Kinds of care
Care home or live-in care? The honest comparison
Both cost about the same for one person. For a couple the gap is large. What each gives you, what each costs, and how to decide.
7 minute read · Updated 25 August 2026 · By The Care Home Directory
We run a care home directory and we are owned by a live-in care agency, so you might expect us to lean one way. We would rather give you the numbers. For one person, standard live-in care and a good residential home cost about the same. For a couple, live-in care is usually far cheaper. Beyond money, the two are very different ways to live, and the right one depends on the person.
What each one is
A care home is a building with staff on duty 24 hours a day, meals, laundry and activities, where you rent a room and receive personal care as part of the fee. A nursing home adds registered nurses. See the types of care home.
Live-in care means a carer moves into your house. They have their own room, work a long day with a break, and are on hand overnight for occasional help. Most live-in carers work in blocks of a few weeks and then hand over to a second carer, so a person usually has two regular carers over a year. Through an introductory agency you choose the carer; through a managed provider the provider does.
The cost, for one person and for two
The care home figures are the middle of the fees on record across England; London and the South East are higher, the North lower, and your council area page has the local figure. Live-in figures are the PrimeCarers rates for a self-employed carer introduced by the agency, and include the agency’s fee.
Live-in care has costs the fee does not show. You are feeding the carer, the house is heated all day, and someone still has to pay the council tax and the roof. If the house would otherwise be sold to pay for a care home, keeping it is a cost and an asset at the same time. Council funding also treats the two differently: the means test ignores your home while you live in it, but counts it once you move into a care home permanently.
For one person the money is roughly a draw. For a couple who want to stay together, it rarely is.
The care you get
| Care home | Live-in care | |
|---|---|---|
| Attention | A team shared across all residents. Typically one carer to five or six residents by day, fewer at night. | One carer, one person (or one couple). They are there when you need them, not on a round. |
| Nursing | On site in a nursing home. In a residential home, district nurses visit. | District nurses visit, as they would for anyone at home. Complex packages can include trained carers for specific tasks. |
| Night | Waking staff on duty all night. | The carer sleeps in and can be woken occasionally. If you need help several times every night you need a second carer or a care home. |
| Emergencies | Staff on hand and a manager on call. | The carer is in the house and calls for help; the agency or provider has an out-of-hours line. |
| Continuity | Shifts change; you will see many faces. | Usually two regular carers over a year. |
Daily life, company and home
The strongest argument for a care home is other people. Meals are shared, there is something happening in the lounge, and staff notice if you are quiet. For someone who has been isolated at home, that can be a transformation.
The strongest argument for live-in care is everything else: your own bed, your own garden, the dog, the neighbours, the church, the cup of tea made the way you like it. People with dementia in particular tend to do better in a place they know. A carer can also take you out in a way a home with thirty residents cannot.
Neither is automatically less lonely. A resident who stays in their room is isolated in a crowd; a person at home with a carer they like has company all day.
When a care home is the better choice
- Needs at night that mean being up several times, every night.
- Two-person care for moving and handling, throughout the day.
- A house that cannot be adapted: stairs you cannot avoid, no downstairs bathroom, no spare room for a carer.
- Behaviour that puts a lone carer at risk.
- Someone who is lonely at home and would enjoy company, activities and a change of scene.
- No money for the house and the care: if the house has to be sold to pay for care, a care home may be the only way to do it.
How to decide
Start with needs, not money. Ask the council for a needs assessment; it is free and it gives you a written description of what care is needed. Then price both options honestly: the care home fee for a suitable home nearby, plus what the fee does not include, against the live-in fee plus the cost of keeping the house running.
Then ask the person, if they can tell you. Most people, asked in the abstract, say they want to stay at home. Some, having visited a good home, change their mind. Both answers are allowed to be right.
If live-in care is a contender, PrimeCarers explains how it works, and every care home page on this site shows the live-in figure next to the home’s own fee so you can compare in one place.
Common questions
- Is live-in care cheaper than a care home?
- For one person they are close: live-in care from about £1,120 a week against a typical residential home at £1,300 and a nursing home at more. For a couple live-in care is usually far cheaper, because one carer looks after both of you and a care home charges for two places.
- Does live-in care cover the night?
- The carer sleeps in the house and can help occasionally at night. If someone needs help several times every night, they need a waking night carer as well, which changes the cost, or a care home with night staff.
- Can you get council funding for live-in care?
- Yes. The council means test applies to care at home as well, and your home is not counted while you live in it. Councils sometimes cap what they will pay for care at home at the cost of a care home place, so ask early.
- Is a care home safer than staying at home?
- A care home has staff on duty all the time and is designed for people who are frail. A live-in carer is in the house all the time too, but is one person. For most people either is safe; for someone with very high or unpredictable needs a care home, or a nursing home, may be safer.
- What does the carer need at home?
- Their own bedroom, ideally with somewhere to sit, use of the bathroom and kitchen, meals, and a daily break of a couple of hours. Wi-fi is usually expected.
- Can we try before deciding?
- Yes. Most care homes offer respite stays of a week or two and most live-in providers offer short-term cover. A fortnight of each tells you more than any brochure.