Why Brightwheel Pricing Reflects Its All-in-One Value for Preschools
Explore how brightwheel pricing delivers unmatched value by combining efficient tools for communication, billing, and management in one easy-to-use platform.
Compare brightwheel vs Lillio
Why programs love brightwheel over Lillio (formerly HiMama)
Why programs love brightwheel over Lillio (formerly HiMama)
Brightwheel is your all-in-one partner for child care admissions, easy billing, family communication, center management, and more.
Trusted by millions of educators and families
Why programs love brightwheel over Lillio (formerly HiMama)
Brightwheel is a modern, all-in-one childcare management platform built to meet the demands of today’s early education programs. From its flexible billing capabilities to delivering superior parent experiences, brightwheel consistently outperforms other childcare management tools.
Brightwheel offers an intuitive app, ensures the highest levels of reliability, and fast, quality customer support, allowing your program to thrive.
Admissions will be faster and easier
- Everything you need for admissions in one place
With brightwheel, send and prefill forms, share forms and fillable documents, and track enrollment on one platform. - Message prospective families
Never miss a message from a prospective family. Send and receive messages from families interested in starting at your center, right from the app. - More easily fill open spots
Brightwheel has robust admissions features and waitlist management so you can fill spots at your program as soon as they open.
Discover more resources about admissions and enrollment management:
Families at your program will be happier
- Families stay involved
Brightwheel keeps families involved with real-time learning updates, progress reports, photos, videos, and two-way communication. - Easier milestone tracking
Brightwheel offers student portfolios so teachers can share progress steps towards milestones and developmental goals with families. - More flexible billing options
Brightwheel makes it easier for families to divide charges between multiple guardians and agencies, and to pay invoices before they're due.
You'll save teachers more time
- Proactive student updates
Brightwheel makes it easier for teachers to keep families updated on their child's development as it happens. - Mobile experience designed for teachers
Teachers can easily share each child's activities and milestones with families on brightwheel's mobile app. - No extra compliance work for teachers
Brightwheel offers curriculum and activities that stay compliant with all 50 states’ early learning standards and NAEYC.
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Easily stay compliant
- Best-in-class security and payment protection
Brightwheel keeps payment and personal data protected with the highest security and encryption standards, 24/7 monitoring, and PCI Level 1, the highest financial compliance level. - Easily meet licensing requirements
Brightwheel is the easiest way to meet licensing requirements in all 50 states with contactless check-ins, health checks, and room ratios tracking. - Extra support with licensing regulations
Brightwheel is committed to helping you navigate compliance and regulations with the largest support team in the early education industry.
Learn more about childcare program regulations and compliance:
A comprehensive solution for scaling programs
Brightwheel is designed to power programs of every size, from single-site programs to large, multi-location organizations. For programs looking to grow, brightwheel provides powerful, integrated multi-site management tools for scale. This includes organization-level dashboards and reporting, robust financial management, bulk parent communication, centralized admissions pipeline, enterprise-level security, and customizable user permissions and roles by site.
Customers consistently report brightwheel is faster to onboard, easier for staff to adopt across locations, and more intuitive for daily use. Whether you’re managing two locations or ten, brightwheel delivers visibility and consistency without the complexity.
Brightwheel vs. Lillio: What's right for you?
| Brightwheel | Lillio (formerly HiMama) | |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic billing and payments | ||
| Admissions process and waitlist | ||
| Message prospective families | ||
| Student portfolios | ||
| QR code check-in | ||
| Parent directory | ||
| Student and staff scheduling | ||
| Overtime and double overtime calculations | ||
| Family communication | ||
| Spanish language available in app and Help Center | ||
| Custom reports |
Seamlessly switch from Lillio (formerly HiMama)
Easy onboarding trainings
Get access to guided training through brightwheel Academy, a comprehensive learning tool to help you, your staff, and families master using brightwheel.
Speedy support team
Brightwheel has the industry’s largest support team and will ensure that you get quick answers through live chat whenever you need them. Brightwheel’s support team plays a pivotal role in enabling new users to maximize every feature of the software.
Roster and rate card upload tool
Switching to brightwheel is easy when you upload your student rosters. The brightwheel team will import the roster into your brightwheel account so you have all of the information you need from day one.
One simple, transparent price
You won’t pay more as you use more features on brightwheel. Your price is based on enrollment capacity and you get access to all features on the platform.
FAQ: Brightwheel vs. Lillio
Brightwheel offers a comprehensive all-in-one childcare management platform that integrates admissions, billing, family communication, and curriculum tools in one streamlined system. Lillio offers a broad set of features as well, but many programs switching to brightwheel report fewer workarounds, easier oversight, and less toggling between modules.
What sets brightwheel apart is its automatic billing and payment system, a robust admissions process complete with waitlist management, and the ability to message prospective families directly.
Brightwheel also provides student portfolios, QR code check-in, parent directory, staff scheduling with overtime calculations, and Spanish language support across the app and Help Center
Brightwheel offers simple, all-inclusive pricing based on enrollment capacity, giving you access to all platform features without paying extra as you use more tools. This straightforward pricing model eliminates hidden fees and provides predictable costs for your program.
The unified approach means you won’t need multiple software solutions, often making brightwheel more cost-effective in the long run compared to platforms that charge separately for different modules or features. Request pricing information and see how brightwheel’s all-in pricing benefits your program.
Brightwheel’s billing platform is built for childcare programs and designed to remove manual work. You can automate recurring invoices, set up autopay, split payments across multiple payers or subsidy agencies, and even bill based on attendance data—all without spreadsheets or third-party tools.
Payments process quickly with next-business-day deposits available, and you maintain full visibility through real-time reports, balance tracking, and seamless exports to tools like QuickBooks.
While Lillio offers core billing features like payments and invoicing, brightwheel’s system goes deeper—especially in automation, flexibility, and cash-flow reliability. For providers who want fewer manual tasks and stronger financial clarity, brightwheel offers a more complete solution.
Brightwheel is designed to scale with growing programs, offering powerful multi-site management tools including organization-level dashboards, centralized admissions pipeline, bulk parent communication, and customizable user permissions by location.
Whether you’re managing two locations or ten, brightwheel provides visibility and consistency without complexity, making it easier to maintain quality standards across all sites while streamlining operations.
Switching from Lillio to brightwheel is easy and stress-free. Our dedicated onboarding team, supported by comprehensive resources in brightwheel Academy, provides personalized training and hands-on support onboarding every step of the way.
The onboarding process includes roster and rate card upload tools, making the transition from Lillio seamless. You’ll receive 1:1 coaching to help navigate any questions and ensure your staff feels confident using all platform features.
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Why brightwheel is the #1 childcare management software
Save 20 hours per month of administrative work.
2 out of 3 teachers prefer to work at a program that uses brightwheel.
97% of staff report brightwheel is easy to use.
Save 20 hours per month of administrative work.
2 out of 3 teachers prefer to work at a program that uses brightwheel.
97% of staff report brightwheel is easy to use.