Brightwheel has a free plan limited to one staff member and fewer than 20 students. As of its own August 2026 comparison, the free plan leaves out family messaging, online forms, waitlist management, lesson planning, staff messaging, and contactless check-in. Everything else is Premium, which is priced by quote.

How much does brightwheel cost per month?

Brightwheel does not publish a price. Its Premium pricing is customized for each program and based on enrollment capacity, so you get a quote after a sales conversation. When you ask, request the total including the payment service fee, which is also set per program and not published.

What is the cheapest brightwheel alternative?

For software cost, NestliCare is $0 with unlimited children and staff and every feature included. If you are under a cap, MyKidReports is free up to 5 children and Bloomily is free for licensed home daycares up to 18 children. Among paid plans that publish a price, Daily Connect starts at $8.99 per month for up to 3 children.

Which brightwheel alternatives publish their prices?

NestliCare, Bloomily, Daily Connect, MyKidReports, and myKidzDay publish prices on their websites. Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, Playground, and Kangarootime require a quote or demo.

Does NestliCare have a free plan like brightwheel's?

No plan at all. The whole product is free for every daycare: unlimited children, unlimited staff accounts, multiple locations, billing, messaging, forms, waitlists, and lesson planning included. The only cost anywhere is the processing fee when a parent pays tuition online, and parents cover it by default.

What does a parent pay when they pay tuition through NestliCare?

On a $100 invoice in the US, a parent paying by card pays $103.40 and a parent paying by bank debit pays $101.00. The daycare receives $100 either way. If you prefer to absorb the fee yourself, it is one switch in finance settings.

Can I move my families from brightwheel to NestliCare?

Yes. Export your roster and family contacts from brightwheel, or photograph paper records, and upload them in Settings, then Data Migration. Our team loads families, children, and staff for you at no cost. Parents re-add their payment method once on their first NestliCare invoice, because no platform can move saved cards.

What should I compare besides the subscription price?

Three things: the payment processing fee at your monthly tuition volume, whether billing and family messaging are included or paid extras, and whether you can export your data and leave. A low headline price with an unpublished processing fee can cost more than a published one.

Compared by published price, September 2026

Brightwheel alternatives for daycares that find it too expensive

If the brightwheel quote is more than your daycare wants to pay, you have three kinds of alternatives. Free software funded by payment processing, which is NestliCare: every feature, unlimited children, $0. Subscriptions that publish a flat or per-child price: Daily Connect, MyKidReports, myKidzDay, Bloomily. And quote-based platforms like brightwheel itself: Procare, Lillio, Playground, Kangarootime. Below is what each one costs as published on its own website, what brightwheel's free plan leaves out, and how to switch without losing your families.

Updated September 3, 2026 · Prices re-checked September 12, 2026 against each vendor's own pricing page.

Create your free account See NestliCare's full pricing page

What brightwheel costs today, in its own words

Premium is quoted, not listed. Brightwheel's own pricing article says Premium pricing is "customized for each program rather than published as a price list," and its in-home page says the price "is based on enrollment capacity."
The free plan is small by design. It supports "1 staff member, less than 20 students & unlimited family members," and leaves out family messaging, video sharing, newsletters, emergency SMS alerts, online forms, waitlist management, meal reports, lesson planning, observations, staff messaging, and contactless check-in.
The payment fee is also per program. The help center says card, FSA, and bank payments each carry "a service fee specific to your program." The rate is not published, so ask for it in writing before you compare quotes.

Two numbers decide the real cost: the subscription quote and the payment fee you cannot see until you ask. Compare both at your actual monthly tuition volume.

Ten daycare platforms, by what they publish

Software price, free plan, and online payment fee, as stated on each vendor's own pricing page or help center on September 3, 2026. Quotation marks mark the vendor's exact wording. Sources are listed at the bottom of the page.

Software	Software price, as published	Free plan	Online payment fee	Price public?
NestliCare	$0. Every feature, unlimited children, staff, and locations. No paid plan exists.	The whole product is free, not a tier.	2.9% + $0.50 per card payment, 1% capped at $6 per bank (ACH) payment, in the US. Parents cover it at checkout by default; the daycare can absorb it instead. Cash and check: $0.	Yes
brightwheel	Premium is "customized for each program rather than published as a price list"; the price "is based on enrollment capacity."	Yes: "1 staff member, less than 20 students & unlimited family members." Excludes family messaging, video sharing, newsletters, emergency SMS alerts, online forms, waitlist management, meal reports, lesson planning, observations, staff messaging, and contactless check-in.	Card, FSA, and bank payments each carry "a service fee specific to your program." The rate is not published.	No
Procare	"One low monthly price," not published. The in-home edition is for "up to 15 children" with "zero contracts, set-up fees, per-child charges."	No.	Not published.	No
Lillio (formerly HiMama)	Not published. Pricing requires booking a call or demo.	No.	Not published.	No
Playground	Not published. The pricing page schedules a demo.	No.	Not published.	No
Kangarootime	Quote-based; no published price.	No.	Not published.	No
Bloomily	$99 per month per location, every feature included.	Free for "licensed home daycares and small in-home programs" with up to 18 children.	3.5% on cards, 1% on bank transfers; the program chooses whether families or the program covers it.	Yes
Daily Connect	$16 per month billed annually with 10 children included, then $1.60 per child. Nannies and small family daycares: $8.99 per month (3 children max) or $12.99 per month (6 children max).	No. 14-day free trial.	"Standard payment processing fees apply" when using parent billing.	Yes
MyKidReports	$0.99 per child per month, priced in tiers of 10 (6 to 10 children = $9.90 per month).	Free up to 5 children with 1 staff account.	Standard processing fees via Stripe and Deluxe.	Yes
myKidzDay	$1.00 per child per month, or $10.00 per room per month.	No. The parent and staff apps are free.	Not stated on the pricing section.	Yes

Prices change. If you work at one of these companies and something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it the same day, with the date of the change noted.

Three questions that decide the real cost

1. What is the total at your tuition volume? Add the subscription to the payment fee on a typical month of tuition. A daycare collecting $20,000 a month online pays very different totals under "a service fee specific to your program" than under a published 2.9% + $0.50 that parents cover.
2. Is the feature you came for in the free or cheap tier? Billing, family messaging, online forms, and waitlists are the features most often held back. If they sit in a paid column, the cheap tier is a demo of the paid one.
3. Can you leave? Look for a full data export you can run yourself. If your rosters and history cannot leave, every future price increase is backed by your own data.

Why NestliCare is $0, and what the catch is

NestliCare has no paid plan. Attendance, daily reports, parent messaging, billing with autopay, enrollment, forms, meal tracking, staff scheduling, and the parent app are all included for every daycare, with no cap on children or staff. The business runs on a share of the processing fee when a parent pays tuition online: 2.9% + $0.50 on cards and 1% capped at $6 on bank debits in the US, which the parent covers at checkout by default. Cash and check payments cost nothing. That is the entire model, written up on how we make money.

The honest caveat: NestliCare is newer than the platforms above. Our answer is the Day One Promise on the pricing page, which exempts every daycare that joins today from any future paid plan, and a full data export you can run any time.

Switching from brightwheel, step by step

Export what you can. Your student roster and family contacts at minimum, as CSV or spreadsheet. Photos of paper records work too.
Upload it once. In NestliCare, go to Settings, then Data Migration. Our team sets up your families, children, and staff for you, free, whatever your size.
Pick a cutover date on a billing boundary. The 1st or the 15th. Mark brightwheel read-only, send parents a one-sentence heads-up, and generate the first invoices in NestliCare.
Parents re-add a payment method once. No platform can move saved cards. It takes each parent under a minute on their first invoice, and autopay continues from there.

The full playbook, including a parent email template and what not to bother migrating, is on how to switch daycare software without losing data.

Brightwheel alternatives, answered plainly

Is brightwheel free?: Brightwheel has a free plan limited to one staff member and fewer than 20 students. As of its own August 2026 comparison, the free plan leaves out family messaging, online forms, waitlist management, lesson planning, staff messaging, and contactless check-in. Everything else is Premium, which is priced by quote.
How much does brightwheel cost per month?: Brightwheel does not publish a price. Its Premium pricing is customized for each program and based on enrollment capacity, so you get a quote after a sales conversation. When you ask, request the total including the payment service fee, which is also set per program and not published.
What is the cheapest brightwheel alternative?: For software cost, NestliCare is $0 with unlimited children and staff and every feature included. If you are under a cap, MyKidReports is free up to 5 children and Bloomily is free for licensed home daycares up to 18 children. Among paid plans that publish a price, Daily Connect starts at $8.99 per month for up to 3 children.
Which brightwheel alternatives publish their prices?: NestliCare, Bloomily, Daily Connect, MyKidReports, and myKidzDay publish prices on their websites. Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, Playground, and Kangarootime require a quote or demo.
Does NestliCare have a free plan like brightwheel's?: No plan at all. The whole product is free for every daycare: unlimited children, unlimited staff accounts, multiple locations, billing, messaging, forms, waitlists, and lesson planning included. The only cost anywhere is the processing fee when a parent pays tuition online, and parents cover it by default.
What does a parent pay when they pay tuition through NestliCare?: On a $100 invoice in the US, a parent paying by card pays $103.40 and a parent paying by bank debit pays $101.00. The daycare receives $100 either way. If you prefer to absorb the fee yourself, it is one switch in finance settings.
Can I move my families from brightwheel to NestliCare?: Yes. Export your roster and family contacts from brightwheel, or photograph paper records, and upload them in Settings, then Data Migration. Our team loads families, children, and staff for you at no cost. Parents re-add their payment method once on their first NestliCare invoice, because no platform can move saved cards.
What should I compare besides the subscription price?: Three things: the payment processing fee at your monthly tuition volume, whether billing and family messaging are included or paid extras, and whether you can export your data and leave. A low headline price with an unpublished processing fee can cost more than a published one.

Start free today

Sources, checked September 3, 2026

The other products named on this page are trademarks of their respective owners. NestliCare is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any of them. Their prices, plan limits, and fees are quoted from their own websites as of the date shown at the top of this page and may have changed since; we correct errors the same day they are reported.

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