Apps families use to coordinate care for a parent, sorted by the job each one does

Somebody in your family typed “app for coordinating care for elderly parent” into a search box at midnight. The results are a mess, because that phrase covers at least five different jobs, and every tool on the page was built for one of them. This is the list sorted by job. Marlow is on it, last, and for one of those jobs, coordinating a parent’s appointments and rides, it’s the pick. The rest of the list is what each of the others is for.

Every fact here about another product was read on its own site, help center, store listing or policy on September 13, 2026.

Seven visits a year is only the doctor’s office. The lab, the imaging and the physical therapy are on top, and somebody drives to each one. That is the job most of the tools below were not built for, and it’s worth knowing which one was before you pick.

The five that hold a schedule, side by side

The table covers the five tools that hold a schedule of some kind. The group chat holds a conversation, and it’s covered first below. GrandPad, Papa, Care.com and Life360 do different jobs and get their own sections, with their own prices.

Of the 14 things in this table, how many each one covers

• Shared calendar 6 / 14
• Cozi 4 / 14
• Lotsa Helping Hands 6 / 14
• CaringBridge 5 / 14
• Marlow 13 / 14

Feature	Shared calendar	Cozi	Lotsa Helping Hands	CaringBridge	Marlow
Best for	When and where, for a family that already has one	A busy household's week: calendar, lists and meals	A wide circle signing up for meals, visits, errands and rides	Keeping a wide circle informed through a health crisis	Who is driving, and does your parent know
The rides
A ride marked as needing a driver until someone takes it	No RSVP only	No Assignment only	Yes	A request shows Offer to Help until taken	Yes
Claim a ride in one tap, no confirm step	No	No	Sign up for a slot	Yes	Yes
A ride there and a ride back on one entry, each leg with its own driver	No	No	No	No	Yes
A be-ready time worked out from the actual drive	No	No	No	No	Yes
Picked up and home updates to the family	No	No	No	No	Yes
Your parent
A screen for your parent that she never has to operate	No The normal calendar app	No No restricted access option	No Roles are Owner, Site Admin, Coordinator and Member	No Roles are Author, Co-Author and Visitor	Yes
No account or password for her	No An account for a private share	No A shared family password	No Membership required	No Sign-in on the default privacy setting	Yes
Says the ride is being arranged, never shows her the gap	No	No	No	No	Yes
Read-only for her, enforced by the server	View-only, normal app	No	No	No	Yes
Her screen in her own language	44 languages	No English only	English and French	No English only	Five, chosen per person
Practical
A shared calendar	Yes	Yes	Yes	No The Planner was retired in December 2023	Yes
iPhone	Yes	Yes	No No App Store listing today; Android and browser	Yes	Yes
Android	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Built, in testing
Runs in a browser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Price	Free	Free with ads; Gold $39 a year	Free	Free, donor supported	Free, permanently; Plus optional at $6.99 a month

Scroll sideways for the rest of the table.

The tools you already have hold conversations, not commitments

The family group chat is where the emotional support happens, and that matters more than any schedule. What it can’t do is hold state. “Can anyone do Thursday?” gets answered by scrolling, silence means nothing in particular, and nobody can say three months later who drove how often. Your parent is either in the thread watching her children negotiate, or out of it and being relayed to. If the logistics are light, this is the right amount of system, and the longer version is Marlow vs the family group chat.

A shared calendar is a real step up. Google Calendar creates a “Family” calendar when you set up a family group, Apple’s Family Sharing does the same, and both are free, on every phone and in a browser, in 44 languages in Google’s case. Google says it doesn’t use calendar content for advertising. What a calendar records is events, not commitments. An invitation comes back yes, no or maybe rather than claimed, and there’s no state on an event for “this still needs a driver.” The view-only share that would give your parent a read only copy hands her the normal calendar app, designed for a working adult. That comparison is Marlow vs a shared Google Calendar.

The two aren’t either/or. A ride you claim in Marlow is written into your own Google, Apple or Outlook calendar, with a warning if it clashes with something already there.

Who wins? Marlow, for who is driving. The calendar keeps when and where, and Marlow writes the ride you claimed into it.

Cozi runs the household, and it has no side for the parent

Cozi is the family organizer a lot of households with kids already run on: a shared color coded calendar for up to 12 people, lists, recipes and a meal plan, on iPhone, Android and the web. The free version is supported by ads and enters events only 30 days ahead from the Agenda view, with one reminder per attendee. Cozi Gold is $39 a year and Cozi Max is $79 a year. It’s well liked, and for a house where Grandma’s cardiology sits beside soccer practice, it often needs nothing else for the household half.

Two things about it matter for a parent’s care. Events have attendees and lists have an owner, but there’s no volunteering; Cozi’s own FAQ says assigning a list “DOES NOT alert users.” And there is no simplified or read only view: “Cozi does not offer a restricted access option,” and every member has full edit access, behind a shared family password. If your mother is in the Cozi family, she can edit the calendar, and so can the eight year old. The longer comparison is Marlow vs Cozi.

Who wins? Marlow, for a parent’s appointments and rides. Cozi is for the rest of the household’s week.

Lotsa and CaringBridge rally a wide circle

Lotsa Helping Hands is a free care calendar, “always free” with no paid tier, where a community signs up for tasks with volunteer slots: meals, visits, errands, rides. An unfilled task sits under “Help needed” and “Open Tasks,” which is a real open state and a genuine strength. Lotsa Helping Hands has no iPhone app in the App Store today; it runs on Android and in a browser. Its roles are Owner, Site Admin, Coordinator and Member, with none for the person being helped. Forty helpers and a lot of different kinds of help is exactly its shape. See Marlow vs Lotsa Helping Hands.

CaringBridge is a nonprofit, free and donor supported, built around a health journal: one update, read by everyone who loves her, with their replies underneath. It’s the best known tool for keeping people informed and it deserves to be. It retired its Planner in December 2023 and replaced it with Requests, a post in the feed with an “Offer to Help” button that one person can take; there is no calendar view. Its help center says text message notifications aren’t available. See Marlow vs CaringBridge.

Who wins? For meals and visits from a wide circle, Lotsa does more. For keeping sixty people informed, CaringBridge is the tool. Neither gives the parent a screen of her own.

GrandPad is a tablet for calls and photos

GrandPad is a locked down tablet, sold with a plan and set up by the family, that lets an older person video call and see photos with large buttons, high contrast icons, no swiping or hidden gestures, and no passwords, phone numbers, email addresses or user IDs to remember. It’s designed for people 75 and over, and its built in apps carry no ads. The family gets a companion app on iPhone or Android and a web portal, GrandPad Central, where they can add events to her calendar; an event can be set to require her to accept or decline, and editing a recurring event “is not supported yet.” Its terms say the company uses technology that can track the tablet’s location.

The tablet is $349, plus a plan from $25 to $65 a month, and there’s no free tier. Basic at $25 is Wi-Fi only with no voice calls; Premium at $45 adds LTE and a phone number; Ultimate at $65 adds more data. It ships to the US only.

What it doesn’t do is coordinate the family. There’s no way for one of you to claim a ride, so it can’t tell the family who is driving on Thursday, and it can’t tell her either. Marlow does exactly that, on an iPhone she already has, and its everyday app is free.

Who wins? For the rides, Marlow. GrandPad is for calls and photos on a tablet that is hers.

Papa and Care.com send a person

Papa sends a real person, a “Pal,” to spend time with an older adult and help with everyday tasks, errands and transportation. It’s free through some Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and employer plans, and otherwise $30 an hour, with a one hour minimum and the first hour free, in select locations. The member can book by phone or through a portal with no password. Pals don’t assist with medical care or anything that involves physical touch, and the member has to be home during the visit.

Care.com is a marketplace for hiring paid caregivers. It’s free to post a job and receive applications, and messaging caregivers takes a paid membership. Its terms say it does not employ any caregiver and is not responsible for the conduct of any user, and that background checks “may not disclose the existence of all criminal records.” Its app contains advertising, and its privacy policy says personal information may go to third-party advertising providers in a way that “may be considered a ‘sale’ or ‘share.’”

Both are labor, not software. Neither holds the family’s own schedule: which sibling has Thursday, whether the ride back is covered, who drove last month. That’s Marlow’s job, and when the answer is that none of you can, Papa or Care.com is where you look for a person.

Who wins? Marlow, for coordinating the family’s own rides. Papa and Care.com are for hiring help, which Marlow doesn’t do.

Life360 draws the map, and Marlow won’t

Life360 puts everyone in the family on a map, with precise location that needs the “Always” permission, driving summaries, place alerts and an SOS button. It’s free with ads; Silver is $9.99 a month, Gold $16.99 and Platinum $24.99. It works in 21 languages, has no full web version, and says plainly that it is “NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES.”

What it doesn’t do is hold a schedule. There’s no shared calendar and no way to claim a task, so a dot on a map tells you where the car is and nothing about whether anyone agreed to drive it on Thursday. Marlow does no location tracking at all, by choice. Not the driver, not the parent, not anyone. If your family wants to see the car on the map, Marlow will not give you that, and Life360 will. Life360’s privacy policy, dated August 26, 2026, says it licenses precise geolocation data to business partners for their own advertising and monetization purposes, and, for Texas, that it may sell sensitive personal data.

Who wins? For coordinating her appointments, Marlow. Life360 is for the map, and it’s the only one of the ten with one.

Marlow does one narrow thing, and the parent’s screen is the half nothing else has

On the family side, Marlow is a shared schedule where every appointment shows whether it still needs a driver. Orange means nobody yet. Anyone in the circle claims it in a tap, and the claim is the commitment; no confirm step. A round trip is one appointment with two legs, each with its own driver, and the people who couldn’t be there see that she has been picked up and that she is home. The ride you claimed goes into your own Google, Apple or Outlook calendar with a clash warning, with directions to the door and a “be ready” time worked out from the drive. There’s no limit on how many people join, and there never will be as a paid feature.

On the parent’s side there is one screen. No account, no password, nothing to operate. It shows today and what’s next: the appointment, the time to be ready, and who’s coming, in her own language if that’s not yours. If a ride isn’t claimed yet, her screen says it’s being arranged and never shows her the gap. Her phone can read the schedule and nothing else, and the server enforces that. The same information sits in a widget and on the lock screen while the ride is happening.

It does no location tracking, runs no analytics, no trackers and no ads, and sells nothing to anyone. It also has no journal, no meals, no video calls, no map and no person who comes to the house. None of the others on this list was built for the pair Marlow was.

Who wins? Marlow, for a parent’s appointments and rides, and for the screen she reads.

Questions people ask

What is the best app for coordinating care for an elderly parent?

For coordinating her appointments and rides among a few family members, Marlow: every appointment shows whether it needs a driver, the claim is the commitment, and she sees who is coming on a screen she doesn't operate. That phrase covers other jobs too, and each has its own tool. For keeping a wide circle informed, CaringBridge. For meals and visits signed up for by a community, Lotsa Helping Hands. For a household's calendar, Cozi or a shared Google calendar. For a parent who wants to video call, GrandPad. Name the job first.

Is there a free app for family caregivers?

Several. Marlow's everyday app is free, permanently, with no ads and no card; Plus is optional. Lotsa Helping Hands is free with no paid tier. CaringBridge is a nonprofit and free. A shared Google or iCloud calendar is free. Cozi has a free tier with ads.

Does Cozi work for coordinating an elderly parent's care?

It works as a household calendar that her appointments can sit on, for up to 12 people. What it lacks for this job is a way for someone to volunteer for a task, and any restricted or read only view: Cozi's own FAQ says it does not offer a restricted access option, so everyone in the family, including the parent, has full edit access behind a shared password.

Which of these lets my mother see the schedule without a login?

Two of the ten. GrandPad's tablet has no passwords or user IDs at all, and the family manages her calendar from their own app. Marlow's parent screen has no account either; you pair her phone once with a code and it shows her day from then on. Everything else on the list needs her to have an account, a link, or someone to relay it.

Does Marlow track location like Life360?

No, and it won't. Marlow does no location tracking of anyone, runs no analytics and no trackers, and sells nothing. If seeing the car on a map is what your family needs, Life360 does that and we don't. Its privacy policy says it licenses precise geolocation data to partners for advertising.

Does Marlow replace a caregiver or a companion service?

No. Marlow doesn't send anyone to the house. It tells the people already in your family's circle who is driving and tells your parent who is coming. If the problem is that nobody is available, that's Papa, which may be covered by her health plan, or Care.com for hiring someone.

The decision rule

Name the job before you name the app. If the sentence you keep saying is “I can’t call sixty people,” that’s CaringBridge. If it’s “we need dinners for six weeks,” that’s Lotsa. If it’s “I wish she could see the kids,” that’s GrandPad. If it’s “there’s nobody to go,” that’s Papa or Care.com. If it’s “where is she,” that’s Life360, with the trade it comes with. And if it’s “who has Thursday,” and the people who could answer are a few family members, that’s Marlow, and how it works shows both halves in a short read.

Marlow is new and iPhone today, with Android built and in testing. The everyday app is free, permanently, with no card. It isn’t a medical device or a safety system, and it doesn’t vet, insure or background check drivers; they’re the people you invited. If anything here about another product is out of date, write to support@getmarlow.app and the post will be corrected.