What is the best free daycare attendance app?

NestliCare records every check-in and check-out to the minute, keeps a change history of every correction, shows live room ratios, and exports the reports as PDF or CSV, at $0 with no cap on children. MyKidReports' free plan includes "Attendance with reports": Free up to 5 children with 1 staff account. Brightwheel has a free plan for small programs, but by brightwheel's own list it excludes contactless check-in.

What should a daycare attendance record show?

For each child and day: the time in and out, who dropped off and picked up, and how it was recorded. Licensing inspectors and subsidy agencies also look at corrections, so a good record shows when a time was changed, by whom, and what it said before, instead of quietly overwriting it.

Can attendance be edited after the fact?

On NestliCare, yes, and it is tracked. Staff can fix a check-out time, undo a check-out made by mistake, or enter a day that was missed. Each change lands in the Attendance Change History with who made it, when, and the old and new times, and no one at the center can edit or remove those entries. Among the other vendors above, we did not find an edit history of attendance records described on the pages we read.

Can attendance drive tuition billing?

On NestliCare, hourly and per-day-attended plans are billed from real check-in and check-out times, and a late pickup fee can be charged per minute from the actual check-out. Both arrive as drafts you review before anything is sent, and an automatic check-out at closing is never charged as late. MyKidReports says check-ins total "weekly hours for billing and licensing."

What is the difference between a check-in app and an attendance app?

Check-in is the moment at the door: QR code, kiosk, PIN, or signature. Attendance is the record that builds up from it, plus the reports, corrections, and ratios that come out of it. Most apps do both. We compare the door methods on our daycare check-in apps page and the records here.

How was this compiled?

Every quoted line is the vendor's exact wording from the page linked in Sources, read on October 22, 2026. Prices come from our weekly check of each vendor's own pricing page, last run October 19, 2026. "Not stated" means the page we read did not say, not that the product lacks it. We make NestliCare.

Attendance apps, compared, October 2026

Best daycare attendance apps in 2026

Getting children through the door is the easy part. What licensing, subsidy agencies, and your own billing depend on is the record afterwards: exact times, who signed, which corrections were made, and whether every room stayed in ratio. Below, nine apps are compared on that record, in each vendor's own words. NestliCare's attendance reports, change history, and ratio logs are free, with no cap on children.

Updated October 22, 2026 · Every quoted vendor line was read on that vendor's own site on October 22, 2026. Prices are from our weekly price check.

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App	Attendance records, as published	Ratios, as published	Software price, as published
NestliCare	Arrivals & Departures report: every check-in and check-out to the minute, who signed, and how (kiosk, QR code, staff app, room tablet, or added later by staff). Every later edit is logged in a change history that no one at the center can alter. PDF or CSV.	Live ratio per room, shown in red when a room is over. A minute-by-minute ratio log for each room and day.	$0. Every feature, unlimited children, staff, and locations. No paid plan for daycares.
MyKidReports	"Every check-in and check-out writes a timestamped attendance record, updates the live ratio count, and totals weekly hours for billing and licensing." Reports: "Daily roster, monthly summary, signatures log, ratio compliance, subsidy hours."	"Every check-in/out re-counts staff and students. Out-of-ratio rooms turn red."	$0.99 per child per month, priced in tiers of 10 (6 to 10 children = $9.90 per month).
brightwheel	"Brightwheel's digital attendance creates a timestamped record that supports accurate subsidy claims and audit defense." "All attendance records are stored permanently in brightwheel, organized by site, classroom, and date."	Not stated on the attendance page we read.	Premium is "customized for each program rather than published as a price list"; the price "is based on enrollment capacity."
Procare	"Choose from a wide range of prebuilt reports or create custom attendance reports for added flexibility."	Ratio "alerts can be sent to notify staff when a ratio is out of compliance."	"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."
myKidzDay	"Payroll staff hours & student attendance reports."	"Real time ratios and parent signature capture."	$1.00 per child per month, or $10.00 per room per month ("additional fees apply for 11+ children" on per-room pricing; 10% off for non-profit centers).
Daily Connect	"Attendance reports required by licensing authorities are auto created and saved." "Create custom reports for billing, compliance, or export to other systems."	"Monitor attendance and teacher to child ratios in every classroom. You'll be alerted if ratios exceed limits."	$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).
Playground	"Customizable reports with timestamps, signatures, and guardian names." "Export, print, or email any report."	"Real-time alerts when out of ratio."	Not published. The pricing page schedules a demo.
Bloomily	Not stated on the check-in page we read.	"The roster and ratios update as children arrive."	$249 a month per location, or $2,388 a year ($199 a month, billed yearly); every feature included.
Lillio (formerly HiMama)	"Lillio brings attendance, family communication, billing, and planning together in one easy-to-use platform." No attendance reports are itemized on the page we read.	Not stated on the page we read.	Not published. Pricing requires booking a call or demo.

Quotation marks are the vendor's exact wording. NestliCare's row is our own description of our product. "Not stated" means the page we read did not say, not that the feature is missing.

What NestliCare keeps for every day

Arrivals & Departures: each stay with its check-in and check-out time to the minute, who signed, and the method used. A child who leaves and comes back gets one row per stay.
Attendance Change History: every edited time, deleted record, undone check-out, day entered later, and automatic check-out, with who made the change, when, and what it said before. No one at the center can edit or remove an entry.
Attendance Summary: present and absent counts for each day, and check-outs that are still missing.
Absences from parents: families mark a child absent in the app for today or a future date.
Automatic check-out at closing for anyone not checked out, tagged Auto so it is never mistaken for a real pickup.
Ratios: a live ratio for each room that turns red when the room is over, plus a minute-by-minute Room Day Log and a Staffing Plan report.
Paper backup: a printable sign-in sheet, and an Emergency Offline Pack that prints the roster so staff can verify the adult at the door with no internet.
Billing from attendance: hourly and per-day-attended plans billed from real check-in and check-out times, as drafts you review first.

The attendance reports print as a PDF or export as CSV. Late arrivals are not tracked as a separate status yet.

Answered plainly

What is the best free daycare attendance app?: NestliCare records every check-in and check-out to the minute, keeps a change history of every correction, shows live room ratios, and exports the reports as PDF or CSV, at $0 with no cap on children. MyKidReports' free plan includes "Attendance with reports": Free up to 5 children with 1 staff account. Brightwheel has a free plan for small programs, but by brightwheel's own list it excludes contactless check-in.
What should a daycare attendance record show?: For each child and day: the time in and out, who dropped off and picked up, and how it was recorded. Licensing inspectors and subsidy agencies also look at corrections, so a good record shows when a time was changed, by whom, and what it said before, instead of quietly overwriting it.
Can attendance be edited after the fact?: On NestliCare, yes, and it is tracked. Staff can fix a check-out time, undo a check-out made by mistake, or enter a day that was missed. Each change lands in the Attendance Change History with who made it, when, and the old and new times, and no one at the center can edit or remove those entries. Among the other vendors above, we did not find an edit history of attendance records described on the pages we read.
Can attendance drive tuition billing?: On NestliCare, hourly and per-day-attended plans are billed from real check-in and check-out times, and a late pickup fee can be charged per minute from the actual check-out. Both arrive as drafts you review before anything is sent, and an automatic check-out at closing is never charged as late. MyKidReports says check-ins total "weekly hours for billing and licensing."
What is the difference between a check-in app and an attendance app?: Check-in is the moment at the door: QR code, kiosk, PIN, or signature. Attendance is the record that builds up from it, plus the reports, corrections, and ratios that come out of it. Most apps do both. We compare the door methods on our daycare check-in apps page and the records here.
How was this compiled?: Every quoted line is the vendor's exact wording from the page linked in Sources, read on October 22, 2026. Prices come from our weekly check of each vendor's own pricing page, last run October 19, 2026. "Not stated" means the page we read did not say, not that the product lacks it. We make NestliCare.

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Sources, read October 22, 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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