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CareOptix vs Clearcare Solutions
Clearcare has been serving UK children's homes for over two decades and is used across a large share of the sector, with clinical outcomes frameworks built directly into the platform. This page compares how the two products approach pricing, features, security and support, so you can see where each is the stronger fit for your organisation.
Where each company comes from
Clearcare Solutions was founded in 2003 and has grown into one of the most widely used case management systems in English and Welsh children's homes. The company states it's used by over 55% of children's homes and 850+ supported accommodation provisions in the UK, alongside secure children's homes and services commissioned by local authorities. That scale means Clearcare has had more than twenty years to build out features shaped by feedback from a very large customer base, and its roots are specifically in residential and semi-independent children's care rather than a broader social work caseload. CareOptix takes a different starting point. Rather than growing a single platform across two decades of accumulated feature requests, it was built more recently, specifically for children's residential homes, around the shape of a modern registered home's daily workflow — homes, young people, staff, rotas, forms and reporting — rather than layering residential care onto a system originally built for a wider caseload. Neither approach is inherently better: a longer-established platform tends to arrive with more edge-case features already built and a larger reference base of existing customers, while a newer one tends to have a more modern interface, fewer legacy compromises, and pricing designed around how the sector actually runs today.
What Clearcare Solutions includes
- Structured, secure case notes and support plans for each young person
- Incident forms and risk assessments, with pattern and trend tracking over time
- Outcomes frameworks built in, including CANS, C-GAS, HoNOSCA and Outcomes Star, alongside Clearcare's own tools
- Reporting presented as graphs, tables or lists, with bespoke forms and reports available
- Home and staff management tools alongside care records
- Coverage across private children's homes, semi-independent (16+) provision and secure children's homes
- An optional AI feature, priced separately per bed
- ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification, plus Cyber Essentials accreditation
CareOptix's approach
CareOptix covers much of the same ground — care plans, incident and safeguarding forms, staff records, rotas, reporting — but as eight modules included as standard rather than a base package with optional extras layered on top. There's no separate AI add-on priced per bed, no tier to upgrade into for extra modules, and no per-home charge at all for your first 10 homes: every module and every member of staff sits under the one annual licence, whether you run one home or 10. Beyond that, each extra home is £495/year — a fraction of what Clearcare charges per home from the very first one. Where Clearcare has built out clinically-oriented outcomes frameworks — CANS, C-GAS, HoNOSCA — that go beyond what most children's homes are required to record day to day, CareOptix stays focused specifically on what a Registered Manager needs to run daily operations and hold up under an Ofsted inspection: care plans, daily logs, incident and safeguarding records, staff compliance and cross-home reporting. If your home already works with one of those clinical frameworks as part of a wider multi-disciplinary service, that's a genuine point in Clearcare's favour worth weighing rather than dismissing.
How the pricing works
Clearcare bills per home rather than per organisation: £150/month (excl. VAT) on a one-year contract, per home. An optional AI add-on is billed per bed — £30/month for 1-3 beds, £55 for 4-6 beds, £80 for 7-10 beds (excl. VAT). There's no set-up fee, and new customers get a three-month fee-free implementation window. CareOptix instead charges one annual licence per organisation, covering up to 10 homes, every module and unlimited staff at no extra charge — and even past 10 homes, each additional one is £495/year rather than a full per-home fee.
| CareOptix | Clearcare Solutions | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Licence covers up to 10 homes, then £495/home | Priced per home, per month |
| Cost running 1 home | £4,995/year | ~£1,800/year (£150 × 12) |
| Cost running 3 homes | £4,995/year — unchanged | ~£5,400/year (3 × £1,800) |
| Cost running 5 homes | £4,995/year — unchanged | ~£9,000/year (5 × £1,800) |
| Staff included | Unlimited, at no extra cost | Not published — confirm with vendor |
| AI features | Not currently offered | Optional add-on, priced per bed |
| Formal certifications | Not currently held — see Security below | ISO 27001, ISO 9001, Cyber Essentials |
| Setup | Included | No set-up fee; 3-month fee-free onboarding window |
CareOptix is billed in euro. {competitor.name} prices are shown in pounds, as published by them. Exchange rates move, so compare the pricing models rather than reading the two columns as like-for-like totals.
Security & compliance
Clearcare holds ISO 27001 (information security management) and ISO 9001 (quality management) certification, plus Cyber Essentials accreditation, and states that data is hosted in the UK. Those are audited, third-party certifications rather than self-reported claims, and are genuinely worth confirming directly if formal certification is something your commissioners or local authority specifically requires as part of a data processing agreement.
CareOptix is built around UK GDPR principles — encryption in transit, role-based access control and regular review of access permissions — with your organisation as data controller and CareOptix acting as processor under a data processing agreement, as set out in our Privacy Policy. CareOptix does not currently hold ISO 27001, ISO 9001 or Cyber Essentials certification. If formal third-party certification is a hard requirement for your organisation, that's worth raising directly before you decide, rather than assuming either way.
Support & implementation
Clearcare doesn't publish a formal support-response SLA or uptime guarantee on its public site. What is published: no set-up fee, and a three-month fee-free implementation window for new customers, with onboarding and training provided free of charge. Beyond that, specifics on support hours, response times and what happens to your data at the end of a contract aren't published — worth asking Clearcare directly and getting it in writing if a documented commitment matters to you.
CareOptix includes email support at no extra cost for as long as your licence is active, and onboarding runs through a structured four-step rollout — kick-off, discovery, configuration, and training and deployment — walked through with your team before go-live. CareOptix's Terms of Service treat support response times as a target rather than a guaranteed service level, and don't publish an uptime SLA. The FAQ confirms you can export your records at any time while your account is active, but there's no separate contractual exit-data guarantee. If a documented SLA matters to your organisation, ask both vendors directly rather than assuming either has one.
Which is right for you
You're opening your first home
At one home, Clearcare's per-home price (around £1,800/year before VAT) is likely to come in lower than CareOptix's flat annual licence. If cost-per-home is your main concern at this stage and you don't expect to add a second home soon, Clearcare is worth a serious look on price alone.
You're running or planning to run multiple homes
The moment you cross two homes, the maths flips: two homes on Clearcare's per-home pricing already costs more per year than CareOptix's entire licence, and the gap widens with every home after that — right up to 10 homes, all covered under the same annual price. Past that, each extra home is £495/year, still well short of what Clearcare would charge for it. This is where CareOptix's allowance-based model is specifically built to pay off.
You already use CANS, C-GAS or HoNOSCA
If your service already records outcomes against one of these recognised clinical frameworks — often the case for services working alongside CAMHS or wider multi-disciplinary teams — Clearcare's built-in support for them is a real, practical advantage that CareOptix doesn't currently offer.
Formal certification is a contractual requirement
If a local authority contract or your own governance policy specifically requires a provider to hold ISO 27001 or Cyber Essentials, that's a hard requirement Clearcare currently meets and CareOptix doesn't — worth checking before you shortlist either product.
Common questions
Is Clearcare more expensive than CareOptix?
It depends entirely on how many homes you run. Below two homes, Clearcare's per-home pricing is typically cheaper. At two homes or more, CareOptix is typically cheaper, and stays cheaper as you add homes — the licence covers up to 10 homes at no extra charge, and even beyond that each additional home is £495/year rather than a full per-home fee.
Does CareOptix offer the same outcomes frameworks as Clearcare?
No — CareOptix doesn't currently build in clinical frameworks like CANS, C-GAS or HoNOSCA. It focuses on the operational records a children's home needs day to day: care plans, daily logs, incident and safeguarding forms, staff compliance and reporting.
Can I switch from Clearcare to CareOptix, or the other way round?
Either product should be able to export your records in a standard format for you to bring into a new system — but the practical work of migrating historical case records is genuinely non-trivial and worth planning for regardless of which direction you're switching. Ask both vendors directly about their export and migration process before committing.
Does either product include a free trial?
Neither Clearcare nor CareOptix advertises a self-serve free trial. Both are typically evaluated through a live demonstration on your own use case before you commit to a Subscription Term or contract.
Does Clearcare cover secure children's homes and supported accommodation, not just registered children's homes?
Yes — Clearcare states it's used across private children's homes, semi-independent (16+) supported accommodation and secure children's homes. CareOptix is built around registered children's homes specifically; if a meaningful part of your provision is supported accommodation or a secure setting, check directly with both vendors on how well their workflows map to that setting before deciding.
Bottom line
If you run a single home, Clearcare's per-home price may genuinely come in lower than CareOptix's licence, and its built-in clinical outcomes frameworks are a real advantage if your service already works with them. Once you're running two or more homes, CareOptix's licence absorbs them at no extra charge — right up to 10 homes — while a per-home price keeps multiplying alongside it from home one. Even past that allowance, each additional home on CareOptix is £495/year, nowhere near Clearcare's per-home rate, which is the specific gap CareOptix was built to close. Whichever you choose, the right call comes down to your own home count, your existing outcomes-reporting obligations, and whether formal certification is a contractual requirement for you — not which vendor makes the louder claim.
Pricing and feature figures are as published on clearcaresolutions.co.uk and third-party software directories at the time of writing (August 2026). Confirm current pricing, certifications and features directly with Clearcare before deciding — providers change list prices and accreditations without notice, and this page is not sponsored by or affiliated with Clearcare Solutions.