Care.com Review: Is the Platform Legit & Still Worth It in 2026?

Yes, Care.com is a legit job-seeking site for care providers. In fact, it’s one of the most widely used job sites. Nevertheless, there have been cases of scammers using Care.com to trick caregivers into handing over their money or sensitive information.

It’s important to stay vigilant against scams and take precautions to protect yourself. Don’t share highly sensitive personal information with users you don’t know, and be sure to familiarize yourself with the signs of nanny and caregiver job scams.

Care.com is an online marketplace where people post jobs for a wide variety of caregiving roles. The company was founded in 2006, and it’s currently one of the most widely used job sites for caregivers.

With millions of family users and a global footprint, it’s a solid place to find jobs as a care provider. You can find jobs on the site or through the Care.com mobile app.

While the site was originally created as a simple job board (and this is still its main use), it’s expanded to include a new “booking” function designed to appeal to gig workers and compete with the leading gig apps for child care, pet care, and other types of caregiving work.

The catch is that bookings are fully mediated by Care.com, meaning they’ll take a cut of your pay, and you can only get paid through the platform. By contrast, if you only use the Care.com job board to connect with potential employers, you and the client will settle all the details of your employment off the platform, including your hours, how you’ll be paid, and how long you’ll work for them.

Types of services

Care.com supports a variety of full-time and part-time caregiving services. Below are a few examples of the care needs you can fulfill through the platform:

• Babysitting jobs
• Nannying
• Special needs care
• Tutoring
• Senior care
• Pet sitting and boarding
• Dog walking
• Pet grooming
• Housekeeping
• Household management
• Personal assistance

This may seem like a gold mine of job opportunities, but there is a catch: You need to create a new profile for each type of job you want to do. You can have multiple profiles under one account (meaning you don’t need to pay any extra fees), but you’ll need to write a new bio for each profile.

Costs of using Care.com

Care.com isn’t free to use and does not offer a completely free membership. While you can create a free account, you’ll need to pay to actually use the site to find work. There are memberships tailored to full-time, part-time, and occasional work.

The table below summarizes Care.com’s service fees, which are added to their membership costs:

A basic Care.com membership is free (though you still have to pay the background check fee). However, there is also a paid subscription option called “Premium Caregiver Membership” for caregivers, which comes with several special perks:

• Waived annual screening fee
• Free CareCheck background check
• Higher ranking in caregiver search results
• Priority job alerts
• Option to message families with no active job postings

Care.com doesn’t specify how much a premium membership costs. However, they do imply that there are multiple options to choose from. Just bear in mind that your subscription will renew automatically if you don’t cancel it.

Requirements for caregivers

There are only a few requirements you’ll need to meet to get approved to post a profile on Care.com:

• Be at least 18 years old
• Have a Social Security number
• Pass a CareCheck

CareCheck is the name of Care.com’s background check. You’ll need to undergo a new check each year.

Supported areas

Care.com is available in cities and towns across the US. Additionally, the site operates in more than a dozen other countries:

• Andorra
• Austria
• Australia
• Belgium
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Liechtenstein
• Luxembourg
• Monaco
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom

Even though it’s a global platform, if you’re a US user, you can only search for and accept jobs within the US.

How to sign up for Care.com

To begin your search for caregiver jobs, just follow these five steps:

1. Click “Apply to Jobs” at the top of the Care.com homepage.
2. Click “Find jobs now“
3. Select the type of service you want to offer.
4. Enter how far from your home zip code you’re willing to travel for work.
5. Enter some personal information, such as your name and email address, as well as a password.
6. Click “Join now” to enroll.

After enrollment, you’ll need to pass a background check, provide information about your professional experience, and upload a photo.

The whole process typically takes at least three business days. Once you’re approved, you can begin applying for jobs at Care.com or through their iOS app or Google Play app.

You set your own rates on Care.com. The platform offers suggestions based on your specialty and location, but some users report that the suggested rates tend to be lower than what they might normally charge, close to minimum wage.

Factors that can influence your earnings include your experience level, where you live, what types of services you provide, and your availability. The table below gives a glimpse into how your income can vary depending on which caregiving services you provide.

Below, we offer hourly rate ranges for common Care.com jobs in top cities across the US:

Source: Care.com rates calculators for caregiving, babysitting, housekeeping, and pet care

How you’ll get paid on Care.com

When you complete a job, you’ll get paid in one of two ways:

Through Care.com (for bookings)

If the job is a booking request, payment will be processed through the Care.com platform. The payment is typically transferred into your bank account after the booking’s scheduled end time (not necessarily six hours after). Care.com takes a percentage of your pay.

Off the platform (for regular job listings)

If you find a job through the regular Care.com job board, payment happens outside the platform. You and your client can decide on your preferred method, such as cash, check, bank transfer, PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle. These jobs include nannying, senior care, tutoring, housekeeping, and some pet care jobs. Negotiating and clarifying payment terms before starting work is recommended.

Care.com user Ryan told us most caregivers make payment arrangements off the platform, simply using the job board function to connect with clients and not using the site after the first meeting. “Care.com doesn’t track or remain involved at all outside of bookings,” he added.

In fact, he said that the majority of caregivers and care seekers who use Care.com move off the platform, even if the job started with a one-time booking. “Care.com doesn’t provide any benefit at all for continuing to go through the site, the costs are higher, both sides pay fees, the booking and messaging is clunky, etc. It’s a thousand times easier to just text your new sitter and ask if they are free Friday night,” Ryan said.

Most caregivers who use Care.com have one issue or another with the platform. Most people recognize that it’s a reliable and valuable tool for finding work due to its huge market share, but it has some faults that are enough to turn some users away for good.

Care.com pros and cons

While some users praise Care.com as a convenient platform for finding caregiving jobs, others feel that it leaves a lot to be desired. Weigh up the benefits and drawbacks according to real Care.com workers before you sign up.

To understand how Care.com is treating its users at the start of 2026, we reviewed discussions about it on online forums like Reddit from professional caregivers and babysitters from the past month.

Here’s what people are saying about their experiences:

What users like about Care.com

For many professional caregivers, Care.com remains a reliable staple. Long-term users who have been using the site for years praise the platform highly, noting consistently positive experiences. In particular, many highlight it as a go-to resource for those looking for specific arrangements, such as live-in care positions.

Prospective sitters also appreciate the ability to verify their credentials directly through the app. By showcasing their CPR certifications alongside their “background check badges,” they can build trust and market themselves more effectively to families.

What users dislike about Care.com

A main frustration for users is the platform’s “community guideline” flags. For instance, one caregiver recently reported that, after returning to the app after a hiatus, they weren’t able to access their account for unclear reasons. Situations like this trigger a mandatory appeal process that can take time, which is especially stressful for those trying to find a new position quickly.

Additionally, those living outside of major cities note that they sometimes struggle to find work on Care.com due to limited opportunities.

While Care.com claims to employ certain safety measures to protect caregivers (e.g., screening care seekers and monitoring messages), there are still risks involved, especially given the sensitive nature of caregiving work.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also recently took action against Care.com due to concerns about the platform’s transparency. They found that Care.com misled caregivers about job availability and expected earnings while making it difficult for users to cancel their subscriptions. As part of the settlement, Care.com was required to refund $8.5 million to affected consumers and improve its job listings, earnings claims, and cancellation process.

It’s important to vet families and clients before you accept a job with them. Be careful sharing personal information, such as your phone number or other contact information, and especially your credit card number.

The risks involved are similar to those you’d face working as an Uber driver since you’re dealing with strangers.

Care.com user Ryan said, “I have heard a lot of female sitters express concern with being booked by single fathers and such.” For this reason, he puts a lot of effort into vetting families.

Ryan generally avoids replying to people who don’t make a noticeable effort to communicate with him. He does an online search on people who give him their names and insists on having a phone or video call and in-person meeting before taking a job.

We asked Care.com user Ryan about his experience using the site for over a decade, and he gave us some insight into the realities of finding work through Care.com:

Anybody you speak to can leave you a review

It’s not just people you’ve worked with on Care.com who can leave you reviews—even people who you’ve had a short conversation with on the platform can post a review. For Ryan, this is a huge deterrent to even replying to a potential client’s message unless he’s pretty sure that the job will be a good fit.

The faulty review system is a big pain point for many other users as well. Care.com complaints posted online suggest that it’s not uncommon for workers to get negative reviews from people they never worked with—whether the reason be that they declined a job offer, didn’t respond very quickly, or didn’t tell the client what they wanted to hear.

Care.com, for its part, seemingly doesn’t moderate reviews or offer any option to remove reviews that are unjustified. One slipup, and you could find yourself with a low rating that makes it next to impossible to land jobs on the platform.

You’ll get random booking requests intended for someone else

One peculiarity that Ryan assumes is related to Care.com’s new “booking” feature is the random messages he occasionally gets that are addressed to someone else. He hypothesized that it happens when caregivers reject a booking request and Care.com automatically sends the same request out to other local care providers.

“It leads to awkward messages,” he said. “I never accept these jobs and have tried to disable them.” To him, this feature is not well thought out, and he hopes it’s something that Care.com will work on changing.

Booking requests don’t come easily

According to Ryan, gig bookings on Care.com can be “extremely hit and miss,” and they’re not a reliable income source. Additionally, getting these bookings is next to impossible without a very strong profile.

Specifically, Ryan told us you’d likely be disappointed by the lack of jobs you’d get if you signed up expecting Care.com to work like Uber or Instacart. Instead, you need to appeal to parents first. “To make your profile appear like someone they would want to leave their kids with, there will be a lot of legwork required,” he said.

You’ll need to manually apply to jobs and work with parents to get reviews and build up your profile, which could take months or even a year. Only then, with a strong profile and good reviews, would you maybe have a chance of families “booking” you through the site.

Signup may be tougher for transgender and nonbinary users

Ryan told us a lot of caregivers aren’t able to pass the CareCheck if they’ve recently changed their name or go by a different name than their legal name. “I’ve noticed people that are transgender have encountered this a lot when they sign up with one name, but all their documents are still in another name,” he added.

This isn’t the only issue you might face on Care.com if you’re not cisgender. At the time of writing, the only gender options provided for new caregivers are “male” and “female,” marking a limitation for nonbinary users.

Below is the message you’ll see when you sign up for Care.com and are asked to provide your gender:

Care.com’s restrictive gender options may pose an obstacle to caregivers who are gender neutral or nonbinary.

For Care.com user, Ryan, what separates Care.com from its competitors is its “popularity in most markets.” Within 25 miles of where he lives, he told us there are usually over 1,500 jobs at any given time—with “big boosts” near the end of the school year and end of summer.

By comparison, competitors generally only reach the double digits in terms of job numbers in his area. For example, a quick search showed only 86 jobs on UrbanSitter, and there are only ever around 30 jobs available at any one time on Sittercity. “Being able to find the right family, in the right location, with the right hours/needs, and the right pay is going to be harder on these smaller sites,” he added.

With that said, if what you really want is one-time gigs you can pick up whenever you have room in your schedule, Care.com probably isn’t the best platform to use since it can take a great deal of time and effort to build up reviews and references from regular jobs. Without reviews, you’ll struggle to get booking requests on Care.com. You’ll probably have an easier time with caregiving apps dedicated to gig work.

Care.com reviews

Before you start using Care.com, check out the table below, which gives a summary of Care.com ratings from across the web:

Not all of these reviews are from caregivers—some are from client users. Additionally, some may be specific to the online platform or mobile app or reflect the experiences of users who’ve been scammed by criminals operating through Care.com. Nevertheless, it’s clear that many people aren’t perfectly happy with how Care.com operates.

Alternative caregiving apps and sites

Whether you’re a babysitter, senior caregiver, or pet care provider, there are plenty of alternatives to Care.com that you may wish to consider. Explore your options by reading detailed reviews of other caregiving apps on the market:

• Sittercity
• Rover
• Wag!

For a more comprehensive selection of options, you can also check out our comparison of the nation’s top 10 babysitting apps as well as our detailed guide to getting jobs as a caregiver.