brightwheel: Childcare App

4.7
10.7K reviews
1M+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
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About this app

Brightwheel is an all-in-one childcare management software that saves time and simplifies operations for early education providers.

From billing and parent communication to curriculum and admissions, it combines everything you need in one easy-to-use platform.

Trusted by millions of educators and families and backed by a dedicated support team, brightwheel strengthens family connections and ensures seamless operations with reliable performance and robust security.

With brightwheel, you’ll spend less time on admin, more time with children.

Features include:
• All-in-one platform: Brightwheel combines billing, attendance, family communication, lesson planning, and reporting in one easy-to-use platform.
• User-friendly design: An intuitive interface that is quick to set up and easy for staff and families to use.
• Fast, quality support: An industry-leading, dedicated support team at your fingertips with 24/7 access to chatbot, tutorials, webinars, and community.
• Secure and reliable: Advanced security features like two-factor authentication and compliance with the highest data protection standards. With 99% uptime, the app is available virtually all the time.
• Billing and finances: Automated billing and payments for tuition and fees, customizable billing reports, and expense tracking.
• Family communication: Connect with families in real-time and centralize messaging, newsletters, and alerts.
• Photo and video sharing: Snap photos, record videos, and tag students with one click.
• Daily reports: Log naps, meals, bathroom, and other activities. Families get a personalized feed and daily summary.
• Calendar: Share events, holidays, and important dates with both families and staff.
• Lesson plans: Add, customize, and share your lesson plans with teachers. Upgrade to Experience Curriculum to enhance program quality with digital lessons and hands-on learning materials.
• Assessment and observations: Make note of progress, achievements, and activities with pre-loaded state standards and a DRDP tool. Share with families or privately amongst teachers.
• Admissions and enrollment: Build custom admission packets, manage your waitlist, and make it easy for prospective families to apply online.
• Attendance: Easily track student and staff attendance via quick scan or a code. Stay in compliance with room ratio and capacity tools.
• Reporting: Detailed reports of every brightwheel feature for billing and licensing requirements.
• Real-time syncing: Brightwheel stays up to date across all devices, including web and mobile.
• Affordable: Both free and premium plans available to fit your needs.

And... much more coming! Brightwheel is the #1 rated childcare management software, leading the industry through continuous innovation, frequent enhancements, and new features driven by valuable customer feedback.
Updated on
Mar 10, 2026

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
This app may share these data types with third parties
Personal info, Photos and videos and 3 others
This app may collect these data types
Personal info, Financial info and 7 others
Data is encrypted in transit
You can request that data be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.7
10.4K reviews
Bret Wood
June 26, 2025
I wish there was a way to rotate photos or add and upload photos from my computer to newsletter modules. The video feature often does not work in the app. When I go to send the video it will just send a message that media cannot be found. This app needs to be rebooted often in order for my class roster to show up. You cannot capture multiple moments at once. This is a one picture at a time and send to families kind of app. I have used other apps and this one is on the bottom of my list.
9 people found this review helpful
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brightwheel
July 1, 2025
Hi Bret! Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We sincerely apologize for any trouble or inconvenience you've experienced. We'd love to address each issue you've raised and help troubleshoot this with you. Please email us directly at [email protected] so we can investigate further!
Tiffany Stubblefield
March 11, 2026
I'm fine with this app as a parent, and it's mostly just fine as an infant teacher as well, except for the way meals are put in. The time it takes to search through our varied menu, to simply input the sort of bottles a child has. It would be much more useful to have a bottle only list of options as opposed to searching through the sea of various other foods our center offers. Additionally, it would be really if parents could input drop-off notes, (last bottle, diaper, etc)
1 person found this review helpful
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brightwheel
March 12, 2026
Hi Tiffany! Thank you for your feedback on the brightwheel app. If your school uses menus, you can use the Quick Add feature to log meal items without searching each time. We also offer drop-off forms so parents can share important info at drop-off. Please contact our support team if you’d like help exploring these options in more detail!
Tea Floyd
March 20, 2026
The constant updates that change the layout are useless and often the changes are ugly. There isn't a way to delete scheduled posts. The way to log bottles often adds an extra 0 to the number of ounces for some reason. There are too many features that require the desktop version, making the app useless as a lead most of the time.
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What’s new

Performance and stability improvements.