Lightwork vs Lotsa Helping Hands
Lotsa Helping Hands, and what’s next.
Lotsa Helping Hands builds a private circle around one person who needs care, and it is free. Here is where that is the right shape, and where it is not.
The short answer
If the need is a care circle around one person — a calendar of meals and rides, kept private to people who were invited — Lotsa Helping Hands does that well and costs nothing. Lightwork is the better fit when help should be available to more than one person, when it repeats on a schedule, or when someone would rather ask without their name on it.
Where Lotsa Helping Hands is the better choice
- It is free, with no paid tier above it to run into partway through a hard month — the whole product is the free product.
- The private, invite-only circle is the whole model, which is exactly right when a family wants a closed group and nothing else.
- It has been doing this for a long time and is familiar to caregiving families and the organizations that refer them.
- Announcements, well wishes, and a photo gallery sit alongside the calendar, so the emotional side of a care community is handled rather than bolted on.
Where Lightwork fits better
- One group can carry help for anyone in it, not a circle built around a single person.
- Help that repeats on a schedule is free — a weekly mow, a standing ride — without re-entering each occurrence.
- You can ask anonymously, which matters when the hard part is being seen needing help.
- You can post to neighbors nearby instead of only inside an invited circle, if you want to.
- Native iPhone and Android apps as well as the web.
What each one costs
Lotsa Helping Hands is free — their own site describes it as "the easiest (and free!) way to help those wishing to help others", and lists no paid tier. Lightwork is free too for everything a family or a coordinator does here, so cost is not the axis this decision turns on.
Checked 2026-09-21 against lotsahelpinghands.com. Prices change — the link is the current answer, not this page.
Side by side
| What | Lotsa Helping Hands | Lightwork |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to organize | Free | Free |
| Shape | Circle around one person | Group of people |
| Repeating help | Check current support | Free |
| Ask anonymously | No | Yes |
| Reach beyond the circle | A private circle | Group or nearby |
What Lightwork is not
Lightwork is new, and we are not going to pretend otherwise: there is no crowd on it yet. It works today on iPhone, Android, and the web, but it works because you invite the people you already know — not because a pool of strangers is waiting on it. If your plan depends on a built-in audience, that is not what this is.
It is also not volunteer-management software. There is no background-check integration, no application or waiver workflow, no shift capacity or waitlists, no segmented bulk messaging, and no CRM, SSO, or Zapier integrations. If your organization needs those, the tools built for that job are a better answer than we are.
And no money moves through Lightwork. Help here arrives as a thing or an act — a meal, a ride, a hand with a chore — chosen and delivered by the person helping. If what you need is to collect funds, this is the wrong tool and we would rather say so than sell you on it.
Questions
The ones people actually ask.
Is Lightwork free like Lotsa Helping Hands?
Yes. Asking for help, offering it, and coordinating it for people you know are free on Lightwork permanently, with no ads — including help that repeats and as many groups as you like. The only paid part is the organization layer, which a family or a volunteer coordinator never needs.
What is the actual difference, if both are free?
The shape. Lotsa Helping Hands builds a private circle around one person receiving care. Lightwork builds a group — a street, a class, a congregation, a care team — where anyone can be the one who needs a hand this month, and the group is still there next time.
Can help repeat on a schedule?
On Lightwork, yes, and it is free: set a program up once and each upcoming date appears on its own for volunteers to claim. If a repeating need is central to what you are organizing, check how your current tool handles it before you decide — that is the comparison we would make first.
Can the person being cared for stay off the app entirely?
Yes. A coordinator can run everything on their behalf, and their address, contact details, and access notes stay hidden until a helper signs up for a specific date.
Your community is one ask away from showing up.
Ask for help and see who pitches in. It’s free.
