Care for everyone.
Most home care is built around one stage of life. We built this front door for all of it — a teenager coming home after surgery, a new parent who needs a hand, an adult living with a disability, a grandparent who wants to stay in their own home. If you need help at home, you belong here. That is the moat: care for everyone, at every age.
How we're different
Directories hand you a list. Marketplaces hand you profiles. The front door carries the case to a booked assessment.
| CareDoor | Caring.com | Care.com | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it's for | All ages, all situations — aging, recovery, pregnancy, disability, new parents | Seniors only | Anyone needing any help — nannies, pets, housekeeping, senior care |
| What you get | A booked assessment + a private tracking link for every step | A list of partner agencies to call yourself | Caregiver profiles to browse and hire yourself |
| Who does the matching | A navigator + matching engine (fit → live capacity → preference → performance → fair rotation) | You do, after the lead is sold | You do — DIY search |
| Your contact info | Shared only after you consent. Agencies see needs + ZIP first, never your name or phone | Sold to paying partner agencies as a lead | Shared with caregivers you contact |
| Placement fees | Never. No paid placement; no per-referral fees on Medicare/Medicaid-linked cases | Partners pay for leads | Membership / job-post fees |
| Agency directory | Full licensed registry (1,029 Illinois agencies), partner flag transparent | Partner agencies only | Individual caregivers, not agencies |
| Case tracking | Yes — one case, tracked to a booked assessment | No | No |
Competitor descriptions are structural — how the models work — not pricing claims.
Our moat
No single feature is the moat. It's six layers, each one making the next harder to copy — from the foundation up.
6. Statewide licensed registry — the foundation
Every licensed Illinois home services agency (1,029), with a transparent partner flag. Directory-only agencies are listed but never receive referrals.
Hard to copy: A directory anyone can scrape — but the partner flag, the refresh cadence, and the referral rules on top of it are the product.
5. Partner referral network — distribution
Referral partners send families in and track their own referrals, with attribution. CareDoor grows through trusted channels, not ads.
Hard to copy: Trust + attribution with hospitals, physicians, and orgs takes years to earn. Competitors buy leads; we earn referrals.
4. Operator matching engine
Eligibility → hard fit → live capacity → family preference → performance → fair rotation. Suggestion-only; the operator decides.
Hard to copy: The pipeline, the exclusion reasons, and the audit trail — not just a list sorted by who paid.
3. Consent-first privacy
De-identified referrals, an append-only consent ledger, contact info never sold, no paid placement.
Hard to copy: A business-model choice competitors cannot adopt without breaking their own revenue.
2. All ages, deep home care
Aging, post-surgery, pregnancy, disability, chronic conditions, new parents — home-care-only depth, for everyone.
Hard to copy: Caring is senior-locked; Care.com is generalist. Owning every situation in one vertical is a position neither can take without rebuilding.
1. Managed outcome — the top layer
One intake → matched agency → booked assessment → family visibility. The product is the booked next step, not the search.
Hard to copy: The state machine, the tracking link, and the concierge operation behind it. A list is easy; a carried case is not.
How it works
- One intake. Answer five questions — where you are, what help you need, how urgent it is, how you plan to pay, and how to reach you. No account needed.
- A matched affiliated agency. A navigator reviews your request and matches it with an affiliated partner agency that serves your ZIP, accepts your payment path, and covers what you need.
- A booked assessment. The agency accepts, and an assessment gets booked — with your consent recorded first. You track every step from a private link.
A statewide directory, with partners who accept leads
Our directory lists non-medical home care agencies across Illinois. Agencies marked as affiliated partners have agreed to accept referrals through CareDoor — leads only ever go to partners. Directory-only agencies are listed so families can see the full picture, but they receive no referrals until they partner with us. When requests start coming in from a new area, we onboard partners there and flip the flag — everything keeps moving.
What we are not
- We are not a care provider and we do not employ caregivers.
- We do not give medical advice or decide benefits or coverage.
- We do not sell family contact information.
- We do not take per-referral or per-start fees on Medicare/Medicaid-linked cases, and placement is never paid.
Built in the open, reviewed before launch
Health-care counsel review of fees, ownership disclosure, consent, and referral arrangements is still pending before launch. Until then, this is a concierge pilot: a navigator reviews every request by hand.