CaringBridge vs Refer & Share
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Refer & Share
Easily share contact information of friends and family interested in Marriott Vacation Club. Earn rewards like Marriott Bonvoy™ Points or maintenance fee credits when your referrals join. The process is simple: select contacts, send invitations, and receive rewards upon successful referrals.
- Share friend and family contact information
- Learn about FriendShare rewards
- Send exclusive invitations
- Earn Marriott Bonvoy™ Points
- Receive Maintenance Fee credits
- Simple Select, Give, Receive process
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Referring Friends Is Easier than Ever We’ve unveiled a new FriendShareTM Application called Refer & Share that makes it easier to share your friends’ and family members’ contact information with us, learn more about the rewards of FriendShare and more. When your referrals join Marriott Vacation Club, you can earn Marriott Bonvoy™ Points or credits toward Maintenance Fees. It’s as simple as Select, Give and Receive: Select – Send a message to those friends and family from your contacts who you feel would enjoy Marriott Vacation Club. Give – Each referral you select will receive an exclusive invitation to attend a preview presentation about Marriott Vacation Club. Receive – If your referrals choose to join, you can receive up to 150,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points or US$1,500 Maintenance Fee credit. Ready to refer a friend? Download the new Refer & Share App today!
Screenshots
Verdict
CaringBridge and Refer & Share both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 63% of CaringBridge's written reviews are positive against 0% of Refer & Share's. CaringBridge also leads on ratings volume (19K vs 1). Refer & Share's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for CaringBridge against 5.0 for Refer & Share. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CaringBridge has 19K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 63% of CaringBridge's written reviews are positive against 0% of Refer & Share's.
CaringBridge ships an update monthly, Refer & Share every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 30, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CaringBridge | Refer & Share |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (19K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 19K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 166 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CaringBridge.org | Lerna Private Limited |
Customer experience
CaringBridge
Refer & Share
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
Refer & Share
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
CaringBridge
No in-app purchases
Refer & Share
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CaringBridge free?
Is Refer & Share free?
Which has better reviews, CaringBridge or Refer & Share?
Do CaringBridge or Refer & Share have ads?
Which is updated more often, CaringBridge or Refer & Share?
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