Clearcare alternatives: what to weigh before you move
Most homes looking at Clearcare alternatives are not unhappy with the recording. They are looking at a renewal, an AI charge on top of the licence, or a three-year term they would rather not sign again. Here is what the rest of the market looks like, including where staying put is the right answer.
Everything said about a supplier below comes from their own public material and links to the page it came from. Where a vendor doesn't publish something, we say so rather than guess. Last checked August 2026.
Count the AI charge before you compare
Clearcare bills AI on top of the licence, £30 to £80 a month by bed band. Arc includes it at £249 per home along with unlimited staff, so a seven-to-ten bed home compares £330 against £249.
No term, no setup fee, no renegotiation
Arc is billed monthly and priced the same at every home in a group. Nothing about the price depends on how long you sign for.
Moving is cheaper than it looks
Arc includes migration, onboarding and training in the monthly price. The real cost of switching is staff retraining, not data transfer.
What Clearcare costs, all in
Worth pinning down before you compare anything, because the licence fee is rarely the whole bill.
- Published price
- £150–£250 per home / month excluding VAT on a one-year contract, by bed band. Lower on longer terms: £100–£200 on three years. [1]
- What the price is charged on
- The home, banded by bed count and contract length. [1]
- AI included in the price
- No. AI is an optional extra charged on top, from £30 to £80 per month by bed band. [2]
- Minimum contract
- Yes. Pricing is quoted on one, two and three-year terms, with the lowest price on the longest tie-in. [1]
- Setup and migration fees
- No set-up fee, and a three-month implementation period with no licence fee. [2]
What else UK children's homes are using
The systems that come up most often, with what each publishes about itself. Follow any of them through to a full row-by-row comparison against Arc.
CHARMS
Arc vs CHARMS →- Published price
- Not published on the UK site; quote on request. [3]
- Who the product is built for
- Broad social care: fostering, adoption and residential, across the UK and Republic of Ireland. [4]
- Independent security certification
- Cyber Essentials Plus. [4]
- Homes using it today
- Over 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners. [4]
Lief
Arc vs Lief →OVcare
Arc vs OVcare →- Published price
- From £185 per home / month excluding VAT for children's care homes. [7]
- Who the product is built for
- Children's care homes, supported accommodation and family assessment centres. [8]
- Independent security certification
- Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT compliant. [8]
- Homes using it today
- 100+ care facilities claimed. [8]
Sue Solutions
Arc vs Sue Solutions →Arc
Pricing →- Published price
- £249 per home / month, published on our pricing page.
- Who the product is built for
- UK children's residential homes only.
- Independent security certification
- UK data hosting, role-restricted access and a full audit trail on every record. Arc does not yet hold ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials.
- Homes using it today
- Launching in 2026. Join the waitlist before launch and your first home is free for its first year.
When staying with Clearcare is the right call
Staying with Clearcare is the right answer more often than a page like this usually admits. They hold ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus, they have been running for over twenty years, and on a three-year term their one-to-three bed band is £100 a month, which nothing else here beats. If your commissioners require certification and your staff already know the system, that is a strong case to stay.
Built for one setting, priced in one number
Arc does UK children's residential homes and nothing else. Regulation 40, 44 and 45, keywork, contact logs and placement plans are first-class parts of the product rather than templates laid over a platform built for several parts of the care sector.
£249 per home per month covers unlimited staff, every feature, AI, onboarding and migration, with no minimum term. And for year one there is nothing to compare: request a demo before 1 January 2027 and your first home is free for twelve months.
See Arc's full pricing →Questions to ask any supplier you shortlist
- Is the price per home, per registered place, or per user?
- Which features sit behind a higher tier or an add-on — including AI?
- What do onboarding, training and data migration cost?
- Is that price conditional on a one, two or three-year term?
- Where is our data hosted, and where does any AI processing happen?
Clearcare alternatives: common questions
What are the main alternatives to Clearcare?
In UK children's residential care the systems that come up most are CHARMS from Social Care Network, Sue Solutions, OVcare, Lief and Arc. CHARMS is the broadest, covering fostering and adoption as well as residential. Sue Solutions and OVcare are children's-services focused. Lief and Arc are the newest and both publish their pricing.
How much does Clearcare cost?
Clearcare publishes £150 to £250 per home per month excluding VAT on a one-year contract, banded by bed count, falling to £100 to £200 on a three-year term. AI is charged separately at £30 to £80 per month. There is no set-up fee and the first three months are free of licence fee.
Is it hard to move off Clearcare?
The data transfer is usually the easy part — CHARMS and Arc both include migration at no cost. The harder part is the contract: Clearcare prices on one, two and three-year terms, so check where you are in yours before committing elsewhere.
Sources
- [1] https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/price-setup/ “1-3 Bed Home · One Year Contract · £150 · PER MONTH · Excluding VAT” “7-10 Bed Homes” “Three Year Contract”
- [2] https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/faqs/ “AI is an optional extra - and there is an additional cost. ... The cost of AI is based on the number of beds in each home. 1-3 Bed Home £30 excluding VAT 4-6 Bed Home £55 excluding VAT 7-10 Bed Home £80 excluding VAT” “No, we no longer charge a set-up fee. ... At Clearcare we give you a three-month implementation period where you will not pay for your license fee.”
- [3] https://socialcarenetwork.com/Product/Page?pageType=Charms_Child_Residential_Care
- [4] https://socialcarenetwork.com/ “trusted by over 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners across the UK and Republic of Ireland” “Cyber Essentials Plus certified - the highest level of UK government-backed cyber security accreditation”
- [5] https://home.lief.care/pricing/ “£99/mo. or £900/yr. (per home) after first 3 months” “Children's Care Home”
- [6] https://home.lief.care/ “NHS Digital DSPT Compliant” “Join the 500+ carers in hassle free care”
- [7] https://www.ovcare.co.uk/pricing “from £185 per home / per month · excl. VAT”
- [8] https://www.ovcare.co.uk/ “Children's Care Homes” “Cyber Essentials Plus Certified” “100+ Care Facilities Using”
- [9] https://www.suesolutions.co.uk/ “We work alongside 1,000+ homes across the U.K.” “We work alongside 1,000+ homes across the U.K. And this number is growing”
Supplier information taken from their own public material, last checked August 2026. We re-check every 6 months. If anything here is wrong or out of date, email hello@arccare.co.uk and we'll correct it.
Moving from Clearcare to Arc
Changing recording system mid-placement is a real risk, so we plan the move around your home rather than the other way round. Onboarding and migration are included in the monthly price.
Review what you hold
We look at your current records together and agree what must come across and what can be archived.
Migrate the record
Young person records, plans and open incidents are moved and checked before anyone relies on them.
Train on shift
Short sessions with the people who will use it, in the home, on real entries.
Run in parallel
A short overlap so nothing is lost, then a clean cut-over on a date you choose.