Best Childcare Apps to Use

Juggling schedules, tracking progress, and maintaining clear communication—the life of a childcare provider is not easy. But fear not! Technology is here to help. Explore childcare management apps, which are designed to streamline operations, increase parent engagement, and provide peace of mind for everyone involved.

Finding the right childcare apps can feel like searching for a unicorn: mythical, magical, and essential for your sanity (and well-being). Whether you’re a parent desperately looking for reliable care for your precious little one or a childcare provider looking to connect with amazing families, the vast digital landscape can be overwhelming.

Whether you’re a provider looking to simplify daily tasks or a parent eager for real-time updates on your little one’s day, there’s an app out there perfectly suited to your needs. From attendance tracking and developmental assessments to secure messaging and photo sharing, these innovative tools encourage providers to deliver outstanding care while keeping parents informed and connected. So ditch the paper documentation and welcome this digital era – with the best childcare apps, a smoother, more joyful experience awaits everyone.

1. Brightwheel

Headquarters: San Francisco (United States)
Founded Year: 2014
Funding: $88.8M
Revenue: $71.8M
Pricing: Quotation Plans
Rating: 4.9

Brightwheel is a childcare management software solution provider for preschools, childcare, and daycares. It is specially designed to provide efficiency and effectiveness in tasks by administrations and teachers at mid to high-capacity centers. The platform provides tools for digital assessment, parent-teacher communication, online admissions, reporting, billing, and more.

Parents who use Brightwheel receive real-time updates on their children’s activities, including photos and notes, via a real-time news feed. Brightwheel provides centers with secured online attendance for both students and staff.

Users: Early Education providers for managing childcare centers with over 25 students. Preschools, after-school, Sunday school, camps, daycare and more. They also help parents and guardians with childcare management

Pros

1. Amazing app with great features for messaging, sharing photos/videos, and updates
2. Simple and easy to use, loved by both current and future users
3. Excellent customer support and efficient communication for teachers and parents

Cons

1. Limited perspective as a user, cannot comment on administrator experience
2. Delayed notifications causing stress regarding pick-up times
3. Occasional issues with the messaging feature and slow response times for the support team

2. Lillio (Hhimama)

Headquarters: Ontario, Canada
Founded Year: 2013
Funding: $61.1M
Revenue: $25.6M
Pricing: Quotation Plans
Rating: 4.9

Lillio-HiMama is a childcare app that is widely used in childcare centers around the world. The company is a certified B corporation, helping childcare improve the quality of programs. It provides solutions for center management, parent communication, digital reports, billing and payments, professional development, and more.

The apps were designed and built based on consultations with early childhood educators, supervisors, and directors of childcare centers and early learning programs. The app, as a result of these extensive consultations, has comprehensive features and an intuitive interface.

Users: Learning Programs—preschools, play-based learning, learning academics, NAEYC-accredited Home Daycares, Regions, and National Childcare Providers.

Pros

1. Emphasizes the importance of consistency, patience, and love for a child’s success
2. User-friendly interface
3. Convenient access to children’s photos and messaging with teachers
4. Integration of pictures and easy communication with the director
5. Excellent technical support facilitates compliance with regulations

Cons

1. Difficulty in managing multiple connected applications
2. Messages may get lost or overlooked
3. Inability to view real-time check-in times or current activities until the end of the day
4. Delayed notifications regarding finalized reports

3. KANGAROOTIME

Headquarters: NY, USA
Founded Year: 2015
Funding: $35.5M
Revenue: $7.4M
Pricing: Subscription Plans
Rating: 4.5

Kangarootime is a cloud-based, all-in-one platform for child care and early education providers that includes document management, billing, payment processing, child check-ins, classroom management, and more. The system uses real-time messaging, calendars, and announcements to keep parents, teachers, directors, and center owners all up to date.

Kangarootime allows parents to securely check their children in and out of centers with daily audit logs and up-to-the-second-time tracking capabilities. Parents can also permit other adults to pick up their children, and the center will be notified automatically. Pictures can be securely shared with parents using the in-app messaging system, which organizes all chats, emails, and pictures into a single database. Kangarootime allows centers to collect fees through integrated payment processing and collection automation.

Users: Single-site Centers, Multi-site Businesses, Enterprise Franchises and Corporate Delivery Models.

Pros

1. Easy access with helpful support from Kangarootime staff
2. Simple check-in/out, messaging, payment, and photo upload features
3. User-friendly for parents and staff, provides visibility on staff-to-child ratio and enrollment

Cons

1. Inability to restrict staff to specific IP addresses for clocking in and out
2. Lengthy process for inquiries, requiring appointments days in advance
3. Occasional errors due to system updates
4. Lack of notification for families when photos are sent, difficulty managing the rooming feature

4. Famly

Headquarters: Copenhagen (Denmark)
Founded Year: 2013
Funding: $24.5M
Revenue: $12.8M
Pricing: Package Plans (Foundation, Premium, Professional)
Rating: 4.8

Famly is the time-saving solution that goes above and beyond for your ECE business needs, including digital enrollment, automatic billing, and instant message translation. From digital enrollment to automatic billing to instant message translation, this app provides everything for childcare management. Its numerous features include parent-teacher communications, billing and finance, administration, and staffing. More than 6300 childcare centers, daycares, and preschools across the world are using Famly.

Users: Directors, Managers, Staff, and Teachers of childcare groups and Centers of all shapes and sizes, including Preschools, Aftercare Clubs, and Daycares.

Pros

1. Excellent customer service, prompt and helpful
2. Convenient instant updates and communication with the nursery
3. Holds essential information securely, facilitating job performance
4. Easy setup with knowledgeable and friendly customer support

Cons

1. Occasional slowness of the app
2. New features may lack thorough explanations for non-tech-savvy users
3. Limited record-keeping for Montessori settings
4. Some features do not fully meet specific needs, such as accident reports and permissions management

5. Playground

Headquarters: New York, USA
Founded Year: 2021
Funding: $3.4M
Revenue: <$1M
Pricing: Quotation Plans
Rating: 4.9

Playground is a childcare management software that is used by daycare centers, in-home providers, before/after school programs, and Montessori preschools. More than 100,000 providers, teachers, and families rely on Playground. Reduce your costs with Playground reduces costs with its advanced child care management software that eliminates administrative hassles while keeping parents calm.

Its top-rated software includes critical features such as billing, family engagement, digital paperwork, attendance, food program management, reporting, staffing, and more. They provide a one-on-one dedicated account manager and live human support with response times under 60 seconds.

Users: Child Care Centers, In-home Providers, Before/After  School Programs, Montessori Preschools.

Pros

1. Ease of using apps/software
2. Customer service by the playground is exceptional

Cons

Not Found

6. Procare Software

Headquarters: Colorado, USA
Founded: 1992
Funding: $1.4M
Revenue: $57.6M
Pricing: Subscription Plans
Rating: 4.6

Procare Solutions is the childcare management software; recently acquired by Roper Technologies. More than 37,000 daycare businesses use these apps. They have experience spanning more than 30 years. Procare Solutions provides real time information for managing compliance with local and state regulations, making critical decisions, and adhering to business best practices by child care professionals. These apps and software for childcare management enable providers to do contactless check-in/check-out, integrate tuition collection, use business management tools, and more.

Users: Daycares, Preschool Childcare Centers, Improvement Programs, School Programs, Youth Organizations, and School Camps

Pros

1. Convenient and time-saving
2. User-friendly interface
3. Excellent customer service
4. Compatibility with various programs
5. Great support team
6. Easy ledger explanation
7. Helpful tutorials

Cons

1. Occasional human errors
2. Lack of online registration option
3. Potential technical issues requiring router replacement
4. Absence of preprogrammed email signatures

7. Storypark

Headquarters: New Zealand
Founded Year: 2011
Funding: $0 (self-funded)
Revenue: $10.8M
Pricing: Package Plans
Rating: 4.6

Child care management software Storypark focuses on quality results for children to extend their practice. It is designed to help organizations and educators maintain progress portfolios, track children’s journeys, and communicate with parents. This platform helps teachers save children’s learning activities in the form of videos and images, give feedback, and engage with community members.

It has templates utilized to create learning plans, attach support documentation, and gain visibility into children’s activities, learning trends, and other result reports. Teachers can share announcements, course planning, and assessments on their centralized platform. It also helps in monitoring parents’ engagement, issues, and more

Users: Teachers, Children, Families, and Early Learning services ranging from individual centers to large networks.

Pros

1. Easy sharing of learning content, including videos and pictures
2. Effective for monitoring progress and reading stories
3. Simple for educators and families, valuable for daily updates
4. Excellent customer service and ease of use

Cons

1. Confusing for non-tech-savvy users due to app changes
2. Cluttered interface with learning tags
3. Limited options for enhancing learning stories
4. Occasional photo upload failures

8. BabyG

Headquarters: Los Angeles, USA
Founded Year: 2020
Funding: $184K
Revenue: $33.8M
Pricing: Subscription Plans
Rating: 4.9

BabyG is an innovative app designed to support parents in nurturing their baby’s development during the critical first three years of life. With a mission to empower parents with easy-to-follow developmental programs, BabyG serves as a valuable parenting partner. The app offers stage-based activities to stimulate a baby’s growth, milestone reports to track progress, daily meal plans for optimal nutrition, and tools to monitor baby logs. Additionally, BabyG provides soothing audio bedtime stories and fosters a supportive global community.

Understanding the challenges of parenting, BabyG offers a wealth of expert-vetted parenting guides covering diverse topics such as nutrition, health, and developmental milestones. Whether navigating the journey as a first-time parent or seeking support as an experienced one, BabyG strives to provide research-backed knowledge and assistance at every step. With BabyG, parents can feel confident in providing the best possible care and support for their baby’s growth and development.

9. CLOC – Child Life on Call

Headquarters: Texas US
Founded Year: 2020
Funding: $175k
Revenue: $450k
Pricing: Package Plans (Silver, Gold and Platinum)
Rating: 5

CLOC-Child Life on Call is a childcare management solution dedicated to bridging the gap in children’s healthcare by providing on-demand access to expert support through its app. The app provides 24*7 virtual child life specialists, engaging resources in games and video forms, giving family support tools to help caregivers communicate, accessibility, and more. CLOC partners with healthcare providers, parents, and child life professionals to ensure every child feels cared for and loved.

Users: Child Life Specialists, Parents, Medical Professionals

All in all, the perfect childcare management software acts as a bridge between providers and parents, fostering transparency, trust, and a sense of community. By streamlining daily tasks, enhancing communication, and providing valuable insights into child development, these apps empower providers to deliver exceptional care while keeping parents informed and connected.

So, explore the wealth of options available, find the app that aligns with your unique needs, and watch your childcare experience blossom into something truly special. Remember, a happy and informed community starts with the right tools, and childcare apps are just the key to unlocking that potential.