Yes.
Rallee is completely free for individuals—both recipients and supporters. There are no fees for setting up or joining a Rallee.

No.
We do not show any ads on Rallee. Some of our links that we recommend may be affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission if you purchase from these partners. You do not get charged for clicking these links. We only recommend quality products and services that we believe in and are truly beneficial for your experience.

Most Rallees are started by a friend, family member, or someone close who wants to help. Recipients can also create their own Rallee if they’d like to organize their own circle of care. Many churches, schools, and community groups use Rallee too—it’s an easy way to bring people together and coordinate support in one place.

Rallees can be created for almost any life moment where community support matters, including:

• Welcoming a new baby
• Health challenges or recovery
• Loss of a loved one
• Graduation or wedding
• Military deployment
• Natural disaster recovery
• Any time someone needs encouragement or a helping hand

Whether it’s a celebration or a hard season, Rallee makes it easier for your people to show up in meaningful ways.

Yes.
Some people create separate Rallees for different needs or seasons—like one for meals and another for updates or long-term care. You can manage multiple Rallees right from your dashboard.

Yes. Rallee has an intuitive volunteer meal scheduling calendar, the same core feature MealTrain is known for. Supporters pick a date, sign up to bring a meal, and the recipient gets notified automatically. The difference is that Rallee’s meal calendar is just one of 16 support types you can add, and it’s completely free with no ads. Learn more on our MealTrain alternative page.

The top free MealTrain alternatives are Rallee, Take Them a Meal, and SupportNow. Rallee is the most complete option: it offers 16 support types including rides, errands, donations with a 0% platform fee, health updates, coffee, and gifts, while Take Them a Meal and SupportNow focus on meal coordination only. Rallee shows no ads and has no premium tier. Take Them a Meal is a good choice if you only need a simple meal calendar with no other features.

Yes. Start a free meal train on Rallee in under a minute — no credit card required, no premium tier needed. Add your friend's details, turn on the meal scheduling calendar, invite your community, and you're done. You can also add donations, rides, errands, and more at no cost.

Rallee is the best free meal train app. It includes a volunteer meal scheduling calendar, the core feature people use MealTrain for, plus 15 additional support types including donations with low fees, rides, errands, gifts, and more. No credit card required.

On Rallee it takes under 2 minutes:

1. Create a Rallee for your friend and answer 4 quick questions.
2. Turn on the Meal Calendar support type.
3. Share the link with friends and family.

Supporters pick a date and sign up to bring a meal. No credit card, no premium tier, no ads.

The top free CaringBridge alternatives are Rallee and Lotsa Helping Hands. Rallee is the more complete option: it includes health updates and photo sharing like CaringBridge, adds volunteer meal scheduling, donation fundraising with a 0% platform fee, rides, errands, and 10 more support types, and never asks your supporters to donate to the platform. Lotsa Helping Hands is a good alternative for care calendar and task coordination but does not include a health update journal or donation fundraising for your friend.

Yes. CaringBridge asks visitors to donate money to CaringBridge (the organization) while they are visiting to support your friend. Many people find this uncomfortable during an already emotional time. Rallee never solicits donations from your community.

Yes. Rallee shows zero ads. CaringBridge displays solicitations on your support page for your supporters to donate to CaringBridge. Rallee is permanently ad-free with no paid tier needed to remove them. Your community's full attention stays on your friend.

The most common CaringBridge complaints fall into three categories:

• Donation confusion: CaringBridge displays donation requests on your support page asking visitors to donate to CaringBridge. Many supporters believe they are donating to help your friend and donate to the platform by mistake. Families have reported hundreds of dollars going to CaringBridge from a single health page, money they say could have gone toward medical costs.
• False email notifications: A frequently reported issue is CaringBridge sending email notifications saying there are new journal comments or updates when there are none. During an already exhausting time, notification spam is a real frustration for both page creators and supporters.
• Features removed without warning: In 2024, CaringBridge removed or relocated several features including the photo Gallery, the Planner, and Well Wishes. Long-time users found tools they relied on had disappeared after a platform redesign.

Rallee was built on empathy. We never ask your supporters for money, send only real notifications, and have 16 ways to organize care and share updates.

Yes. Rallee includes a community updates feature where you can post health journey updates, share photos, and let supporters leave messages of encouragement, the same core experience CaringBridge provides. The difference is that Rallee also lets you coordinate meals, rides, errands, and more, all in one place. See our CaringBridge alternative page.

On Rallee it takes under 1 minute:

1. Create a Rallee by answering a few quick questions.
2. Choose optional support types (meal trains, donations, coffee/tea, gifts, etc).
3. Share the link with family and friends via text, email, or social.

Supporters can leave messages, see updates, sign up for meals, and offer help. No credit card, no ads, no premium tier required.

Rallee is purpose-built for coordinating support during a cancer diagnosis or other serious health challenge. You can post health updates, set up a volunteer meal calendar, collect donations for your friend with low processing fees, schedule rides to appointments, and coordinate errands, all from one free, ad-free page. Share it once via text or email and your whole community can sign up to help.

Yes. Rallee combines health updates and meal coordination in one place. Turn on the meal calendar support type and supporters can pick a date and sign up to bring a meal, the same way MealTrain works, but integrated right alongside your health updates. No need to use two different platforms.

Yes.
You can adjust your privacy settings anytime from your dashboard. It’s easy to make your Rallee more open or more private as your needs change.

Most Rallees last between 1–4 weeks, depending on the type of support needed. Some continue for several months or even a year when families share long-term updates or ongoing care needs.

Yes.
Organizers and recipients can always manage who’s part of the Rallee. You can invite new supporters, approve join requests, or remove members if needed. It’s designed to stay flexible and safe for your community.

There’s no magic number—and no limit! Your Rallee can be as big or as small as you want. Some are just a few close friends or family members, while others bring together hundreds of supporters across different places and communities.

The first two weeks usually bring the most activity and support, as friends and family rally together quickly. After that, engagement often becomes steadier and more focused on ongoing needs and encouragement.

Not usually—and that’s perfectly normal. Some people (often close friends or family) may help in multiple ways and stay active longer. Others might offer one-time help or a specific gesture of care. Many show support through kind messages. Every form of support matters and adds up to something meaningful.

Not at all. Some people check in throughout, while others help once or twice. Every bit of support helps, whether it’s a meal, a message, or simply showing up to cheer someone on.

Support tends to be strongest early on, but it often continues in waves. If you still need help, post updates, share what’s most helpful, and express gratitude along the way—it keeps your community connected and engaged.

Aim to share an update each week, even something small. A short message, photo, or note of gratitude helps your community feel part of your journey and keeps the care flowing. The more you post, the more your supporters stay engaged and inspired to keep showing up—it’s a simple way to keep the love and connection going strong.

Share your Rallee link on social media, texts, or email, and invite others to join in. Add photos and personal updates—it helps people feel connected and inspired to share. The more visible and heartfelt your updates are, the more your Rallee community will grow and stay active.

Your Rallee stays visible to members even after it’s over, so you can look back on the messages and care shared. Many families post a closing thank-you update to express gratitude before the Rallee ends—it’s a beautiful way to close the circle of support. If your needs change, you can easily extend your end date or restart your Rallee at any time. Life doesn’t always follow a timeline, and Rallee is designed to grow and adapt with you.

Yes, you can donate to individuals on Rallee. We use Pledge to facilitate secure donations. Once you assign a beneficiary in Rallee, that beneficiary will receive an email from Pledge to manage the donations and withdraw their funds.

A donation beneficiary's first name, last name, and email will be assigned by the organizer, co-organizer, or recipient of a Rallee that includes donations as an option of support. That beneficiary will receive an email from our donation partner, Pledge, to set up an account and withdraw your funds. Please note that Rallee does not process your donation, hold funds, or act as a payment processor, and we do not have access to your Pledge account. For questions regarding Pledge, please see their FAQs here or submit a ticket to Pledge here.

Rallee has a 0% platform fee for donations. Through our partner, Pledge, we offer the option to add an optional tip to your donation. That tip helps us continue to provide this secure service to our users. Pledge’s payment processing partner has a credit card processing fee of 2.9% + 0.30 on each credit card donation.

If you have donated to someone in Rallee and would like to request a refund, you can do this by clicking the three dots next to your donation in the donation screen in the Rallee. Click the “request refund” button that will show up after you click the dots. From there, you will click confirm to send a refund request email to the beneficiary of the donations in that Rallee. Please note that refunds are handled directly by the donation beneficiary. Rallee cannot issue a refund on your donation, all refunds are subject to the beneficiary taking action in their Pledge account. For information on how beneficiaries can refund donations, see here.

For questions regarding Pledge, please see their FAQs here or submit a ticket to Pledge here.

No. Lotsa Helping Hands has announcements and well wishes, but does not include a health update journal. Rallee includes an updates section so you can post updates, share photos, and let supporters leave messages of encouragement, all alongside your meal calendar and task coordination.

Rallee and Lotsa Helping Hands both coordinate care and meals, but Rallee goes further in three important ways:

• Faster to set up: Rallee takes 30 seconds. Lotsa Helping Hands asks you to assign coordinators, set up task categories, and configure time slots before you can share anything.
• Engaging updates and messages: Rallee adds an updates section so you can share what is happening, post photos, add files, and let supporters leave messages of encouragement. Lotsa Helping Hands has announcements and well wishes but is focused on task management.
• 16 support types: Rallee adds donation fundraising for your friend, coffee, gifts, gift cards, and more. Lotsa Helping Hands is limited to tasks and a care calendar.

The top free Lotsa Helping Hands alternatives are Rallee and Take Them a Meal.

• Rallee: the most complete option. Health updates, meal scheduling, rides, errands, donation fundraising with a 0% platform fee, and 16 total support types. Free, no ads, 30-second setup.
• Take Them a Meal: a good choice if your primary need is a simple meal calendar and you do not need health updates, donations, or other support coordination.

Yes. Members of your church will never pay to use Rallee. They get the small group features and can start unlimited Rallees for free, forever. Your church pays a flat monthly fee for the leadership tools, integrations, and admin dashboard.

We use the official APIs from Planning Center and Rock RMS. For Planning Center, you will sign in to Planning Center to allow Rallee to access data from Planning Center. For Rock, you will need to provide an API key. We are happy to help at any point or answer further questions. We only access data that we use, including: people ID, groups, email addresses, names, and campus. We do not access sensitive data like background check info or donation data from your database. If you have additional questions, please reach out to hello@rallee.com.

After you connect your database, users who log in to Rallee will see that your church is on Rallee in their profile. This makes it easy for them to share their Rallees with church leadership. Church leadership can invite users from your database to Rallees, start Rallees for people in your database, and follow up with people who your church has Ralleed for.

Every care action (meals delivered, rides given, errands, visits, prayer notes) is automatically added back to each person's profile in your database as a note. No imports, no manual data entry. The sync runs daily.

Yes. While anyone in the church can share their Rallee with church leadership. Everyone in the Rallee will not be aware that this Rallee is a part of the church. Only users who you select as Admins, Staff, or Volunteers can see an overview of all of the Rallees that are associated with the church.

Yes! We will schedule some time with you for onboarding after you sign up. But also feel free to reach out to our team anytime before or after signing up. Connect with us at hello@rallee.com for more onboarding info or to schedule a session.

Yes. Month-to-month or yearly. You can cancel any time with no penalty. All of your data is exported back to Planning Center or Rock daily, so everything will be synced even if you cancel. All of the Rallees for people in your church will still be active unless the recipient or organizer deletes them.

In every Rallee, the recipient and organizer have the option to allow anyone with the Rallee link to join or to only have people they explicitly invite via email or approve join. For sensitive situations, we recommend that the Rallee settings only allow people that the recipient or organizer invite and allow into the Rallee. If the recipient or organizer allow anyone with the link to join, users still have to have access to the link and verify their email to join. These settings can be changed at any time in a Rallee.

We also never index Rallees, meaning an individual Rallee is not searchable on search engines like Google and is not searchable on our website.

Address and phone number for the recipient are optional. You can also hide the recipient's email address if desired.

Yes! Users can invite anyone they want to their Rallee. We will not add care notes to your database for users who are not in your database.