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Nonprofits · head to head

CommCare vs REDCap

CommCare logo

CommCare

Nonprofits

Offline-first case management and mobile data collection for frontline health and development programmes

From
$100/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
REDCap logo

REDCap

Research

Research data capture licensed free to non-profits, and not licensable at all to companies

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CommCare pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.; REDCap a for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.
  • They diverge on capability: CommCare covers Case management, REDCap covers Form and survey designer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CommCare and REDCap actually diverge.

Attributes where CommCare and REDCap differ
AttributeCommCareREDCap
Starting price$100/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer month by mobile user countquote
PlatformsAndroid, WebWeb, Linux, Windows
CategoryNonprofitsResearch

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in CommCare

  • Case management
  • Offline-first mobile app
  • App builder
  • Multi-language support
  • Two-way SMS
  • Report builder
  • API access
  • BI integration

Only in REDCap

  • Form and survey designer
  • Longitudinal projects
  • Data quality rules
  • Randomisation
  • Audit trail and e-signature
  • API and exports

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

CommCare

  • A community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot representnot REDCap
  • A ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasonsnot REDCap
  • An NGO running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reportingnot REDCap
  • A research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirementnot REDCap

REDCap

  • An academic research group at an institution that already runs REDCap, where a new study database costs nothing beyond the time to build itnot CommCare
  • A hospital collecting patient reported outcomes where data must stay on institutional infrastructure rather than a vendor cloudnot CommCare
  • An investigator initiated trial that needs randomisation, an audit trail and statistical export without a commercial EDC budgetnot CommCare
  • A multi site academic collaboration where each site can be given scoped access to a single longitudinal projectnot CommCare

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

CommCare

  • Pricing is by included mobile user bands with a hard step between them, so a programme at 260 mobile users pays the Pro band plus per-user overage or jumps to Advanced, and neither option matches its actual size.
  • The subscription is the small number; application design, device procurement, worker training and supervision dominate the real cost, and grant budgets that fund only the licence stall at deployment.
  • Grant funding cycles and subscription renewals rarely align, so programmes routinely face a year-four cliff where the software is embedded in a workflow and the money that paid for it has ended.
  • It is Android-only on the device side, which is usually right for the target markets but blocks iOS-issued staff and makes the platform a poor fit for programmes in higher-income settings.
  • The open source option is real but effectively theoretical: self-hosting CommCare HQ requires substantial engineering, so the licence being free does not translate into an escape from the subscription.

REDCap

  • A for-profit company cannot hold a licence or self-host REDCap, so a biotech or CRO that liked it at university simply cannot deploy it the same way and must buy a commercially licensed hosted version instead.
  • Because each institution hosts its own instance, support, uptime, backup and version currency vary by university, and a researcher has no recourse to Vanderbilt when the local instance is two years out of date.
  • It is free of licence fee but not free of cost: the hosting institution carries server, security, patching and support staffing, which is why some institutions charge internal recharges per project.
  • Validation for regulated use is the deploying institution responsibility, so an instance is not Part 11 compliant simply because REDCap supports the features; someone locally has to produce and maintain the evidence.
  • The interface and reporting are dated compared with commercial survey and EDC tools, and complex logic is built through data dictionary spreadsheets rather than a modern visual builder, which slows non technical study teams.

Pricing, plan by plan

CommCare

$100/month
  • Standard$100/month
    • 50 mobile users included
    • $2 per additional mobile user per month
    • Unlimited free web users
  • Pro$500/month
    • 250 mobile users included
    • Case sharing and child cases
    • Web report builder
  • Advanced$1000/month
    • 500 mobile users included
    • Power BI and Tableau integration
    • Web applications
  • Enterprise$4000/month
    • Custom mobile user count
    • Single sign-on
    • Named account management

REDCap

On request
  • REDCap non-profit licence$undefined/year
    • No licence fee to non-profit and government institutions that join the consortium
    • Institution must install and host it on its own infrastructure
    • For-profit organisations may not hold a licence or self-host

Which should you pick?

Choose CommCare if

  • You need case management.
  • You work on Android, Web.
  • You also want offline-first mobile app.
CommCare review

Choose REDCap if

  • You need form and survey designer.
  • You work on Web, Linux, Windows.
  • You also want longitudinal projects.
REDCap review

Questions people ask

Is CommCare or REDCap better?
Neither clearly leads. CommCare starts at $100/month and REDCap at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CommCare or REDCap?
CommCare starts at $100/month and REDCap at On request.
Does CommCare or REDCap run on more platforms?
CommCare runs on Android, Web. REDCap runs on Web, Linux, Windows.
What is CommCare best used for?
CommCare is most often used for a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent, a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons, an ngo running the same intervention in four countries that needs one application, several languages and consolidated reporting, a research team collecting longitudinal data on the same participants over years, where linking visits to a case rather than a submission is the whole requirement. Of those, a community health worker programme where each worker must see their own assigned households, what is overdue and what happened last visit, which a survey tool cannot represent and a ministry of health digitising a national frontline protocol and requiring in-region data hosting for legal reasons are not what REDCap is typically brought in for.
What can CommCare do that REDCap cannot?
CommCare covers Case management, Offline-first mobile app, App builder, Multi-language support. REDCap covers Form and survey designer, Longitudinal projects, Data quality rules, Randomisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CommCare: How much does CommCare cost?

Standard is $100 a month for 50 mobile users, Pro $500 for 250, Advanced $1,000 for 500 and Enterprise from $4,000. Extra mobile users are $2 each per month; web users are unlimited and free.

REDCap: Is REDCap really free?

The licence is free to non-profit institutions and government organisations that join the consortium, but they must host and support it themselves, so there is real internal cost.

CommCare: Is CommCare open source?

Yes, CommCare HQ is open source, but self-hosting requires serious engineering capacity. Nearly all users take the hosted service.

REDCap: Can my company use REDCap?

Not by holding a licence or self-hosting. For-profit organisations must use a separately licensed commercial hosted route.

CommCare: Where is our data stored?

You choose United States, European Union or India hosting, which is what makes it acceptable to ministries with data residency rules.

REDCap: Is REDCap 21 CFR Part 11 compliant?

It has the features to support Part 11 use, but compliance depends on how the hosting institution configures, validates and documents its own instance.

CommCare: Who funds CommCare?

Dimagi is a for-profit B Corporation funded by customer subscriptions and services. Individual deployments are usually funded by donors such as USAID successors, the Gates Foundation or national health budgets.

REDCap: Who supports it?

Your local institutional REDCap administrator, not Vanderbilt. Support quality varies by site.

CommCare: Does it do case management or just forms?

Case management. Workers hold a caseload of individuals or households and see history and due actions, which is the main reason to choose it over a form tool.

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