Most care home databases are a CSV someone exported once and sold on. CareDex is the live CQC register — every registered location in England, kept current and watched for change.
The brokers sell you a snapshot. CareDex gives you the register itself — current, filterable and watched. Here's how they compare line by line.
| What you're paying for | Static list broker | CareDex live database |
|---|---|---|
| Freshness | A snapshot — decays roughly 30% a year as managers churn and homes close | Updated twice daily from CQC open data, weekly full register, monthly ratings |
| Buying signals | None — just names and addresses | New registration · rating drop · ownership change alerts |
| Filtering | A fixed CSV — you get what you're given | Service type, region, rating, bed count, specialism and ownership |
| Price | £990 one-off, or £2–3.5k a year for refreshes | £49–299/mo, 14-day free trial, no credit card |
| Provenance | Opaque — rarely told where it came from or when | Official CQC open data, OGL v3.0, attributed on every export |
A care home database bought as a one-off starts rotting the day you receive it. Homes close, providers change hands and managers move on — roughly a third of a static list drifts out of date inside a year.
A flat list of names has no heartbeat. It won't tell you when a new home registers, when a rating drops or when ownership changes — the exact moments a care-sector sale opens up.
One fixed export means one fixed view. You can't narrow by service type, region, rating or bed count without re-buying — so reps work the whole list instead of the right accounts.
Everything a static list can't do — current data, the signals that matter, and the precision to work only the accounts worth your time.
Delta updates pulled from the CQC syndication API twice a day, the full register refreshed weekly and ratings monthly — so the database in front of you matches the regulator's.
New registrations — around 200 new care homes every 30 days — plus rating drops and ownership changes land in your inbox, so you reach the account while the door is open.
Stack service type, region, local authority, CQC rating, bed count, specialism and ownership into one query that defines your territory exactly — then save it as a living list.
Export any filtered view to CSV with CQC location IDs intact, so records stay matched as the register changes. The OGL attribution travels with every export.
A list is only as good as its source. CareDex is built entirely on the CQC's official open data, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 — so you always know exactly where every record came from.
Yes. CareDex is built on the CQC's official open data, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0, which permits commercial reuse with attribution. We carry that attribution on every page and every export, and we never expose registered-manager names or other personal data — only organisational, location and rating information. CareDex is an independent service, not affiliated with or endorsed by the CQC.
Delta updates are pulled from the CQC syndication API twice daily, the full register is refreshed weekly and ratings monthly. A static list bought as a one-off CSV starts decaying the day you receive it; CareDex keeps pace with the register so new registrations and rating changes show up within a day, not next year.
You can export any filtered view to CSV, with CQC location IDs intact so records stay matched as the register changes. Exports cover organisational, location and rating data — name, provider, service type, region, local authority, rating and bed count. We do not publish registered-manager names or other personal data.
A purchased list is a snapshot — names and addresses frozen at the moment of sale, with no signals and no way to know what changed. CareDex is the live register: updated twice daily, filterable by service type, region, rating, bed count, specialism and ownership, and watched for the buying signals — new registrations, rating drops and ownership changes — that a static CSV can never tell you about.
Run your own filters on the live CQC register and see the care homes you've been missing. Free for 14 days, no credit card required.