# brightwheel Reviews **Vendor:** Brightwheel **Category:** [Child Care Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/child-care) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 130 ## About brightwheel Accelerate your child care business with brightwheel - the #1 platform for early education. Brightwheel is a management software solution for childcares, daycares, and preschools specifically designed to streamline tasks tackled by directors/administrators and teachers at mid- to high-capacity centers. In addition to saving hours per week of effort for each staff member, 100% of parents are more satisfied with their school experience once brightwheel is implemented. ## brightwheel Reviews ### 1. Real-Time Updates and Easy Payments—A Total Game-Changer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lexie P. | Customer Service Specialist, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love seeing my kids photos on one app for both kids. I love that the teachers are able to leave me messages and notifications and updates at any time and easy to message the teachers on my end as well **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Nothing much I like pretty much everything about the app **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Able to know what’s going on with my child and what all is needed for my child as well as important updates at the center ### 2. Streamlined Parent-Teacher Communication, Needs CRM Enhancement **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica G. | Business Director, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 07, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I used Brightwheel as our Parent / Teacher communication app. It was very easy for the parents to use and the teachers to communicate with the parents on. I liked that it was clean cut, and everything in the system was organized really well. The initial setup of Brightwheel was pretty simple. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The enrollment section; a full CRM would be great. Also, billing implementing dual household billing would be amazing. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel makes it easy for parents and teachers to communicate, and the system is organized well. ### 3. Great Program Management from Start to Finish **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 10, 2025 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Ease of use, it's really self explanatory and the activity options make it easy to update all day long. The messaging and billing features are great for program management as well. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I try to submit requests for features any time I find something that could be better. It would be great to have a way to message all staff without the rooms (not all staff are in all rooms). Sometimes the system is slow to update, it takes a minute for messages or activities to post and doesn't refresh automatically. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use brightwheel to run our entire program. It keeps everything in one place and makes it convinient for staff and families. We don't have to worry about 17 different systems, we just have a couple! ### 4. Easy to Use, Seamless Multi-System Integration, and Responsive Support **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rachelle P. | Registrar/Finance Clerk, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 02, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It’s easy to use, with the ability to integrate multiple systems. Customer support specialists are readily available when needed. It’s also easy to update and implement, and I’m able to log in daily to complete my tasks. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I’m unable to transfer data from other systems. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to enter staff, student, and family data. ### 5. Makes attendance count a breeze! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marena M. | Substitute Teacher, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 17, 2025 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I enjoy the easy use of check in and check outs. The app is easy to use and helps our business keep count of our attendance! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The scheduling page doesn't allow employees to view notes written by employers. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Attendance and communication between staff and families. ### 6. A Fabulous Platform with Some Room To Grow **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adam P. | Site manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 08, 2023 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel is a feature filled and very user friendly platform designed to make managing a pre-school, daycare center, or other childcare/education space easy and smooth. I personally like that the room management, timesheets for staff, billing for clients, and more are all in one specific platform (which helps with managing fewer logins). The billing system specifically is quite good and offers a lot of frequency and customization options. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Brightwheel has a few limitations to be aware of. Specifically, emails sent to clients will be brightwheel branded and not from your company. Additionally, the Calendar function is almost useless except for scheduling holidays off that your center will be closed. I have requested the ability to make more customized calendar options but that hasn't surfaced yet. Overall a great product with some limitations. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel has allowed us to manage our enrollment process, classroom management, communication, and billing all in one platform. This has been a huge improvement over using 4 different site and platforms to manage the process. ### 7. Brightwheel doesn't believe in subtotals or refunds **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dan M. | Head of Content, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 09, 2023 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** They make a lot of money. They're currently valued at 600 million dollars and that was as of two years ago, so they've likely grown in valuation since then. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** For parents using to pay for schooling, Brightwheel offers no phone support.. even parents they may be paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars to Brightwheel a year. The auto-ay billing system hides warnings of fees behind hover-over states and will only give an estimate as to what fees they will charge. There is no subtotal before checkout when setting up auto-pay, nor a bill before auto-pay is initiated, so they can take unexpectedly large chunks of money from you without your knowledge. Their customer support team for billing, led by Brett Arnold, likes to blame-shift any ask for refunds onto the "program", ie your preschool. They say any sort of credit or refund is against their policy. A business with zero refunds is a bad business. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** They are trying to make payment easier but it has only caused payment to be harder. ### 8. Parent user, I love it **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 23, 2022 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I use brightwheel every single day. I love the notifications that I get and that they give a preview of what information I'm being shared. This way I know whether it's an emergency, a meal or just nap information. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Sometimes there are delays in notifications. This is something my daycare mentions. There's about a 2-3 minute lag, which feels quite long when you're talking about your child. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel keeps me informed on my child's day to day activities, and the curriculum for the entire school. ### 9. Put parents/guardians at ease while their children are at school. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marissa C. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 01, 2022 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love the fact that you can directly message parents back and forth along with seeing uploaded pictures now when they are posted so that it is in real time for parents to view. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I don't like that sometimes; when I post a video it caps the time allowed for each video. Also, I wouldn't say I like that I cannot see who is actually "liking" the picture/video so I can make sure that they are directly related to the child and not just some random viewer. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel is sometimes very slow when it comes to downloading videos, which takes up teachers time and teachers are to be looking at the children and not consumed with the application. ### 10. Instant Communication to parents **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Al A. | Administrator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel allows us to be in constant and immediate communication with the parents. It gives our teachers a tool that allows them to share a child's progress, immediately notify parents, share videos and anecdotes, and it provides the school with a comprehensive view of its population. It saves a ton of paper and makes our parents more secure knowing that their child is an app away. Great tool for my preschool. It also allows new parents to feel more comfortable knowing they have a link to the child's room. Alos allows teacher to assess the students and note milestones **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Parents sometimes have difficulty if they change their email address or phone number. If a parent has children on different billing plans, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the statements they receive. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** You have nothing to lose .. Give it a shot and see how it either compares to what you use of makes life easier if you are not using anything **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Immediate communication. This has allowed us to close the gaps with our ability to alert the parent immediately and it also gives the parents a way to send messages when the child will be late or if emergencies arise. Allows parents to check in, which eliminates paper clutter. Immediate delivery of assessment results ... keeping parents apprised of benchmarks and learning deficits ### 11. Beneficial for a Teacher **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dayna W. | Lead Preschool Teacher, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2022 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that you can record keep easily, and communicate daily with families. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There is no spell check, it's not easy to to transfer students into a different classroom. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Less paperwork. Easier communication with families. Record keeping all in one place. ### 12. Fantastic app for schools to use with parents **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Online Media | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 01, 2022 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It's an easy to use app for parents whether technical or not. They support photo and video based media posts to help us follow what our son is doing at school each day. It allows us to download those images / videos too. The messaging stream helps us communicate privately with his teachers and admins while they can push 1-1 messages or group messages to us without creating a group chat with other parents. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I'd like to upload images myself to share in messaging section to his teachers. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It keeps me well informed and engaged with my son's school. Saves me time and stress. ### 13. Brightwheel gets the job done **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2022 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The intuitive nature of the app is helpful; I downloaded it to my child's preschool and figured out how to use it immediately **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Nothing at this point; I've yet to have an issue with the app **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** None **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication with my child's preschool teachets ### 14. Poor UX/UI experience. Very rudimentary app **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 23, 2021 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Get pictures of my child and the notifications **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** This app has a terrible user experience. I have to use it for two daycares, and moving from one account to the other is not a straightforward process. It is also not accurate as I have received information about my child's daily activities when my child has not been at school. At the minimum, Brightwheel should sync the attendance with the automated push-up notifications. Otherwise, it just adds to the loss of credibility of the school. The payment reminders are also confusing and innacurate because it is not set up to avoid duplication. It is better than nothing, but today we have abundant technology available for apps to be better so it is a shame that this is what we have to use to coordinate with the school **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a parent, but I am also a tech entrepreneur. It could be so much better, as it is just a step above zero. ### 15. Love Brightwheel! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel is great! Not only has Brightwheel made our attendance tracking so much easier, but using it as a communication tool with families has been such a blessing! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There are still things we'd like to see in Brightwheel (different reports, etc.) but they are adding to the platform every day! **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** . ### 16. Brightwheel is Amazing **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 24, 2020 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It allows for instant communication with parents, as well as photos, incident reports, attendance and so much. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** the app features and the desktop features don't seem to match...it's harder to do somethings on the desktop than the app when it would be nice if they worked the same **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Try it. The parents might have a issue at first because it is new, but once they use it for a week or two, they will love it. We receive nothing but positive feedback from our parent community. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** we love having it as a way for parents to sign the children in and out of school for the day. with COVID we don't want to pass around pens and paper to everyone all day long and this is great and it is very easy to use ### 17. Best Childcare software out there! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carmen M. | Childcare Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** BrightWheel has gone above and beyond my needs for childcare software. It offers so many extra features and is always adapting to clients needs. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Because we use it to bill parents hourly it is a little more work to pull this data. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** I would highly suggest anyone in childcare to switch to BrightWheel. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We originally used the free software for years and then recently upgraded. Best decision I made for our childcare. The biggest benefit is they are constantly evolving and changing the software, with every change I find it was something I was looking for. ### 18. Such a great program! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amy W. | Director, Primary/Secondary Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Check In/Out, Parent communication, Student data, billing, billing reports- I don't think I could possibly choose one thing! The only thing we aren't currently using would be the lesson plans/observations. We plan to begin using those this summer! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** When pulling multiple reports, I frequently have to close the program in between reports or the second report pulls all data (rather than just for the dates requested). I would like more options when pulling reports. (Being able to pull billing based on category/item type) **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Brightwheel has been amazing for our center, and our families. Parents love the interaction that is possible! **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel allows us to do everything we need to do for our childcare center, in one program. Prior to this, we were using several different programs which was far less efficient. The billing and check in/out kiosk has been fantastic! ### 19. Great concept, lacking some key features **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jensen Maria B. | Afterschool Coordinator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that brightwheel can message parents so quickly and has a database of all of the students parent info. It's easy to see the roster and the students that are checked in. I like being able to call parents from the app, and the variation of messages to be sent (emergency, incident, etc). **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish there was a better way of communicating to the administrator about check ins/outs of students as well as a way for staff to communicate with each other. I wish that there was a way to mark daily attendance ahead of time (i.e. someone on Monday says their child will be absent on Friday). I think the process to share lesson plans, and snack menus is a little clunky. I think the price is high for not using most of the features but the plus version is required for the amount of kids in my program. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** If you are an afterschool program I would take into consideration that it really is geared towards early childhood settings. It can work for an afterschool program but could use some newer updates to accommodate it better for the price that you're paying. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel has helped us communicate to parents where we are, report absences, and last minute reminders. Parents have been happy about the app, however, sometimes have a hard time seeing what dates and times messages are sent. ### 20. An all encompassing app for child care providers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Allison M. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The ease to communicate with parents and the staff integration with clocking in and out as a way to track hours for payroll. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Billing. I feel like there could be some major upgrades to the way we bill parents, it has been very time consuming compared to other programs. I’d also like there to be a way staff can’t clock in on their phones before their shift, and a reminder for them to clock in and out. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Just take your time to understand all of the benefits and features. Remember to log on on a computer to get the full scope of what it has to offer. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication with parents is better, and I have cut down time writing down all of my students daily information. Having my staff hours on hand in one app has also been a huge bonus. ### 21. We love how easy brightwheel is to use and all of the features we can use to run our business. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Morgan F. | Director , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I really like being able to view the classroom ratios and staff from anywhere I am. Also, from home I can bill or check timecards. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish I could message staff the way I message parents. Also I wish there was a way to block staff from being able to clock in and out from their phones. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** We love how easy it was to learn and use and the continuous updates they are making to better the program! **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was able to notice we didnt need as many staff in the mornings and was able to decrease cost that way. I also find it easier to keep track of our billing and who has paid each week. I also save lots of time by most families paying online and not having to make trips to deposit at the bank. ### 22. Great way to keep parents in the loop! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ali H. | Office Manager, Education Management, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The communication aspect... it's nice to have that right at my fingertips **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There is so much more that can eventually be added to make this a one-stop shop for Schools and daycares! The good thing is that the developers listen to their clients and are working to improve all the time. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Give it a shot! It's helped us a lot! **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Convinient billing. Better communication. ### 23. User friendly and GREAT customer service **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alissa W. | IT support, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel keeps everything in one place for all of our students. Customer support is always so easy to get a hold of and quick with an answer. They're always improving the software and listening to customer feedback. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** We have multiple centers so it would be beneficial to be able to use the same logins for staff as they sometimes float from center to center. Same with the children, some attend two of our centers depending on availability. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Uploading the Roster made the switch over so convenient. Use the resources that are offered. All of the on boarding training and the youtube videos. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** There's much more daily communication between Staff and Families. It's also very easy to refer back to if a concern comes up. ### 24. Exception childcare program **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Clarice R. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that everything is made easy and if you run into any trouble there are step by step videos on how to navigate your way through and if not there is always excellent costumer service reps that will walk you through correcting any issue you may have. They keep costumes updated on the latest feathers and changes! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I have no Dislikes at this time with brightwheel. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to keep updated on shot records which is easy to fall behind on or over see but with notification reminders its a great help. With brightwheel I’ve realized that this is the best and safest way to keep personal records filled and we have great professional access to our parents through messaging. ### 25. Brightwheel **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stephannie R. | Administrative Assistant, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel is very easy to use. Convenient for schools. I think it is great that parents are able to check in on their kids activities of the day, sign in and out, and message teachers straight through the application. It is also very convenient that staff are able to check in and out through the brightwheel application and able to communicate with parents. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I dislike that you are not able to view transactions, invoices, or payments right from the students profile. In the company I worked with before, they used a different system where in the students' profile were all transactions, invoices, and payments on each student profile. There should be an option to be able to view that information. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** The versatility of being able to check attendance, billing, activities, and communications with parents via one application. ### 26. Adequate Technology **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David F. | Business manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** When I think about Bright and consider what I like best, I conclude that Brightwheel's user interface is pleasant to operate within. It is well designed from a visual standpoint. Over the past two years, lots of improvements have been made that addressed shortcomings. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Having billing be primarily invoice-based rather than account-based is a drawback. for example: If a family over pays, there is no way to allow a credit to sit in their account. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Managing payments. Brightwheel saves lots of time. From creating invoices, to sending reminders, to having an easy place to mark offline payments paid, brightwheel allows us to spend more time of our kids and families, rather than admin tasks related to billing. ### 27. Amazing software for childcare center **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 16, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** This really bridges the gap between the home and school by allowing parents and teachers to communicate with eachother throughout the day **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The only thing I dislike is the billing platform it is lacking many features (Applying vacation credits to account, etc). **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Billing (all of our payments are automated through brightwheel so no need to take checks anymore). Parent communication - no parents phoning center to check on their children, they can do it directly through the app. ### 28. Already great and still improving **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Matthew W. | Teacher and co-director, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It's super easy for teachers and parents. Many elementary agreed kids check themselves in and out. Being able to share data, media, and more all in a single feed and app is incredible. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** We have 50+ staff and over 600 kids being checked in, checked out, modified, and updated all around the same time each day at our location. Every once in a while there have been some very minor idiosyncrasies and quirks that have arisen, but they're always great and quick to fix it. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** While it is functional on older iPads or iPhones, it looks better and is a little easier to use the Check-In Kiosk on a newer iPad. I would also suggest enabling the quick scan option for the kiosk because then parents can use their devices and Brightwheel accounts to sign out a lot faster and easier. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Primarily attendance and emergency contact info, but have the possibility to expand to include messaging parents and more. ### 29. The best childcare platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ashley P. | Assistant Director of Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel has been used in our facility since before there was even a premium option. We have watched the app grow and develop over the past few years. I have not used or found a better platform. Their email responses to our questions has been awesome and very little of a wait. Brightwheel is a great way to track our facility children throughtout theie day and a great way for parents to do the same. Since using brightwheel we have cut down on the amount of phone calls we are making and recieving because of the messaging feature. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The downside to brightwheel would be the billing section of the application. There should be a way to go into the invoices and edit them once they are marked paid; however, there is not. We use brightwheel to accept ach transfers; however, we are also using quickbooks to record all other payments for the ease. Brightwheel needs to get with quickbooks and integrate with their billing software. The only thing that was a problem for us with brightwheel was accidentally marking a payment and then not being able to go back and delete it. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** This will be the best platform you choose, the other platforms do not compare. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to efficiently record what children do throughout the day and the fact that the information is stored on the child's profile from the time they start to the time they leave has been helpful for keeping track of dates. ### 30. I enjoy the ease of this program for staff and families **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Marie B. | Treasurer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like to be able to track attendance. It makes billing and tracking attendance easy for staff. Parents have enjoyed using this app for communication and daily updates. Parent contact information is readily available. Making announcements regarding activities is easy to input. I would recommend this app for anyone searching for a childcare program to simplify the ease of record keeping such as health records and child care plans. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I would like to be able to track invoicing credits. I would like a toll free helpline to be available for staff if any issues arise with the app. Families would also appreciate assistance with the app if issues arise with the app. Online chat can be frustrating when a question needs answered promptly. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Organizes your business and a benefit to parents **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has simplified billing for parents and staff. This makes invoices visible for several administrators to see and edit changes when necessary. This also makes invoicing clear to families and they can access the information at any time. Instant messaging has also been very useful for staff and families. The messages are visible to multiple staff members. Families can communicate with ease at any time of the day. If any incident would arise with a child this is greatly useful to be able to communicate with the parents immediately. This is also useful when documenting allergies a child may have. This makes it easy to reference. ### 31. Easy communication with child's family **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The ability to have all of the child's information in one place on an electronic device. The daycare has saved a lot of paper since switching to brightwheel. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Sometimes the servers can be a bit slow with bright wheel. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Hold a meeting for parents to come in and learn more about brightwheel and how to use it when implementing it. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Every family has access to contact their child's teacher. And every teacher has the ability to share with the family how the child is doing throughout the day. ### 32. Our Parents Rave About Brightwheel **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love the ease of access of the application. It is very user-friendly, and both parents and staff members have easily adapted to use. It has been a life-saver in parent communication from the time that we recently opened our infant and toddler rooms, two classrooms that require a ton of communication. Brightwheel still has many features that we have yet to use, and I have found myself overwhelmed sometimes with the options and ease of implementing each change we have made. I have only found myself frustrated or confused a few times regarding a few features that I have felt need more help or are non-existent. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I would like to be able to access more of the administrative stuff from the app side rather than the website. It is often easier for us in our center to do things from the app rather than from the site. I had a few things I would like to change, but many just work differently than I would like them to, and that is just me. I wish that it was easier for parents to pay, without a high fee. We will most likely never adopt the use of Brightwheel's online payment features. It would be nice if there was sort of an a-la-carte feature where I only had to pay for the features I am willing to use. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** The biggest issue this has solved for us is our over-use of paper. We have tried over the years to cut out paper, where possible, in order to reduce our spending costs and help preserve the environment for the future of our children. As childcare, we are required to use paper in many places because of state licensing guidelines, so it is important for us to be able to cut our usage and costs where possible. It has allowed us to communicate with parents more seamlessly. We are in an area with a lot of government agencies, and many of our parents are not allowed to bring their phones into the building, often making it difficult to communicate with them via phone call if necessary. It is also a great way for parents to be able to see what their children are doing during the day. ### 33. Great Communication Tool! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica L. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love that you can do automatic billing for parents, and update them in real-time. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Communicating to parents about lesson plans is still not easy, as well as being a multi-site center. I need to be able to customize the platform more than is offered. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** The billing platform is a huge time-saver. Also, parents LOVE the constant updates. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We switched because the Kid Reports app crashed quite a bit, and was not very professional looking. Brightwheel is more more reliable. However, I loved how much I could customize the Kid Reports. Such as adding admin controls for individual classrooms, requiring signatures from parents on incident reports, ability to build out the curriculum and show to parents, and ability to build out my own forms on the app. Also, the onboarding process for brightwheel was great, and employees were knowledgeable. However, once on-boarded, the quality of responses/willingness to add new features to the app decreased. I generally get a cut and dried response of "we don't do that at this time," which is not helpful. Additionally, I would be nice to have the option to put in any amount in a child's billing account, and have it count toward the next month. For example, if I have an invoice out for $200, and the parent pays $400, it doesn't keep track of that credit. ### 34. Brightwheel is the future of daycare check-in **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Parents can easily check in their children daily and teachers can send notes to the parents about their children. I also love that parents can add a photo of their child and their dietary needs. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Sometimes the app goes down randomly during the work day and we are unable to use it. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** If you want to use Brightwheel for daycare, it is a great addition. Communication has been greatly improved since Happy Days started using it. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We have eliminated paper use in our center and allowed for more communication throughout the day between teacher and child. ### 35. Makes the care we provide families so much better than before! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jill L. | Assistant Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** There are so many features that we take advantage of. We receive tuition payments in a timely manner. We have been able to provide parents with another level of communication. It brightens parents day to receive a picture of their child smiling in the middle of the day; it offers peace of mind. As early childhood educators we also have the option to show parents what we are providing their child on an educational level....we are not just babysitters! I LOVE the amazing customer service that Brightwheel provides our program and the fact that our suggestions are heard and implemented as possible. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I feel like their are some improvements that can be made with billing. I would love to be able to change a payment plan for just one invoice rather than pausing the plan, sending out an adjusted invoice, and then having to remember to un-pause the plan. The new reminders feature is also a pleasant surprise. Perhaps adding medication reminders can be considered (one that can repeat for multiple days at the same time). **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Use it to collect payments from clients **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Past due tuition payments are now more timely, communication amongst families and staff is more productive, we are able to show families what activities are done throughout the day so they understand that we are not just babysitter and we are educators ### 36. Pretty good app to communicate with parents **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Marketing and Advertising | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It’s easy to use. It’s nice to be able to post future updates (planned activities for the day) and I like that when I go to upload the pictures that the picture pops up as the background so I know which picture I’m sending and able to chose the right child so there are no mix ups with parents getting the wrong pictures of the wrong kid. Have used a few other communication apps and this one is by far the easiest to learn and the most reliable! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The only dislike I could possibly think of is the inability to move children from classroom to classroom if they are not assigned to that specific room. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** No problems other than the inability to move the children to a different class on the app. Benefits are that it is reliable and easy to learn/use. ### 37. Fantastic application for our club! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kassandra L. | Family Services Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The ability to send parents pictures and updates, as well as text from within the app has been such a bridge in our programs usage and participation. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** It needs better in app searches. We have over 300 students (we are not a daycare but a private club. Think lifetime fitness daycare) and being able to search for specific kids in app by name would be a huge help. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our goal was to create a safer more accurate check in/out system. One that constantly let me know who had what children where and when the I left. The parents having their own check in code is a huge relief. ### 38. Best Child Care Management Program **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Little S. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We love that the app let's us communicate and give parents feedback in a timely manner! They are able to see what their children are doing in real time! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish that we could do more items through the computer then just on the app. I know that Brightwheel is slowly working on this. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Use the support staff! They are great at what they do! There is no reason not to play around with the app! It's so user friendly! **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We were going through so much paper telling parents what they're kids were doing each day! This has made our jobs so much easier! ### 39. I LOVE BRIGHTWHEEL!! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Zeela W. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel eliminates the use of having so much paper. We use Bright wheel for signing in and out the children. Payroll, attendance, and sending notes to parents **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Sometimes the app does not load properly that hinders us from our staff clocking in/out. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Everything is in the palm of our hand. I can take attendance while on field trips. I can send my clients their accounts payable in one report instead of 2 like in previous years. Any updates on students are saved forever, s ever don’t have to scramble looking for lost papers. ### 40. A great tool for parent engagement! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Megan D. | Assistant Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We love being able to communicate with our families in real time! The information Brightwheel provides to families really helps them feel good about where their child is! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Some of the app features are not available on the desktop and that would be really nice to have as an administrator. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Unlike other classroom communication apps, Brightwheel updates families in real time. Messaging allows parents to view information and ask questions as needed. This app helps put parents' minds at ease. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Parents are happier with the communication they receive from their child's teachers. ### 41. Brightwheel is excellent for private or charter school use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We have been using brightwheel and it has been useful to any users with different objectives. I personally use it to keep track of the business finances, send invoices, and set up payment plans. I find it easy to use and I like that they have an app. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The credit card fee is a bit high 2.9% and there is no way to automatically or optionally charge that to the customer. It gets complicated when you try to transfer that charge to the customer and some of the set up for billing offers little flexibility. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel is helping by being the one source that multiple users at different levels can access and use. Parents find it easy for the most part and they like the updates on their children. ### 42. Great app for preschool! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Beighthwheel has helped our school become more environmentally friendsly. Using electronic sign- in, rather than papers for caretakers to sign in daily. It has help send automatic bills to parents without us having to remember to bill each month. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** One downside is not having a class photo album. When uploading photos, I must tag children. At our school, we send a daily update via WhatsApp to tell the parents what we did that day. Sometimes not every child is in every photo but we still want the parents to see all pictures. I wish there were a class album or some daily communication like you can in WhatsApp **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Able to save paper and bill easily. Ouch reports are simple to send at the park etc. ### 43. Makes my job so much easier **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Luz W. | Administrative Support, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 14, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I appreciate the simplicity of the app and ease to use. The ability to communicate easily with parents regarding anything is great. Even tracking immunizations just became that much easier! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I am still waiting for the upgrade to be able to group message parents without having to select a specific classroom. We should also be able to send pictures via group message. Also, I'd like to be able to set up alerts when something is overdue. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** One of the best decisions you could make to help manage information. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel has made it easier for us to keep track of how many children are in each classroom and given us the ability to contact parents at the drop of a dime. ### 44. Amazing App for Childcare! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vanessa V. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The communication is far more easy by using brightwheel. Parents have one place to see what is going on with their child(ren) throughout the day. I used to use paper and had to write down everything that each kiddo did during the day, this gets rid of paper, saves the environment, and gives parents every bit of information that they need to know throughout the day. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** So far there is nothing that I dislike. It makes life so much more easy. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have one place to add all relevant information for each child, including medical records that could be handy, should something happen to the child. It also allows us to communicate efficiently with each parent throughout the day rather than text messages. ### 45. Brightwheel great for educators and after school care **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brittany G. | Site Director , Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 06, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love the way it streamlines communication and documentation for our non profit organization. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There have been some times that the reports could have been more user friendly for our organization. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Communication happens much more quickly between parents and teachers. Parents can see the activities and meals that are happening each day. It’s easy to see who is present and absent. ### 46. Helps with communication **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Monica H. | Director , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 08, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that families can easily sign in or out with a QR code using their phone, and I like that I can quickly send pictures. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I don’t like how you if you answer someone and another brightwheel notification pops up, it is difficult to continue answering the first message. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We needed an electronic sign in method and a quick and easy way to quickly message parents when children are absent and we need to verify that with them ### 47. Interactive Way to Communicate with families **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dawn V. | Owner & Director & Lead Teacher, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Messaging to parents, Payments being completed through Brightwheel, Digital Checkins, Staff timecards for payroll **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Kiosk colors of red & white on the tablets in the sunlight are very hard to see Not being able to use the observations and objectives easier(takes too much time to click each part) Wish parents could get links through the activity section instead of just messaging. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Tracking down payments, going to the bank several times, being able to message parents without waiting ### 48. Great resource for teachers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 15, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I really enjoy being able to give instant feedback. Parents know what is going on and it is not a laborious process. It is very easy to incorporate into daily activities. I also enjoy the ability to easily check in and see ratios and how attendance looks for the day. The ability to track immunizations is really nice and Brightwheel has done a great job updating and improving their software. I am very impressed with their customer support, it may take a little bit to get back to you, but you get the rep until all of the issues are solved. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** As an admin, I can only access billing invoices on my laptop, not from the mobile app. Not a big deal, but difficult when I am in a classroom and asked a question about a specific invoice. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Paying bills online are a breeze and invoicing is really easy. ### 49. We love Brightwheel **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 10, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We love the sign in/sign out feature. We love the ease of communicating with parents through messages. We like being able to post photos and updates. Brightwheel has given our families a platform to share their child's days with other people. It has in many ways, brought our community closer together. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** We really dislike the calendar - its functionality is incredibly difficult to work with. It would be nice to be able to easily add events as they come up - and to have them class specific. Sometimes, messages don't "alert" parents, so they go unread. Photos would be easier to look at if you could swipe them when they are larger. We'd love to have the option to create sign up sheets and then send reminders. (example: parents sign up for a parent teacher conference, and then Brightwheel automatically sends them a reminder when it's approaching.) **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are saving paper because we are no longer using paper to keep track of sign in/out and nap charts are done online via brightwheel. ### 50. BRIGHTWHEEL, well worth the investment **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 09, 2019 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Brightwheel does IT ALL. Its the one stop shop in a world full of too many apps. Parents can pay, communicate and stay connected to the program through one application. As an administrator this is the single most used application. It organizes finances, communication and projects fantastically. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There are some quirks that are inconvenient. Namely, downloading reports and waiting for them in email. Customer service via text is not always helpful. Also, NEED TO ADD GRADE LEVEL to student profiles. This would be so helpful for school based programs, such as ourselves. **Recommendations to others considering brightwheel:** Brightwheel is a great program management tool. The innovation and ease of use is well worth the cost. Parents LOVE the program and our organization has grown because of it! Make the switch. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** As I mentioned before, Brightwheel allows us to have a single app to serve many needs. Rather than using a software for sign ins, another for student work, and another for parent communication. ie: Cityspan, Seesaw, Mailchimp... ## brightwheel Discussions - [Where is Brightwheel located?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/where-is-brightwheel-located) - [Is Brightwheel app free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-brightwheel-app-free) - [How much does Brightwheel cost?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-much-does-brightwheel-cost) - [View brightwheel pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/brightwheel/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-14+02%3A45%3A40+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=e603c686-5447-4b72-9f0c-8ef2da8bb468&secure%5Btoken%5D=bf50f45d76f13438163e77847a8bc4ae1d6eaa7e30158813d12c5a6abe7f4ce2&format=llm_user) ## brightwheel Integrations - [Gusto](https://www.g2.com/products/gusto/reviews) ## brightwheel Features **Functionality** - Multimedia - Mass Messaging - Push Notifications - Student Messaging - Analytics **Agentic AI - Child Care** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Proactive Assistance ## Top brightwheel Alternatives - [Procare Solutions](https://www.g2.com/products/procare-solutions/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (377 reviews) - [ClassDojo](https://www.g2.com/products/classdojo/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (354 reviews) - [Lillio (formerly HiMama)](https://www.g2.com/products/lillio-formerly-himama/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (79 reviews)