Our method

How we rank in-home care agencies

In cities where enough public reviews exist, we rank the top 3 to 9 in-home care agencies by the Care Close to Home Score. Where a state publishes a license roster, every ranked agency also holds an active license; where it does not, we rank on public reviews and say we have not verified licenses. Agencies cannot pay to rank higher.

The Care Close to Home Score

Medicare does not rate non-medical home care, so we built our own score, out of 100, from public information. An agency is eligible only if it has public reviews with a rating of 3.5 stars or higher, normally at least 10 of them (in small markets with few reviewed agencies we accept as few as 3, and the page says so). In states that publish a license roster, the agency must also hold an active license. Eligible agencies are scored on four things.

• Review rating, up to 60 points. The average star rating, adjusted toward a typical agency so that a perfect score from a handful of reviews counts for less than a high score from hundreds.
• Number of reviews, up to 20 points. More reviews mean a more reliable rating. Points rise quickly at first and level off at about 200 reviews.
• License check, 15 points (license-roster states only). An active, unexpired state license matched to the agency's phone number or name and city. In states that do not publish a roster there is no license check, and the score is made from the other parts and scaled to 100.
• Contact details, up to 5 points. A phone number that matches the agency's public listing.

Ratings come from the review sites we name on each listing, such as Google and Caring.com, and we record the date we collected them. We show the top 3 to 9 in each city and do not list the rest, so a family sees a short list worth calling. In some cities in states that publish a license roster, too few licensed agencies have enough reviews to rank, so those agencies stay listed A to Z until more reviews exist. A high score is not a guarantee of care: call at least three agencies and ask the questions in our guide to checking an agency.

How we list in-home care

We build in-home care lists two ways, and every page says which. Where the state health department or regulator publishes a roster of licensed home care agencies, we start from it, show the license number and the date we checked it, and rank the best-reviewed licensed agencies. Where a state does not publish a usable roster, we rank the agencies with the best public reviews and label them "license not verified": ask each agency for its license or registration number if your state requires one. Either way a listing does not mean we have reviewed an agency's care. Any paid Partner or Sponsored spot is labeled and never changes the order. Our in-home care guide explains how to check an agency yourself.

Where the data comes from

In states that publish one, licenses come from the official roster of licensed or registered home care agencies, and we record the roster date next to every listing. Elsewhere, listings say the license is not verified. Ratings come from public review sites and are dated. Cost figures come from the CareScout 2025 Cost of Care Survey. We never publish roster administrator names or emails.

Paid placements

Agencies can claim their listing for free and can buy clearly labeled Featured or Sponsored spots. Paid spots are always marked, and they never change a ranking.

Corrections

If something about your agency is wrong, tell us. We check every report against the state roster or the review source and correct confirmed errors within one business day.

Questions about our listings