An honest comparison of ways to care for an older person at home

Last reviewed on 26 October 2026. We are VitalKeep and we wrote this comparison ourselves, so we say it upfront: no option suits everyone. We compare categories, not brands, and each fact carries its source. Anything we could not verify with a source is marked as such. The sources are Spanish, because this comparison is about Spain.

Summary table

Option	What it detects	Button press needed?	Price	Sources
Public telecare (social services, often delivered by the Red Cross)	Emergencies, insecurity and loneliness when the person calls the 24-hour centre	Yes, with the pendant. Some administrations add sensors	Depends on the town hall and on income. Example: a reference cost of 13.99 EUR/month in 2026 in a town in Barcelona province	Law 39/2006, art. 22, Barcelona provincial gazette, Alicante provincial council
Private telecare with a button	What the person tells the 24-hour centre. Optional sensors (smoke, gas, falls, presence)	Yes. With sensors, alerts can trigger on their own	24 to 30 EUR a month in the comparison site, some offers with 12 to 60 month commitments	Red Cross, telecare at home, Red Cross, Cuídate+, Selectra
Camera systems	What falls within the camera’s view	Nobody presses anything, but someone has to watch the images or set up alerts	Very variable. We found no verifiable reference price	Spanish data protection agency (AEPD), guidance on cameras in homes with older people
GPS watches and wristbands	Where the person is. Mobile telecare models call a centre	Usually yes, to call. Location does not need a press	Red Cross mobile: 10 and 15.50 EUR/month. Watches with a button from other operators: from 24.90 EUR/month with 24 months	Red Cross, mobile telecare, Selectra
VitalKeep	Falls with an impact, inactivity, which room the person is in, trips out of the house. SOS button on the wristband	Not for falls or inactivity. The SOS button is there for when they can press	25 EUR/month per home (all carers), plus one-off 30 EUR per wristband and 60 EUR per plug	VitalKeep pricing

Selectra prices are third-party and change. The Red Cross does not publish tariffs on its pages: for the current price in your area, call their free line, 900 100 333, or ask your town hall’s social services.

Public telecare

Law 39/2006 defines it as a continuous, personalised support service using advanced technology, so people can stay at home while emergencies, insecurity, loneliness and isolation are prevented or attended to (art. 22, BOE). You apply through social services, and what the person pays depends on the town and on income.

Where it beats VitalKeep: a centre of professionals is on duty 24 hours a day and mobilises relatives and emergency services, and it can be free or very cheap depending on income.

Private telecare with a button

The Red Cross describes its service as a terminal and a waterproof pendant that connects, from any room, with professionals 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in tiers such as Tranquilidad and Seguridad (Red Cross). Its Cuídate+ tier alerts the centre using presence, door and movement sensors without anyone pressing a button, and includes a family app (Red Cross). So part of the sector already works with sensors, as VitalKeep does.

Where it beats VitalKeep: a professional centre answers and mobilises help around the clock. With VitalKeep, the centre is you and your family.

Cameras

The Spanish data protection agency asks families to consider less intrusive alternatives, such as telecare devices or alert systems, before using cameras. It also asks that the older person knows about and accepts the system as far as their condition allows, and that sound recording be avoided unless especially justified (AEPD, 8 June 2026).

Where it beats VitalKeep: a camera lets you see what happened. VitalKeep tells you something is wrong and shows no images.

GPS watches and wristbands

The Red Cross offers mobile telecare with a phone or watch, or an app on the person’s own phone, that connects to the centre inside and outside the home and includes geographic location (Red Cross).

Where it beats VitalKeep: the location comes from the watch or wristband itself. The VitalKeep wristband has no GPS. Away from home, the SOS button works through the linked phone the person carries, and the map and the day’s route come from that phone if the family turns it on.

VitalKeep

The wristband detects falls with an impact and has an SOS button. The plugs, one per main room, know which room the wristband is in and warn of inactivity. The app alerts the whole family. There are no cameras or microphones.

Where VitalKeep is not better

• It is not an emergency service. It has no professional centre and does not call 112 by itself. It alerts your family and, with calls turned on, rings the family’s phone contacts in order if nobody answers an SOS or a fall.
• It needs the kit and the plugs. You need the wristband, plugs on the home WiFi (2.4 GHz) in the main rooms and the carers’ phones. Without plugs it cannot tell which room the person is in.
• The wristband has no GPS. Away from home it depends on the phone the person carries.
• It only detects falls with an impact. A slow fall without an impact may go undetected; the SOS button helps if the person can press it.
• The upfront cost is higher than a public telecare fee: you buy the wristband and the plugs.

How to choose

• If they live alone and need company and immediate professional attention around the clock, apply for public telecare through social services first.
• If they go out a lot and you want to know where they are, look at an option with GPS in the watch or at mobile telecare.
• If you want the family to find out about a fall or a night without movement even if the person presses nothing, with no cameras, VitalKeep fits. You can also combine it with a telecare service that has a centre.

If anything on this page is out of date, write to hola@vitalkeep.es and we will fix it.