--- title: brightwheel Reviews meta_title: 'brightwheel Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 161 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how brightwheel works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.6 review_count: 161 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-13' parent_category: name: Vertical Industry url: https://www.g2.com/categories/vertical-industry --- # brightwheel Reviews **Vendor:** Brightwheel **Category:** [Child Care Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/child-care) **Average Rating:** 4.6/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 161 ## 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. Brightwheel Keeps Enrollment and Forms Organized in One Place **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Individual & Family Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** What I like most about Brightwheel is how organized it keeps everything in one place. The Waitlist feature has been especially helpful for tracking interested families and managing enrollment. Being able to send forms helps me so much instead of printing the forms we need parents to fill out, I can send them through Brightwheel and get them returned easily. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** One area where Brightwheel could improve is making certain features easier to access. At times, it takes several steps to find specific information, like past messages. There have been occasions when we needed to look back at an older message and would prefer to simply search by a keyword, rather than having to scroll through the entire message history. It takes more of our time. If Brightwheel had a search box in the messages we could search by key words. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel has helped simplify many of our daily administrative tasks by keeping communication, attendance, enrollment and family information in one place. It has also helped improve communication with families. Having everything in one system saves time, reduces paperwork and makes it easier to focus on the children ### 2. Brightwheel Makes Curriculum Tracking and Billing Easy—with Responsive Support **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laura S. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We love the learning section of Brightwheel. It integrates our curriculum through Experience Early Learning, which makes it easier for our teachers to enter each child’s activities for the day. Our teachers can also look ahead and see the next day’s activities right on their phones, so they can be prepared and ready. We use Brightwheel for everything related to our daycare, and the billing side is the most reliable and the easiest to navigate for our monthly billing. All of our families use the online payment option, and it also helps with the little added extra fees we may need to add to a child’s account. We also love the chat option. Even when I have a question about a feature I’m not sure about, someone is always quick to respond and right there to help us out. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The only downside of the program was the way we bring new families in, through the touring/enrollment process. Navigating that a little easier would be helpful. But there is a new feature coming soon to help with this and we are so excited **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before using Brightwheel we used a different program. One that only kept track of the children, so our teachers were inputting their own curriculum, parents were filling out paperwork by hand and billing was through a different program. Brighwheel has put all of this plus some into one program. ### 3. Smooth Communication with Parents and Staff, Plus Easy-to-Navigate Features **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Megan M D. | Operations, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The ability to smoothly talk with parents and staff throughout the application. It has many features that we love to use and are easy to navigate. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Some features do cost extra to add on top of the base monthly price. Sometimes the app will freeze, and it will cause parents to freak out a little because we have not responded right away. Possibly add a feature to notify parents that the application is experiencing technical difficulties. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used to struggle with removing kids from the student lists. We used to have to just deactivate the child, but they would still be under our whole school student numbers. Within the past year, this feature was given the upgrade to delete a whole student profile, which has helped keep the app clean and tidy. ### 4. Brightwheel: Comprehensive Daycare Solution **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kate N. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 13, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I really like that everything our families need is in this one app, making brightwheel user-friendly and easy to find solutions. If there's data we wish to look at, a quick search provides what we need. Even when families have issues, a quick search allows us to provide the answer. Even those who are not so tech-savvy have been able to use Brightwheel without problems. I also appreciate that Brightwheel offers a better payment option for families compared to the other product we tried. The initial setup was extremely easy, which was a big plus for our daycare center. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** We are pretty happy overall with Brightwheel. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I find Brightwheel simplifies daycare management, making it easy for families to access what they need. It's user-friendly, helping us resolve issues quickly and manage billing efficiently, all in one app. ### 5. Messaging System That Makes Parent Communication Easy **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** The messaging system. It has really eased access to our parents. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There seems to be a lot of steps for each billing invoice. I also wish that you could change an invoice and increase the price if needed when parents add a day or time to their normal schedule. right now youhave to add it seperate or void the whole thing to make a new invoice. It is confusing for the parents. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** communication, and cutting some of the paper. We have had so much wasted paper. It is nice to access messages and reports right in Brightwheel. I have also been using the paperwork section for many forms. It has really made it easy to track down forms. I no longer have to send home and hope to get back, I can send it digitally inthe app by just uploading and making a few changes, and parents cans fill out sign and send it right back! ### 6. Brightwheel Helps Organize our Preschool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Leslie Gregory- A. | Assistant Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love being able to collect paperwork as well as do all billing in one central location. I love how it gives constant reminders to parents about their open invoices or missing paperwork. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There is nothing that I particularly dislike about Brightwheel. There are just things that I would like to change and update to help our center. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is helping solve the problems of keeping students organized in correct classrooms/programs and making sure we collect payments from all families in a timely manner. ### 7. Streamlined Billing and Communication in One Platform **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 12, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that brightwheel is an all-inclusive service. It's great for messaging parents, sending reminders, and sharing photos. I also love how it simplifies billing, as parents can see their charges instantaneously. The ability to take in paperwork and do everything on one platform is incredibly convenient. Additionally, the setup was very easy, which made transitioning to brightwheel seamless. It's helpful that we can manage attendance by classroom, giving us clear visibility into student presence. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I would like to see if we could take in miscellaneous charges. For example, if our teachers wanted to purchase a T-shirt from us, we don't have the capability to do that. It would be better if we could bill them for that T-shirt without needing to create a profile. Or just collect Misc revenue without assigning it to a student. For example, if a family wanted to give a donation. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel makes billing easy with instant charges visibility for parents. It solves live tracking issues our old system had. I like its all-in-one platform with messaging, reminders, photos, billing, and paperwork handling. ### 8. Versatile Features and a Flawless Virginia DSS Integration **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Suzette B. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** So many different things it does. My favorite most recent additions have been the menu creator, and back in December the absolutely flawless transition to integrate with Virginia's DSS system. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** There are features that are needed such as the ability to see when parents (or staff read things), and the ability to have separate chats with divorced parents **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to message 50 parents all at once, such a time saver. Online billing is he best feature. No more cash. ### 9. Keeps Families Informed and Makes Messaging Staff Easy **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Early L. | DIrector, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that our families can stay informed about their child’s day through the app. It’s also great that parents can message or contact the staff and admins directly through the app. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish that our staff, who are also parents of children in our program, could use the same account. Currently they must have 2 different accounts. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps with family communication, billing, and paperwork in our center ### 10. Brightwheel: A Time-Saving Essential for Childcare Management **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I use brightwheel for various tasks like daily attendance, communication with parents, and sharing daily activities, meals, and more. I love how it saves us time compared to logging each child's report on paper. I appreciate the ease of contacting parents since their phone numbers are right on their child's account. Navigating brightwheel is so easy, especially compared to HiMama, which we found challenging. I also like the messaging features where messages can be labeled as 'reminder' or 'alert.' The initial setup was very easy and fast, which made the transition smooth. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I do not like the staff schedules on Brightwheel. I feel it is not a necessary component to the app. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel is a huge time saver for us, replacing paper logs with daily attendance and communication. It lets me contact parents easily with listed phone numbers. ### 11. Essential Tool for Childcare Centers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kaley H. **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like how brightwheel handles everything for our childcare center, especially billing, feeding, parent communication, and managing the waitlist. The messaging feature is particularly valuable as it helps maintain connections with parents throughout the day. Setting up brightwheel was super easy, which made the transition to using it seamless. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I find the waitlist feature and adding fees to the waitlist to be problematic, as it could be easier to enroll. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use brightwheel for parent communication and billing, simplifying these processes and strengthening our parent connections. ### 12. Effortless Reports and Budgeting, Needs Better Integration **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mrs. CeCe . | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I enjoy the budgeting and profit and loss reports in brightwheel. It makes it easy to see if I'm making a profit or losing money, and it helps me keep track of how many kids I need to have enrolled. Setting up brightwheel was pretty easy once I sat down to do it. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I guess integration with my payroll software for my employees' time in and time out could be better. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use brightwheel for tracking attendance, budgeting, and profit and loss reports. It helps me keep track of how many kids I need to have enrolled and see if I'm making or losing money. ### 13. Improving Integrations and Stronger State Licensing Compliance Performance **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** K.E S. | Administrator /Food Manager-Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 07, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It has improved a lot since I started using it in 2022. The integrations have helped, and the performance around state licensing compliance keeps getting better over time. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Support: when you need help quickly, it can sometimes be hard to get an answer. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Right now, I don’t have any issues that they’re working on for me. In the past, I had a CACFP audit where I generated reports through Brightwheel, but the state did not accept the reports as they were. Brightwheel quickly helped me work through the state’s recommendations and tailor the reports so they were compliant with the regulations. ### 14. Paperless Billing and Better Parent Communication with brightwheel **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** rachel b. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** We started using brightwheel mainly to simplify billing, but it really handles most of our daily needs. We love being paperless, and also the improved parent communication. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I think the only improvement I could ask for is a cheaper monthly cost. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I spend far less time on weekly billing and payment processing, and less time on making copies for paperwork ### 15. Easy Billing, Seamless Enrollment Forms, and Simple Photo Sharing with Parents **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Georgia G. | Owner and Provider, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I love the ease with billing, the integration with state enrollment forms, and the ease of sharing photos and videos with parents. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I believe the cost is a little steep. I also wish that uploading menus could be done with integration into the food program platforms. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** auto-billing is a big save along with tax document preparation at year end. ### 16. Connecting with Real-Life Helpers Who Truly Want to Support You **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** LSKC D. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I really enjoy the way you are able to connect to real-life workers who truly want to help you! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I do not find that their reporting is as advanced as I would like. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel is solving enrollment and billing issues left and right! It saves us so much time on the back end. ### 17. One-for-Everything Software for the Childcare owner and teachers alike **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jennifer R. | Owner/Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 07, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Having a “one-for-everything” type of software. It has helped me save time by pulling reports knowing everything is in the same spot. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Not being able to chat with someone immediately to resolve issues immediately. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Parent communication is quick and easy. Documentation. Picture/video collection. The tie in with curriculum is amazing. ### 18. Brightwheel: Streamlining Enrollment and Communication **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kate F. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I find brightwheel to be an excellent way to communicate with my families and our staff. The billing platform really makes it much easier to keep track of invoices that have been paid on different schedules and to know exactly where the money is coming and going. The initial setup was very easy. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The subsidy billing portion is a little confusing sometimes. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use brightwheel to track enrollment and staffing, and to communicate with families. It simplifies tracking invoices and financials with its billing platform. ### 19. Easy, User-Friendly Experience That Parents Love **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jessica M. | Assistant Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** It is easy to use and user friendly. Parents also like it. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Billing isn't our favorite because we have to change bills individually at times. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It isn't really a problem that was solved but being able to communicate directly with parents is beneficial for us. ### 20. 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 ### 21. Brightwheel Is Easy to Navigate on Desktop and Tablet **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amanda C. | Director of Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like that Brightwheel is easy to navigate on the desktop and the tablet side of things. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I'm struggling to find something negative to write about. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel solved many problems for us especially communicating with parents. ### 22. Keeps Parents Involved All Day with Easy Paperwork **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 13, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Being able to keep the parents involved throughout the day and the ease of the paperwork **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Wish there was a late button that the staff could use to indicate if a child had an appointment and was arriving late **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having to input paperwork ### 23. All-in-One Solution, Easy to Use and Mobile Friendly **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I find brightwheel to be an all-in-one solution that helps us save hours. I like its ease of use and beautiful user interface. It's easy for families and mobile-friendly, making it even more convenient. The initial setup was easy as well. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish there were more comprehensive reports in brightwheel. Also, I would like to have budget projections and more comprehensive forms for families to fill out. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use brightwheel as an all-in-one solution for tuition management and parent communication, saving us hours. It's easy to use with a beautiful interface, mobile-friendly, and family-friendly, which enhances its value. ### 24. Easy to Use, Uncluttered Screen for Multitasking **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Education Management | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Easy to use, screen not too overwhelmed, multi taks **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Some options should be available for families for example be able to see the classroom's name or teachers **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** BW gives you a class list for example which is very helpful. you can also export some documents. For the check in & out for teachers, it is so helpful for payroll. ### 25. Easy Billing and Student Enrollment—All Great **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ruth B. | Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 11, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** As the director i find it easy to do the billing and the enrollment for a new student **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** nothing, it is all great. I have had no issues at all **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solving billing issues and enrollment issues. ### 26. Brightwheel Keeps Paperwork Organized and Stress-Free **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Daija P. | Owner Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I hate keeping up with paperwork. I have OCD and it's so messy! Brightwheel keeps me organized! **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I wish that everything that you can do on the computer you can do on the app **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Organization ### 27. 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. ### 28. 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. ### 29. 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. ### 30. 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. ### 31. 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 ### 32. 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. ### 33. 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. ### 34. 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 ### 35. 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?** . ### 36. 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 ### 37. 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. ### 38. 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! ### 39. 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. ### 40. 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. ### 41. 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. ### 42. 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. ### 43. 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. ### 44. 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. ### 45. 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. ### 46. 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. ### 47. 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. ### 48. 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. ### 49. 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. ### 50. 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. ## brightwheel Discussions - [How do you handle Brightwheel’s credit card service fees and refund policy?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-you-handle-brightwheel-s-credit-card-service-fees-and-refund-policy) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View brightwheel pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/brightwheel/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=5§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+16%3A50%3A21+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=414f9f8e-a969-4bc9-847b-b4c680a8a3a4&secure%5Btoken%5D=d4a15b887a917fd228a77ec3b734d62972f046df518875505c3c15a1660e73cd&format=llm_user) ## brightwheel Integrations - [Gusto](https://www.g2.com/products/gusto/reviews) - [Procare Solutions](https://www.g2.com/products/procare-solutions/reviews) - [QuickBooks Online](https://www.g2.com/products/quickbooks-online/reviews) ## brightwheel Features **Functionality** - Multimedia - Mass Messaging - Push Notifications - Student Messaging - Analytics **Agentic AI - Child Care** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Proactive Assistance - Lesson Planning **Additional Functionality** - Contact Database - Milestone Tracking - Calendar Management - Parent Portal - Third-Party Integrations - Attendance Tracking - Activity Dashboard - Activity Tracking - Generative AI - Check-in/Check-out - Document Management - Enrollments/Onboarding - Certification Tracking - Meal/Nutrition Management - Reporting & Statistics - Incident Management - Multi-Language - Multi-Location - Employee Management - Communications Management - Customer Accounts - Wait List Management - Mobile Access - Immunization & Allergy Tracking - Task Management - Student Information/Records - Registration Management - Billing & Invoicing - Role-Based Permissions - Electronic Signature - Payment Processing - Data Security - Alerts/Notifications - Class Scheduling - AI Copilot - API - Resource Scheduling - Records Management - Daily Reports ## 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)