Compare / Brightwheel vs Centerly
Brightwheel vs Centerly
Brightwheel is an established all-in-one childcare platform whose iPhone app is rated 4.9 from about 151,000 ratings on the App Store. Centerly is a new system built around AI agents that do office work and ask your staff to confirm. This page compares them area by area, including the places where Brightwheel is the better choice.
Last reviewed September 30, 2026. Written by Centerly. We have never run a center on Brightwheel, so nothing on this page is first-hand: every statement about Brightwheel comes from published materials.
How to read this page
Statements about Brightwheel come from Brightwheel's own website, help center, product newsletters and published terms as they stood on September 30, 2026, and from public app-store and review-site listings. Where we could not confirm something from those materials, we say "not found in Brightwheel's published materials" instead of "no"; a feature missing from public documentation may still exist. Where Brightwheel labels a feature as coming soon, we call it announced. Software changes quickly, so check anything that matters to you with Brightwheel directly. If we have something wrong, write to [email protected] and we will correct it.
The short version
| Brightwheel | Centerly | |
|---|---|---|
| In one line | A broad all-in-one platform with native phone apps shared by admins, staff and families: billing, attendance, communication, admissions, learning and meals. | An agent-first system: software that reads, checks, files and follows up, and asks your staff to confirm. |
| Best for | Programs that put the parent app first, want lesson planning, assessments or a packaged curriculum in the same system, run a food program, or are small enough for the free plan. | Centers whose office time goes to paperwork, licensing files, billing exceptions and chasing follow-ups. |
| AI today | Brightwheel AI answers administrators' questions about the program's own data, and Spotlight lists account issues to act on; per Brightwheel's help center, neither makes changes for you. A Teacher AI Assistant is announced. | An office assistant that reads documents and prepares changes, a compliance watch, a website chat agent for parents, and managed advertising. |
| Compliance | Immunizations flagged as due or overdue against the CDC recommended schedule; expiry reminders on attached documents; ratio alerts you configure. | Every child and staff file checked each night against your own state's rules, with reminders sent for you. |
| Track record | More than ten years in the market, per Brightwheel. Capterra shows 4.7 out of 5 from 3,257 reviews. | New. Built inside a working licensed center. |
| Published pricing | A free plan for very small programs. Premium pricing is not published; quote on request. | Not published; quote on a demo. |
What Brightwheel is
Brightwheel is a privately held, venture-backed software company based in San Francisco. Its founder and chief executive is Dave Vasen. Its founding is widely reported as 2014, and Brightwheel's own site says it has been in the market for more than ten years. The facts that matter when comparing:
- One product, two plans. A free plan, limited per Brightwheel to one staff member and fewer than 20 students, and Brightwheel Premium, which adds family messaging, online forms, the waitlist, lesson planning, kiosk mode, digital signatures and live support. Several rows below describe Premium features.
- Who it serves. Childcare centers, preschools, multi-site centers, in-home child care, Montessori programs, camps and after-school programs, in the United States and Canada.
- One app for everyone. Admins, staff and families use the same native iPhone and Android app, plus a web app.
- Payments and payroll run on partners. Payments run on Stripe. Payroll is Gusto, connected from inside Brightwheel and priced by Gusto.
- Curriculum and training courses are add-ons. Experience Curriculum (monthly physical kits and daily digital lesson plans) and Professional Development courses are sold separately.
- State-funded access. Brightwheel says some states pay for Premium for providers: Kentucky (through September 2027), Iowa (through June 30, 2027) and a Texas program for family child-care networks.
The real difference
Brightwheel's published materials describe a system of record with a strong communication layer: it holds your children, families, staff, attendance, invoices and lesson plans, and shares the day with parents through the app. Its help center describes staff entering immunization dates, outside trainings and subsidy agency payments. Brightwheel AI and Spotlight answer questions about that data and list what needs attention; per the help center, neither sends messages or changes records.
Centerly starts from the other end. It holds the same kinds of records, but the reading, checking and first draft of every routine decision is done by software agents. Your staff see what the agent found and what it proposes, and they confirm. That is what we mean by "fully agentic", and it is the thread through everything below.
That is not a criticism of Brightwheel's quality, and the gap may narrow as Brightwheel's AI develops. It is a difference of starting point: the part of Brightwheel that reviewers praise most is what parents see on their phones, and Centerly began with the office desk and the licensing file.
Office work and AI
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Reading documents | The menu tool converts a photo or PDF of a paper menu into a digital menu. Reading immunization records or staff documents was not found in Brightwheel's published materials; the help center describes staff entering immunization dates on the student profile. | The assistant reads immunization records, hearing and vision screenings, CPR cards and background-check notices from a scan or phone photo, and matches each to the right child or employee. |
| Filing | Programs can request uploads such as immunization records and birth certificates from families and see which forms are complete or missing. Documents are stored as attachments on student and staff records. | Each scanned page is named and filed to the right record. A page the assistant cannot place is held for a person. |
| Parent emails | Families and staff message each other in the app or on the web, and planned absences can be recorded ahead of time. Reading a parent's message and preparing a billing change was not found in Brightwheel's published materials. | Paste in a vacation email: the assistant records the dates, checks the notice period and prepares the tuition credit from the family's agreement. |
| Staff documents | Documents are stored as attachments that can carry an expiration date; admins get reminder emails ahead of expiry. | Uploads are read at once. A wrong or expired document is turned away with the reason. The I-9 is pre-filled from the uploaded ID for the employer to verify. |
| AI products | Brightwheel AI (help-center articles updated in late September 2026; Premium administrators, web only) answers questions about the program's own data, such as ratios, rosters, balances and missing paperwork. Per its FAQ it does not send messages or update records. Spotlight lists account issues, such as failed payments and stalled admissions packets, with a recommended action for each. A support chatbot answers how-to questions. A Teacher AI Assistant (personalized learning activities, automated insights) is labeled coming soon. On September 30, 2026, Brightwheel's Back-to-School 2026 page showed the administrator assistant as available in one place and coming soon in another. | The Centerly Assistant for office work, a nightly compliance check, a chat agent on the center's website, and an advertising autopilot. |
| Who is in control | Staff and admins enter and change records. Brightwheel AI and Spotlight leave every action to the user, per the help center. | Staff confirm every change the assistant proposes. The one exception is routine staff-document checks, which you can switch off. |
Brightwheel AI answers plain-language questions about your program's data, and the announced Teacher AI Assistant is described as suggesting learning activities, which Centerly does not do at all. The two companies have pointed AI at different jobs: Brightwheel at finding answers and flagging issues, Centerly at reading the paperwork and preparing the change.
See the Centerly Assistant screen by screen.
Billing and proration
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Recurring tuition | Billing plans on weekly, every-two-weeks, twice-monthly, monthly, quarterly or annual cycles, with start and end dates. Invoices can go out a set number of days before they are due. Tuition agreements are signed online. | Weekly, monthly, twice-monthly or your own schedule. Charges are generated from each family's signed tuition agreement. |
| Proration | Brightwheel's help articles on creating, pausing and resuming billing plans do not describe automatic proration for mid-period starts, withdrawals or absences. That is not proof the product lacks it; ask Brightwheel to show you a child starting mid-month. | Automatic. Mid-month starts, withdrawals and qualifying absences are prorated from the enrollment dates and the agreement's terms, and posted for review. |
| Pauses and date changes | A billing plan can be paused and resumed; per the help center, a paused plan generates $0 invoices for the paused period. | Billing follows a dated enrollment history. Add a line (for example "Vacation from Nov 9") and billing follows it. |
| Discounts | A discount can be added to any charge as a dollar amount or a percentage; the help center gives sibling discounts as an example. Applying discounts automatically by rule was not found in Brightwheel's published materials. | Sibling, staff and corporate discounts applied by rule to the families they cover. |
| Late pick-up fees | Attendance-based billing uses check-in and check-out records for drop-in care, early drop-off and late pick-up. | Calculated from sign-out times. |
| Late-payment fees | Automatic late fees: a flat amount with a grace period you set and optional compounding at intervals. A percentage-based late fee was not found in the help article. | Applied by rule from the tuition agreement. |
| Subsidy billing | Agencies can be added as payers with their own billing plans, charges can be split between agency and family, and a Subsidy Dashboard shows balances by agency and student. Agency checks can be deposited through Brightwheel. Per the help center, agencies cannot pay online or receive invoice notifications, so the program logs agency payments itself. | Subsidy and co-pay split on one bill. |
| Hold-spot and registration fees | Application and registration fees can be attached to an admissions packet, which generates the invoice automatically. | Hold-spot fees replace tuition during an extended absence; annual registration fees post on schedule. |
Brightwheel also documents split billing across payers, mandatory autopay, family tax statements, bulk rate increases, a forecasting report of scheduled billing, expense tracking with a profit-and-loss report, and Brightwheel Capital, a financing offer through its payments partner. If any of these matter to you, ask us how Centerly handles the same need.
See Centerly billing screen by screen.
Payments
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Methods | Bank transfer, credit and debit cards (off by default; the program switches them on), mobile check deposit, FSA and HSA cards, and in-person Tap to Pay in the US. Autopay, which the program can make mandatory. | Bank draft and card, autopay, and offline payments (check, cashier's check, money order) recorded against the family account. |
| Funding | Per Brightwheel, US online payments made by 7 pm Eastern can reach the program's bank account as early as the next business day, because Brightwheel advances the funds while the payment clears. No processing on weekends or holidays. Check deposits take one to two business days. | Ask us on a demo; timing depends on the payment method. |
| Failed and returned payments | The admin and the payer are both notified, with the reason if the bank gives one. Per the help center, a failed payment is not retried automatically: the payer resubmits it, or autopay collects the past-due balance when the next invoice is due. Because funds were advanced, a failed payment can be deducted from a later deposit. Brightwheel's comparison page on Procare says it charges no failed-payment fees. | Flagged the day it happens, with the reason, and tools to retry on a date, split the amount, or use the family's other payment method. |
| Published processing rates | No rate table on the pricing page, billing page or terms. Brightwheel says there are only two service fees, one for cards and one for bank transfers and checks, with lower rates on Premium, confirmed during the pricing conversation. One help article gives the bank-transfer fee for the majority of programs as 0.6%, with a 25-cent minimum and a $2 maximum. We did not find a card rate on a current Brightwheel page. | Not published on this site. You get the rates in writing with your quote. |
| Security | PCI Level 1 payment processing through Stripe, per Brightwheel. | Card and bank details are held by a licensed payment processor or kept encrypted. Centerly staff never see full card numbers. |
The program chooses who pays: per the help center, service fees can be passed to payers for cards, bank transfers or both, and state surcharging rules are the program's responsibility. Next-business-day funding with advanced funds is a real strength of Brightwheel's payments. If payment processing is your main concern, compare the written rates, the funding timeline and the failed-payment process from both of us side by side.
Licensing and compliance
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Immunizations | Staff enter the dates on the student profile. Brightwheel flags each dose as due or overdue from the child's birthday and the CDC recommended schedule; the program chooses which vaccines to track, and a student can be marked exempt or on a catch-up schedule. Reports list what is due or overdue. A state-specific schedule and a check of minimum intervals between doses were not found in the help articles. | Doses are read from the record by the assistant, then checked one by one against the schedule your state requires for child care, including doses given too early. |
| Hearing and vision screening | A dedicated screening tracker was not found on Brightwheel's website or in its help center. For check-ups and exams, the help center suggests profile notes plus an attachment with an expiration date, which brings a reminder. | Tracked by age and enrollment date under your state's rule, with results recorded. |
| Staff training hours and credentials | Staff profiles hold degree, certifications, credits and professional-development hours. Outside trainings are added by hand; certificates are attachments that can carry an expiration date, with reminder emails to admins and reports of hours and expiring documents. An automatic check of hours against each state's annual requirement was not found in Brightwheel's published materials. | Annual training hours counted only with a certificate attached; CPR and first-aid cards, background-check renewals and affidavits tracked to expiry, with reminders sent to the employee ahead of time. |
| Ratios | Room ratios and capacities that you set, with push notifications when a room is out of ratio. | Live room counts against the ratio in your state's rules. |
| State rules | A rule set for each state's licensing standards was not found in Brightwheel's published materials. Brightwheel does document pre-loaded state learning standards, state form templates for some states, training courses it says are accepted in 49 states, and subsidy attendance integrations with some state agencies. | A rule pack for each US state and DC: required records, immunization schedule, training hours, ratios and forms. |
| Finding the gaps | Spotlight lists account issues such as failed payments, stalled admissions packets and missing staff check-outs, and Brightwheel AI can be asked who is missing paperwork or vaccine records. Immunization and attachment gaps also have their own reports. | One office to-do page lists every gap across child and staff files, by urgency. |
| Inspection day | Attendance reports that Brightwheel describes as customizable for licensing, an exportable attendance audit log, incident logs and the reports above. | Open the files the inspector names. Each shows every required record, signed forms and dates, and can be printed as one packet. |
Brightwheel does more here than store dates: it works out due and overdue immunizations, reminds admins about expiring documents and, with Spotlight, lists issues to act on. The difference is whose rules are applied and who does the entering. Centerly helps you track what licensing requires and shows the gaps. Your center remains responsible for meeting the standards, with either system.
Walk through a licensing visit in Centerly, or read more on licensing compliance.
Parents and enrollment
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Parent app | A native iPhone and Android app, rated 4.9 from about 151,000 ratings on the US App Store. A real-time feed of activities, photos and videos, daily-report emails, messaging, newsletters, text alerts, a calendar, incident reports families can sign, and payments. In English, Spanish and French; automatic translation of messages is labeled coming soon. | Family Journal: classroom posts and photos, daily reports, notices, incident reports acknowledged with one tap, and moments parents can share with family. It runs in the browser and installs to the home screen; it is not an app-store download. |
| Online registration | Application and enrollment forms shared by link or placed on your website; custom forms, admissions packets and fillable PDFs; state form templates for some states; a waitlist you can sort by start date, program and age. | A full enrollment packet online, including the forms your state requires, pre-filled from what the family has already entered. |
| E-signatures | E-signatures on forms and documents, and on tuition agreements. | Tuition agreement, handbook and state forms signed online, with a dated, versioned copy for the family and the center, and the center's countersignature where a form needs one. |
| Parent self-service | Families pay and enroll in autopay, complete forms, upload requested documents, and can complete a health-screening questionnaire from home before drop-off. | Parents upload immunization records from a phone, manage authorized pick-ups, update contacts, allergies and special needs, and see statements. |
Brightwheel lists family messaging, video sharing, newsletters, online forms, the waitlist and digital signatures as Premium features. If a polished native app with a very large base of ratings matters most to your families, that is a point for Brightwheel; the photos, daily updates and messaging parents see are what its Capterra reviewers praise most consistently.
Leads, tours and marketing
On September 30, 2026, Brightwheel's Back-to-School 2026 page, home page and September newsletter labeled a dedicated Brightwheel CRM and Enrollment Forecasting as coming soon, while some other Brightwheel pages describe CRM capabilities in the present tense. The rows below separate what the help center documents today from what is announced.
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Lead pipeline | Available: an admissions dashboard that tracks each prospective student by status (prospect, toured, applied, waitlist, enrolled), with notes, online applications and a waitlist. Announced: a dedicated CRM with pipeline and lead management. | Every lead tracked from first question to first day, with source reporting. |
| Follow-up | Admins can message prospective and waitlisted families, one at a time or in bulk. Automated communications are part of the announced CRM. | A follow-up sequence before and after the tour runs on its own until the family enrolls or opts out. |
| Tour booking by parents | Available: sign-up sheets with tour time slots, shared by link. Families pick a slot themselves; a new family creates a Brightwheel account first. Announced: tour management in the CRM. | Parents book a tour themselves, on your website or in the chat. |
| Website chat agent | Not found on Brightwheel's website or in its help center. Brightwheel's own AI chatbot answers support questions from its customers. | An AI chat agent on your own website answers parents at any hour, books tours and hands off to your office when it should. |
| Advertising | Not found among Brightwheel's products as of our review. Brightwheel publishes marketing advice articles. | Managed advertising to a monthly budget and a target cost per tour, across the major ad platforms, with a dashboard of spend and results. |
| Your website | Application forms and sign-up sheets can be linked from your own website. A website builder or hosted website was not found as of our review. | Centerly runs on your school's own web address: parents enroll, sign and pay under your name. |
Enrollment forecasting (room capacity planning and projections of future openings) is something Brightwheel has announced and Centerly does not offer.
Staff and HR
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Time clock | Staff check in and out at the kiosk or by QR code. Timecards are editable with an edit history, with automatic clock-out for forgotten punches and time-off tracking. | Staff clock in and out on the same tablet parents use. |
| Payroll | Powered by Gusto, connected from inside Brightwheel: hours sync to Gusto, which handles tax filings, direct deposit and year-end forms at Gusto's own price. Brightwheel's payroll page says it is not yet available for some programs, including multi-site programs. | Not a payroll system. Hours are recorded for use with your payroll provider. |
| Scheduling | Staff schedules in day and week views, substitutes, staff and student absences, a ratio-aware view, schedule-change messages and staffing reports. | Weekly schedules by room, shown against ratio coverage. |
| Onboarding paperwork | Staff records and attachments with expiration dates; payroll onboarding runs through Gusto. A dedicated new-hire workflow (offer letters, I-9, background-check tracking) was not found in Brightwheel's published materials. | Online application, offer letter, W-4, I-9, direct deposit and policy acknowledgments, with a checklist by role tracked to completion. |
| Training courses | Brightwheel Professional Development: more than 130 courses that Brightwheel says are accepted in 49 states, with automatic certificates, hours posted to state registries where available, and CDA coursework. Sold as an add-on subscription to Premium, per the help center. | Not offered. Centerly records training your staff complete elsewhere, with the certificate. |
Platform and attendance
| Area | Brightwheel | Centerly |
|---|---|---|
| Where it runs | A web app plus native iPhone and Android apps, on phones, tablets and desktop browsers. The web app is also available in Spanish. | Any modern browser on any device. Nothing to install. |
| Sign-in and sign-out | A kiosk on a shared device with each contact's own four-digit code, QR-code scanning, or check-in by staff, with an optional signature and health-screening questions. The kiosk runs in the Brightwheel app on your own phone or tablet. Kiosk mode is a Premium feature. | PIN or QR pass on tablets you already own. Only authorized pick-ups can sign a child out. |
| Corrections | Attendance can be edited and corrected, and an audit log of who changed what and when can be exported. | A wrong mark is voided and kept, never deleted, and every change shows who made it and when. |
| Offline use | An offline mode is not documented. Brightwheel's guidance for an outage is to re-enter missed check-ins, activities and forms once you are back online. | Needs an internet connection. |
| Meals and food program | Menus with templates and a USDA-based food library, meal logging per child, checks for missing meal components and serving sizes by age, claim checks that scan attendance and meal records for errors, and food-program reports. | Meal counts by room for food-program claims. |
| Curriculum and assessments | Lesson plans, pre-loaded state learning standards, observations and portfolios. Experience Curriculum, for infants through preschool, is an add-on at extra cost, with assessments logged in the app and progress reports. | Not included. Classroom tools cover daily care, photos, notes and incidents. |
| Accounting | QuickBooks Online through a manual file export and import, not an automatic sync, per Brightwheel's compatibility guide. Built-in expense tracking with a profit-and-loss report. | Reports for your accountant. No direct QuickBooks sync today. |
| More than one location | An organization-level dashboard, combined reports, multi-site admin roles with per-site permissions, shared bill-plan and form templates, and student transfers between locations. | Handles more than one location. |
| Security | Two-factor authentication, encryption, PCI Level 1 payment processing and TX-RAMP certified security controls, per Brightwheel. | Role-based access, a full audit trail and encrypted sensitive data. No SOC 2 report yet. See security and data. |
| Support | Live chat for Premium administrators, 9 am to 8 pm Eastern during business hours, per Brightwheel's help center, plus an AI support chatbot at any hour with hand-off to a person. Brightwheel's marketing also lists phone support. | Email support, with the team that built it. Ask about hours on your demo. |
Where Brightwheel is the better choice
We would rather you choose well than choose us. Brightwheel is likely the better fit if:
- A native app with a very large base of ratings matters to your families. Brightwheel's iPhone app is rated 4.9 from about 151,000 ratings. Centerly's parent app runs in the browser and has no app-store listing.
- You are a very small program. Brightwheel has a free plan for programs with one staff member and fewer than 20 students, and serves in-home child care and camps. Centerly was built inside a licensed center and is priced by quote.
- Your state pays for it. If you qualify for one of the state-funded Premium programs Brightwheel describes in Kentucky, Iowa or Texas, that is hard to beat.
- You need lesson planning, assessments or a packaged curriculum in the same system. Brightwheel has all three; Centerly has none.
- You want staff training courses from your software vendor. Brightwheel sells them; Centerly does not.
- You want payroll connected inside the product. Brightwheel embeds Gusto, where it is available for your program type. Centerly is not a payroll system.
- Your food program needs menu planning and claim checks. Brightwheel's meal tools go further than Centerly's meal counts.
- You want a longer track record. Brightwheel has more than ten years in the market and thousands of public reviews. Centerly is new.
- You operate in Canada. Brightwheel documents Canadian payment methods and payouts. Centerly serves US states and DC.
- Payment options and speed are decisive. Brightwheel documents funding as early as the next business day, mobile check deposit, Tap to Pay, and FSA and HSA cards.
- You want live chat support. Brightwheel's help center lists live chat for Premium administrators from 9 am to 8 pm Eastern. Centerly's support is by email.
What Centerly does not have today, in one place:
- No app-store app. Family Journal installs to the home screen from the browser.
- No payroll, no training courses, and no curriculum, lesson planning or assessments.
- No direct QuickBooks sync.
- No offline mode. It needs an internet connection.
- No SOC 2 report yet.
- No long track record. Centerly is a new company.
Centerly is likely the better fit if your office spends its week on paperwork, licensing files, billing exceptions and follow-ups, and you want software that takes that work on.
Price and contracts
Neither company publishes prices for a typical center. Brightwheel's pricing page is a request form that leads to a quote, and Brightwheel's blog says Premium pricing is set for each program; Centerly also quotes on a demo. Third-party websites publish estimates of Brightwheel's prices that Brightwheel has not confirmed, so we do not repeat them. The only fair comparison is two written quotes for your own center.
Brightwheel does publish a free plan. Per Brightwheel, it is limited to one staff member and fewer than 20 students and includes daily reports, photo sharing, tuition invoicing and online payments. Its switching page says its team transfers rosters and billing rate cards for new customers. Processing rates are confirmed during the pricing conversation; see the payments section above.
On contract terms, read what you sign. As we read Brightwheel's Terms of Service, last updated May 12, 2026: subscriptions are billed monthly or annually and renew automatically; subscription payments are non-refundable, with no refunds for partial periods; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current subscription period; notice to stop a renewal is tied to the 30 days before the renewal date; on an annual contract paid monthly, payments continue through the contract term; and a price change takes effect only after the current term. A Brightwheel help article likewise asks for 30 days' advance notice to change a subscription. Brightwheel's blog describes plan terms as flexible, with the agreement length confirmed during the pricing conversation. Your own agreement governs, so check its term and notice period before you compare.
When you ask Centerly for a quote, you get the monthly fee, any usage-based fees and the payment processing rates in writing. You are charged only for the parts that are live, so a staged switch does not mean paying for things you are not using yet.
Switching from Brightwheel to Centerly
We have not run a center on Brightwheel ourselves, so the first step is looking at your exports together. From there:
- We convert your data. Centerly's team brings across children, families, contacts, staff and the billing history your Brightwheel exports contain. You do not re-type your roster.
- You go live in stages. Most centers start with records and compliance, then billing at the start of a month, then the kiosk and the parent app. You do not have to change everything in one weekend.
- Families re-authorize payments once. Each family sets up payment in Centerly. We give you the message to send and track who has done it.
- You are charged only for the parts that are live.
Before you leave Brightwheel, export what you want to keep. Brightwheel's help center describes CSV exports of most reports and a roster export, and says families can save their child's photos and videos in bulk from the mobile app. We did not find a documented full-account export or a program-wide export of photos and videos, and Brightwheel's terms say that ending an account may result in its content being destroyed, so ask Brightwheel support what you can take and for how long. A help article says payment history stays visible after Premium is cancelled and recommends exporting staff timecards and deactivating billing plans first. Check your renewal date and notice period before you set a go-live date. More on switching.
Questions to ask both of us
- Show me a child starting on the 13th of the month. Who calculates the first bill?
- Show me what happens when an autopay bank payment fails. Is it retried, who is told, and is there a fee?
- An inspector names three children and two employees. Show me their files.
- Who types in the doses from an immunization record, and is the schedule my state's or the CDC's?
- How will I know a teacher's CPR card is about to expire, and who tells her?
- What are your card and bank processing rates, in writing, who pays them, and when do funds arrive?
- Which features on your website can I use on the day I sign, and which are announced for later?
- What is the term, how does it renew, and how much notice do I give to stop?
- If I leave, how long can I and my families still sign in and see our records and photos?
Our buyer's checklist has the full list.
FAQ
Is Centerly a Brightwheel alternative for a single center?
Yes. Centerly covers the daily work of a single licensed center: records, attendance, billing, payments, parent communication, enrollment, compliance and staff onboarding. It also handles more than one location. It does not include curriculum, assessments, training courses or payroll, which Brightwheel offers directly or through partners.
Does Brightwheel have AI?
Yes. Brightwheel's help center documents Brightwheel AI, an assistant for Premium administrators on the web that answers questions about the program's own data, and Spotlight, which lists account issues with a recommended action. Per the help center, neither sends messages or changes records; reading paperwork and preparing the change for staff to confirm is what the Centerly Assistant does. Brightwheel also has an AI support chatbot and a menu tool that reads a photo of a paper menu, and it labels a Teacher AI Assistant as coming soon. Ask Brightwheel what is live on your plan.
Does Brightwheel prorate tuition automatically?
We could not confirm it either way. Brightwheel's public help articles on billing plans do not describe automatic proration for mid-period starts, withdrawals or absences. Ask Brightwheel to show you a mid-month start. In Centerly, proration is calculated from the enrollment dates and the family's signed agreement and posted for review.
Is Brightwheel free?
Brightwheel has a free plan, limited per Brightwheel to one staff member and fewer than 20 students. Larger programs use Brightwheel Premium, priced by quote. Per Brightwheel, payment service fees apply on both plans, with lower rates on Premium, and some states fund Premium for eligible providers.
Does Brightwheel have a CRM and tour scheduling?
Brightwheel's help center documents an admissions dashboard that tracks prospective students by status, messaging to prospective families, a waitlist, and sign-up sheets that families can use to book a tour slot. A dedicated CRM with a lead pipeline, tour management and automated communications was labeled as coming soon on its Back-to-School 2026 page and in its September 2026 newsletter. Confirm the current status with Brightwheel.
Can Centerly import my Brightwheel data?
Yes. Centerly's team converts children, families, staff and the billing history contained in your Brightwheel exports as part of switching.
Do I have to move everything at once?
No. You can go live in stages and you are charged only for the parts that are live.
Does Centerly have an app in the app stores?
No. Family Journal runs in the browser and installs to a phone's home screen. If an app-store app is important to your families, Brightwheel has one with a very large number of ratings.
Sources
All read on September 30, 2026. We name the documents instead of linking to them; each is easy to find on Brightwheel's website or help center. We have not used Brightwheel ourselves.
- Brightwheel website: home, about, pricing, features, billing, attendance, communication, enrollment, staff scheduling, payroll, professional development, Experience Curriculum, menu planning, daily health checks, multi-site, security, switching and why-Brightwheel pages; the Back-to-School 2026 page; Brightwheel's comparison page on Procare.
- Brightwheel blog: Premium pricing and the free plan; getting the most out of a subscription; how to get Brightwheel free; the 2025 Back-to-School roadmap; billing platform improvements (2023); childcare CRM.
- Brightwheel Terms of Service (last updated May 12, 2026).
- Brightwheel help center articles on: Brightwheel AI (two articles, updated late September 2026); the support AI chatbot; Spotlight; the monthly product newsletters for January to September 2026; billing plans, pauses, discounts, late fees, billing settings and the forecasting report; payer billing FAQs, failed payments, autopay, deposit timing, check deposit and Tap to Pay; subsidy agencies and subsidy payments; immunization tracking and reports; student health tracking; staff certifications, professional development and attachments; admissions features, the admissions dashboard, messaging prospective families, sign-up sheets and state form templates; uploading a paper menu; the check-in kiosk; language settings; logging activities after being offline; QuickBooks compatibility; reports, roster export and photo downloads; changing a Premium subscription and what happens to billing on cancellation; contacting support.
- Stripe's published customer story on Brightwheel.
- Apple App Store listing for the Brightwheel child care app (US).
- Capterra listing for Brightwheel.
- News coverage of Brightwheel's 2021 funding round, for company background.
Brightwheel and Experience Curriculum are trademarks of their owners, as are Gusto, Stripe and QuickBooks. Centerly is not affiliated with Brightwheel.
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