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I love how each it is to message the entire group as well as how simply I can contact just one parent. It takes away from those awful group messages. Taking attendance, keeping track of birthdays, and reminding myself of allergies/pick up situations is so much easier when its right in my hand. The program my school uses is only accessible on school premises. Brightwheel makes it easy to contact, keep up with my class and their parents when I'm away from the classroom. After all, the work of a teacher is never over. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I don't dislike much about the app. I would love it if it was easier to set up notifications to my phone that notified me in the same way that a text message does. Messages from my students' parents are just as important as those from my friends and family. I wish they would all make my phone buzz and show up on the lock screen as a notification. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Video Reviews
Best Childcare software out there!
124 out of 125 Total Reviews for brightwheel
Overall Review Sentiment for brightwheel
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Brightwheel is a feature filled and very user friendly platform designed to make managing a pre-school, daycare center, or other childcare/education space easy and smooth. I personally like that the room management, timesheets for staff, billing for clients, and more are all in one specific platform (which helps with managing fewer logins). The billing system specifically is quite good and offers a lot of frequency and customization options. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Brightwheel has a few limitations to be aware of. Specifically, emails sent to clients will be brightwheel branded and not from your company. Additionally, the Calendar function is almost useless except for scheduling holidays off that your center will be closed. I have requested the ability to make more customized calendar options but that hasn't surfaced yet. Overall a great product with some limitations. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
They make a lot of money. They're currently valued at 600 million dollars and that was as of two years ago, so they've likely grown in valuation since then. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
For parents using to pay for schooling, Brightwheel offers no phone support.. even parents they may be paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars to Brightwheel a year.
The auto-ay billing system hides warnings of fees behind hover-over states and will only give an estimate as to what fees they will charge. There is no subtotal before checkout when setting up auto-pay, nor a bill before auto-pay is initiated, so they can take unexpectedly large chunks of money from you without your knowledge.
Their customer support team for billing, led by Brett Arnold, likes to blame-shift any ask for refunds onto the "program", ie your preschool. They say any sort of credit or refund is against their policy. A business with zero refunds is a bad business. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I use brightwheel every single day. I love the notifications that I get and that they give a preview of what information I'm being shared. This way I know whether it's an emergency, a meal or just nap information. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Sometimes there are delays in notifications. This is something my daycare mentions. There's about a 2-3 minute lag, which feels quite long when you're talking about your child. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I love the fact that you can directly message parents back and forth along with seeing uploaded pictures now when they are posted so that it is in real time for parents to view. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I don't like that sometimes; when I post a video it caps the time allowed for each video. Also, I wouldn't say I like that I cannot see who is actually "liking" the picture/video so I can make sure that they are directly related to the child and not just some random viewer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Brightwheel allows us to be in constant and immediate communication with the parents. It gives our teachers a tool that allows them to share a child's progress, immediately notify parents, share videos and anecdotes, and it provides the school with a comprehensive view of its population. It saves a ton of paper and makes our parents more secure knowing that their child is an app away. Great tool for my preschool. It also allows new parents to feel more comfortable knowing they have a link to the child's room. Alos allows teacher to assess the students and note milestones Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Parents sometimes have difficulty if they change their email address or phone number. If a parent has children on different billing plans, it can sometimes be difficult to understand the statements they receive. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I like that you can record keep easily, and communicate daily with families. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There is no spell check, it's not easy to to transfer students into a different classroom. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
It's an easy to use app for parents whether technical or not. They support photo and video based media posts to help us follow what our son is doing at school each day. It allows us to download those images / videos too.
The messaging stream helps us communicate privately with his teachers and admins while they can push 1-1 messages or group messages to us without creating a group chat with other parents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I'd like to upload images myself to share in messaging section to his teachers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The intuitive nature of the app is helpful; I downloaded it to my child's preschool and figured out how to use it immediately Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Nothing at this point; I've yet to have an issue with the app Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Get pictures of my child and the notifications Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
This app has a terrible user experience. I have to use it for two daycares, and moving from one account to the other is not a straightforward process. It is also not accurate as I have received information about my child's daily activities when my child has not been at school.
At the minimum, Brightwheel should sync the attendance with the automated push-up notifications. Otherwise, it just adds to the loss of credibility of the school.
The payment reminders are also confusing and innacurate because it is not set up to avoid duplication.
It is better than nothing, but today we have abundant technology available for apps to be better so it is a shame that this is what we have to use to coordinate with the school Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Brightwheel is great! Not only has Brightwheel made our attendance tracking so much easier, but using it as a communication tool with families has been such a blessing! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There are still things we'd like to see in Brightwheel (different reports, etc.) but they are adding to the platform every day! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
