Sue Solutions alternatives: what to weigh before you move

Sue Solutions rebuilt its product as Sue V2, and a rebuild is usually when homes take stock of whether the system still fits. If you are looking around, the questions worth asking are about price transparency and how much of the regulatory work the system does for you.

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.

Request a demo Arc vs Sue Solutions, row by row

Get the price in writing first

Sue Solutions does not publish pricing; everything runs through a demo booking. Arc is £149 to £249 per home per month by registered beds, with unlimited staff, no setup fee and no minimum term, all published.

Ask to see Regulation 44 and 45 demonstrated

Their public material references the Children's Homes Regulations 2015 in general terms without naming Reg 44 or 45 templates. Ask for both on screen rather than in principle.

Decide where rota and payroll should live

Sue Solutions bundles rota management and payroll integration. Arc stays focused on the record and leaves those to specialist tools, so check what your team relies on before you move.

Start here

What Sue Solutions costs, all in

Worth pinning down before you compare anything, because the licence fee is rarely the whole bill.

Published price
Not published; the site routes to a demo booking. [1]
What the price is charged on
Not published. [1]
AI included in the price
Not published. [1]
Minimum contract
Not published. [1]
Setup and migration fees
Not published. [1]
The field

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.

Published price
Not published on the UK site; quote on request. [2]
Who the product is built for
Broad social care: fostering, adoption and residential, across the UK and Republic of Ireland. [3]
Independent security certification
Cyber Essentials Plus. [3]
Track record and availability
Over 600 organisations and 50,000 practitioners. [3]
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. [4]
Who the product is built for
Children's homes and supported accommodation. [5]
Independent security certification
ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus. [6]
Track record and availability
Over 3,250 children's homes claimed. [4]
Published price
Not published. The pricing page describes the model and routes to a demo; no figure appears anywhere on the site. [7]
Who the product is built for
Children's residential care, with supported accommodation priced separately. [8]
Independent security certification
Cyber Essentials, certified for CRIS itself. ISO 27001 is claimed for the AWS infrastructure they sit on, not for CRIS. [9]
Track record and availability
No customer count, home count or years trading published. CRIS Care Technologies Ltd, company no. 17305092, incorporated June 2026. [8]
Published price
£149 / £199 / £249 per home per month ex VAT by bed band, published in full. Annual plans £129 / £179 / £229. [10]
Who the product is built for
Ofsted-regulated children's homes in England, plus registered supported accommodation for 16 and 17 year olds. [10]
Independent security certification
None held. Cyber Essentials and then ISO 27001 are stated as roadmap items. [11]
Track record and availability
No customer or home count claimed; they state directly that they are early with a small number of homes. Hearth Systems Ltd, company no. 17349265. [10]
Published price
£99 or £199 per home / month (two tiers), excluding VAT. Published. [12]
Who the product is built for
Children's homes and supported accommodation. [12]
Independent security certification
GDPR and NHS Digital DSPT compliance claimed. [13]
Track record and availability
500+ carers claimed. [13]
Published price
From £185 per home / month excluding VAT for children's care homes. [14]
Who the product is built for
Children's care homes, supported accommodation and family assessment centres. [15]
Independent security certification
Cyber Essentials Plus, DSPT compliant. [15]
Track record and availability
100+ care facilities claimed. [15]
Published price
£149, £199 or £249 per home / month by registered beds (1–3, 4–6, 7+), published on our pricing page. Two months free if you pay annually.
Who the product is built for
UK children's residential homes only.
Independent security certification
Role-restricted access, an append-only audit trail on every record, and a signed data processing agreement, running on ISO 27001-certified AWS infrastructure in the UK.
Track record and availability
Live now, with onboarding, migration and UK-based support included from day one. Request a demo before 1 January 2027 and your first home is free for its first year.
The honest bit

When staying with Sue Solutions is the right call

Sue Solutions has eleven years behind it and says it works with more than 1,000 homes across the UK, on UK-based servers. A system that has already been through hundreds of Ofsted inspections with other managers is a genuine reason to stay. They also bundle rota management and payroll integration, which Arc leaves to specialist tools.

Where Arc fits

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.

£149, £199 or £249 per home per month by registered beds 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

  1. Is the price per home, per registered place, or per user?
  2. Which features sit behind a higher tier or an add-on — including AI?
  3. What do onboarding, training and data migration cost?
  4. Is that price conditional on a one, two or three-year term?
  5. Where is our data hosted, and where does any AI processing happen?
Questions

Sue Solutions alternatives: common questions

What are the main alternatives to Sue Solutions?

The systems UK children's homes use most are listed above, each with its published price where one exists and a link through to a full comparison against Arc. Whether a vendor publishes pricing at all is a reasonable first filter.

How much does Sue Solutions cost?

They do not publish it. The site routes to a demo booking, so you will need an enquiry before you can compare. The suppliers above that do publish a price are shown with it, taken from their own pages.

Will I lose anything by moving?

Check rota and payroll. Sue Solutions bundles both; Arc stays focused on the record and leaves them to specialist tools. If your rota lives in the same system as your recording today, plan for where it goes before you switch.

Sources

  1. [1] https://www.suesolutions.co.uk/
  2. [2] https://socialcarenetwork.com/Product/Page?pageType=Charms_Child_Residential_Care
  3. [3] 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”
  4. [4] https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/price-setup/ “1-3 Bed Home · One Year Contract · £150 · PER MONTH · Excluding VAT” “Join over 3,250 Children's Homes currently using Clearcare!”
  5. [5] https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/home-and-staff-management/ “Reg 44 & Reg 45 for Children's Homes, and Annex A, Annex A1 & Reg 32 for Supported Accommodation Provisions”
  6. [6] https://www.clearcaresolutions.co.uk/benefits-of-clearcare-childrens-social-care-settings-software/ “Clearcare maintain rigorous security standards which are reflected in our ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certification.”
  7. [7] https://www.criscare.uk/pricing.html “Pricing is simple and per-home — book a demo and we'll walk you through it.”
  8. [8] https://www.criscare.uk/ “Mobile-first children's residential care software” “© 2026 CRIS Care Technologies Ltd · Company No. 17305092”
  9. [9] https://www.criscare.uk/security.html “Hosted on ISO 27001-certified AWS infrastructure (UK region) / Cyber Essentials certified”
  10. [10] https://carehearth.co.uk/pricing “Per home, per month, excluding VAT. Unlimited staff accounts on every tier. Registered beds / Monthly / Annual plan / 1 to 3 £149 £129 / 4 to 6 £199 £179 / 7 to 10 £249 £229” “Adult social care. Hearth is built around Ofsted and the Children's Homes Regulations. If you are CQC regulated, this is the wrong product.” “Hearth is early and has a small number of homes on it. I would rather write that down than imply otherwise”
  11. [11] https://carehearth.co.uk/security “Cyber Essentials certification, then ISO 27001 on the roadmap after it. We claim no certification we do not hold.”
  12. [12] https://home.lief.care/pricing/ “£99/mo. or £900/yr. (per home) after first 3 months” “Children's Care Home”
  13. [13] https://home.lief.care/ “NHS Digital DSPT Compliant” “Join the 500+ carers in hassle free care”
  14. [14] https://www.ovcare.co.uk/pricing “from £185 per home / per month · excl. VAT”
  15. [15] https://www.ovcare.co.uk/ “Children's Care Homes” “Cyber Essentials Plus Certified” “100+ Care Facilities Using”

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.

Switching

Moving from Sue Solutions 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.

See Arc in your home.

See Arc against whichever system you are weighing it up with. Request a demo before 1 January 2027 and your first home is free for a year.

No spam. We'll only use this to arrange your demo.

Free first year: one home per company, for demo requests received before 1 January 2027 and accounts opened before 1 June 2027. Full terms.