Childcare Software Pricing Compared (2026)

Search “childcare software pricing” and you’ll notice the same thing after the second or third result: almost nobody tells you a number. That’s not an accident of bad web design — it’s a category-wide sales model, and it changes how you should shop. This guide compares what five widely used platforms — Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio (formerly HiMama), Kangarootime, and Famly — actually cost, where a real price exists versus where “pricing” means “request a demo,” and what reviewers who’ve already signed a contract say about costs that showed up after the fact.

This is a narrower cut than a full feature comparison: it’s about the money specifically — published numbers versus quote-only gates, per-child math versus per-organization math, and the contract and compliance risks that a sticker price doesn’t show. For the broader feature-by-feature picture across a wider vendor set, see our nine-platform childcare software comparison; for a ranking built specifically around self-serve signup, see Best SaaS Childcare Software, which covers two additional vendors with genuine per-child pricing that aren’t repeated here.

What childcare software pricing actually means

Before comparing numbers, it helps to know what you’re actually being shown — because in childcare software, “pricing” can mean four different things depending on the vendor:

• A real, published number. You can see a monthly or annual figure on the vendor’s own site, no account required.
• A quote gate. “Pricing” redirects to a lead form — role, center size, number of locations, contact details — and a number only arrives after a sales call.
• A per-child rate versus a per-organization rate. Some platforms price by how many children are enrolled; others price by center or by staff seat. The two aren’t directly comparable, and a vendor rarely volunteers which model it uses until you ask.
• The subscription price versus the total bill. A published number is only part of the cost if the platform also bills tuition and takes a cut of every parent payment — a fee structure that doesn’t show up on a pricing page at all.

None of that is disclosed the same way twice, which is exactly why “childcare software pricing” is a harder search than it should be.

The five platforms, what they actually charge, and what that hides

BeeNet — the only platform here with a fully published number, and an honest reason why

BeeNet publishes its complete pricing on its pricing page: free for up to 25 members, then Starter at €49/month (200 members), Professional at €149/month (500 members), and Enterprise at €299/month (unlimited members), with a 30-day trial on every paid plan. There’s no lead form standing between a visitor and a number, and no sales call required to find out what it costs.

The reason that’s simple to state: BeeNet’s price is for the organization’s software subscription, not for collecting money from parents. BeeNet does not currently invoice families, process tuition payments, or take a percentage of anything a parent pays — that capability is Coming Soon. If your center needs a single subscription that both runs daily operations and collects tuition, BeeNet is not that tool today; you’d be pricing a separate billing product alongside it. What the subscription does cover for a daycare specifically: live staff-to-child ratio monitoring with country-specific compliance profiles for France, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the wider GCC; developmental milestone tracking across five domains aligned to France’s maternelle framework, EYFS, EYLF, and NAEYC; daily health screening at drop-off with a send-home-sick workflow; a Daily Recap staff post for meals, naps, and mood; document distribution with e-signature for enrollment paperwork; and a native French and Arabic interface with full right-to-left support, hosted on EU, GDPR-native infrastructure — plus the option to run a school, sports club, or community center under the same subscription rather than paying for a fifth piece of software.

Best for: organizations that want to see the actual price of the software before talking to anyone, and are comfortable pricing tuition collection separately.

Brightwheel — highest-rated app in the category, and completely quote-gated pricing

Brightwheel’s pricing page is a seven-step lead form — role, interest level, maximum enrollment, number of locations, center status, and contact details — with no plan names and no dollar figure anywhere on it. Capterra’s own “Starting Price” field for Brightwheel confirms the same thing from the outside: “Contact vendor for pricing,” with no free trial and no free version listed.

What that opacity costs in practice shows up in the reviews, not the pricing page. One Capterra reviewer, an Assistant Director, described losing functionality without warning partway through a paid term: “Disliked that months before our contract ended, we started losing access to features on our account.” That’s a real pricing-adjacent risk that a published number wouldn’t fix on its own — it’s about what a signed contract actually guarantees, not just what it costs. On the product itself, Brightwheel earns a genuinely strong 4.93★ across 145,222 Apple App Store ratings and 4.7★ across 3,257 Capterra reviews, with praise for instant parent messaging and incident tracking; the more common complaints are frequent technical glitches (cited in roughly 75% of negative Capterra mentions) and notification overload, not the price itself.

Best for: larger, multi-location centers that are comfortable running pricing through a sales conversation and value Brightwheel’s high review volume and billing/curriculum bundle over knowing the price upfront.

Procare — real compliance certifications, but zero GDPR language, and a direct “more expensive” complaint

Procare’s pricing page is also a “Request Pricing” form; Capterra lists the same “Contact vendor for pricing,” with no free trial or free version. What makes Procare’s case interesting isn’t the gate itself — every quote-only vendor here has that — it’s a rare, direct cost comparison from a Capterra reviewer in Education Management: “It is more expensive than competitors, but our staff really likes it’s ease of use.” That’s the kind of data point a quote-only pricing model makes almost impossible to verify before you’re already in a sales conversation.

On compliance, Procare is genuinely stronger than most of this list in one specific way — it holds SOC 2 Type II and PCI Level 1 certification, real and independently audited credentials that matter if the platform is also processing tuition payments. But its published materials say nothing about GDPR, EU data residency, or international transfers, so that certification doesn’t extend to European data-protection posture. Capterra rates the product 4.6★ across 2,809 reviews, with the same category-wide complaint pattern as Brightwheel — frequent technical glitches and, per one reviewer, “I get a dot that shows I have a message when I don’t.”

Best for: US-based, multi-organization-type operators (Procare’s reach extends to Head Start grantees and school districts via its ChildPlus line) who value payment-security certifications and are not weighing GDPR as a factor.

Lillio (formerly HiMama) — quote-only pricing, and a rebrand that still confuses buyers three years later

Lillio’s Capterra “Starting Price” field also reads “Contact vendor for pricing,” though unlike Brightwheel and Procare, Capterra flags a free trial as available. One pricing-relevant fact worth knowing before you even get to a number: HiMama rebranded to Lillio in November 2023, and the rebrand is still visibly incomplete in third-party listings — the Capterra URL still reads HiMama-Preschool-Child-Care-App, and the App Store developer name still lists “Hi Mama Inc.” That matters for a pricing search specifically, because a prospect who finds an old “HiMama pricing” result and a new “Lillio pricing” result has no easy way to confirm they’re the same vendor and the same number.

Lillio’s App Store rating is 4.88★ across 37,289 ratings, and Capterra rates it 4.6★ across 3,623 reviews — the largest review volume of the five. Cost-adjacent complaints center on plan-gated features rather than the subscription price itself: one reviewer wrote, “I can not change my timezone, and a lot of the features I can not change without upgrading.” No GDPR or EU-hosting statement was found on the pages checked, and French-language support is unconfirmed either way — worth confirming directly if that matters for your center rather than assuming it either way.

Best for: centers that want a free trial before committing and don’t need a confirmed international compliance posture.

Kangarootime — no pricing page at all, the thinnest privacy policy of the five, and the lowest app rating

Kangarootime doesn’t have a dedicated pricing page — its root domain redirects straight to a “Schedule a Call” call-to-action. Capterra lists “Contact vendor for pricing” but does flag a free trial as available. What stands out for a pricing-focused comparison isn’t the number, though — it’s what the absence of transparency correlates with here. Kangarootime’s privacy policy reads as a generic template: it covers comments, cookies, and embedded content in boilerplate language, states only that data “is never shared with third parties,” and never mentions GDPR, CCPA, or international data transfers anywhere in the document. For an operator weighing whether a platform’s compliance posture might mean extra cost later — a data-protection retrofit, a lost contract with an EU-adjacent client — that’s a genuine, citable gap, not a stylistic quibble.

The product side backs up the “still working through it” read: Kangarootime’s KT Connect app rates 3.69★ across 211 ratings — by far the lowest of the five (every other app here is 4.5+) and the smallest sample. Reviews describe a rocky app migration: missing features the prior version had (“mobile check-in, activity logging, daily summaries… a web version, and teacher messaging”), and one reviewer reported the new app created duplicate bank accounts with no way to disable autopay on the duplicate — a direct billing-risk complaint, not a minor UI gripe. Its Capterra score is a solid 4.5★ across 91 reviews, with customer service rated highest in the category (4.8) — support quality doesn’t track with the app-side problems.

Best for: smaller centers evaluating on customer-support quality who are not weighing GDPR exposure and can tolerate app-side rough edges during signup.

Famly — the only platform with real published prices, but only for one region

Famly is the exception on this list: its pricing page shows actual numbers for the UK and Ireland — Foundation at £79/month, Premium at £159/month, and Professional at £209/month, all ex-VAT, plus a Custom enterprise tier for 10+ sites. Pricing is per nursery or setting, not per child, and there’s a 2-week free trial with no permanent free tier. That’s genuinely more transparent than the quote-only default everywhere else on this list — but it comes with a real caveat: Famly maintains separate pricing pages for the US, Germany, and Denmark, which strongly implies the UK numbers above don’t simply carry over to other markets. A US or Gulf-region reader searching “childcare software pricing” and landing on Famly’s UK figures should confirm their own region’s rate before treating those numbers as the answer.

Famly is also Denmark-headquartered, making it structurally the only EU-native company on this list — a real advantage on data residency. It’s also the one vendor here with a disclosed 2025 security incident worth stating accurately: in September 2025, attackers gained account-level access at a UK nursery group running on Famly’s platform — not, per Famly’s own published account, a breach of Famly’s own infrastructure — attempted extortion, failed, and were later arrested. Famly’s response (published October 2025) included platform-wide MFA and SSO enforcement options and improved account-recovery flows, on top of existing Cyber Essentials Plus certification and independent penetration testing. It’s the single most significant compliance-relevant news item found across all five vendors here, and it belongs in a pricing conversation because a security incident — even a well-handled one — is a real cost that a monthly subscription figure never shows. Cost-adjacent product complaints include video upload gated behind a premium package (flagged by a German reviewer) and inconsistent download permissions between the news feed and direct messages.

Best for: UK/Ireland nurseries that want a genuinely published number and are comfortable with per-setting rather than per-child pricing.

Feature and pricing comparison

	BeeNet	Brightwheel	Procare	Lillio	Kangarootime	Famly
Published, self-serve pricing	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	⚠️ UK/Ireland only
Free tier	✅ (25 members)	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Free trial	✅ 30 days	❌ not listed	❌ not listed	✅	✅	✅ 2 weeks
Pricing basis	Per organization	Undisclosed	Undisclosed	Undisclosed	Undisclosed	Per nursery/setting
Collects tuition/payments	❌ Coming Soon	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
GDPR / EU data residency	✅ EU-native	❌ (SCCs, non-EU hosting)	❌ not stated	❌ not found	❌ not found	✅ Denmark HQ
Independently audited compliance cert	—	—	✅ SOC 2 Type II, PCI L1	—	—	✅ Cyber Essentials Plus
Native French / Arabic UI	✅	❌	❌	⚠️ unconfirmed	❌	❌
Multi-org (daycare + school + club)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌

Which pricing model is right for you?

If tuition billing has to live inside the same subscription, BeeNet isn’t the right fit today — Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, Kangarootime, and Famly all handle that natively, and any one of them is a more direct answer to “I need one tool that bills parents and runs the classroom.”

If you want a real, published number before you’ll even take a sales call, your honest choices on this specific list are BeeNet (organization subscription, no tuition billing) or Famly, and only if you’re in the UK or Ireland. Everywhere else, Famly’s own site suggests the number is different — confirm it directly rather than assuming the UK figures apply.

If GDPR and EU data residency are a hard requirement — a common one for European operators — BeeNet and Famly are the two platforms here with a stated EU-native compliance posture; the other three either state non-EU hosting outright (Brightwheel) or simply don’t address it (Procare, Kangarootime, Lillio).

If you’re choosing on payment-security credentials specifically because the platform will be moving real money, Procare’s SOC 2 Type II and PCI Level 1 certifications are the most concretely verifiable of the group, and Famly’s Cyber Essentials Plus certification plus its public, detailed response to a real 2025 incident is the closest thing here to a track record under pressure.

If your center runs a daycare alongside a school, sports program, or community center, BeeNet is the only platform on this list priced as one subscription across all of them rather than requiring a separate tool per program type.

Frequently asked questions

How much does childcare software cost per month?

It depends entirely on which vendor, and most won’t say until you talk to sales. Of the five compared here, only Famly publishes real numbers, and only for the UK and Ireland: £79–£209/month ex-VAT depending on tier, priced per nursery rather than per child. BeeNet publishes organization-subscription pricing from €0 to €299/month, but that price is for the software, not for collecting tuition. Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, and Kangarootime are all quote-only — Capterra’s own “Starting Price” field lists “Contact vendor for pricing” for all four.

Why won’t Brightwheel, Procare, and Kangarootime publish their pricing?

None of the vendors state a reason publicly, but the pattern across all three (plus Lillio) is consistent with pricing that varies by enrollment size, number of locations, and add-on modules — a structure that’s harder to display as a single number and easier to negotiate one-on-one through a sales call.

Is any childcare software actually free?

BeeNet has a genuine, permanent free tier for up to 25 members — no time limit. Kangarootime, Lillio, and Famly offer free trials (time-boxed, not permanent); Brightwheel and Procare list no free trial or free version at all on Capterra.

Does BeeNet’s pricing include collecting tuition from parents?

No. BeeNet’s published tiers cover the organization’s software subscription — messaging, ratio monitoring, health screening, daily recap, and more — but BeeNet does not currently invoice families or process tuition payments. That’s Coming Soon. Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, Kangarootime, and Famly all include tuition billing in their core product.

Is Famly’s published pricing available outside the UK?

Not confirmed. Famly’s pricing page publishes real numbers for the UK and Ireland, but the company also maintains separate pricing pages for the US, Germany, and Denmark — which strongly suggests different rates in those markets. Confirm your own region’s number directly rather than assuming the UK figures apply.

What hidden costs should I ask about before signing a childcare software contract?

Beyond the headline number: whether payment processing on tuition collection carries its own percentage fee, whether features can be removed or gated mid-contract (a real complaint from a Brightwheel reviewer), what a data-protection incident response looks like if the vendor doesn’t state a GDPR posture, and whether the quoted price is per child, per location, or per organization — the three aren’t interchangeable and a quote that looks competitive at one center size can look very different at another.

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For a school, sports club, community center, or daycare that wants to see its own software cost before a single phone call — and is comfortable pricing tuition collection as a separate decision — BeeNet’s pricing page publishes every tier in full. Book a demo to see whether the fit is right, or explore BeeNet for daycares in more depth first.