Aloe Care Health │ Hands-On Expert Review

Aloe Care Health combines the tried-and-true approach of an old-school medical alert button with modern motion, temperature, and activity sensors. If you’re feeling a little too stubborn to summon help or you simply can’t, Aloe Care Health’s smart technology tells loved ones something’s wrong.

We love Aloe Care’s fresh take on the medical alert industry and believe it’s worth the price. Curious what it's like to use this system with a loved one? See our testing experience below.

See Aloe Care in action and hear from our tester and reviewer, Cathy Habas. You can catch more from us every week when you like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. 

Aloe Care Health is a medical alert system that uses smart sensors, voice activation, help buttons, and optional fall detection to connect to a 24/7 monitoring center. Like standard medical alert systems, it includes a base unit, called the Smart Hub, to speak with a monitoring center agent.

But that’s where its similarities end. Aloe Care Health isn’t a standard wearable system — instead, it uses sensors and voice activation to connect to the monitoring center and caregivers. The at-home system also includes a wearable help button for coverage throughout the home. 

The Smart Hub features: 

• Voice activation and push-button connection to monitoring center 
• Two-way calls with primary caregiver
• Activity sensors 
• Temperature and air quality sensors 

Aloe Care Health also offers a mobile system that includes fall detection, GPS tracking, and two-way calls with a primary caregiver.

Overall, we were impressed with Aloe Care Health’s innovative take on medical alert systems. While we wish the voice activation feature was more sensitive, we were able to call for help easily when in the same room as our Smart Hub. The caregiver app was intuitive and had a variety of features that keep multiple caregivers connected and informed. 

We had the opportunity to test the Aloe Care Essentials Plus package, which includes the central base station, a wearable in-home button, and the Mobile Companion. 

Aloe Care has made changes to its equipment and packages since we've tested it. We’re hoping to test the brand again soon. 

The hub easily recognized the wake-word "Emergency" if I stood in the same room. But as soon as I ducked around the corner to my bathroom, the hub's microphone had a hard time hearing me. It failed to start a call two out of three times during my bathroom tests. 

Aside from simply not hearing me, the hub wouldn't initiate a call until it heard me say "Emergency" five times. This is way more time-consuming and difficult to say than GetSafe's "call 911, call 911."

Since the hub often didn't hear or understand what I said, I ended up saying "emergency" closer to 10 times. 

Update: Aloe Care Health now lets you adjust the hub's sensitivity so it picks up on quieter voices. You can also adjust how many times you have to say "emergency" to trigger a response. Hooray!

It took just 30 seconds for a professional monitor to answer my test call. This includes the time it takes for the hub to confirm that you have an emergency. 

The monitor was easy to understand, spoke in a calm manner, and knew my name. Her voice came through the base station too loud for my liking, but it was easy to turn down the volume using the buttons on the side of the hub.

The Mobile Companion's GPS tracker wasn't as accurate as my iPhone's location tracker (which pinpointed the exact room I was standing in), but it nailed down my location within 50 feet. 

Still, it looked like I was hanging out at my neighbor's house. In the image below, the blue dot is the actual location of the Mobile Companion. The marker that says "Elizabeth" is the Mobile Companion's self-reported location. 

Best of all, the caregiver app let me export the Mobile Companion's location to Google Maps or Apple Maps so I could instantly get directions. 

When my co-tester "caregiver" placed a check-in call, the audio sounded clear and sharp in both directions. But in my role as the person needing help, I ran into some trouble.

First, I was surprised the "call my primary caregiver" button on the base station doesn't place a phone call. Instead, it sends a push notification to the caregiver, letting them know that their loved one has requested a check-in call. 

Pushing the "call all my caregivers" button does place a phone call. It's supposed to cycle through all caregivers until someone answers the phone. But when the first caregiver didn't pick up during our test, the call ended. 

Update: The hub's calling capabilities have changed. Users can now directly call the primary caregiver with the "call my caregiver" button, while the second button sends an alert to all caregivers. 

We consider Aloe Care Health the best medical alert system for caregivers thanks to its high-quality mobile app. It's easy to navigate and bursting with information like indoor temperature, motion activity around the hub, and the last time someone checked in with the user.

When I placed the test call to the monitoring center, my phone lit up with a text message to let me know an emergency call had been placed through the Aloe Care hub. The app also gave a play-by-play of what happened when the monitoring center was contacted so that all caregivers could stay in the loop. 

Aloe Care Health has three packages: Essentials, Mobile Companion 2, Essentials Plus. Monthly monitoring fees and one-time equipment fees vary with each package. 

We’ll cover pricing details in more depth below, but here’s a quick snapshot: 

• Equipment cost: $149.99 to $349.99
• Monitoring fees paid monthly: $39.99/mo. to $59.99/mo. 
• Shipping: Free 

In your first year as an Aloe Care Health subscriber, you’ll spend about $680 to $1,070. 

Generally, Aloe Care doesn’t offer add-on equipment or features, but we found a caveat. In the past, Aloe Care Health included packages with additional motion and fall detection wall sensors. We confirmed with a customer service representative that these sensors are still available, but they’re not advertised on the brand’s site.

Shoppers must call the company directly to add extra motion sensors and fall sensors to their package. We were disappointed to hear these sensors aren’t common knowledge any longer, especially since they are such a differentiator from other medical alert systems.

We confirmed the following additional accessories and prices when speaking with customer service: 

• Wall fall detection sensor: $99.99 one-time fee plus additional $10/mo. monitoring fee
• Entry sensors (pack of two): $49.99 one-time fee
• Motion sensors (pack of two): $49.99 one-time fee 

Aloe Care Health’s Smart Hub is where the brand truly shines. While other at-home medical alert systems contact the monitoring center via a button or triggering fall detection, users can call the monitoring center using their voice — no buttons required. The Smart Hub functions and looks more like a smart speaker than a standard base station. Caregivers can receive updates and alerts based on motion sensors built into the hub. 

You can even communicate with caregivers via the hub by accepting and making outgoing calls to a designated primary caregiver and sending an alert to all caregivers. The Smart Hub also has temperature and air quality sensors, as well as a motion-sensor nightlight. 

We were disappointed to learn Aloe Care no longer advertises its wall-mounted fall sensor, entry sensors, or additional motion detectors. These accessories made Aloe Care Health a truly hands-free device with monitoring points throughout the home. Now, users must ask for these add-ons over the phone, and there's still no wearable fall detection pendant that works with the Essentials Smart Hub. 

This is a big miss compared to other medical alert brands; almost every at-home system has optional fall detection. We think this is a big dealbreaker for many, especially if you only need monitoring at home but have a high risk of falling. You must purchase the mobile device or at-home and mobile bundle for fall detection. 

If fall detection is a main priority, we recommend wearing one of our top picks for fall detection. 

The Aloe Care Health app is one of the most robust and helpful caregivers we’ve seen in the industry. At a glance, caregivers can check their loved one’s recent motion activity, indoor temperature, air quality, receive alerts, and chat with other caregivers. We like that users never have to log into the app themselves — it provides automatic updates to the people in the Care Circle thanks to the hub's smart sensors.

Although Aloe Care has been around since 2020, there aren’t as many online reviews compared to other popular medical alert companies. Most reviewers express a positive experience with the brand, with Aloe Care receiving a weighted average of 4.2 stars based on 59 reviews across Google Reviews and Consumer Affairs. That's good overall but a little on the low side compared to other medical alert brands, which typically boast 4.5 stars and up. 

You can cancel your Aloe Care Health subscription anytime — there’s no minimum commitment period or cancellation penalty fee. Most medical alert companies offering this flexibility to shoppers, but some require a three-month minimum commitment.

Another popular voice-activation medical alert system is GetSafe. Let's see how it compares to Aloe Care Health.

Let's compare each Aloe Care package more in-depth to help you find the right option. 

Setting up the Aloe Care Smart Hub is as simple as plugging it in and pushing a button. Seriously. It takes about three minutes from start to finish, and most of that time is spent just waiting for the hub to give further instructions. 

Once it's plugged in, the hub light starts pulsing gently. Be patient: in our case, it took exactly 70 seconds for the Aloe Care hub to say, "Welcome. Let's get started." 

Next, the hub says, "If a caregiver is present to help with install, please have them open the caregiver smartphone app."

Whoops, we hadn't set that up yet.

Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to have the app ready to go. After a brief pause, the hub continues by saying, "If you're installing for yourself, press the center button on this device to continue." Easy. 

The hub spends the next 15 seconds or so connecting to LTE and says, "You have successfully connected your Aloe Care Smart Hub. Finalizing setup. Your Smart Hub may need to restart during this process." 

Wait for another 40 seconds. Finally, the hub will say, "Your smart system is fully set up and ready to use." 

What happens if a caregiver sets up the hub?

On the Aloe Care app, your caregiver can choose to connect the Smart Hub to Wi-Fi right away. They'll need to know the network name and password. Our hub connected without a hitch (and with our track record of Wi-Fi woes, that's impressive). 

Setting up the Aloe Care Mobile Companion 2 and other devices

With extra features comes a slight learning curve. Here’s how to use your Aloe Care equipment.

There are three buttons that connect you to the monitoring center:

• Press the big black button in the center of the Smart Hub. If you press this by mistake, just hit the X button in the 7-o’clock position to cancel. 
• Press the wearable button on your wristband or pendant. If possible, move closer to the Smart Hub so the monitors can hear you. 
• Press the gray button on the Mobile Companion 2.

• Keep saying “Emergency” until you hear a chime from the Smart Hub or wall-mounted fall sensor. The device will ask you to confirm that you need help.
• Say “Emergency” one more time to connect to the monitoring center. 
• If you want to talk to your loved ones instead, say “Cancel” after the Hub asks you to confirm that you need help. Then, say, “Call my family.”

Our main criticism here is that it would be easier to say, “Call my family” right off the bat.

The device also has to recognize the word "emergency" five times before it will trigger an alarm, which seems like too much. Before we figured this out, we shouted it just three or four times before pausing and grumbling a bit. Don't do that. Stay calm and speak as loudly and clearly as you can. 

Update: It seems like we weren't the only ones annoyed by the lengthy voice activation procedure. Aloe Care Health recently announced that you can now adjust the hub's sensitivity so you can say "emergency" fewer times.

• To call your primary caregiver, press the Smart Hub button in the 2-o’clock position, which has the image of a phone receiver and the number one.
• Accept a call by pressing the checkmark symbol in the 10-o’clock position. If you’re unable to press the button, the call will automatically connect after five rings.
• You can reject a check-in call and prevent the automatic connection by pressing the X button in the 7-o’clock position.
• To send an alert to all your caregivers, press the button in the 5-o’clock position, which has the image of a phone receiver and the number two.

Loved ones can start a three-way call with the monitoring center from the mobile app if they decide you need prompt attention.

The Aloe Care Health app makes remote caregiving a breeze. It provides a central location for your friends, family, and medical professionals to stay up to date on your activity. Here are some of the things they can do through the app, depending on their permissions:

• Call you through the Smart Hub
• See your check-in call requests
• View fall detection or emergency alerts
• See whether the Smart Hub is connected properly
• View data like home temperature and air quality
• See when you last walked past the motion detectors
• Share quick updates with other caregivers
• See which caregivers have checked in with you and when
• Pay your Aloe Care bill

The brand has a handful of reviews on Google and Consumer Affairs, with many reviewers expressing the peace of mind the service has given them and their families, Aloe Care’s excellent response during emergencies, and its helpful customer service. Most negative reviews focus on billing or cancellation issues. Aloe Care Health is still fairly new compared to other medical alert companies, so online reviews are harder to come by.

We called customer service to ask about updated products and packages, and our representative was helpful and knowledgeable. We also used the online chat feature to clarify a few policy questions, and we were happy with their speed of service and precise answers.

You don’t have to sign a contract with Aloe Care, so you can cancel at any time without worrying about termination fees. Service is offered on a month-to-month basis, with the option of paying for a full year up front.

Aloe Care does have a few fine-print policies worth noting:

• Your monthly rate can increase at any time. The only way to lock in your rate is to purchase a full year’s service in advance. Even then, the rate may increase for the next year of service. 
• Aloe Care charges late fees. You’ll be hit with a 1.5% late fee per missed month, plus a 5% administrative fee per late payment. 

On a positive note, Aloe Care offers a 30-day trial period and a one-year warranty.

For our Aloe Care Health review, we did hands-on testing to simulate a caregiver/older-adult experience. We connected to the monitoring center, checked GPS-tracking accuracy, used the app, and tried all the main features. 

We also looked at the company’s technology, policies, and pricing structure and compared it to industry leaders, including those on our Best Medical Alert Systems page.

We also spoke with Aloe Care representatives, watched an Aloe Care demo, and used their customer service portal as mystery shoppers. 

Learn more on our methodology page.

We like Aloe Care’s caregiver-centric approach for better health care collaboration. We also think the motion sensor system offers a clever alternative to more intrusive check-ins. Compared to other medical alert systems, Aloe Care seems to offer a lot of value for your money and leaves your dignity intact. We don’t see any red flags that would make us steer clear.