All brightwheel Reviews
1-25 of 3,126 Reviews
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Allison
Legal Services, 11 - 50 employees
Used less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
Reviewed October 2021
love this platform
Marenyane
Verified reviewer
Internet, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
3
Reviewed March 2022
How to manage your managerial work at School with brightwheel
I helped one of the school daycares to manage inventory, students, and payments quite well.
PROSIt is very easy to track down your schedules on the calendar It is easy to keep a record of students' attendance along the week It is easy to plan well on how your schedule
CONSThe only thing not good about this software is that it is not yet known all over Lesotho
Reason for choosing brightwheel
It is a bit easy to use rather than other softwares
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
I wanted to try new things out.
Elna
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
We love Brightwheel
We love this program. We love that we are now paperless. Our billing is always on time, and direct deposit. We cannot say anything bad about this program. We have been with them for just over a year and they are wonderful to work with, and the program itself is amazing.
PROSI love that we can communicate with families in real time.
CONSNothing that I can think of so far. We love this program.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
Lesson Planning. It is just that simple. The standards are built into the program so when you are planning you can attach the standards. This is a huge advantage for any program.
Lisa
Primary/Secondary Education, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
Best Program on the Market
Has made my job so much quicker & easier.
PROSMakes everyday payments easy to be billed & received on time.
CONSI would like to be able to speak by phone, with customer service as needed instead of having to make an appointment for a call back.
Anonymous
501-1,000 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
1
EASE OF USE
2
FUNCTIONALITY
2
Reviewed November 2022
This App is terrible
Honestly-Nothing! As a parent who uses this app daily I find it to be awful!
CONSThis software does not allow you to see multiple kids at once on a feed without going back and forth. Going back and forth between children is a pain!! Then when I select a child the default is Profile view, I am the parent I don't care about the profile I want to go right to my child's feed. It would be nice if there was a quick view to check in and just see a quick update of all my children on the home screen. There are times when I only have a minute or two to look quick and I just can't with all the back and forth clicking between kids and not being able to see their feeds without some more clicking. I also hate that when a nap is ended it doesn't show the time napped. I only get that at the end of the day when I get a summary after my kids are checked out. I know I can look and see when they started and then when it ended and figured it out, but the starts are not always logged and visible. A summary on their feed would be nice. I also know there are other glitches with this app especially with the pay and checking in and out of kids. My daycare center does not like this app either, but they don't have a choice. The app that was used before this was called Daily Connect and it was absolutely wonderful. You could leave notes, see feeds or multiple kids for quick glances. Yes, there was not payment option on that to keep things simple, but bright wheel doesn't keep things simple now. As a parent & daily user of this app w/ multiple kids , it is TERRIBLE!
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
Didn't have a choice
Edith
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
Stupendous and Great Child Care Management System
Stupendous and Great Child Care Management System.
PROSAttendance Billing Parent Communicatons Newsletter publishing Reporting and tailored towards taking care of the administrative paperwork to help us focus on teaching and others.
CONSNothing was missing from the main features required for child care management system. I would simply say not applicable or nothing to this question.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
Our State PreK made the switch since we could not get wonderschool to get the check in and check out attendance signatures printed as PDF because when downloaded into EXCELS the signatures do not save into this file.
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
Attendance with checking in and checking out signature to meet the State regulatory requirements during audit.
Cooper
Health, Wellness and Fitness, 501-1,000 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
Love this app!
I love that I can see a step by step play of my childs day. I love that there is communication right there in the app so I don't have to pick up the phone if it is a busy day.
CONSI do not like that we still have to answer the covid questions.
Helen
Facilities Services, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed March 2024
Best app to keep track of school life of my kids
I like that is easy to use and clear , and we get to see all the important informations about the school! But the best part for me is the communication with all the staff of the school
CONSSometimes I couldn’t download the pictures
Cates
Education Management, 1 employee
Used weekly for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
A parent's review
The app is easy to use to pay weekly invoices and also pay bi-weekly or monthly if needed.
CONSWhen app updates are pushed through, the updates are not well announced or explained.
Lindsay
Alternative Medicine, 2-10 employees
Used weekly for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2024
Great for Communication!
Cannot recommend this app more. Love how easy it is to use and to communicate between parents and staff.
CONSCan be glitchy every now and then but mostly don’t have an issue.
vikas
Computer Software, 1 employee
Used daily for less than 6 months
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed January 2024
Bright wheel
Greater app my kids daily communication to teacher. Personal and daycare very helpful parents and kids.
CONSBest app for parents to children care is very help full
Kaley
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2021
LOVE Brightwheel!
LOVE this app! Our teachers use this all day and I use it throughout the day as well. Families love being able to talk to the classroom teachers and stay up-to-date with what their child is doing each day.
PROSBeing able to message parents, send pictures, send updates and stay in contact with the families is the best part of the app. We love it as a school and the parents love it even more!
CONSThere can be some confusion when checking students in and out and using name-to-face but once you know the difference it becomes easy to use.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
Ease of use, cost, and all of the additional features. Love that it is a live app that parents can see everything.
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
Our company switched over to this platform and honestly it was for the best!
Samantha
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed November 2022
Exceptional Accountability for Staff and Families!
I absolutely love Brightwheel. The newer billing system has been hard to learn, but it still is an amazing addition to our center overall.
PROSThe alert system that tells families what is happening in their billing and with their children in real time keeps the center very accountable. It is also easy to catch and correct any mistakes right then.
CONSI do feel there are a few things that could be integrated to make it even more efficient - like an alert that tells you when someone is clocked in more than 8 hours or 10 hours (or whatever the user sets). Also, being able to alert teachers when a child has not been updated in their class after 2 hours or 3 or whatever the user preference is. I would also like to be able to input staff vacation into the system somewhere. It would be helpful with payroll.
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
The procare version we had was a basic version that way extremely junked up by a previous [SENSITIVE CONTENT]. It was not connected to families and billing was messy. We just needed something fresh to start new with families that gave them access to what was going on in their billing and with their children throughout the day.
Paula
E-Learning, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2023
Best Decision Made All Year
Our business has been impacted by having more time to improve care for our kiddos and costumer services to our parents using Brightwheel. Brightwheel saves you time after you have set up the program. They have great little video's online to help you out and costumer services is great also when my 65 year old brain is saying what? I will say because of my 65 year brain and technology that speaking to a person would be a little easier but hey I'm still getting it and understanding. Invest in the product!
PROSBilling!! What a time saver! Attendance & Staffing time saver! Communication with Parents time saver! Easy to learn and this is from a person that's not the brightest person on technology. (I was 63 years old now 65)
CONSMake longer videos to send to parents. That's it.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
To tell you the truth I saw it on Shark Tank on a rerun saw the [sensitive content hidden] invested in his program and new it would always improve these men saw their daycare struggling they understood I connected with them in that short moment. Then with the walk through of the product I was sold.
Allison
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed November 2018
Make the transition to paperless!
We do not otherwise incorporate tech into our business, we use Quickbooks and simple excels, Brighthweel has not had a crazy learning curve and its just a great product.
PROSWe use Brightwheel chiefly for its billing functionality and to meet State licensing requirements regarding records of attendance, ratios, sign in and out, etc. These are records you have to keep for years and the stacks of Bankers boxes were towering! Now we can upon request create and print any report, for instance our licensor could request sign in and out records from a certain classroom on a certain date--it can be provided way faster than digging through those old paper files. Name to face attendance can be achieved confidently with the picture bubbles for all your students--you can feel confident as an admin that all transitions and ratios are covered For billing it is clean and streamlined--you can create plans, parents can establish autopay, they have constant access to their receipts and invoices, end of the year statements, your EIN, etc. It is a win win for both us as bookkeepers and for our parent clients. The interface is very clean--sign up is a breeze for new children and it would be very challenging to get confused on the parent screen. Brighthwheel saves us time AND paper.
CONSHere is the thing--Brightwheel is constantly developing. So if you were to have a con you can feel assured your feedback will be heard. We have been with them nearing 3 years and have watched so many features get added on and updates made. They take customer feedback seriously and want to understand the industry's needs--we have had conference calls with developers and participated in a lot of dialogue about what we need and what works well.
Brenda
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed September 2023
True customer service.
Our experience with Brightwheel has been the best. Customer service is top notch. Outside of the program they offer trainings, resources, and tips and tricks to name a few.
PROSI love so many things about brightwheel. I love that I can share anecdotal records and photos with families, I can create a space to share photos with staff, and the ease of use of the app and online website. I am a big fan of Brightwheel and tell everyone about it. During the pandemic Brightwheel stood by us and even offered trainings for our staff at no cost when other similar companies we worked with would not work with us or gave us ultimatums. I will forever promote Brightwheel to others in the field and cannot thank them enough.
CONSThere isn't really anything I don't like about Brightwheel. I notice that when I message staff together and they respond, staff can't see each other's message. I know this is a privacy concern but wonder if you can have a setting for this like "all staff" or individual staff. It's not a deal breaker. Many of the things I use to have issues with, they fixed them.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
The sales person was not pushy. We did a comparison and realized we would be saving money because we could eliminate a few other programs we were using to supplement the one we had and the ones we were looking at.
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
It was expensive, hard to work with, no customer service, and did not give us a fraction of what Brightwheel does.
Robert
Verified reviewer
Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed September 2023
One of the best we’ve used
Overall, the app has been a wonderful addition to the way I interact with my child’s daycare provider. Prior to brightwheel, we used two different services. Those did not have as many features as brightwheel and often times were down due to technical issues. Brightwheel is always available is an easy to use application.
PROSBrightwheel is an easy to use app with all the functions necessary. It allows you to see daily updates on your child to include both video and photos. It allows for a secure place to communicate with your child’s providers and keep informed with things outside of the normal daily updates. Being allowed to also send payments through the app is highly beneficial. Having everything in one app makes things so much easier.
CONSThere isn’t much to dislike about the app. One slightly frustrating feature is the reminder emails regarding autopay. There was a time where I intentionally did not want to use auto pay. The app then would send DAILY notifications prompting me to sign up for autopay which was slightly frustrating.
Amy
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for less than 12 months
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
3
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed August 2018
Look forward to updates! Always getting better!
Replacing Quickbooks, paper daily sheets, paper time sheets, check in/out logs for kids. LOVE the ability for the parents to message the staff instead of having to go through the office phone/email. Although this program has a few things that could be added, I would 100% make this switch!
PROSSuper easy for the teachers to use in the classroom. I like the set up on the teacher end. The billing system is pretty easy to use (1,000x easier than Quickbooks) especially because parents can see their account at any time. The parents really love the program and it has added a new level of quality to our program! Each update makes it better! I look forward to the updates!
CONS-Sometimes I will message customer services is not very helpful. (Lots of apologies) For example: My end will not let me delete staff members. They offer to do it for me because it should work but the point is it doesn't but there is nothing they can do. Another example, when the update came for "Room Device Mode" I could not get this to work on our android devices, which i understand IOS update generally come first so I waited. Then I asked and I went through a few day long conversation about my device, systems, etc to only be told that is was not available for android. They all the sudden realized that the update was only for IOS? There are a few quirks that I hope get worked out through updates. I wish I could add notes to parents, calendar, messages, etc through the website. Typing these messages on my phone is a little annoying especailly if they are long. I would LOVE a way to message staff as a group or individuals through BW. We only use it for clocking in/out but I think there is so much more you could do with the staff end. Also if they could see their time cards would be super helpful! Maybe a request for a correct on the time sheets?
Hank
Marketing and Advertising, 1 employee
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed October 2019
Brightwheel - easy and friendly!
I use Brightwheel at my children's preschool to check them in & out on a daily basis. It's a great system for that and is very fast. A simple 4 number pin/password gets me to my dashboard where only my kids show up and a click of a toggle button checks them in or out. Then, a quick signature (DHR compliant!) and I'm done. They use it for car pool on an iPad and it keeps the line moving. The school moved from a pen and paper set up which was much slower due to flipping through the clipboard to find your kids and signing for each of them. Plus, if it was raining the papers were a mess. The school has the iPads in a weatherproof cover that still allows for signature with the touch screen.
PROSIt's fast, efficient and very easy to use. It has a lot of features that we do not currently use, but used in the past. We only use it for checking kids into the preschool now, but have used the communication features in the past where the teachers could post pictures and send messages to the parents.
CONSI really do not have any cons for Brightwheel. My experience has been very positive and I like the product. Being 100% honest, I have never had to contact customer service so I can not speak to that, but I do know that the implementation of the solution was pretty simple.
Reasons for switching to brightwheel
We moved from pen and paper on a clipboard because it was slow, messy if raining and just not efficient. Someone had to file the papers and do some data entry as well. With Brightwheel, those issues were solved!
Dawn
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
3
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed December 2018
Brightwheel Pros & Cons
Our staff members are more informed on a daily basis and connected to the parents more. They receive updates on students versus relying on the director to pass on the information from a phone call or email.
PROS1) It has aloud our staff members to connect with families more on a daily/weekly basis. 2) Staff are able to post pictures without using their phone storage. 3) Parents can sign-in & sign-out easier. Easier to add extra pick-up people. 4) Easier to obtain tuition payments from families. 5) Easier to have a visual of the school in one location (I can switch rooms and see who is there and the staff in the room. 6) Bi-monthly payroll is much easier with the time sheets.
CONS1) There is no way to message staff members all at once or for them to receive a message as well. (example, I post the newsletter for parents and the staff would have to open a student file to view it or I mass message the parents but the staff do not receive the mass message as well. 2) I wish you could post pdf files to the parents versus just image files. (My newsletters and forms always have to be converted to pdf and then to image file. 3) Red sign-in kiosk screen is not good for viewing out in the sunlight. (blue & white would be better) 4) I am unable to find the observations easily for review later on for report as a class or objective/goal. 5) iPhone users seem to have trouble with the app more (receiving messages & they are not able to click on links that I may send either through messaging or under the notes).
Nanette
Education Management, 11-50 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed February 2019
Brightwheel helps with multiple facets of the preschool day!
As stated in the "pros" of this software, Brightwheel makes communication that much better between the preschool and the families. It allows for parents to really be connected with their child, and the the learning they are involved in all day, as well as those memorable moments, that the parent may not get to see as it is happening. I would recommend Brightwheel to all preschools for the fact that it is quite easy to use, it is fast to input data, and it is multi-functional. As a preschool teacher that has been teaching for 20 years, I feel this is one of the best tools I have had access to.
PROSThis software helps make the connection between home and the preschool setting stronger. It allows teachers and parents to communicate important information to each other. It allows for photos to be shared with the families, so that they can see the learning taking place in the classroom. It allows for teachers to keep track of the development that each child is going through, in a very structured, easy to understand format. I can't say enough good things about this software!
CONSThe software used to never have the video component, but they introduced that component within the last year, and it has really been a nice addition. It seems that the company really values the feedback of it's clients, and then implements the ideas. There is nothing I like the "least" about this software.
Anonymous
10,000+ employees
Used daily for less than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
4
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
4
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed February 2021
Too complicated and detailed for a daycare use
When I compare the home section of Brightwheel with similar software Tadpoles, it looks too complicated and detailed for everyday use. Generally, as a parent I am mostly interested in photos and videos of my kid and maybe a short description of her day. I do not need to see all the details like food, naps, potty as separate sections. I can imagine how much time it takes for teachers to fill out all the information for each kid.
PROSI like that the application allows to set up payments of tuitions. Moreover, you can set up autopayments and should never worry about it again. The section of payment is generally done well: I did not have any issues connecting my bank accounts to the application, I have the whole history of payments in my account, I see pending status and so on. But this is probably only thing that I like in Brightwheel.
CONSUnfortunately, there are some issues with the Payments section. The link "Print Invoice" does not work for me, so a daycare had to send me the invoice via email. One day (when I did not have autopayments set up) I stopped receiving notifications from Brightwheel about new invoices. As result, I was late to pay and our daycare charged me a late payment fee. Since the time I never received any notifications from Brightwheel again. I set up the autopayments with Brightwheel but honestly now I am scared to trust it again, so I prefer to pay before a deadline myself, I use my apple calendar to send me notifications every month.
Renee
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed June 2023
Brightwheel Review
Brightwheel is a great product for teachers/staff, parents and admin. It's so easy to use and quick to teach new staff! I love Brightwheel and couldn't imagine my center without! We are so pleased and happy with Brightwheel services and the Brightwheel employees are quick and sufficient replies!
PROSI like how the parents at my daycare see photos and videos of their child/ren that our staff posts on their throughout the day. I also like the messaging piece between teacher & parents as ell as administrative and parents too. I like how teachers can keep track of their children and post activities regarding the Mother Goose curriculum
CONSThe integration with Brightwheel within my center was ease, I have no cons about Brightwheel it is amazing and helps us a lot at my center!
Reason for choosing brightwheel
We chose Brightwheel because it is a great product and app all around for everyone, has all the great features pertaining to our needs as a childcare center plus more! We absolutely love it!
Kandy
Education Management, 2-10 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
5
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
5
Reviewed December 2022
A time and paperwork saver
I've been extremely happy with Brightwheel. The streamlining has been wonderful and has saved me a lot of time and energy. For a long time I had wanted a single platform that covered everything. I found that emailing parents was cumbersome and often resulted in miscommunication or families would not get the emails, or they'd get buried deep where they never saw them etc. Having a platform where parents know they have one single place to go for information regarding preschool has helped so much. It's hard for families to "not get" the communications now. :)
PROSThe billing feature has been a huge time saver. I used to write paper receipts and use paper ledgers to manage payments which took a lot of time. My other favorite (and parent's favorite) is the photo taking feature. Families love getting photos of their children to see what they are doing in real time.
CONSNot being able to make an adjustment to multiple student accounts at one time. We have gotten grant money from the state and I had to apply discounts to every student as part of the grant requirement. It was rather cumbersome to have to go in to each student billing profile one by one to apply the discount, so this is a feature I'd like to see added at some point.
Paul
Hospital & Health Care, 1,001-5,000 employees
Used daily for more than 2 years
OVERALL RATING:
5
EASE OF USE
4
VALUE FOR MONEY
5
CUSTOMER SUPPORT
5
FUNCTIONALITY
4
Reviewed March 2023
Never Going Back
Clients love this system, teachers love this system, and I love this system.
PROSI really appreciate most aspects of the communication system for staff and parent clients as well. I like the billing and account systems a lot. I appreciate that lesson plans, invoices, in real time teacher-parent communications are all in real time and at access to the parents at all times.
CONSI wish there were a way to upload our curriculum goals ad objectives into the system in order to make lesson planning, learning observations and child assessments more connected and seamless. I also wish that there were a way to pause messaging overnight or weekends short of signing out. It would be great to be able to set an out of office on messaging.
Reason for choosing brightwheel
Liked the interface the best, and felt the customer service was responsive and listened to suggestions to make the system better.