Comparison

CaringBridge vs BuyNothing

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

CaringBridge

This platform offers a private, ad-free space for family caregivers to share updates and coordinate care for loved ones on a health journey. It fosters a supportive community, helping to alleviate feelings of isolation and overwhelm by connecting people through shared experiences.

Highlights
  • Private, ad-free health journey platform
  • Share updates with everyone at once
  • Document health journey progress
  • Coordinate care with family and friends
  • Connect with a supportive community
Features
Read full description

CaringBridge is a no-cost, 501(c)(3) nonprofit health platform that surrounds family caregivers with support while they care for a loved one on a health journey. A donor-supported nonprofit founded in 1997, the organization offers tools to share and document a health journey, simplify care coordination, and connect caregivers with a supportive community. CaringBridge addresses feelings of overwhelm, isolation, and loneliness by improving emotional health and social connectedness, helping people come together in support of healing. With over 300,000 people on the platform every day sending or receiving support, there are over 1,600 messages of love, hope, and compassion posted every hour. And every 12 minutes a new CaringBridge page is started. The CaringBridge community includes all 50 states and more than 242 countries around the world. To learn more visit www.caringbridge.org. Private, protected, and ad-free · A trusted, private, and ad-free space that only a nonprofit like CaringBridge can provide to support family caregivers and their loved ones on a health journey. Communicate to everyone all at once · Communicate to everyone all at once in a safe and private space, relieving the burden of individually updating people. Capture and process every step of the health journey · The very act of capturing a loved one’s health journey improves emotional health and social support. Coordinate care with family and friends · Making it easy to ask for help, because we know it’s often the most difficult thing to ask for.

About

BuyNothing

Connect with your local community to give, receive, share, lend, and borrow items. This app fosters a gift economy, building connections through sharing, inspired by the BuyNothing® Project.

Highlights
  • Give and receive items locally
  • Lend and borrow goods
  • Hyper-local community sharing
  • Gift economy model
  • Build community connections
  • Express gratitude
Features
Read full description

We offer people a way to give, receive, share, lend, borrow and express gratitude through a hyper-local gift economy model in which people can share wherever they are and true wealth is measured by the web of connections formed between people through sharing. From the founders of the BuyNothing® Project. Terms of Use: https://buynothingproject.org/terms

Screenshots

CaringBridge4 screens
BuyNothing4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: CaringBridge at 4.9 against BuyNothing's 4.3. CaringBridge also leads on review sentiment (63% vs 27%) and in-app purchases (none vs 8). BuyNothing's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs monthly) and chart position (#198 vs unranked). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. BuyNothing sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. CaringBridge asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

CaringBridge holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CaringBridge has 19K ratings behind it against 2.1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 63% of CaringBridge's written reviews are positive against 27% of BuyNothing's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

CaringBridge ships an update monthly, BuyNothing every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 19, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
CaringBridge versus BuyNothing: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCaringBridgeBuyNothing
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (19K ratings) — better4.3 (2.1K ratings)
Positive reviews63.0% of reviews — better26.9% of reviews
Number of ratings19K — better2.1K
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#198 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB76 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCaringBridge.orgBuy Nothing Project, Inc.

Customer experience

CaringBridge

All ratings19,469 ratings
Positive97.9%
Neutral0.6%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews319 reviews
Positive63.0%
Neutral10.7%
Negative26.3%

BuyNothing

All ratings2,080 ratings
Positive80.3%
Neutral5.2%
Negative14.5%
Written reviews387 reviews
Positive26.9%
Neutral12.9%
Negative60.2%

User reviews

CaringBridge

From 19K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🙏 Helpful for keeping loved ones updated
  • 📢 Effective communication tool
  • 🕰️ Saves time from repeated updates
  • 🤝 Brings community support
  • 🗓️ Useful journal/record of journey

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy, glitchy app
  • 🤔 Confusing/misleading donation wording
  • 👨‍💻 Not user-friendly, needs UI improvements
  • 🔍 Difficult to navigate/find information

BuyNothing

From 2.1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤝 Friendly community interactions
  • ♻️ Promotes sustainability and reducing waste
  • 🌍 Global reach beyond local groups
  • 🏠 Hyper-local focus when set up properly
  • 📦 Smooth gifting and receiving process

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and unreliable app functionality
  • 📍 Difficulty filtering for local posts
  • 🔑 Login and account issues
  • 💬 Inconsistent notifications and messaging
  • 💰 Paywall for key features

Bugs and requests

CaringBridge

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App freezing/crashing issues
  • Inability to view recent updates
  • Sharing/linking functionality problems
  • Inconsistent behavior across platforms

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improve app stability and performance
  • Clarify donation process and usage
  • Enhance user experience and navigation
  • Provide better notification system

BuyNothing

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Frequent app crashes and freezes
  • Login issues and inability to reset passwords
  • Inconsistent location settings and radius
  • Unreliable notifications and messaging
  • Inability to edit or update posts

Requested features

5 requests
  • Search function to find specific posts
  • Ability to edit and update posts
  • Improved organization and sorting of posts
  • Syncing across multiple devices
  • More robust moderation and community tools

In-app purchases

None

CaringBridge

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

BuyNothing

Subscriptions8
  • Buy Nothing Subscription$3.991 Month
  • Buy Nothing Pro$3.991 Month
  • Sustaining Member$5.491 Month
Show 5 more
  • Sustaining Member$6.991 Month
  • Buy Nothing Pro$38.491 Year
  • Buy Nothing Subscription$38.491 Year
  • Sustaining Member$54.991 Year
  • Sustaining Member$69.991 Year

Questions

Is CaringBridge free?
CaringBridge is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BuyNothing free?
BuyNothing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, CaringBridge or BuyNothing?
CaringBridge is rated higher. CaringBridge averages 4.9 out of 5 from 19K ratings, while BuyNothing averages 4.3 from 2.1K ratings.
Do CaringBridge or BuyNothing have ads?
Neither CaringBridge nor BuyNothing shows ads.
Which is updated more often, CaringBridge or BuyNothing?
CaringBridge ships an update monthly, and BuyNothing every 2 weeks. Most recently, CaringBridge was updated on October 19, 2026 and BuyNothing on October 19, 2026.

Other comparisons