Five Good Friends vs Trilogy Care: fees and models compared
Last updated 21 August 2026
Provider fees verified from published pricing, August 2026. Budget figures current as at 1 July 2026.
The short version
- Two Brisbane-founded, tech-enabled challengers - but they sit at different points on the self-management spectrum. Trilogy Care is a self-management specialist with a flat published rate card; Five Good Friends publishes two tiers, a self-managed membership and a full-service membership.
- The published personal care rates tell the story: Trilogy $72/hr self-managed; Five Good Friends from $89/hr self-managed or $117/hr full service. The gap is what the extra management layer costs.
- Five Good Friends’ distinctive feature is its Lookout app for scheduling, budget tracking and reporting; Trilogy’s is sourcing trusted local workers at local rates, with a 10% loading added only when you use a service.
- Both are private companies; both cover wide areas (Trilogy Australia-wide, Five Good Friends metro and regional areas across multiple states with a postcode checker).
Side by side
| Five Good Friends | Trilogy Care | |
|---|---|---|
| Model | Hybrid - self-managed membership and full-service membership, tech-enabled (Lookout app) | Self-managed |
| Ownership | Private (Brisbane-founded) | Private (Brisbane-based) |
| Care management fee | Full service: 10% of budget set aside for care management, at $150/hr. Its self-managed page still shows a combined “Care Management & Package Management: 15-17% of package” - Home Care Package-era framing retained on the page as at August 2026, so confirm the current Support at Home structure before signing | 10% of quarterly budget (the government-set cap that applies to all registered providers); care management listed at $120/hr within that allocation |
| Other admin / loading fees | Package management shown as $25.80-$164.50 weekly depending on funding level (full-service page) | 10% service loading, “added only when you use a service” (a $60/hr gardener becomes $66/hr). Optional full coordination adds 20% to service pricing before the loading |
| Personal care, weekday | $117/hr full service (Helper, independence); from $89/hr self-managed | $72/hr (self-managed rate) |
| Cleaning, weekday | $105/hr full service (Helper, everyday living); from $89/hr self-managed | $66/hr (general house cleaning, self-managed rate) |
| Coverage | Metro and regional areas across multiple states; postcode checker on its website | Australia-wide (self-managed; you choose local workers) |
| Distinctive features | Lookout app for scheduling, budget tracking and reporting; “you decide who visits you and when”; no basic daily fee; RN $200/hr, telehealth nursing $160/hr | Publishes a full rate card (RN clinical care $132/hr); no loading charged if no visit is booked; fully coordinated tier (personal care $106/hr, RN $172/hr) |
“From” prices are minimums - the exact rate for your area and services may be higher. Ask both providers for a written quote for your suburb and roster before comparing.
What the fee structures mean in practice
Here is one worked example at Classification 5, which has a quarterly budget of $10,182.38 in 2026-27. With both providers, the government’s 10% care management allocation comes off first: $1,018.24, leaving a service pool of $9,164.14 for the quarter. Care management is clinical care, so it costs you nothing personally.
Five Good Friends
- Classification 5 · $10,182.38/qtr
- 10% care management = $1,018.24, leaving $9,164.14
- Then
- Full service: Helper visits at published set rates. Self-managed: services from $89/hr, with the exact rate confirmed for your area
- In hours
- ≈ 78 hrs/qtr of personal care at the $117/hr full-service rate (around 6 hours a week), or up to ≈ 103 hrs/qtr at the “from $89/hr” self-managed rate
Trilogy Care
- Classification 5 · $10,182.38/qtr
- 10% care management = $1,018.24, leaving $9,164.14
- Then
- 10% loading applies when you use a service, so roughly $8,331 of worker charges fit in the pool
- In hours
- ≈ 127 hrs/qtr of personal care at Trilogy’s published $72/hr self-managed rate - around 9-10 hours a week
The same budget buys noticeably different hours because you are buying different amounts of management. Trilogy’s $72/hr assumes you do the coordinating; Five Good Friends’ $117/hr full-service rate includes a Helper matched and managed for you, with the Lookout app tracking it all. Its “from $89/hr” self-managed tier sits in between. Your own means-tested contribution then applies per service, the same way with either provider - see what you’ll pay.
Every figure on this page was verified from Five Good Friends’ and Trilogy Care’s published pricing in August 2026. Providers adjust prices often, and the government publishes a quarterly National Summary of Support at Home Prices for benchmarking. Ask each provider for its current price list in writing before signing a service agreement.
Which suits you?
Choose Five Good Friends if…
- You want a genuine choice of tiers - start self-managed and step up to full service (or the reverse) without changing provider.
- An app that lets you and your family see schedules, budgets and visit notes matters to you.
- You’d rather have a Helper matched and managed for you than recruit workers yourself.
Choose Trilogy Care if…
- You’re confident self-managing and want the lower published rates that come with it ($72/hr personal care, $66/hr cleaning).
- You like sourcing trusted local workers at local rates, with no loading charged in weeks where nothing is booked.
- You want every rate published up front so you can do the maths before making contact.
Neither answer is “better” - the real question is how much management you want to buy with your budget, and both publish enough detail to work that out.
Not sure which fits your situation?
Tell us your classification, postcode and how hands-on you want to be, and we can help you compare these two - and any others servicing your area - for your situation.
Common questions
Why is Five Good Friends’ personal care rate higher than Trilogy’s?
Mostly because the rates buy different things. Trilogy’s $72/hr is a self-managed rate - you find and coordinate workers yourself. Five Good Friends’ $117/hr full-service rate includes matching, rostering and oversight of your Helper, and its self-managed tier starts lower, from $89/hr. Both sit below the national median for personal care of around $115/hr on the self-managed side.
What is the Lookout app, and does Trilogy have an equivalent?
Lookout is Five Good Friends’ app for scheduling, budget tracking and reporting - you and, if you wish, your family can see who is visiting and how the budget is tracking. Trilogy doesn’t publish an equivalent app as a headline feature; its proposition is rate transparency and local worker choice. If shared visibility for adult children matters, that’s a genuine point of difference.
What does Five Good Friends’ “15-17% of package” figure mean?
As at August 2026 its self-managed membership page still shows a combined “Care Management & Package Management: 15-17% of package” - framing carried over from the old Home Care Package program. Under Support at Home, care management is a flat 10% of your quarterly budget for every registered provider - see the care management fee, explained. Ask Five Good Friends to confirm its current Support at Home fee structure in writing.
Do either charge exit fees or minimum hours?
Exit fees are banned under Support at Home for every provider. Neither publishes a minimum visit length as at August 2026 - ask each to confirm minimums and cancellation notice in writing before signing. You can switch providers at any time if your choice doesn’t work out.
Sources
- Five Good Friends - self-managed membership, fivegoodfriends.com.au/aged-care/self-managed-membership, accessed August 2026.
- Five Good Friends - full-service membership, fivegoodfriends.com.au/aged-care/full-service-membership, accessed August 2026.
- Trilogy Care - services and pricing, trilogycare.com.au/services-pricing, accessed August 2026.
- Trilogy Care - Service Pricing PDF (November 2025, current at August 2026), trilogycare.com.au/uploads/202511_Service_Pricing.pdf.
- Trilogy Care - “Understanding fees under Support at Home”, trilogycare.com.au/understanding-fees-under-support-at-home, accessed August 2026.