Aya Healthcare vs. Health Carousel: Which Travel Nursing Agency Is Right for You? (2026)

Aya Healthcare and Health Carousel are two of the most commonly compared agencies in travel nursing — and for good reason. Both are established, operate nationally, offer full benefits packages, and have genuine name recognition in the market. But they are not the same agency, and the differences matter depending on where you are in your travel nursing career.

This guide breaks down the real distinctions: job volume, pay transparency, technology, benefits structure, and recruiter experience. We’ll tell you who each agency is genuinely best suited for, and where each one falls short.

Quick Overview: How These Two Agencies Compare

Before going deep, here’s the structural picture. Aya Healthcare is the largest travel nursing agency in the United States by active traveler volume and open job count. Health Carousel is a top-10 agency — significantly smaller than Aya, but well-regarded for its recruiter relationships and its clinical support infrastructure.

Job Volume and Assignment Access

This is where the gap between these two agencies is most significant, and it’s the first thing experienced travelers notice.

Aya Healthcare consistently operates with the largest open job database in the industry. As of April 2026, the agency listed over 4,000 open travel RN positions simultaneously — and that number reflects direct facility contracts, managed service contracts, and third-party staffing program support. If a hospital has an open travel nursing slot anywhere in the country, it is very likely listed with Aya.

Health Carousel does not publicly disclose its open job count, and the agency operates at a meaningfully smaller scale. This isn’t a criticism — smaller job volume often correlates with tighter facility relationships and more selective placement. But if your top priority is maximum choice of location and specialty, Aya’s raw job volume is an objective advantage.

Pay Transparency: A Clear Win for Aya

This is one of the more meaningful operational differences between these two agencies in 2026.

Aya Healthcare displays pay ranges directly on its public job listings — no login required. Browsing live Aya postings in April 2026 shows weekly packages ranging from roughly $1,937 to over $3,800 depending on specialty, location, and shift structure. High-demand specialties like CVOR and cardiac nursing showed packages in the $3,600-$3,800 range. L&D roles were running $3,100-$3,300. PACU roles in lower-demand markets started closer to the $1,900-$2,100 range.

Health Carousel requires you to create a profile before accessing pay details. The agency does not publish a specialty-by-specialty pay breakdown publicly. Independent aggregate data from Indeed puts average Health Carousel travel nurse compensation at approximately $2,434 per week, but that number spans all specialties and regions and isn’t reliable for making contract comparisons. If you want to know what HC will offer you for a specific assignment in a specific city, you need to talk to a recruiter.

For nurses doing their initial agency research — especially first-timers trying to understand the market before committing to an application — Aya’s upfront pay transparency is a genuine advantage. It lets you benchmark the market before you ever hand over your personal information.

That said, pay transparency at the listing level doesn’t guarantee you’ll be quoted that number once in conversation. Every travel nurse pay package is negotiable, and a recruiter relationship matters. See our guide to what a travel nurse pay package actually includes before evaluating any offer from either agency.

Benefits: Similar Structure, Different Details

Both agencies offer the core benefits package that experienced travel nurses expect: day-one health insurance, 401(k) with matching, housing support, and travel reimbursement. The details differ in ways worth understanding.

Health Insurance

Aya Healthcare provides medical, dental, and vision coverage starting on day one of your assignment, with options to add dependents. Coverage can extend up to 24 days between assignments — a meaningful buffer if you’re managing back-to-back contract gaps.

Health Carousel also offers day-one coverage through United Healthcare (PPO Standard, PPO Premium, or High Deductible plan options), plus MetLife dental and vision. Coverage continues for up to 28 days following your last worked day, provided you’ve signed a contract for a new assignment starting within that window.

401(k)

Neither agency makes it easy to find their exact 401(k) match terms in official documentation — a frustrating pattern across the travel nursing industry.

Aya’s official materials confirm matching is available, with eligibility to enroll beginning the first of the month after four consecutive months of assignment work. The match rate is not stated publicly. Third-party data suggests Aya’s employer contributions average approximately $621 per participant annually — modest relative to a standard corporate match, but present. Treat any specific percentage figures you encounter online as unverified until you confirm directly with an Aya benefits representative.

Health Carousel’s 401(k) is described by independent reviewers as a 50% match on employee contributions up to the first 6% of salary. This has not been confirmed against Health Carousel’s official plan documents — take it as a reported structure, not a guaranteed figure, and verify directly before making a financial decision based on it.

Housing

Both agencies offer the same fundamental choice: company-provided housing or a tax-free housing stipend you manage yourself. Most experienced nurses take the stipend and find their own arrangements — if you secure housing below the stipend amount, you keep the difference tax-free.

Health Carousel has a dedicated travel and housing team that provides research support, hotel discounts, and rental car booking even for nurses on the stipend path. They also offer a hybrid option — company-provided housing for the first few weeks while you get settled, then transitioning to a stipend for the remainder of the assignment. That flexibility is genuinely useful for nurses arriving in an unfamiliar city.

Aya coordinates travel and lodging for nurses using company housing, with flights covered and driving reimbursement available. Their scale means they can often negotiate preferred rates at extended-stay properties in markets where they place a high volume of travelers.

Technology Platforms

Both agencies have invested in technology platforms for nurses, and both are functional. Aya’s app is more frequently cited in independent rankings as the industry standard — in part because its scale means more real-time job data flowing through it, and in part because it’s been on the market longer with more iteration.

Health Carousel’s OnDemand platform (available as both a web app and mobile app) handles job search, profile management, document storage, real-time job alerts, and direct recruiter communication. The “First in Line” feature automatically notifies nurses and initiates the application process when a matching job posts — designed to give Health Carousel travelers a speed advantage in competitive markets.

If technology is a deciding factor for you, Aya’s app has the edge in market consensus. But OnDemand is a legitimate platform — not a placeholder. Health Carousel has invested meaningfully in its tech infrastructure and the core functionality is comparable for most use cases.

Recruiter Experience and Clinical Support

Recruiter quality is the variable that matters most in day-to-day travel nursing life — and it’s the hardest to predict at any agency, regardless of size. A great recruiter at a mid-size agency will outperform a disengaged recruiter at the largest firm in the country.

That said, there are structural differences worth noting.

Aya’s scale means their recruiter pool is large and uneven. Reviews consistently note that experience varies significantly from recruiter to recruiter. The upside of working with a large agency is that if your recruiter relationship isn’t working, there’s generally flexibility to request a change. The downside is that high volume can make individual nurses feel less like a priority.

Health Carousel is consistently described — in Glassdoor and Indeed reviews — as offering a more attentive recruiter experience. The agency positions itself around long-term career relationships rather than transactional placement. Their QIN team (Quality Improvement Nurses) is a structural differentiator: clinically experienced nurses available to advocate on your behalf if facility-level concerns arise during an assignment. This is not a standard offering at most large agencies.

Health Carousel also has a First-Time Travel Nurse Specialist role — a dedicated contact for nurses new to travel who need more guidance through the licensing, credentialing, and onboarding process. If you’re early in your travel nursing career, that’s a meaningful resource.

Contract Red Flags to Watch at Either Agency

The agency comparison matters less than the individual contract in front of you. Before signing with Aya, Health Carousel, or any agency, review the terms carefully. Key things to scrutinize include cancellation clauses, float pool language, guaranteed hours, and how overtime is calculated.

Our detailed guide to travel nurse contract red flags covers the 15 most common warning signs nurses miss before signing.

Who Should Choose Aya Healthcare

Aya is the stronger choice if your priority is maximum job selection, pay transparency before you apply, and a technology-forward experience. If you’re an experienced traveler who knows what you want — specialty, region, shift structure — and you want to browse real packages before entering a recruiter conversation, Aya’s platform makes that possible.

Aya also makes sense if you’re targeting highly competitive markets or niche specialties where assignment volume matters. In a tighter job market, being on the platform with the most open contracts is a real advantage.

Read our full Aya Healthcare review for a complete breakdown of pros, cons, and who the agency fits best.

Who Should Choose Health Carousel

Health Carousel is the stronger choice if you’re prioritizing recruiter relationship quality, clinical support during assignments, or a more guided onboarding experience as a first-time traveler. The QIN team, the First-Time Traveler Specialist, and the dedicated housing team all point toward an agency that has invested in the support infrastructure around placement — not just the placement itself.

If you have a specific facility or region in mind and Health Carousel has strong relationships there, their direct facility connections may be able to get you placed faster and with more negotiating leverage than a larger agency working through a managed service provider layer.

Read our full Health Carousel review for a complete breakdown.

The Case for Using Both

This is what most experienced travel nurses actually do. There’s no exclusivity requirement with either agency — you can maintain an active profile with both, compare what each is offering for the same markets and specialties, and make assignment decisions based on actual package numbers rather than agency loyalty.

The travel nursing market in early 2026 is more competitive than the peak years. Open nursing jobs are running roughly 30% below year-ago levels. In that environment, having relationships with multiple agencies — and being able to move quickly when a good assignment posts — is a practical strategy, not a hedge.

See our Aya and Health Carousel individual reviews for the specific application process, onboarding timeline, and what to ask each agency’s recruiter on your first call.

Bottom Line

Aya Healthcare and Health Carousel are both legitimate, established agencies. Neither is objectively better — they serve different priorities well.

Choose Aya if job volume, pay transparency, and technology are your primary criteria. Choose Health Carousel if you want a more supported, relationship-driven experience — especially if you’re newer to travel nursing or value having clinical advocates available during your assignment. And if you’re a few contracts in and know how to manage multiple agency relationships, sign with both and let the actual package numbers make the decision for you.

References

Job Volume and Market Data
Aya Healthcare Aya Index. Open nursing job trends. March 2026.
Aya Healthcare job listings (travel RN). Accessed April 2026.

Pay and Benefits
Aya Healthcare. Travel nurse pay and benefits page. Accessed April 2026.
Health Carousel Travel Nursing. Benefits overview and housing pages. Accessed April 2026.
Electronic Health Reporter. Health Carousel OnDemand platform overview. December 2022.
Indeed. Health Carousel travel nurse salary aggregate. Last updated March 25, 2026.

Technology
Health Carousel. OnDemand app description. Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Accessed April 2026.
Health Carousel Travel Nursing. OnDemand platform overview page. Accessed April 2026.

Methodology
401(k) match figures for both agencies are drawn from independent review sources and third-party data aggregators, not official agency plan documents. Verify current match terms directly with each agency’s benefits team before making employment or financial decisions. Last updated: April 2026.