brightwheel Reviews 304

Our school migrated to Brightwheel due to ongoing syncing issues with Procare that remained unresolved for years. While Procare had its challenges, we were always able to reach customer service directly and receive remote technical support during the call, which made troubleshooting much more efficient.
Unfortunately, our experience with Brightwheel has been disappointing. Support calls must be scheduled in advance, they are limited to 15 minutes, and real-time remote assistance is not available. Instead, users are directed to trainings and articles to find solutions on their own, which is not practical for a busy childcare center.
Navigating the software, especially the employee benefits section, is also confusing and difficult. As a director and owner, I expected a smoother, more supportive experience. I truly dislike the idea of returning to our previous system because of the disruption it would cause our school, but at this point we may have to go back to Procare simply to regain reliable support and usability.
Brightwheel offers strong features, but the lack of accessible customer service and the complexity of certain tools have made this transition far more challenging than anticipated.

Telemarketing nonsense.

They found my daycares number via public records since its a licensed daycare in Canada. They used that number to proactively call me and try to offer me services. So i go to their website since ive never heard of them. Its an american company. What kind of dystopian Idiocracy is our world turning into where this app is even needed, let alone being telemarketed to foreign businesses.

I wanted to deactivate my account and I was ghosted in chat. The moment I mentioned that had to cancel service I was left to figure out how I would be contacted- googling the internet for answers! Poor customer service & AI chat was more professional.

I would give it a zero is that was an option. Never have I ever had to jump through hoops and more hoops to cancel anything. No phone number to talk to anyone and they think as a daycare provider i have time to email back and forth. I had a zoom meeting feb 19 and told her to cancel it because it wasn't for me. Send email 26 to confirm cancel and she sends me a phone number that no one answered and mail box full sent me emails and nothing. Today march 2, I finally get to someone on email only to have to set up a time to do this.

As a parent whose daycare provider uses this service I’m displeased. I have a great relationship with my provider and know that you overcharge for your services for the daycare to use it. Now I know they choose to utilize your services so I can’t complain too much about that, but if you are charging them an arm and a leg why is it I too need to pay an arm and a leg to pay my daycare fees through the app. I’m sorry, but I shouldn’t have to pay brightwheel a $30+ dollar fee to pay with my bank account or debit card. There should be a fee free option available as I’m not going to throw money away when you already are paid by the daycare.

This is one of the most frustrating software experiences I have ever had.

First of all, you cannot cancel an active subscription on the Brightwheel website. There is no simple cancel button like any normal SaaS product. Instead, you are forced to call customer support, then they schedule a separate call, where you have to sit through questions and explanations just to cancel a service you no longer want.

Even after going through that process, they continued charging my credit card. At that point it starts to feel less like a subscription and more like a trap.

On top of that, the software itself is overly complex and not user-friendly. The interface is confusing, workflows are unintuitive, and simple tasks take far more time than they should. For something that is supposed to help schools and childcare providers, it adds stress instead of removing it.

This company makes it easy to sign up and extremely difficult to leave, which is a huge red flag. I would not recommend Brightwheel to anyone unless you enjoy chasing support teams and disputing charges.

This is such a great way to keep track of our little one’s day. I only gave 4 stars because sometimes it is a little glitchy.

Put payment on auto pay. 6 months later realize they charged me $17 extra for every payment, why?? Can't get ahold of anyone, no email back? Just awful

I completely regret giving Brightwheel access to my bank account for automatic withdraws. I was billed incorrectly by my daycare provider, and Brightwheel forced money out of my account AFTER the bill was corrected.

Brightwheel will not let you speak with a human when there is a serious problem. I asked several times if I could speak to a person regarding a parent disputing a charge. A week later, I still have not been able to speak to a person regarding this serious matter.

Truly truly truly horrific customer service and cumbersome as all hell to use.

If this is your only electronic method with daycare…? I’d recommend bringing money orders in and skipping it.

There is no help line. There is no chat service. And the email response if you can find it is almost useless and takes forever to get a reply nevermind have a conversation.

It’s SECURE, so I didn’t 1 star it…. But this app is trash.

As a parent who has to use this application, I would never recommend it. It is cumbersome and confusing. The software works differently via a web browser than via phone or mobile. Communication via the app is very confusing. Billing requires paying extra fees to use it. I would NOT recommend this app to any school or parent.

As an educator, this software is time consuming and very clunky. In order to create one row of a lesson plan it takes no less than 16 clicks - for one row! Keep in mind that one row includes ONLY Circle Time for the week. As an educator/administrator: think how many plans/activities a teacher creates for one day in an ELC. Also, it does not offer an integrated Assessment tool - a definite step backwards from our former program.

Have just got two emails of receipts saying I've paid a huge amount of money to them. Never heard of them. Thinking theyve been hacked or there's bad admin going on!

Great IF you dont plan to use the billing option
App is fairly easy for parent contact- which is great to keep teacher personal information safe- and check in is fairly straightforward

BUT the billing side- forget it! if you need help- they only answer via email- and it takes at least 1-2 days to hear back- then it's a copy/paste response from one of their "help articles" - they have no direct contact with their customers- and if a billing issue comes up- you are SOL in getting it sorted- talk about some angry parents

Parents beware that the cost of payment methods is not shown when you first sign up and select your payment method it will not show you the fee. You only find it out after the payment has processed. 2.9% for credit cards and $.6 for ACH. Go for the ACH transaction. Daycare is expensive as it is without surprises.

The app would be ok if the school took advantage of all the features but my biggest issue is my account info can’t be removed! I constantly get the back and forth crap and no one can help me!!!

Brightwheel Representatives listen. They hear you and understand

It is so amazing that we are able to communicate with the parents of our students directly! I love being able to upload pictures for them to see their little one throughout the day!

This is a nice app, there a few things I would recommend to make things a little easier. Thank you for creating this tool for us!