CareWeight
What would it cost to replace you?
Probably more than your family realizes. CareWeight builds a care plan with real numbers: hours by category, market rates, a proposed way to share the work. Fill it in once, send it to your family.
Free. Private. Nothing is stored on our servers.
Frequently asked questions
What does CareWeight do?
CareWeight is a free web tool for building a family care plan. It helps the main caregiver of an aging parent document who does what, how many hours a week, and what the work would cost at market rates. The output is a printable document and a private share link you can send to family members.
Is it free? Is there a sign-up?
CareWeight is free, with no sign-up, no account, and no paywall. You answer nine short screens in your browser (six if you have no siblings), get the plan, and share it. Nothing is unlocked later for a fee.
Does CareWeight store my family's information?
No. CareWeight has no server-side database. Everything you type stays in your browser, saved to local storage so you can come back and finish later. We don't run analytics, don't set tracking cookies, and don't send your family's information anywhere.
Can I use this if I don't have siblings?
Yes. If you're a solo main caregiver, CareWeight skips the redistribution steps and produces a care plan and labour documentation — a written record of what you do, how many hours it takes, and what it would cost at market rates. Useful for your own records, conversations with employers, or future planning.
How are the dollar amounts calculated?
CareWeight rates anchor on the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, which reports $35/hr as the US national median for in-home non-medical caregiver service — a figure that consolidates what used to be reported separately as homemaker, home health aide, and companion aide rates. Household ($28) and emotional support ($30) are kept as separate line items for clarity but sit at or just below that consolidated CareScout rate. Medical coordination ($55), financial management ($40), and crisis response ($45) are not separately published in CareScout 2025; we use conservative below-market estimates informed by Aging Life Care Association care-manager fees ($100-$250/hr range privately), AADMM daily money manager guidance ($50-$150/hr range), and agency overnight/24-hour care premiums. Every rate is adjustable.
Is this a legal document?
No. CareWeight produces a family communication tool, not a legal contract. It does not replace an elder law attorney, a power of attorney, or a Medicaid-compliant caregiver agreement. The plan includes an acknowledgment line family members can sign in good faith — useful for accountability, not for court.
Will my family need to install something to read the plan?
No. The plan opens in any modern web browser on a phone, tablet, or laptop. Family members click the share link and read it the same way they'd open a news article. They can also print it or save it as a PDF using their browser's print function.
What does the share link contain?
The share link contains the full plan: your parent's first name, the names and locations of the family members you added, the care hours and tasks by category, and the monthly financial totals. The data lives in the URL itself and is never sent to our servers. Send only to people you'd hand a printed copy to.
About CareWeight
How the numbers work
CareWeight uses six categories of care with category-specific market rates. All figures are US national medians anchored on the CareScout Cost of Care Survey 2025, which reports $35/hr as the median for in-home non-medical caregiver service — a category that consolidates what used to be separately reported homemaker, home health aide, and companion aide rates. We keep household ($28) and emotional support ($30) as separate line items for itemization clarity so labour in those areas stays visible; the figures sit at or just below the consolidated CareScout rate. Medical coordination ($55), financial management ($40), and crisis response ($45) are not separately published in CareScout 2025. We use conservative below-market estimates informed by Aging Life Care Association care-manager fees ($100-$250/hr range privately), AADMM daily money manager guidance ($50-$150/hr range), and agency overnight/24-hour care premiums above the $35 in-home base. If you live outside the US, or your local market is different, adjust each rate on the money screen — the budget recalculates as you type. Weekly totals are simple multiplication; monthly totals use 4.33 weeks per month.
Who built this
CareWeight is built by an independent product designer. Six years ago, I cared for my own mother and planned the costs on paper because paper was the best tool then. Years later, researching pain points for women from the sandwich generation, women who need to care for their parents. I read hundreds of caregiver posts on Reddit, Mumsnet, and Facebook groups alongside reports from the ILO and AARP. The same gap kept showing up: families have no structured way to document who handles what. So I built one. Free, runs entirely in your browser, never tracks you.
Feedback
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Build your family care plan
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Review the document below. When you're ready, print it or send the plan to your family.