- Procare is the simplest platform to run your child care center on
- Why Choose Procare vs. Brightwheel?
- A Snapshot of Some Important Features Your Center Will Need
- Procare Offers an Affordable Monthly Rate That Fits Any Child Care Center's Budget
- Procare's Proprietary Integrated Payment Processing is Easier and Gets You Paid Faster
- Grow Your Center
- Embedded Curriculum
- Comprehensive Professional Development
- Best-In-Class Child Care Mobile App
- No Contracts
- Live Support
- FAQs
- Ready to Take Your Child Care Center to the Next Level?
- Procare is here to help.
Procare is the simplest platform to run your child care center on
This page was updated on 4/30/2026 with updated information.
Procare is transforming child care management by making it simple to run your business with one intuitive tool. Whether you’re managing a single center or the complexities of multi-site operations, Procare simplifies it all by automating administrative tasks, streamlining billing and payments, and enabling real-time parent communication, making operations seamless and efficient.
In this guide, we’ll answer your questions about why you should choose Procare versus the competition, specifically Brightwheel.
The cost per month was much more reasonable with Procare. Brightwheel wanted to charge by the number or rooms or children – I can't quite remember. I also like the features and easiness of Procare.
Tami V, Childcare Manager
Source: Capterra
Why Choose Procare vs. Brightwheel?
2 out of 3 centers that use software choose Procare, and for good reason!
- Procare gives you a complete child care management system at your fingertips
- All-in-one price, no matter how many children are in your care
- Procare has streamlined family engagement capabilities to help build stronger connections with the families you serve like attendance, authorized pickups, classroom management and embedded curriculum
- Procare offers a 100% digital curriculum that embeds seamlessly for easy lesson planning, giving everything teachers need to provide high-quality instruction for infants to pre-K at their fingertips
- Procare offers IACET-accredited professional development with 120+ hours of training for your entire staff, including CDA Pathways!
- Parents love the child care mobile app because they can stay connected at all times on via two-way messaging, activities, milestones, curricula, contactless check-in/out, initiating mobile payments and more
- Procare has integrated tuition, billing, payments and payment processing all within the platform, so no need for third-party software. Low processing, greater flexibility
- Procare provides 5-star onboarding and real-live people answering support calls versus a chatbot
- Procare has expanded the Account Management Services Team so that every customer has a contact to call
- See why other child care centers are switching from Brightwheel in 2026
Procare puts you in full control of your child care center, helps you save time and money and makes every day better for child care providers, administrators and parents.
A Snapshot of Some Important Features Your Center Will Need
| Procare | Brightwheel | |
| Fixed Pricing | ✓ | X |
| Student Attendance | ✓ | ✓ |
| Family Engagement and Communications | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lead Management, Insights & Enrollment Pipeline | ✓ | Enrollment pipeline only |
| Infant Activity Dashboard | ✓ | X |
| Custom Lesson Planning | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drop-In Care Scheduling and Forecasting | ✓ | X |
| Optional Integrated Curriculum for Infants to Pre-K | ✓ | ✓ |
| Child Care Mobile App | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrated 1st Party Payment Processing and Handling | ✓ | Use 3rd party software |
| Curbside (GPS) Sign-In/Out | ✓ | X |
| Multi-Program Scheduling and Enrollment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Staff Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ |
| State Standards / Montessori | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom Attendance Reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Online and Mobile Payment Portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-Site Reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Phone and Chat Support | ✓ | Only chat |
| Every Customer is Assigned an Dedicated Customer Success Manager | ✓ | X |
Don’t settle for a sub-standard child care management platform when Procare has it all!
Procare Offers an Affordable Monthly Rate That Fits Any Child Care Center’s Budget
Unlike Brightwheel and other child care software that charge based on your center’s enrollment, Procare offers everything you need to manage your child care business for one low monthly price, with no hidden fees or extra costs for child care management software features. This means that while your business grows, you don’t need to worry about your costs growing.
With Procare, you don’t pay more as your business grows.
- Manage every aspect of your child care center or multiple centers including registration, attendance, schedules, family, child, and staff information, child tracking and more — all in one cloud-based, integrated platform at an affordable monthly rate that doesn’t fluctuate
- Nurture classroom and parent interactions through an easy-to-use child care mobile app
- Automate billing and payment collection through Procare’s payment processing platform built exclusively for child care businesses
- Offer contactless solutions like check-in/out and billing/payments to support the safety of your center
- Simplify staff clock in/out, scheduling and payroll
- Enjoy live support to help you at every point in your child care business journey
- Access to comprehensive reporting that can be customized by state and type of center
Procare’s Proprietary Integrated Payment Processing is Easier and Gets You Paid Faster
Delays in payment processing create stress and cashflow problems. The Procare platform provides integrated in-house payment processing allowing your center to accept and process multiple types of payments without additional administration on your part. With Procare you can:
- Accept credit or debit card payments in person, online or via the child care mobile app
- Set up payments directly from the family’s bank account
- Procare has proprietary integrated payment processing within the Procare platform, so your center will always get low fees and dedicated support.
- Unlike Brightwheel, Procare is a first-party payment processor. This means that Procare typically offers lower rates and more control over your center’s billing. With all your software and billing managed with the same company, you have direct access to dedicated support and controls so you don’t have to worry about bouncing between different companies to get the help you need when you need it.
- Get next-day funding for credit cards and automatic payments from checking accounts to ensure you are not waiting for your funds
- Electronically process checks without traveling to the bank
- Accept and process split fees or co-payments from government agencies without additional hassle
The faster you can turn around your billing and payments, the quicker the money goes into your bank account and is ready to be used. Procare is the only center management software that has integrated proprietary payment processing.
Our team of experts has a lot more to say about billing! Check out the articles below.
- Infographic: Streamline Your Center Management with Seamless Invoicing, Billing, and Payments
- Tuition Express is the easiest and safest software for child care billing
- Daycare accounting software capabilities from Procare
- Multifamily Payments: The easy way to bill families with divorced/separated parents
Grow Your Center
Attracting new families is a key part of operating a successful child care business. To do that well, you need to know how effective you are at enrolling families who show an interest in your center.
But keeping up with tasks such as following up with prospective families, often known as leads, and waitlists is laborious. With Procare’s integrated lead insights feature, you can:
- Streamline and increase enrollment with lead management
- Centralize record-keeping
- Track enrollment from start to finish
- Automate scheduling and follow-up
- Offer digital online registration
The Procare platform allows you to track interested families and engage with parents who are ready to make a decision and follow families from the time they show interest, through the entire enrollment process. And even better, with the Procare insights feature, centers will be able to keep track of outgoing students to monitor when a class opening will become available.
No other center management platform in the market can give you this type of end-to-end reporting and tracking.
Interested in learning more about growing your child care center? Our experts have your back!
I chose Procare over Brightwheel because I’m absolutely in love with the Parent Newsletter feature and how easy it is to engage with families. The platform makes communication feel personal, organized, and effortless — which is so important when building strong relationships between school and home.
Jennifer Ledezma, Childcare Admin
Source: Capterra
I like the price, it is much cheaper than Brightwheel. Customer support has been excellent, that is actually the reason I chose them. I like the staff management module.
Marci C, Director
Source: Capterra
Procare has worked wonderfully for my center. After having used other systems and ending up frustrated (particularly with their billing capabilities), the Procare software has really show itself to be the best.
Kearis O, DIrector
Source: Capterra
I chose Procare because I felt like we would be more satisfied. Brightwheel quoted a cost, then when I stated I decided to go with Procare, they came down on their cost in attempt to "beat Procare out". I just personally did not care for that approach to business. Plus, I preferred the layout and ease of use of Procare.
Ashley D – Owner, Admin & Teacher
Source: Capterra
Embedded Curriculum
As early learning centers struggle to hire and retain staff, and as far too many qualified teachers are leaving the field, an easy-to-use, 21st-century online curriculum is vital for success. Procare offers a 100% digital curriculum that embeds seamlessly, giving everything teachers need to provide high-quality instruction for infants to pre-K at their fingertips. The Procare platform embeds digital curriculum from Learning Beyond Paper to help with creating lesson plans digitally, student assessments and managing lesson plans by classroom without the stress and time-consuming task of outdated paper formats.
Procare offers a total solution that can deliver the entire early childhood education ecosystem — lesson planning, lesson delivery within the classroom as well as assessment and family engagement. Being able to do all of these with one platform simplifies classroom management and planning and reduces costs. Learn how Procare Early Learning saved a child care center up to $1600/month.
Interested in learning more about curriculum? Try these:
Webinar
What A 100% Digital Curriculum Can Do for Your Child Care Center
Comprehensive Professional Development
Set your center apart with all the professional development training your staff needs to succeed! Procare Professional Development offers Procare customers over 120 hours of IACET-accredited CEUs for everyone on your staff. Beyond compliance and certification needs, Procare Professional Development is packed with convenient and engaging lesson material that gives your team practical solutions that they can implement in the classroom immediately.
In addition to all your standard training, CDA Pathways are also included at no additional cost! For staff members looking to take their careers to the next level, this saves them hundreds of dollars each as they only pay for extra materials and CDA council fees, as needed. For centers, this means that you can provide more professional development and career progression opportunities, while building out a team with higher quality certifications and enhancing the quality of care and education that you provide to your community.
When your staff members complete a course, they’ll receive instant certification and Procare will submit attendance records to your state, if needed or provide any necessary Procare Professional Development is the ultimate solution for centers using Procare that love the convenience of having their CMS and professional development all together.
Best-In-Class Child Care Mobile App
Procare has an easy-to-use child care mobile app that is fully integrated for staff and family engagement. The platform allows centers to stay connected with the families they serve by sharing important moments, information, learning milestones, contactless check-in/out, mobile tuition payments and more.
Procare’s child care mobile app has over 10 million downloads and an average lifetime user rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars from staff and parents on the Apple App Store. Staff can easily track activities and send messages to families, and parents can make tuition payments in the mobile app, view their child’s progress and updates throughout the day and stay connected through the child care mobile app.
Parents love the Procare app and how easy it is for them to stay connected with their child throughout the day. “It tells me everything I need to know and more about my son’s day at preschool, provides an effective way for me to communicate with his teachers, and pay for his schooling all in one. Not to mention they can send pictures, share his meals, and give me hourly updates. THIS APP IS AWESOME!”
No Contracts
Procare does not have any hidden fees or require annual contracts or set-up fees for new customers. Procare lets you focus on what matters most — the children you care for.
Live Support
With Procare, you get five-star support, whether you need help getting started or learning about our advanced features. Also, Procare has expanded the Account Management Services Team so that every customer has a contact to call.
We have everything you need to get the most out of this all-in-one platform. And if you need one-on-one assistance, our support team is here to help. We offer remote assistance and one-on-one training sessions.
Plus, we offer live phone support so you have someone to talk to with any questions. And we know you’re working before and after the school day. That’s why we have staff available from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET to make sure you have the support you need.
And Procare support is available on our website 24 hours a day!
FAQs
Procare typically offers more cost-effective pricing because of their flat monthly rate that doesn’t fluctuate based on attendance or enrollment. Brightwheel uses tiered pricing based on enrollment, which means costs increase as your center grows. Procare also offers excellent transaction fees since they don’t have to go through a third party payment processor. All those pennies add up!
Procare offers friendly live phone and chat support (M-F) with no appointment necessary. Brightwheel requires scheduling support calls days in advance with 15-minute limits.
rocare Professional Development is approved in all 50 states and supports the CDA® Pathway with 120+ hours of training. Brightwheel PD is only approved in 35+ states and doesn’t offer the CDA Pathway.
Both Brightwheel and Procare offer Gusto (payroll) and digital curriculum solutions. In addition, Procare offers exclusive integrations with QuickBooks (a direct accounting integration), Checkr (background checks), and IntelliKid Systems (CRM integration for lead management).
Both platforms are suitable for everything from small daycares to enterprise operations. Smaller centers tend to appreciate the live support offered by Procare. If you’re a larger center or a small center planning to grow, consider whether flat pricing or enrollment based pricing will be best for your center.
Ready to Take Your Child Care Center to the Next Level?
Procare is the only solution that gives you everything you need to run your center – from the business side to curriculum, to family engagement – all in one easy-to-use platform.
Procare is used by two out of three child care businesses that use center management software. Let us show you how this integrated system can save you time and money!
Make the move today to the best all-in-one child care management solution in the market!
Procare is here to help.
We know the business of child care. For more than 30 years we’ve been guiding child care professionals just like you to help stay connected and in control.