Brightwheel, Procare, HiMama/Lillio, and Kangarootime all hide pricing behind a contact form. Here is why we post ours — and what that tells you about how we work with centers.
Trying to research daycare software pricing is a frustrating exercise. You find a platform that looks right, check the features, look for the price — and hit a wall: 'Contact sales.' Or 'Request a demo.' Or our personal favorite, 'Get a customized quote.' You run a business. You have a budget. You should know whether the software fits before you give someone your calendar.
The pattern
There are a few reasons this happens consistently across the category — none of them good for the buyer.
A 50-child center and a 150-child center have different negotiating leverage. Without a posted rate, the sales team adjusts to what they think each buyer will pay. You never know if the director down the street got a better number.
Once a salesperson has your contact information and a calendar invite, the dynamic shifts. The demo is free. The follow-up is not neutral. What started as research has become a sales process you did not choose to enter.
When pricing is a conversation, it is easier to bundle and unbundle features mid-call. The 'base' platform sounds affordable until you name the features your center actually needs. The real number comes later.
What we do instead
Transparent daycare software pricing means posting a real number on a public page — not a form.
DayLynx
Published at /pricing. Every feature included. A 25-child center pays $240/month. Model your exact bill before you talk to anyone.
Brightwheel, Procare, HiMama/Lillio, Kangarootime
Brightwheel, Procare, HiMama/Lillio, and Kangarootime all direct interested centers to request a quote or schedule a demo. There is no number on the page.
DayLynx does not do any of that. We publish our pricing directly on our website: $100 per month includes your first five children and every feature on the platform. Each additional child is $7 per month. That is the number for a 10-child center, a 25-child center, and a 100-child center. No tiers. No premium modules. No negotiation.
We post it because directors should be able to evaluate software the same way they evaluate any other vendor — by knowing the cost before committing to a conversation. A center with 30 children can model their monthly bill in 30 seconds. Compare it against what they pay today. Decide whether a free trial is worth an hour of their time. That is the decision we want you to make — on your terms, not ours.
Here is what you will not find on our pricing page: a contact form where the number should be. No 'starting at' language that obscures the real total. No asterisks routing you to a terms document to find the exception. No enterprise tier quoted at whatever number the sales team estimates your budget can absorb.
Most childcare software companies are not bad actors. They built their go-to-market around a sales-led model that worked when daycare software was sold in person, one center at a time. The friction is a byproduct of how their business was designed. But it does not serve you — a director trying to run an efficient center, with a real budget and a deadline for a decision.
We think it can be better. One price. Every feature. Posted on a public page. If you are shopping for daycare software and want to see what that looks like, it is one click away.