Did you know the best childcare management software market will reach $924.5 million by 2028?
As the demand for quality childcare services continues to rise, having the best childcare management software solution is crucial for daycare providers. Efficiently managing daily operations, maintaining clear communication with parents, and ensuring child safety are key challenges childcare centers face.
This article will explore the best childcare systems and introduce you to some of the best daycare management systems available in 2024.
From streamlining administrative tasks to enhancing parent engagement, we’ll cover a range of features offered by leading childcare management systems, such as online registration, attendance tracking, billing and invoicing, classroom activity tracking, and parent communication portals.
Whether you run a small home-based daycare or a sizeable multi-site childcare organization, there’s a software solution tailored to your needs.
So, let’s dive in and discover how the right childcare management software can transform your business. It can save you time and effort while keeping everyone—staff, parents, and children—connected and informed. Stay tuned!
What is Childcare Software?
Childcare software controls the internal operations of childcare providers and preschool programs, such as attendance, scheduling, and invoicing. In addition, the software promotes communication (feedback, messages, notifications, and alerts) between parents and instructors. Modern childcare solutions simplify and optimize childcare processes with a single software-as-a-service (SaaS) application delivered over the Internet.
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The SaaS portal will enable you to monitor and administer all the tasks involved in the development of the children. Furthermore, you can streamline your backend operations, manage the volume of the paperwork, and stay on top of billing and finances. With the proper Internet-based controls and diverse tools provided, childcare management platforms give you total control over your business. Lastly, the barrier to entry is not high, the platforms are mostly user-friendly, do not incur high training costs, and are moderately priced.
Benefits of Using Online Registration and Childcare Software
Childcare and daycare management software platforms offer a range of features designed to meet the needs of both childcare providers and parents. From an administrative standpoint, these platforms provide user-friendly interfaces that make it easy for staff members to navigate and use the software efficiently. The ease of administration is crucial to ensure that employees can quickly adapt to the software without extensive training, thereby minimizing costs and maximizing productivity.
Related Article: Benefits of Childcare Management Software in 2023
Key Factors to Choose the Best Childcare Management Software Solution
The top six characteristics that distinguish childcare platforms from each other are the following:
- Ease of use for parents: Convenience is the key, provide your clients with a simple, feature-rich, and user-friendly platform. If your end users struggle with the software and cannot figure out how to quickly move from one screen to another, they will get frustrated and will not use the system. Not only will you not gain any return on investment (ROI) on your expenditure, but you will also increase your churn rate and lose traction with your most important capital, your user base.
- Ease of administration: Your employees are the lifeblood of your business, do not expose them to programs that are complicated to learn and use. You will certainly need to allocate time to train your staff, but the amount of training needs to be reasonable, or the cost of ownership shoots up.
- Features and ecosystem: Ensure the platform offers all the gadgets and tools that you need to run your business. You need back-office tools to take enrollments, manage attendance, pull rosters, transfer kids between programs, invoice and collect payments. Communication features are essential as you need to constantly stay in touch with parents. Last, but not least, ensure the platform provides business marketing tools, campaign management, email, and text marketing.
- Product quality and security: Running a daycare program is demanding and you therefore need to rely on the software to be up and running all the time. What would you do if you needed to pull the roster to ensure all the children are accounted for and the system is down? Do not invest in a childcare system that has questionable quality just because of the price point. Read the reviews, some good sources are Capterra (www.capterra.com), G2 (www.g2.com), and SourceForge (www.sourceforge.net).
- Price point: Most childcare management systems are moderately priced. However, make sure you understand the entire cost of the ownership and the hidden costs. The providers usually charge a flat monthly fee, which is easy to understand. However, they might also charge a service fee, which is a percentage of the transaction. For example, if you sell a class for $100, and the service fee is 1%, then they will deduct $1 from the proceeds. On top of the service fee, you need to pay the credit card processing fees. For example, Stripe charges 2.9% plus 30 cents to process credit cards. Continuing with our example, for the $100 class that you sold, you pay Stripe $2.9 plus 40 cents, a total of $3.2. You also paid $1 for the service fee. Your total costs for this transaction are $4.2, and out of the $100 gross revenue, you will only net $95.8. It is also important to understand the cost factors when a parent cancels an enrollment and you need to issue a refund. Find out if you can recoup any portion of the fees you paid. To make matters worse, some providers not only do not refund the processing fees, but they will also levy an additional charge for processing the refund. Payment gateways dictate the credit card processing fees and you do not have much control over the rates. However, ask the childcare provider if there is a way you can pass the fees to your users. Jumbula (www.jumbula.com), for example, offers an option called the Convenience Fee feature, which allows you to pass on the fees to the parents.
- Reliable support team: Last but not least, ensure that the provider has a strong onboarding and support team. This is tricky because you would not normally engage the support team until after you have purchased the software. You can do your due diligence by reading up on the reviews. You can also ask the provider to disclose their service-level agreement (SLA). Note that some providers offer priority support on their higher-tier pricing packages.
Related Article: Benefits of Online Registration System
Best Childcare Management Software Overview
This part will cover the best childcare management software solutions in 2024. We choose:
- Jumbula
- Brightwheel
- EZCare
- HiMama
- Regpack
- iClassPro
- KidKare
- Famly
- Kangarootime
- Playground
- Sawyer
- Parent
- Xplor
- ChildcareCRM
- Educa
- Tadpoles
- Parenta and ProCare Solutions
Jumbula; Best Choice in Childcare Management Software
Founded in Silicon Valley in 2013, Jumbula is a market leader in the childcare management space and assists organizations globally in managing their business needs. We provide a cutting-edge platform with a friendly user experience and a complete ecosystem to streamline back-office processes. The ecosystem includes integrated payment processing, enrollment services, invoicing, automated billing, communication tools, marketing promotional services, site design, and SEO services.
Jumbula platform is ideal for institutions of any size that work with children, such as schools, daycare facilities, learning centers, and after-school programs. Furthermore, from within the same platform, you can offer camps, classes, events, and seminars.
Top Features:
- Enrollment Services: Jumbula provides a complete ecosystem to manage enrollments, including registrations, cancellations, transfers, and refunds.
- Reports and insights: We provide a variety of canned reports, such as rosters, attendance, cancellations, capacities, waitlists, and financials. Furthermore, you can define customized reports, pull any data field from the system and export out to Excel.
- Live activity reminders: Set up professional-looking notifications and send alerts to users for tasks, deadlines, appointments, and important events.
- Secure payment processing: Jumbula offers an integrated payment system and handles credit cards, debit cards, and eChecks (ACH). A number of popular payment gateways, such as Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, and Worldline, are supported. We also provide offline payment methods such as cash, check, and scholarships. T
- Discounts, coupons, and waitlist management: You can customize the platform and define how you want to apply the sibling discounts, multi-program discounts, and coupons. Effective waitlist management is important to the success of your business; you can accommodate last-minute cancellations and fill up the classes to their capacity using the waitlists.
If you are uncertain about using this platform you can use the following link to get 14 days of free trial and also 30 min demo.
Brightwheel
Brightwheel is an online management software solution for daycares, preschools, and childcare centers. The software is specially made to simplify the work carried out by directors, managers, and teachers at mid-capacity to high-capacity facilities. Additionally, Brightwheel offers a variety of enrollment and communication tools for parents and guardians.
Top Features:
- Online Calendar: Planned events and activities are listed online and are accessible to both attendees and members.
- Parent/Student Portal: Parents and children can access information online and communicate with teachers through this portal.
- Facility Management: This feature allows the staff to schedule the facilities and manage the related operations.
- Financial Management: Brightwheel provides a number of reports for a breakdown of the business’s finances, sales, and expenses.
EZCare
EZCare is an online childcare software built for today’s childcare professionals that simplifies invoicing, scheduling, and registrations. Online registration, a parent portal with contactless payments, student check-in, and the EZSmiles family engagement app are all included with EZCare.
According to Capterra, EZCare online platform is suitable for childcare services, after-school activities, school districts, religious institutions, Montessori institutions, colleges and universities, healthcare centers, employer-based offices, and eldercare.
Top Features:
- Billing & Invoicing: Create and control financial transactions between parties.
- Calendar Management: Create, control, and distribute several calendars at the same time.
- Communications Management: Maintain a record of all important internal and external communications.
- Member Database: Information about members can be added, stored, and accessed.
- Parent Portal: Access and modification of children’s personal information by parents via an online portal are available.
HiMama
HiMama is childcare management software that helps institutions become paperless. It offers a simple approach to detecting and sharing children’s activities, from entertaining and joyful moments to learning and growth, to involve parents and enhance children’s learning. For directors, the software also includes robust reporting and staff management functions.
According to Capterra, HiMama is suitable for preschools, early learning academies, Montessoris, home daycares, and regional, and national childcare providers.
Top Features:
- Parent Portal: Parents can access and update their children’s personal information online.
- Communication Management: Tracking and monitoring of any pertinent internal and external communications.
- Daily Reports: A list of every activity performed since the previous day is available and can be distributed to all the stakeholders.
- Meal / Nutrition Management: Planning, scheduling, and delivery of meals and snacks.
- Self Check-in/Check-out: This feature controls the checking in and checking out of books.
Regpack
Regpack as one of the best childcare management software enables you to create personalized recurring billing schedules and provide payment options for one-time purchases, all on your website or as part of your product. You can manage and track sales with the help of dynamic payment and product reporting.
Regpack can help businesses that wish to cut costs, get payments fast, and expand enrollment. It also automates the registration and payment processes
Top Features:
- Data Security: This module ensures data security and online privacy.
- Recurring/Subscription Billing: Automation of customers’ payments according to a preset timetable (monthly, quarterly, etc).
- Email Marketing: This feature creates and distributes email campaigns to your subscribers.
iClassPro
Web-based software for managing classes that have been created for school owners and is intended for use in class-based enterprises. The class and camp schedule, enrollment monitoring, communications, accounts receivable, online registration, reporting, and other capabilities are all included in iClassPro.
According to Capterra, businesses that provide recreational classes use iClassPro to simplify everyday tasks, provide online registration, enhance communications, and increase productivity at work.
Top Features:
- Reporting/Analytics: Examination and monitoring of essential metrics.
- Self-Service Portal: Easy gateway that allows people to access the system.
- Online Payments: Online bill-paying platform for customers.
- Calendar Management: Multi-calendar creation, administration, and sharing.
KidKare
You can run your childcare business with KidKare on its mobile-friendly interface. You may simplify the claim procedure while still complying with USDA regulations. KidKare also helps with management tasks and offers an accounting platform.
According to Capterra, KidKare, the childcare management software, is ideal for home daycare sponsors, providers, and institutions. Every system has potential strengths and limitations, but because time is of the greatest priority to us, we simply highlight the most distinctive features of this platform so that you can make an informed decision about your perfect childcare management software platform.
Top Features:
- Calendar Management: Multiple calendars may be made, managed, and shared.
- Member Database: Members’ information may be added, stored, and accessed.
- Registration Management: This module enables you to make a list of participants and register them for an event.
- Self Check-in/Check-out: You can use this feature to organize book check-ins and check-outs.
Famly
Famly is a childcare software that enables school administrators to manage their financial activities, and staff, record observations, and interact with parents. The Famly platform offers straightforward billing and finance, parent communication, effective staffing, and smart administration.
According to Capterra, Famly online system is suitable for directors, managers, workers, and teachers of childcare groups and centers of all sizes, including pre-schools, aftercare clubs, and daycares.
Top Features:
- Member Database
- Daily Reports
- Parent Portal
- Self Check-in/Check-out
Kangarootime
The digital classroom, automated payments and billing, and parent communication tools provided by Kangarootime enable directors to manage their businesses successfully and efficiently.
According to Capterra, this web platform is appropriate for single-site centers, multi-site companies, enterprise franchising models, and corporate delivery models.
Top Features:
- Payment Processing
- Billing & Invoicing
- Meal / Nutrition Management
- Member Database
ProCare Solutions
Procare offers real-time data for making important choices, ensuring compliance with local and state laws, and following industry best practices. According to Capterra, the ProCare online system is appropriate for daycares, childcare services, preschools, after-school activities, enrichment activities, and camps of various shapes and sizes.
Top Features:
- Parent Portal
- Member Database
- Daily Reports
- Employee Management
Playground
Playground is the comprehensive platform childcare providers need to run their programs efficiently.
As one of the best childcare management systems, Playground offers a user-friendly experience designed to handle all daycare operations.
The software manages billing, attendance, registration, communication, paperwork, food services, and reporting, allowing providers to maximize revenue and reduce administrative overhead by automating essential tasks.
Top Features
- Digital Paperwork and Enrollment Seat Forecasting: Playground simplifies administrative tasks with digital paperwork and forecasting tools, helping providers efficiently manage enrollments, cancellations, transfers, and refunds.
- Efficient Staff Scheduling and Time Tracking: Manage staff schedules seamlessly and track staff time effectively. Playground also offers automated reference forms and integrated background checks to streamline hiring.
- Text Blasts and Communication Tools: Enhance communication with parents and staff through text notifications and professional-looking alerts for tasks, deadlines, appointments, and important events.
- State Licensing Paperwork Templates: Playground includes templates for state licensing paperwork, ensuring compliance and reducing the administrative burden on providers.
- Access Control Features: Create a safe and synchronized environment with access control offerings, allowing providers to manage site entry seamlessly through Playground’s attendance system.
- Comprehensive Reporting and Insights: Generate various canned reports, such as rosters, attendance, cancellations, capacities, waitlists, and financials. Customize reports to pull any data field from the system and export it to Excel.
Sawyer
Sawyer is a cloud-based camp and activity management solution to streamline tasks and workflows for children’s after-school class providers, camps, and events.
As one of the best childcare management systems, Sawyer consolidates customer information and essential business tools into one user-friendly platform.
Top Features
- Scheduling and Class Management: Easily manage schedules and classes, ensuring a smooth operation for all your programs.
- Payment Processing: Secure and efficient payment processing that handles various payment methods, simplifying transactions for parents and providers.
- Real-Time Reporting: Generate real-time reports to track registrations, payments, attendance, and other vital metrics.
- Software Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with other software to enhance your operational capabilities.
- Customer Experience: Improve customer satisfaction with a user-friendly interface optimized for mobile use, making it easy for parents to register their children from any device.
- Sawyer Marketplace: Join the Sawyer Marketplace to expand your reach and grow your business by listing your children’s activities, camps, and classes.
Parent
Parent is a comprehensive childcare management solution designed to streamline administrative tasks while keeping parents connected to their children throughout the day.
As one of the best daycare management software options, Parent offers a robust platform that enhances communication and operational efficiency for childcare centers.
Top Features
- Instant Messaging and Daily News: Keep parents informed with instant messaging, daily news updates, and a shared calendar for events and activities.
- Administrative Tools: Reduce paperwork with features like room planning and overview, staff scheduling, daily reports, and an inspirational library.
- Child Progress Tracking: Monitor child development with observations, curriculums, and EYFS tracking to ensure comprehensive progress reports.
- Billing and Invoicing: Manage finances effortlessly with product management, scheduled periodic plans, customizable packages, and subsidies.
- Advanced Analysis and Reporting: For in-depth analysis and reporting, utilize advanced features like surveys, check-in apps, activity documentation, meal planning, and holiday feedback.
Xplor
Xplor is a cloud-based solution designed to help childcare centers manage student enrollments, subsidy management, session bookings, and other administrative processes on a centralized platform.
Recognized as one of the best daycare management software options, Xplor streamlines operations and enhances communication between centers and parents.
Top Features
- Office Module: The highest-rated childcare subsidy software assists with enrollments, digital attendance, and CCS submissions. This module ensures efficient administrative management and compliance.
- Playground Module: Monitor children’s activities, learning, and safety with features like observations, programming and planning, nappy checks, and sleep checks.
- Home Module: This module supports parents with session bookings, photos and videos, and paying statements and provides essential health information about their children, ensuring a transparent and secure environment.
ChildcareCRM
ChildcareCRM is the leading provider of cloud-based CRM software for childcare organizations. Designed to help childcare companies grow, ChildcareCRM captures and manages leads effectively, ensuring smooth movement through the enrollment funnel.
Recognized as one of the best childcare management systems, it optimizes administrative tasks and enhances communication with parents.
Top Features
- Digital Forms (ChildcareFORMS): Digital forms simplify daycare registration and waitlist management, eliminating paperwork and reducing administrative burden. This feature ensures clear communication without the hassle of deciphering handwriting or sending reminders.
- Online Payment Processing (ChildcarePAY): This feature, an add-on to ChildcareFORMS, provides a seamless experience for parents to pay fees online, making the payment process quick and easy.
Educa
Educa is an all-encompassing child portfolio software and educational solution that provides a secure online Learning Story platform.
Designed to assist teachers in early childhood settings, it enables seamless sharing of children’s learning experiences with families across all devices.
As one of the best childcare management systems, it enhances communication and documentation processes within educational environments.
Top Features
- Learning Story Platform: Facilitate authentic assessments by writing in a language that families, children, and teaching peers can easily understand. This feature promotes thoughtful observation and reflection, highlighting each child’s unique learning journey.
- Authentic Collaboration: Enhance each child’s understanding through better-informed teaching decisions and meaningful collaboration with families, creating a supportive learning environment.
- Full Data Cycle Platform: Streamline documentation processes, reducing paperwork and record-keeping tasks. Educa supports a continuous learning cycle, making it easier for care centers to manage and share educational data.
Tadpoles
Tadpoles is a cloud-based solution for childcare centers that streamlines various administrative processes, manages program operations, and stays connected with families.
It enhances efficiency and communication within childcare environments and is one of the best daycare management software options.
Top Features
- Real-Time Updates: The Tadpoles dashboard provides real-time classroom counts, attendance, and family communication updates. This feature ensures that administrators are always informed about daily operations.
- Family Communication: Send daily reports, photos, videos, notes, school closure notifications, and emergency information to families via email or text without relying on third-party services. This direct communication fosters transparency and trust.
- Custom Billing Plans: The administrative dashboard supports creating custom billing plans, sharing invoices with families, reporting on revenue, and simplifying financial management.
- Increased Teacher-Child Interaction: Tadpoles automates attendance tracking, lesson planning, and daily reporting, allowing teachers to spend more time with children and less on administrative tasks.
Parenta
Parenta specializes in childcare and early years education, offering comprehensive software solutions to streamline nursery management.
Recognized as one of the best childcare management systems in the UK, Parenta combines its apprenticeship expertise with innovative nursery software products.
Top Features
- Abacus Nursery Management Software: A robust solution for managing nursery operations efficiently.
- Parent Portal: Enhance parent engagement with easy access to their child’s information and updates.
- Daycare Daily Diary: Streamline communication with parents through daily diaries that track and share each child’s activities.
- Fee Collection: Simplify the financial aspect of nursery management with automated fee collection.
- Footsteps 2 EYFS Tracker: Track early years development and ensure compliance with EYFS standards.
All these products are included in Parenta’s all-in-one, cloud-based Early Years software package, making it an ideal choice for nurseries.
Exploring different childcare management software solutions can help you identify the best fit for your needs. Now, let’s review some of the top options available.
Wrap Up
In the rapidly growing childcare industry, having the best childcare management software is crucial for staying ahead. Efficiently managing daily operations, enhancing communication with parents, and ensuring regulatory compliance are some of the critical challenges that childcare centers face.
This article explores the top daycare management software solutions available in 2024, including Jumbula, Brightwheel, EZCare, HiMama, Regpack, iClassPro, KidKare, Famly, Kangarootime, ProCare Solutions, Playground, Sawyer, Parent, Xplor, ChildcareCRM, Educa, Tadpoles, and Parenta.
These platforms offer a range of features such as online registration, attendance tracking, billing and invoicing, classroom activity tracking, and parent communication portals. Whether you run a small home-based daycare or a sizeable multi-site childcare organization, there’s a software solution tailored to your needs.
Jumbula is a leading option among the best childcare management systems. Founded in Silicon Valley in 2013, Jumbula provides a comprehensive platform with integrated payment processing, enrollment services, invoicing, automated billing, communication tools, marketing promotional services, site design, and SEO services. It is ideal for institutions of any size, including schools, daycare facilities, learning centers, and after-school programs. With Jumbula, you can streamline back-office processes and focus on providing quality care.
To explore Jumbula’s features, sign up for a 14-day free trial and a 30-minute demo. Visit Jumbula’s website to learn how it can transform your childcare operations.
