 on Premium annual is 800 AUD a month. Per-hour pricing grows with care delivered rather than headcount. If your carers work part-time on short visits, hours may be lower than the headcount suggests and per-hour wins; if you have many full-time carers, per-user may be cheaper per hour. Model both using your own rota. The honest answer is that neither is always cheaper.
The enterprise tier at ShiftCare starts at 250 staff, so a forty-person agency stays on the published plans. Ask quote-only vendors where their next tier starts, because a jump at 50 users or 1,000 hours is the kind of thing a growing agency should know before signing.
A realistic mistake: paying for AI nobody uses
Illustrative. An agency signs up for the top plan because it includes every AI feature. Six months later, the care workers still type notes by hand because the voice feature needs a quiet room and several of them visit clients with the television on. The office uses the assessment drafting twice a month. The AI portion of the bill is paid, the saving is a few hours, and nobody noticed because it was inside a single per-user price.
How to avoid it: decide in advance which two tasks the AI must shorten, set a number (say 45 minutes saved per assessment), and review at 60 days. If the number is missed, drop to the tier without those features when the contract allows, or negotiate at renewal. This is easier with a metered AI line, because an unused meter costs nothing, while an AI bundled into a per-user fee costs the same whether it is used or not.
How to check it worked after 60 days
- Time per assessment. Log start and finish of ten assessments before and ten after. Compare the averages.
- Edits to AI drafts. Count how many drafts needed a correction to a fact. If more than one in five, the tool is not ready for that task.
- Carer adoption. What share of visits have a note written within an hour of the visit?
- Bill against quote. Compare the first two invoices to the quote line by line. Metered AI is where surprises live.
- Support response. Count tickets and median reply time.
Keep the results in one page. At renewal it is the page that lets you negotiate, or leave, with evidence instead of a feeling.
Which AI features are worth paying for in year one
Verified features this month are narrow: assessment drafting, meeting and supervision transcription, voice-to-note, a completeness check on notes, and ShiftCare's AI summaries and dashboards. Treat anything else on a sales sheet as unconfirmed until you see it work on your own data.
My order of priority, illustrative: first, voice-to-note for care visits, if the care workers will really use it, because it saves time at the point of care. Second, assessment drafting, because the first assessment is the heaviest document you write. Third, supervision transcription. For each, run a two-week trial and count minutes saved per task, not impressions. Our 90-day AI plan for a home care agency shows how to stage the rollout, and the care software AI questions checklist covers data and risk questions to ask every vendor.
A before-and-after for one assessment
Before: the manager visits, takes notes on paper for 60 minutes, then writes up for 90 minutes. After, with an AI drafting tool: the same visit is recorded with consent, and the manager spends 30 minutes editing a draft. That is 60 minutes saved per assessment, or four hours across four new clients a month. At 25 pounds an hour for a manager's time (an assumption, use your own), that is 100 pounds a month against 37 to 47 pounds of AI cost. The sum only holds if the draft is checked line by line; a care record with an invented detail is worse than one written slowly.
Negotiating the contract, not just the price
Once you have two quotes, the contract terms usually matter more than a 10 per cent difference in list price. Ask for a month-to-month option or a trial before an annual commitment, particularly for the AI features, which change fast. Ask whether prices are fixed for the first term, and what the cap is on a renewal rise. Ask whether a seat can be removed when a carer leaves, because per-user billing that only goes up is a quiet cost. Finally, ask for the data export described earlier to be written into the agreement, with a named format and a fixed number of days. A vendor sure of its product will agree to all four without fuss.
Client data: the questions behind the price
Before paying for any AI feature that records conversations with clients, get four answers in writing: whether recordings are stored and for how long; where the data is held; whether any of it trains a model; and who at the vendor can access it. Also decide how clients and families are told. Our staff policy tutorial for AI in care gives wording you can adapt. A cheap tool with unclear data handling costs more in the end than a dearer one with clear terms.
A checklist to take to every demo
- Is the base price per hour, per user or custom, and what happens at the next tier?
- Which AI features exist today, not "coming soon"?
- Is each AI feature included or metered? At what rate?
- What happens to recordings and transcripts?
- Can I trial the AI on my real data first?
- What does export on leaving cost?
- What is the notice period, and is there a price-rise cap?
If you would rather work through the quotes with someone, that is what my AI implementation consultation covers; get in touch and bring the quotes. For a wider view of how AI pricing differs from ordinary software, how to read AI software pricing explains seats, credits and usage fees.
Home care software cost questions
Why do some home care vendors not publish prices?
Many price by scheduled care hours, number of staff or sites, and bundle modules such as payroll or eMAR, so a single figure would mislead. A quote is normal, but ask for it in writing with the AI features listed and priced as separate lines.
Is per-user pricing cheaper than per-hour pricing?
It depends on who counts as a user. ShiftCare counts every login, including care workers, so a large field team with few clients costs more on per-user pricing. Per-hour pricing, as Birdie uses, rises with the care you schedule. Model both on your real numbers.
Do I need the AI features to run a home care agency?
No. Rostering, care plans, medication records and invoicing do the core work. AI note-taking and assessment drafting save office time, but they are optional. Buy them after you have the base system running and can measure the time they save.
What should I check about AI and client data?
Ask whether recordings are stored, for how long, where, and whether they train any model. Ask who reviews AI drafts before they enter a care record. Get the answers in writing and keep them with your data protection paperwork.
Can I switch software later without losing records?
Ask before signing. Request a data export in a standard format such as CSV, and ask what the vendor charges for it and how long it takes. Care records have retention duties, so access to history matters more than any feature.
Further reads
- AI for Care Homes: A Registered Manager's 90-Day Implementation Plan — A staged rollout plan, written for residential care managers.
- AI Home Care Services: Turning Visit Notes Into Family Updates — Turning visit notes into family updates, once software is in place.
- AI Answering Service for Home Care Agencies: After-Hours Call-Outs — After-hours call handling for agencies, a separate cost line.
- Children's Home Software: Which Systems Add AI and What to Check First — The same AI-features check for children's home systems.
- How Can AI Help in Care Homes? Ten Back-Office Uses — Ten back-office uses of AI in residential care.
- AI Consultant for a Care Home: Do You Need One, and What to Ask — When outside help is worth paying for.
- Fostering Agency Software Checklist: What to Check and Where AI Fits — A buyer's checklist for small fostering agencies: records, panel papers, supervision logs, access controls, exit terms and the narrow places AI belongs.
- AI for Home Health Agencies: Faster Replies to Hospital Referrals — A referral intake checklist, ready-to-send missing-information requests and a response-time log, with AI under a signed business associate agreement.
- Caregiver Recruiting Strategies: AI for Ads, Screening and Follow-Up — Draft caregiver job ads, build fair screening questions and re-engage lapsed applicants with AI, with a human making every hiring decision.
- Domiciliary Care Rota Template: When Software or AI Fills the Gaps — A domiciliary care rota template with travel time and continuity rules, plus how AI can suggest gap cover while a coordinator makes the call.
- Domiciliary Care Spot Check Template: AI Summaries and Action Lists — A spot check form for home care, a fair scoring approach, and AI prompts that turn completed forms into summaries and action lists.
- HIPAA Compliance Policy for a Home Care Agency: Build It With ChatGPT — How to draft each HIPAA policy section with AI using no client data, then the exact items a lawyer and your compliance officer must check.
- Home Care Agency Welcome Packet: Build the Admission Pack With AI — Build a home care welcome packet section by section: what to include, the prompts that draft it, and the manager sign-off that makes it safe to send.
- Non-Medical Home Care Leads: An Enquiry-Reply Routine Using AI — A practical routine for answering home care enquiries within minutes: reply templates, after-hours cover and a response-time test.
- Nursing Home Survey Readiness Checklist: Evidence Binders With AI — How a nursing home can organise survey evidence: binder sections, a policy index, mock survey questions and a clear rule that AI summarises and staff verify.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Birdie pricing page; ShiftCare pricing page and FAQ; Care Control Systems home page; Nourish Care home page and AI page (all read 4 November 2026). Prices are list prices in the currency each vendor shows and excluding tax.