Lotsa Helping Hands alternative
Looking for a Lotsa Helping Hands alternative?
Reviewed
KeptWell is a free app for the medical side of caring for someone. Your family shares one private circle, and its AI reads every record you add and explains it in plain English. Lotsa Helping Hands organizes the help: meals, rides and visits. KeptWell keeps the reports, the labs and the medication changes, with no ads.
Best Lotsa Helping Hands alternatives in 2026
Lotsa and KeptWell do different jobs, and a family can use both: KeptWell for the records, next to whatever runs the meal schedule. Here's how they compare, going by Lotsa's own site, Terms of Use and app listings as of October 2026. Other options that do Lotsa's job are below the table.
| Feature | KeptWell | Lotsa Helping Hands |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | The medical side: reading and sharing the records, labs, medication changes and what the doctor said | Organizing help: a calendar of meals, rides and visits that friends and neighbors sign up for |
| Price | Free today, every feature | Free for the coordinator and every member |
| Who sees what you post | Only the people an admin invites. No public page, and journal entries can be marked private | The whole community. Coordinators invite as many people as they wish, and members can share the link so others can ask to join |
| Ads | Never | Terms of Use say third-party ads and promotions may run |
| What the terms say about what you post | You own it. KeptWell takes only the license it needs to run the service | Posts are "not confidential or proprietary," with a perpetual, irrevocable license to Lotsa to use, distribute and publish them (terms updated Aug 15, 2023) |
| Tracking, per the app privacy labels | iPhone app label lists no data used to track you | iPhone app label: identifiers may be used to track you across other companies' apps and sites. Android listing: no data shared with third parties |
| Sign-ups for meals, rides and visits | No — No sign-up sheet. You can assign an appointment, or the prep for it, to someone in the circle | Yes — Care Calendar, with automatic reminders for whoever signs up |
| Updates for everyone | Yes — A journal the whole circle can read. Members comment and react on shared items and calendar events | Yes — Announcements, well wishes and a photo gallery |
| Medical records kept, read and explained | Yes — A plain-English summary of every document, with labs and dated medication changes pulled out | Not listed on their site or app pages (as of Oct 2026) |
| Questions answered from the records, and visits recorded | Yes — Private AI chat with answers that cite the document; record and transcribe a doctor visit | Not listed on their site or app pages (as of Oct 2026) |
| Apps | Web and iPhone; on Android, use the web app | Web, iPhone, iPad and Android |
| Export | Yes — The whole circle as a ZIP, any time | Not listed. Terms let you correct, amend or delete your personal information |
Other Lotsa Helping Hands alternatives families look at
- Meal Train
- A free page for organizing meals after a birth, surgery or illness, with the person's preferences, allergies and drop-off time.
- Give InKind
- A free care calendar for meals, rides and childcare that also handles gift cards, fundraising and updates.
- CaringBridge
- A nonprofit site for posting health updates to a wide circle of friends and family, and asking for help.
- Caring Village
- An app for running the day of caregiving: a shared calendar, to-do lists, medication check-offs and messages. Its free plan holds two people.
Why families add KeptWell
When the hard part is the medical side
The meals get covered. Then someone has to keep track of what the doctors said.
The records get a home, and get read
A meal calendar has nowhere to put the discharge summary. KeptWell reads every page you add (a scan, a PDF, a photo of the paper) and writes back what it is, what was found and which medications changed, in plain English. Lab results build into trends and every medication change keeps its date. The original stays attached, so anyone can check.
The meal volunteers don't see the scan results
A Lotsa community is everyone who offered to help: neighbors, coworkers, friends of friends. That's the point of it, and it's the wrong audience for a pathology report. A KeptWell circle has no public page. Only the people an admin invites can get in, usually the family and maybe a close friend. Inside the circle, anyone can mark their own journal entry private.
No ads, and the family owns what it adds
Lotsa's Terms of Use, last updated August 15, 2023, say what members post is "not confidential or proprietary" and give Lotsa a perpetual, irrevocable license to use, distribute and publish it. They also allow third-party ads. KeptWell's terms say the family owns everything it adds and KeptWell takes only the license it needs to run the service. There are no ads.
The sibling who wasn't there can catch up
Record the appointment in the iPhone or web app and KeptWell transcribes it and sorts out who said what. Your brother three states away can read it that night, then ask his own private chat what changed since the last scan. The answer cites the document it came from, so he can open the source and check.
Other comparisons families have asked us about
KeptWell vs CaringBridge
If you also post health updates for a wider circle of friends, here's how CaringBridge and KeptWell differ on keeping the medical records to the family.
KeptWell vs Caring Village
If you need to-do lists and dose check-offs for the day, here's how Caring Village compares with KeptWell for the records.
For families sharing the care
- KeptWell for aging parents Gather what the next visit needs and keep every sibling on the same record.
- Caregiver handoff checklist for siblings Who does what, written down before the shift changes.
- Free printable caregiver daily log Meals, medicines given, mood and care, for whoever has the shift.
- Free medication schedule maker Turn the medication list into a printable day-by-day schedule.
A note from KeptWell
Keep every record in one place your whole family can read
KeptWell takes the scans, lab results, visit notes, and appointment recordings a family collects and turns them into one organized, searchable record. Upload a document and it's read, summarized in plain English, and filed where everyone in the care circle can find it. Ask a question and get an answer grounded in the actual records.
It's free to start, with no credit card. We never sell your data or show you ads.
Common questions
- How does Lotsa Helping Hands work?
- A coordinator creates a community and invites family, friends and neighbors. The coordinator posts requests on the Care Calendar (meals, rides to appointments, visits), members sign up for them and Lotsa sends reminders. Announcements, well wishes and a photo gallery keep everyone updated. It runs on the web and in apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.
- Is Lotsa Helping Hands free?
- Yes. Lotsa is free for the coordinator and for every member of the community. Its Terms of Use say Lotsa may run ads and promotions from third parties. KeptWell is free today too, with every feature and no member limit. It never shows ads or sells family data.
- Does KeptWell have meal and ride sign-ups?
- No. KeptWell has no sign-up sheet for meals, rides or visits. You can assign an appointment, or the prep for it, to someone in the circle, who accepts it and marks it done. Families who need a meal schedule keep Lotsa for it, or use a tool like Meal Train, and keep the medical records in KeptWell.
- How hard is it to switch from Lotsa Helping Hands to KeptWell?
- There's no importer, and the meal schedule doesn't need to move: you can keep Lotsa for the helpers. What you add to KeptWell is the medical side. Connect the patient's MyChart (where the health system has turned that on) or Apple Health, upload the papers from the last few visits, and the AI reads and sorts each one. Then invite the family.
- Is KeptWell HIPAA-compliant?
- No. KeptWell does not currently offer a Business Associate Agreement or claim HIPAA compliance. It is built for families managing their own records. It encrypts data in transit and at rest, never sells family data, shows no ads and does not opt in to AI provider training. You can export the whole circle as a ZIP at any time.
Add one record and see it explained
Upload one document (the discharge summary, a lab report, the notes from the last visit) and see it come back in plain English. KeptWell is free today, for the whole family.
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