--- title: brightwheel Reviews meta_title: 'brightwheel Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 151 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how brightwheel works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 151 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-07-03' 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:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 151 ## 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 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. ### 2. 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. ### 3. 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! ### 4. Transforms Communication, Simplifies Enrollment **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dana B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I have seen a huge improvement in communication with parents and how parents communicate with teachers. Parents can know more, see more of what's happening in the classroom. Getting newsletters and information out is much easier, and enrolling a child is so much easier. Clocking in is easy for our staff, especially at the end of the week, to get their times in and send it to payroll. It's also easier when running more than one school to have everything in one place, and you can switch back and forth. I like how you can access brightwheel on any device—tablet, laptop, phone—making it easy on the go to check-in and check numbers when I'm not at the school. It’s great, and I love it. I like how notifications are sent to parents right away when kids are signed in and checked out, which is very important for us. I appreciate being able to get all the state reports and do simple reports to get state times in for those on state payments. It makes a huge difference, especially with everyone having an individual code when signing in and out. Everything was set up quickly, and I love how brightwheel does the kids' own emergency cards. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I would like it to show when a parent has read a message, because sometimes they claim they didn't see it. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I find that brightwheel makes communication with parents and teachers smoother, lets parents see classroom activities, simplifies sending newsletters and information, and makes enrolling children easier. ### 5. 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. ### 6. Convenient Record-Keeping with Quick Setup **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 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 convenient for paperwork and keeping track of records, which makes life easier for directors. The staff love being able to see ratios and appreciate the portability without paper trails. I love getting updates all day. Directors always know ratios, and messages with families and getting out information is super easy. I like being able to share everything at once and maintain record upkeep. Getting information to families about the daycare ensures everyone receives the right information. The initial setup was also super easy. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** Kids can be signed in without a teacher signed in and you are not notified. There is a delay in attendance records. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel is convenient for paperwork and record-keeping, crucially allowing directors to manage everything in one place. Staff appreciate easy access to ratios and eliminating paper trails, and communicating with families is streamlined, ensuring everyone gets the right information. ### 7. 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 ### 8. 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. ### 9. 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 ### 10. 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. ### 11. 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. ### 12. Streamlined Enrollment, Fantastic Usability **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Olivia V. | 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 use, and I find the help on there to be very helpful whenever I needed it. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I would like to be able to use brightwheel to streamline our enrollment process, specifically documents. I also think it could be improved by allowing alerts when staff or children's files are going to be expiring, like shot records or things of that nature. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel streamlines our childcare center's enrollment and payment systems, allowing us to accept copay and tuition via card and digitalize child files. ### 13. 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. ### 14. 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. ### 15. 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 ### 16. Real-Time Messaging Keeps Teachers and Admins Seamlessly in Sync **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hannah B. | school director, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 30, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Messaging feature allows all teachers and admin to be in sync in real time. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** The enrollment features are a little generic, and our process is a little more nuanced. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** streamlining processes like billing, enrollment intake, paperwork, and communication. ### 17. 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. ### 18. Fast Parent Check-In, but Billing and Kinderconnect Are Hard to Navigate **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Primary/Secondary Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 02, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** I like the parent check in process. It makes it fast and easy. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I dislike the billing aspect; along with connecting with kinderconnect. I is difficult to navigate. The performance is sometimes slow. Onboarding for parents is sometimes a little difficult; the forms are not very mobile friendly. **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Brightwheel allows our families to see their children's day to day activities. This in returns benefits us by allowing full transparency with parents. ### 19. 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. ### 20. 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. ### 21. 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. ### 22. 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 ### 23. Secure Documents, Messages, and Billing All in One Place **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Accounting | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2026 **What do you like best about brightwheel?** Being able to secure documents, messages and billing all in one place. **What do you dislike about brightwheel?** I do not believe it is a secure enough platform **What problems is brightwheel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being able to handle most things under one platform- it has been fantastic ### 24. 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! ### 25. 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. ### 26. 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. ### 27. 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. ### 28. 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. ### 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. 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. ### 36. 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?** . ### 37. 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 ### 38. 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. ### 39. 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! ### 40. 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. ### 41. 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. ### 42. 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. ### 43. 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. ### 44. 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. ### 45. 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. ### 46. 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. ### 47. 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. ### 48. 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. ### 49. 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. ### 50. 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. ## 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=2026-07-03+05%3A01%3A36+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=1fca7114-0d5a-4b59-84e3-1974f833d566&secure%5Btoken%5D=67fef4e6fef3e2bf4ad0ab0becc3ac94c82054eda3cd5de02fea11cee4067a7c&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)