Why is NestliCare free?
Because building software no longer costs what it used to. A small team of skilled engineers with modern AI can run what once took a funded company. We keep our costs near zero and pass the difference to you, and every number we have is on this page.
No tiers. No demo call. No quote form. Nothing to negotiate.
The software
$0
Every feature, unlimited children and staff, forever. No credit card to enter, no trial clock, no better plan to upgrade to.
When a parent pays online
- Tuition invoice
- $100.00
- Parent pays
- $103.40 by card$101.00 by bank debit
- Daycare receives
- $100.00
The difference is the one processing fee, Stripe’s cost included. Prefer to cover it yourself? One switch in finance settings.
The new economics of software
AI has collapsed the cost of building and running software. What once took a funded company with offices and a sales floor now takes a handful of highly skilled engineers who know exactly what they are building. NestliCare is built and run that way, on purpose.
The legacy software makers know this too. They could use the same tools, cut their costs, and pass the savings to you. Most would rather keep their prices where they are and hope you never do this math.
We have no investors to answer to. The only people we answer to are the centers that use NestliCare every day. Efficiency keeps our expenses low, and careful security engineering keeps the platform safe to open to everyone. That is the whole answer.
So where does the money come from?
1
You run your center
Attendance, billing, messaging, daily reports. All free, for every center, at any size.
2
Parents pay tuition online
Card or bank debit, processed by Stripe. Every online payment carries one standard processing fee.
3
That fee is our revenue
A small share of it keeps NestliCare running. We earn only when the platform actually moves money for you.
A center that collects only cash and checks pays us nothing at all. Some do exactly that, and they are as welcome as everyone else.
One fee. Not one fee on top of another.
When a parent pays online, one processing fee applies. Stripe's cost is inside that fee, not added to it. Nobody pays twice, and there is nothing else a daycare pays for anywhere in the product.
Example: a $100 tuition invoice in the US
- Monthly tuition invoice
- $100.00
- Processing fee
- + $3.40
- Parent pays
- $103.40
- Processing fee
- + $1.00
- Parent pays
- $101.00
- Daycare receives, either way
- $100.00
- Or, if you choose to absorb the fee: $96.60 by card, $99.00 by bank debit.
The $3.40 by card or the $1.00 by bank is the entire cost of the payment. It covers Stripe's processing and NestliCare itself. No monthly bill follows it, and there is nothing else to pay anywhere.
At checkout the fee is labeled a convenience fee. Same fee. It is the processing fee, not an addition to one.
| Country or region | Card | Bank debit | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 2.9% + $0.50 | 1%, capped at $6 (ACH) | Parents, at checkout (most states) |
| Canada | 2.9% + C$0.50 | 1.5%, capped at C$6.50 (pre-authorized debit) | Parents, at checkout (outside Quebec) |
| Eurozone, 21 countriesAustria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain | 1.9% + €0.35 | 1%, capped at €6 (SEPA direct debit) | Included in provider rates |
| United Kingdom | 1.9% + £0.30 | 1.4%, capped at £5.50 (Bacs direct debit) | Included in provider rates |
| Australia | 2.2% + A$0.40 | 1.4%, capped at A$5.50 (BECS direct debit) | Included in provider rates |
In the eurozone, the UK and Australia, consumer payment rules do not allow adding card fees at checkout, so the fee comes out of the provider payout there instead. The same goes for a few US states (CT, MA, ME, NY, NJ, CO, LA), Puerto Rico and Quebec, where the daycare covers the fee. The software stays free everywhere.
Where parents cover the fee at checkout, your payout arrives whole. Prefer to absorb it yourself? Flip one switch in finance settings.
Cash and check payments recorded outside the platform carry zero fee. The software itself is free either way.
Every feature, included free
If we build it, you have it. Nothing on this page has a premium version, and nothing below is an add-on for daycares.
Through the day
- Attendance & check-in
- Check-in kiosk
- Room mode for classroom tablets
- Daily reports & photos
- Meal tracking & menus
- Health checks & incident reports
Getting paid
- Billing & invoicing
- Automatic invoices
- Online payments & auto-pay
- Discounts & subsidies
- Annual tax statements
Your team
- Staff profiles & documents
- Staff scheduling
- Timesheets
- Leave management
Families
- Parent messaging
- Announcements & newsletters
- Calendar & events
- Authorized pickups
- Family profiles & contacts
Admissions & enrollment
- Leads pipeline
- Waitlist
- Enrollment packets
- Online forms & e-signatures
- Child files & documents
And around it all
- Parent & staff apps, iOS and Android
- Multi-center support
- Reports library
- Lesson plans
- Free migration from your old system
- Unlimited updates
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NestliCare really free?
Yes, free for daycares, forever. No tiers, no monthly fee, no credit card required. Every feature is included for every daycare, no matter the size, and there is no paid version for daycares to be upsold to.
Is your fee charged on top of Stripe's processing fee?
No. There is exactly one fee on an online payment. Stripe's processing cost is paid out of that fee, not added beside it. On a $100 card payment in the US the fee is $3.40, and on a $100 bank-debit payment it is $1.00. That is the entire cost of the transaction for everyone involved.
How does NestliCare make money?
We don't charge daycares for the software. Our main revenue is a share of the standard processing fee on online payments (the rates by country are in the table above). Providers get free software; we earn a little only when the platform actually moves money. If you don't collect payments through NestliCare, the platform is genuinely $0. The whole story is on our How We Make Money page.
Who pays the processing fee?
In the US and Canada, parents do by default, the same way they pay a service fee on most online checkouts. The fee is shown clearly at checkout and added to the tuition total so the daycare's payout stays whole; daycares can switch this in their finance settings and absorb the fee themselves. In the eurozone, the UK and Australia, consumer payment rules don't allow adding the fee at checkout, so it's included in the provider's payment rates instead. In a few US states (Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Colorado and Louisiana), Puerto Rico and Quebec, card processing fees generally aren't passed on to families, so there the daycare covers the fee.
So what does the daycare actually pay per transaction?
On the default setup (parents pay, where local rules allow), $0. The convenience fee is added to what the parent pays at checkout, and the daycare receives the full invoice amount. If the daycare chooses to absorb the fee, it comes out of that payment's settlement at the rates above.
How does the fee compare to typical processing fees?
It's in line with what online payment processors charge in each country, and the number you see is all-in: Stripe's processing cost is inside it, not on top of it. Online card processing for small businesses typically runs 1.5% to 3% plus a small fixed amount, and bank debits around 1%. We're right in that band everywhere, with a hard cap on bank-debit fees (for example $6 in the US) so larger tuition payments don't balloon.
Are there any hidden fees?
None. The software is free. Cash and check payments collected outside the platform have zero fee. Online payments include the convenience fee shown above, and the rate is identical for every customer, no tiers.
Is there a limit on children or staff?
No limits whatsoever. Whether you have 3 kids or 300, every feature is fully available.
Ready to stop overpaying for daycare software?
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