Arc vs CRIS
CRIS and Arc are aimed at the same home and agree on a lot: per-home pricing with unlimited staff, no contract, UK hosting, native Regulation 44 and 45 modules. They differ on what you can find out before a sales call, and on how far the record reaches outside the staff team.
Every claim about CRIS on this page is taken from their own public material and linked to the page it came from. Where they don't publish something, we say so rather than guess. Last checked August 2026.
Arc and CRIS, row by row
Same rows on every comparison we publish, so nothing is chosen to flatter us. Numbers in brackets link to the CRIS page each claim came from.
| CAPABILITY | Arc | CRIS |
|---|---|---|
| COST AND TERMS | ||
| Published price |
ARC LEADS
£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. |
Not published. The pricing page describes the model and routes to a demo; no figure appears anywhere on the site. [1] |
| What the price is charged on Per-home, per-licence and per-bed models produce very different bills for the same home. | The home. Staff accounts are unlimited and never change the price, whether you run five staff or twenty-five. | One price per home, with unlimited beds, staff and external users, and no per-user licences. [1] |
| AI included in the price |
ARC LEADS
Included. Advisory drafts, de-identified before inference, UK-only and audited, at no extra charge. |
Not published. AI is not mentioned as a feature anywhere on the site. [2] |
| Minimum contract | None. Billed monthly and cancellable at any time, or annually for two months free if you prefer. | None. Rolling monthly with 30 days' notice, plus a discounted optional annual term. [1] |
| Setup and migration fees |
ARC LEADS
None. Onboarding, training and help moving your existing records across are in the monthly price. |
Onboarding and support included, with a free first month and setup done for you. Data migration from an existing system is not mentioned. [1] |
| Price across a group of homes Some vendors discount the per-home rate as you add homes. | Each home is banded on its own registration, so a group of small homes pays small-home prices. Combined billing across the group, published rates at every home, and no renegotiation as you grow. |
CRIS LEADS Yes. A multiple-homes plan with stepped discounts from the third home, rates not published. [1] |
| THE RECORD AND THE REGULATIONS | ||
| Who the product is built for | UK children's residential homes only. | Children's residential care, with supported accommodation priced separately. [3] |
| One record per young person | One living record: timeline of every event and entry, care plans and goals, keywork, contact, and wishes and feelings. | One shared current picture per child, with per-child chronologies built automatically from logs and significant events. [2] |
| Daily recording | Structured daily journals that compile from what staff log during the shift, with mandatory-field prompts. | Structured child-linked daily logs and significant events, mobile-first, timestamped and attributed. [2] |
| Handover | Compiled automatically from the shift rather than re-typed at the end of it. | Yes, structured handovers named as a distinct capability alongside rota visibility. [2] |
| Incident tracking | Incidents stay open until they are formally resolved and signed off, with missing episodes, return home interviews and physical intervention records. | Structured incident recording with a front and back body map, ready for review and sign-off. [2] |
| Safeguarding workspace | A separate, role-restricted workspace rather than a folder everyone can open. | Yes, including a restricted access-controlled module specifically for allegations against staff. [2] |
| Regulation 40 notifications |
ARC LEADS
Raised by a manager at incident review, where the decision belongs, then tracked per recipient with a 24-hour overdue clock and a compiled PDF for the Ofsted submission. |
Not published. Regulation 40 and notifiable events are not mentioned anywhere on the site. [2] |
| Regulation 44 independent visits | Structured independent-visit record with the monthly due date tracked. | Yes, a native module for independent visitor visits and reports, kept with the live record. [2] |
| Regulation 45 quality of care reports | Compiled from the record already entered, with manager sign-off and a full audit trail. | Yes, a native module for the manager's structured quality of care review. [2] |
| DATA AND ASSURANCE | ||
| Where the data is held | United Kingdom, named to the service: the application on Amazon EC2 and the database on Amazon RDS, both in the UK region. | United Kingdom — AWS UK region, per their security page. [4] |
| Independent security certification Formal certification held by the supplier itself, separate from its hosting provider. | 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. |
CRIS LEADS Cyber Essentials, certified for CRIS itself. ISO 27001 is claimed for the AWS infrastructure they sit on, not for CRIS. [4] |
| Track record and availability How long the product has been running, and how widely. | 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. | No customer count, home count or years trading published. CRIS Care Technologies Ltd, company no. 17305092, incorporated June 2026. [3] |
Sources
- [1] https://www.criscare.uk/pricing.html “Pricing is simple and per-home — book a demo and we'll walk you through it.” “One price per children's home. Unlimited beds, staff and external users. Every feature included — no per-user licences, no paywalled safeguarding tools.” “No contract required. Rolling monthly, with 30 days' notice. You're never tied in.” “Onboarding & support included” “Stepped discounts from your third home”
- [2] https://www.criscare.uk/features.html “One picture per child — Everyone with permission sees a single, current picture — no more piecing it together across inboxes.” “Child-linked daily logs and significant events” “Shifts & handovers — Rota visibility and structured handovers so the next shift has the full picture.” “Incidents with body map — Structured incident recording with a front and back body map for injuries, ready for review and sign-off.” “Allegations — A restricted, access-controlled module for allegations against staff — seen only by those who should.” “Missing-episode reports with the detail Ofsted expects, and review triggers that follow up.” “Regulation 44 — Native support for independent visitor visits and reports, kept with the live record.” “Regulation 45 — Manager review of quality of care, structured and stored alongside the evidence.”
- [3] https://www.criscare.uk/ “Mobile-first children's residential care software” “© 2026 CRIS Care Technologies Ltd · Company No. 17305092”
- [4] https://www.criscare.uk/security.html “UK-based hosting — Hosted on Amazon Web Services in the UK region, on managed, monitored infrastructure.” “Hosted on ISO 27001-certified AWS infrastructure (UK region) / Cyber Essentials certified”
CRIS information taken from their own public material, last checked August 2026. We re-check every comparison at least every 6 months. If anything here is out of date or wrong, email hello@arccare.co.uk and we will correct it.
When CRIS is the better choice
Their multi-agency layer is a real advantage: social workers and guardians are permission-checked participants with child-linked messaging and a shared calendar, not people you email attachments to. They hold a Cyber Essentials certification for the company, and publish an ICO registration. Their feature list is also deeper in specific places — electronic medication records, incidents with a front-and-back body map, auto-populating Annex A returns, and native iOS and Android apps. Commercially they are gentler on a cautious buyer too: a full first month free with setup done for you, no card required, and stepped volume discounts from the third home.
Compare the whole bill, not the headline
Arc is £149, £199 or £249 per home per month, set by the number of beds the home is registered for. That covers unlimited staff accounts, every feature, AI, onboarding and migration, with no minimum term. There is no premium tier and the price does not move as your team grows.
Headline prices in this market are rarely the whole bill. Add-ons, per-licence charges, setup fees and the discount that only applies on a three-year tie-in all change the number. Ask every supplier the same five questions and compare what comes back.
And for year one, the comparison is simpler than any of this: request a demo before 1 January 2027 and your first home costs nothing for twelve months.
See Arc's full pricing →Questions to ask any supplier
- 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?
Arc and CRIS: common questions
How much does CRIS cost?
They do not publish a figure. The pricing page describes the model — one price per home, unlimited beds, staff and external users, no per-user licences — and routes to a demo. Arc publishes £149, £199 or £249 per home per month by registered beds, with unlimited staff accounts.
Is CRIS ISO 27001 certified?
No, and the wording repays careful reading — on either site. CRIS states it is hosted on ISO 27001-certified AWS infrastructure, and so is Arc: that certification belongs to Amazon in both cases, not to the supplier. Where CRIS goes further is Cyber Essentials, which they hold for the company itself and Arc does not. Neither product holds ISO 27001.
Do both handle Regulation 44 and 45?
Yes, and on both sides these are genuine product modules rather than marketing references. CRIS lists native Regulation 44 and 45 support kept with the live record. Arc keeps a structured Regulation 44 visit record with the monthly due date tracked and compiles Regulation 45 from the record with manager sign-off.
Where is the data held?
Both state the UK, and both run on AWS. Arc runs the application on EC2 and the database on RDS, in the UK region. CRIS names AWS in the UK region on its security page, though its privacy policy is softer, saying data is stored "within the UK/EEA, or with equivalent safeguards where any transfer outside the UK/EEA is necessary" — worth asking them to confirm which applies.
Moving from CRIS 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.