Compare brightwheel vs Procare Solutions
Brightwheel vs. Procare: An In-Depth Comparison for Your Childcare Business

Choose brightwheel and experience the difference of a platform engineered for unparalleled ease of use, robust security, and dependable performance.

Trusted by millions of educators and families

4.9 Stars 4.9 Stars | 86,000+ Reviews
 
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Get a demo to see why brightwheel is the #1 childcare software

Why programs love brightwheel vs Procare Solutions

Brightwheel is a modern, all-in-one childcare management platform built to meet the demands of today’s early education programs. From its flexible billing capabilities to delivering superior parent experiences, brightwheel consistently outperforms other childcare management tools.

Brightwheel offers an intuitive app, ensures the highest levels of reliability, and fast, quality customer support, allowing your program to thrive.

A user-friendly experience built for today’s child care

Brightwheel boasts a modern, intuitive design that's built for speed and ease of use, ensuring your staff spends less time on administrative tasks and more time engaging with children. 

With brightwheel, you'll experience a seamless workflow that supports your team and simplifies communication for everyone involved.

  • Significant time savings: Designed for simplicity, brightwheel streamlines administrative tasks, saving your staff up to 20 hours each month.
  • Seamless communication and engagement: Easily connect with families and staff through the mobile app and effortlessly share daily activities, photos, videos, and developmental milestones.
  • Simplified billing and payments: Experience user-friendly financial management with automated invoicing, flexible billing plans, and secure online payment options that 91% of administrators report families find easier to use.
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Cally

 Vector-1 Brightwheel has been so easy to roll out. We started with parent communication and ended with billing. It has been a tremendous blessing to our school."

Cally Boyers

Assistant Director at MBCC Journey in Birmingham, AL

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Your complete all-in-one system

Why juggle multiple tools when you can have everything in one place? Brightwheel offers a truly all-in-one platform that seamlessly integrates check-in, billing, communication, and more. This unified approach eliminates complexity and boosts efficiency across your center.

  • Integrated center management: Brightwheel unifies essential functions like check-in/out, billing, and admissions into one streamlined platform, simplifying daily administration for your program.
  • Enhanced family and staff connections: The platform is designed to build deeper, more meaningful connections with both families and staff through streamlined communication and management tools.
  • Centralized curriculum and observations: Manage lesson plans, observations, and curriculum details directly within the platform, offering a holistic view of learning and development.
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Vector-1 We chose brightwheel when we were evaluating different tools because it integrates billing, admissions, and a great visual experience for families. It's awesome that it's an all-in-one system."

Brandyn B

Co-Founder of Magnolia Forest Preschools, Puget Sound, WA

Unwavering reliability and top-tier security

When it comes to managing your childcare program, reliability and security are non-negotiable. Brightwheel delivers with an impressive 99% uptime, ensuring your operations run smoothly without interruption. We are a mobile-first platform with seamless real-time syncing, ensuring access anytime, anywhere.

We also prioritize your peace of mind with the highest level of financial data security and advanced 24/7 fraud monitoring by our dedicated in-house team, protecting your sensitive information. Other childcare management software may have issues with downtime and gaps in encryption and monitoring, which can put your data and your program's operations at risk.

  • Secure payments: Brightwheel leverages industry-leading Stripe for secure, efficient payments, ensuring the highest level of financial compliance (PCI Level 1) and robust security for all transactions. This means your confidential banking information is never stored directly on brightwheel.
  • Robust account security: Your information is protected by two-factor authentication, strict password requirements, and secure cloud-based storage leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS), ensuring enhanced safety for every account.
  • Guaranteed data privacy: Rest assured with end-to-end data encryption and a stringent Privacy Policy that explicitly guarantees your personal information will never be sold to third parties, safeguarding your privacy at all times.
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Allyysa

 Vector-1 Our previous software program would crash, and then parents wouldn’t be able to check in and out. Sometimes parents wouldn’t receive our messages or their messages wouldn’t be delivered. It wasn’t creating the environment that I wanted. Switching to brightwheel has made everything feel more pieced together."

Alyssa Dituro

Executive Director at McNeilly Center for Children, Nashville, TN

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Exceptional support when you need it most

Responsive and reliable support can make all the difference. Brightwheel prides itself on providing fast, friendly support with live chat response times averaging a mere 30 seconds, so you can get immediate answers and solutions.
 
Choose brightwheel for a support team that's genuinely there for you, every step of the way.
 
  • Easy transition from Procare: Our dedicated onboarding team provides personalized training through brightwheel Academy, ensuring a smooth and confident transition for programs switching from Procare.
  • Expert guidance for new programs: New programs benefit from dedicated 1:1 coaching to navigate licensing requirements and essential opening tasks, getting you up and running with confidence.
  • Ongoing support and compliance: Our reliable support team and brightwheel Academy resources continually equip providers with the knowledge to stay compliant with evolving licensing regulations and master all software features over time, maximizing your program's efficiency and potential.
pam

Vector-1 Brightwheel's customer service is phenomenal. I receive quick answers, and I always tell people to write in to Support. They are so informative."

Pam M

Owner and Executive Director in Denver, CO

A comprehensive solution for scaling programs

Brightwheel is designed to power programs of every size, from single-site programs to large, multi-location organizations. For programs looking to grow, brightwheel provides powerful, integrated multi-site management tools for scale. This includes organization-level dashboards and reporting, robust financial management, bulk parent communication, centralized admissions pipeline, enterprise-level security, and customizable user permissions and roles by site.

Customers consistently report brightwheel is faster to onboard, easier for staff to adopt across locations, and more intuitive for daily use. Whether you're managing two locations or ten, brightwheel delivers visibility and consistency without the complexity.

Mandy Headshot

Vector-1 Brightwheel has really helped facilitate our day-to-day life and what we do. I love being able to see it on my phone, so no matter where I go I can simply pick up brightwheel and see what’s going on with each student, family and staff member at all 9 locations."

Mandy D

Chief Operating Officer at Blossom Crew in Chicago, IL

 

brightwheel

Procare

Automatic billing and payments

Brightwheel supports automatic billing and payments

No hidden fees

Brightwheel does not have hidden fees.

Option to pass billing service fees to parents

Brightwheel offers an option to pass billing service fees to parents.

Families can pay quarterly or annually

Brightwheel offers options for families to pay quarterly or annually.

Combine agency payments and family payments on a single invoice

Brightwheel offers an option to combine agency payments and family payments on a single invoice.

Digital signatures on year-end tax statements

Brightwheel supports digital signatures on year-end tax statements.

Send pictures in messages

Staff scheduling

Administrators and managers are able to manage staff schedules brightwheel.

Overtime and double overtime calculations

Brightwheel supports overtime and double overtime calculations.

Curriculum with hands-on materials

Brightwheel offers curriculum with hands-on materials.

Curriculum with Spanish teacher guides

Brightwheel offers curriculum with Spanish teacher guides.

Family communication

Brightwheel supports family communication.

Mark messages read and unread

Messages can be marked read and unread in brightwheel.

Spanish language available in app and Help Center 

BrSpanish language is available in brightwheel app and Help Center.

Admissions process and waitlist

Brightwheel supports admissions process and waitlist.

Lesson plans

Brightwheel offers lesson plans.

Check-in 

Brightwheel supports check-in.

Custom reports

Brightwheel offers custom reports.

99% uptime and 24/7 monitoring

Brightwheel is committed to platform reliability.

1:1 specialized onboarding coach for new programs

Brightwheel offers 1:1 specialized onboarding coaching for new programs.

Real time syncing across devices

Brightwheel supports real time syncing across devices.

 

Seamlessly switch to brightwheel from Procare Solutions

Easy onboarding trainings
Get access to guided training through brightwheel Academy, a comprehensive learning tool to help you, your staff, and families master using brightwheel.

Speedy support team 
Brightwheel has the industry’s largest support team and will ensure that you get quick answers through live chat whenever you need them. Brightwheel's support team plays a pivotal role in enabling new users to maximize every feature of the software.

Roster and rate card upload tool
Switching to brightwheel is easy when you upload your student rosters and rate cards. The brightwheel team will import your student roster and tuition rates into your brightwheel account so you have all of the information you need for a quick, seamless set-up.

One simple, transparent price
You won’t pay more as you use more features on brightwheel. Your price is based on enrollment capacity and you get access to all features on the platform.

Crystal

Vector-1 We love brightwheel. After using Procare, this is 10 times better."

Crystal

Area Director at DaVinci Academy in Belvidere, IL

What educators are saying

FAQs: Brightwheel vs. Procare

Where can I find more information about brightwheel pricing?

Brightwheel offers transparent, all-inclusive pricing plans that scale with your program, often proving more cost-effective as you grow, with no hidden fees for essential features. While Procare advertises a flat monthly fee, it can often involve additional costs. Brightwheel's straightforward pricing is predictable and a value-driven choice for many programs. Request pricing information and see how brighwheel all in one pricing benefits your program.

What are the main differences in parent communication between brightwheel and Procare?

Brightwheel excels in modern, real-time parent engagement, offering a visually rich experience with seamless photo/video sharing, live activity updates, and integrated messaging—all designed for ultimate parent convenience. Brightwheel prioritizes making daily updates and milestones effortless and enjoyable for parents.

Does brightwheel offer all the same features that Procare does?

Brightwheel offers a comprehensive suite of features that often surpasses Procare in user-friendliness and modern design.

Brightwheel is designed as a modern, all-in-one platform that prioritizes ease of use, intuitive design, and seamless integration across features (like check-in, billing, communication, and curriculum tools). We focus on saving staff up to 20 hours per month through automation and a fluid mobile experience.

Brightwheel often stands out for its superior mobile app experience, more flexible billing options, robust PCI Level 1 compliant payment processing via Stripe, and a strong emphasis on real-time family engagement through rich media sharing.

We recommend exploring our detailed feature comparison chart above to see how brightwheel specifically meets your needs.

How does brightwheel's Experience Curriculum differ from Procare's curriculum offerings?

Brightwheel proudly offers Experience Curriculum, which stands out for its unique blend of digital lesson plans accessible directly within your brightwheel app and a monthly delivery of hands-on learning materials. This research-based curriculum, aligned with all 50 states' early learning standards and national frameworks like NAEYC, supports educators with ready-to-implement activities for infants to preschoolers.

Experience Curriculum's tangible, mailed curriculum kits provide invaluable sensory and hands-on learning experiences that many programs prefer, directly complementing the digital tools for a truly enriched educational environment. This integrated, multi-sensory approach ensures that not only are lessons easy to plan, but they are also deeply engaging for children and highly convenient for educators.

Why should I choose brightwheel's billing system over Procare's?

Brightwheel's billing system offers a distinctly superior experience. It’s included in your subscription at no extra cost, doesn’t have any hidden service fees, and features highly-customizable plans that adapt to your unique program needs.

We prioritize unmatched security, leveraging industry-leading Stripe for PCI Level 1 compliant payments and robust fraud monitoring, ensuring every transaction is secure without storing sensitive banking information. This combines with a user-friendly experience for families who appreciate easy online payment options and automated billing, significantly reducing late payments and administrative overhead compared to less modern, module-based systems.

How can a multi-location center with an after school program use brightwheel?

Brightwheel provides robust tools to streamline even the most complex childcare operations, making it an ideal choice for multi-location centers and after-school programs. It offers integrated multi-site management tools that allow administrators to oversee all sites from a single account, easily switching between locations to manage staff, view real-time data, and ensure consistency across their entire organization, all accessible from both web and mobile devices.

The user-friendly platform provides the flexibility to create and manage distinct programs, including dedicated setups for after-school care. This allows for customized billing plans tailored to specific program needs, efficient attendance tracking, and targeted communication to relevant families and staff.

With customizable user permissions and roles, directors can define specific access levels for staff across different locations or programs, ensuring data security and operational control. This means that each unique program, regardless of its location or focus, can operate smoothly and efficiently.

By automating administrative tasks like billing, attendance tracking, and enrollment across all your locations and after-school programs, brightwheel not only reduces manual effort but also offers a unified, real-time overview of your entire business. This comprehensive approach streamlines daily operations, facilitates consistent communication, and provides valuable insights to support the efficient management and growth of your multi-site childcare business.

How easy is it to switch from Procare to brightwheel?

Switching from Procare to brightwheel is designed to be remarkably easy and stress-free. Our dedicated onboarding team, supported by comprehensive resources in brightwheel Academy, provides personalized training and hands-on support onboarding every step of the way.

We focus on a smooth transition, helping you import necessary data and ensuring your team is fully confident in using all brightwheel features from day one, so your program experiences minimal disruption and quickly reaps the benefits of a more modern platform.

Easy to use & save time

Save 20 hours per month of administrative work.

Quality connections

2 out of 3 teachers prefer to work at a program that uses brightwheel.

Manage with confidence

97% of staff report brightwheel is easy to use.

#1 childcare software

Ranked as leading childcare center software based on external reviews.

Apple App Store

star star star star star (31,000+)

Google Play Store

star star star star star (6,000+)

Capterra

star star star star star (3,000+)

See why millions of educators and families love brightwheel