The fact that I will have everthing I need to successfully run my preschool in one place! It will benefit my clients (families), my staff, and reduce my administrative work drastically! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My onboarding manager was excellent and taught me a lot in our 3 calls. However, there is a steep learning curve for my level of tech knowledge and so I wish there was an option to speak with a Playground support person on the phone versus only via AI chat or email with a person. That is helpful to a degree, but when I am "in the weeds" with an issue and have exhausted looking for answers in their articles, chats, etc, it feels like it would be more efficient to have a phone call to answer questions. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The ease our families have with using Playground is a huge plus. From submitting paperwork to signing their child in and out each day, and receiving messages in the app, our parents have a much more elevated experience than with the previous company we used. I also love how easy it is to get help from customer service and how knowledgeable the agents are. On top of that, switching from the previous system to Playground was straightforward and easy. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

As a cooperative preschool, we’ve run into a few challenges because our business model is different from most preschools. Our parents work one teaching shift each week and need a way to sign up for it. We were able to find a workaround, but it isn’t the cleanest solution. We also have challenges with students signing up for summer camp on a week-by-week basis. It works fine at first, but if anything changes, we have to manage it on our end, and families don’t have an easy way to add weeks or request changes themselves. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We switched all four of our centers from ProCare to Playground, and we’ve really appreciated the change. We love the flexibility to charge families with different schedules, along with the “set it and forget it” approach, so we don’t have to manually push charges through each week. The CRM portion of Playground has also been amazing—it’s helping us track leads, move leads to tours, and then tours to enrollment, all in one place. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There’s nothing I dislike. We’ve had a few small issues with the CRM, but the moment we bring them to their attention, they’re addressed. Their customer service is incredible, especially compared to anyone we’ve worked with in the past. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that we can use the chat feature to send parents messages, and the Feed option to do mass notices to parents, staff or both. It makes my work simpler. Our parents love it, and most pay directly through Playground. The help staff are phenomenal and I get a response in minutes. They also have a lot of good documentation for the most common issues. The reports are for the most part sufficient for my needs and the ability to enter the food menu and have it let me know if it is reimburseable for CACFP is great! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is not really set up for staff, so there are things it can't do. For example, I can assign a staff member to a classroom, but there is now way to run a report that shows the staff names and what classrooms they are assigned to, and what classroom they worked in on a particular day (if it was different than the assigned class). The classroom ratios are always incorrect; I think it uses the assigned classroom not the current classroom to determine the ratio. We cannot stop parents of children from seeing how much money we have received from state childcare support, so we cannot bill those children in Playground, making for a rather lop-sided system where most children are tracked in Playground, but children recieving state scholarships have to be tracked in QuickBooks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I really love that families check their children in and out with the Playground App. All billing is funneled through Playground and it makes tax time so much smoother. I can track my expenses, pull reports with extensive search filters, allow families to enroll into my wait list online, which includes an enrollment fee they pay online. I can also utilize observations to integrate milestones reached or ones we are continuing to work on for each child. Any pictures posted are only viewable by the families I choose to have as recipients (you do not need to include all children in every post if you have, say, a drop-in child, you can select their name for the day they are there and have those pictures posted, but then the drop-in child does not see the day-to-day photos). The customer service is top notch and they ALWAYS reach out to make sure I was able to figure out what I was needing help with. The FAQ tool and search bar are impecable. Playground listens to the ones utilizing their system to better the programming to make our lives easier. It is super convenient to have all immunizations listed so I know which ones the child is coming due for, all paperwork is online in the event something with my paper copies doesn't work (which are printed once families fill out online). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

If I had to pick something I disliked about Playground, I would say the lack of an option for having reminder messages popping up to families when they sign their child in or out for the day. I am still using sticky notes and chat to remind them, but I think it'd be a better way to communicate in case I forget to mention something like a physical I am missing, needing new signatures, etc. I do also wish they could store my IQ4K (Iowa's Quality Rating System) paperwork there. It really is an all-in-one system and it would be so convenient to have that integration since I do utilize Playground as "proof" of activities we are doing, how I reach out to families, etc. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I love that playground is a one stop shop. I recommend it to all my peers. As an owner I love that I can upload forms and paperwork for both staff and children. I like that I can chat for help quickly. I love that my staff can play around and add post types, we have had a blast adding "birthday today", "special event", etc for fun posts. I love that the billing is easy, it's cost effective and much more affordable for me than other competing programs. I love the CRM and that has saved me so much time automating which was my 2025 goal. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I am ALWAYS submitting ticket requests for a staff PTO bank. I like the PTO bank from my previous payroll processor GUSTO. It is difficult to manually keep up with time off requests for paid time off when the staff don't have a bank, they have to take manual notes in their profile of time used. I also would love an integration form the playground calendar to my website, right now I am using my google calendar integrated in the website. It would be awesome if in paperwork there was a style of form like google forms that we could use to generate data from surveys and parent fill out forms. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The best thing about playground is the constant innovation and continued help from the support chat. The site is easy to navigate (Especially with regular and frequent use). Additionally, because other systems have similar features, the integration of the site/ app is an easy one. With regular use, anyone is sure to pick it up in no time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Because this is a larger company, on occasion it can be difficult to get your specific requests taken care of (In terms of implementation) and so you are best off putting in a feature request and waiting for the next update (Usually at the end/ beginning of the month). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Playground for our childcare, and I love its easy, mostly hands-off billing, which allows me to set up billing plans for our families easily. I also love how easy it is to get help when I'm stuck with something I don't understand. The chat feature is great, and the Playground team is fantastic at setting up Zoom meetings and walking me through things whenever needed. They even send me a recording of our meeting, which is a great help. The team is always friendly, and I feel like I couldn't have done my job without them! Additionally, I love that I can post live updates and share pictures with families through the feed, keeping them involved with what we are doing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I was very confused and struggling with the initial set up that was only partially done. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like that Playground is easy to use, and the parents have adapted quickly with no complaints. The customer service is amazing. I really appreciate the availability to talk with someone when immediate help is needed. It is also helpful to have an assigned person to schedule calls with when I need guidance for a new feature. It makes the support process so efficient! Playground takes my suggestions to the development team and constantly updates the software to meet needs and make it more efficient. Setting up Playground was VERY easy because we had someone to walk us through the whole process. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

My teachers had a learning curve when it came to submitting their lesson plans on Playground; but, once they figured it out, they loved it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I have two childcare centers and use Playground for payroll, CRM, and the teachers' side of things. I love that it keeps everything in one place, solving the issue of using several different apps. The CRM is great and has all the features we need for teachers. I also really love the customer support—it's so quick to get back to me, usually within 5 to 10 minutes, and they're always super helpful in getting my problems solved. The initial setup was very easy too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I think that there are several little things that could be better. I've submitted feature requests around them. I would love to see the progress on them to see if they are even being considered or a way for other users to vote on the most important ones. I could get my team to vote on them as well. They are mostly around payroll and deductions. Also, the ability to enter monthly post-tax deductions like you can with benefits. We use Bamboo HR but it doesn't integrate. I'd also like to see more integrations with curriculums. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.