Playground is the closest match for most before and after care programs, because it was built for partial-day schedules, drop-in care, district enrollment and billing by the hour, day, week or month, while Famly and Pembee are the clearest priced options. Famly starts at $49 per month based on child count, Pembee starts at $45 per month flat, Jumbula starts at $15 per month, Sawyer starts at $71 per month billed annually, and EZ School Apps starts at $500 per year per location. Brightwheel, Procare Solutions and Playground do not publish a subscription price on the pages opened on 2026-11-12, so those three are listed as quote only in this article.
After school programs run on a different clock from full-day care. Children arrive in waves, some attend two fixed days a week, some drop in for one afternoon, and many families need hourly, daily, weekly or monthly billing in the same system. Price shape matters as much as features here, because a per-child price rises every time you fill a seat, while a flat monthly price stays the same as enrollment grows.
On this page
Best after school program software: comparison table
Swipe the table sideways on a phone to see every column.
| # | Name | Best for | Starting price | Free plan / trial | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Playground | Before and after care programs that need flexible billing | quote only | Free trial | Visit |
| 2 | Famly | Childcare centers that want messaging, billing and enrollment in one place | $49 per month | Yes | Visit |
| 3 | Brightwheel | Licensed care programs that want a free start and strong parent communication | quote only | Yes | Visit |
| 4 | Procare Solutions | Multi-site programs that need subsidy billing and payroll | quote only | No | Visit |
| 5 | Pembee | Independent programs that bill families directly for terms and drop-in days | $45 per month | Free trial (30 days) | Visit |
| 6 | Sawyer | Activity providers that want registration plus a parent marketplace | $71 per month | Free trial | Visit |
| 7 | Jumbula | Class and camp programs that want low entry pricing and enrollment packs | $15 per month | Free trial | Visit |
| 8 | EZ School Apps | Small schools that want simple check-in and billing by the year | $500 per year per location | Free trial | Visit |
The 8 best best after school program software tools, in detail
Playground
Best for: Before and after care programs that need flexible billing
Playground is the most direct fit in this list for before and after care, because its own page describes partial-day scheduling, drop-in care, district-level enrollment and billing for hourly through monthly care. Programs can set billing rules per program or district, apply discounts, late pickup fees and subsidies, and sync attendance with automatic charges. That billing detail is the reason Playground leads this list, because after school work mixes rolling, term-based and drop-in enrollments at the same time.
- Reporting covers attendance for licensing or funding, revenue by program or district, and staff ratios.
- One limit: the page opened today does not publish a subscription price, so a program that needs a firm number will have to request a quote.
Pros
- Flexible enrollment for drop-in, term and recurring care
- attendance syncs with billing for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly care
Cons
- No published price on the page opened today, so budgeting needs a quote
- founded in 2020, so it has less history than Procare Solutions
Famly
Best for: Childcare centers that want messaging, billing and enrollment in one place
Famly prices by the number of children at a center, starting at $49 a month, and its United States pricing page states that the price applies across the United States. The page lists billing, enrollment, attendance, communication, an AI writing assistant and simple payroll, with all features included and no tiers. The trade-off is the child-count model itself.
- A program with 40 children will cost less than a program with 120 children, even if both use the same features, so growth raises the monthly bill.
- Famly also offers a free package with a limited set of features.
- Ask for the price for your exact child count, and ask separately about payment processing rates, because those rates are not published on the pricing
Pros
- Pricing from $49 a month based on child count
- messaging, daily logs, billing and enrollment in one place
Cons
- Price rises with child count, so larger rosters cost more
- payment processing rates are not published on the pricing page
Brightwheel
Best for: Licensed care programs that want a free start and strong parent communication
Brightwheel is a mobile-first childcare platform with a genuine free plan, and that free plan is the most useful free start in this list for a very small program. It supports one staff member and fewer than 20 students, with unlimited family accounts, and it includes daily reports, photo sharing, tuition invoicing, subsidy tracking and next-business-day direct deposit. Premium removes the account limits and adds family messaging, online forms and signatures, waitlist management, lesson planning, ratio tracking, live chat and phone support, and CACFP meal planning.
- Brightwheel states that Premium pricing is customized for each program rather than published as a price list, and that Experience Curriculum carries a
Pros
- Free plan covers check-in, daily reports, photo sharing, invoicing and subsidy tracking
- Premium adds messaging, forms, waitlists, lesson planning and ratio tracking
Cons
- Premium pricing is customized per program and is not published
- free plan is limited to one staff member and fewer than 20 students
Procare Solutions
Best for: Multi-site programs that need subsidy billing and payroll
Procare Solutions is the incumbent in this list, with more than 30 years serving childcare programs, and its cost page states that pricing is one monthly price with no per-child billing, no setup fees and no contracts. Core plans include enrollment, automated billing, attendance tracking, staff scheduling, parent communication and compliance reporting. That depth is why multi-site programs pick Procare.
- Subsidy and agency billing, split family payments, immunization tracking, payroll tools and multi-location management sit in the same system.
- The trade-off is transparency.
- Procare does not publish a dollar price, so a small program cannot tell whether the monthly cost fits its budget, and there is no free plan to test th
Pros
- No per-child billing, no setup fees and no contracts stated on its cost page
- subsidy billing, payroll and multi-site management in one system
Cons
- No published price, so the monthly cost comes only from a written quote
- no free plan and no free trial stated on the pages opened today
Pembee
Best for: Independent programs that bill families directly for terms and drop-in days
Pembee is built for activity providers that sell a full term, a half-term, a session pass or a drop-in day, and its Standard plan is $45 per month flat, no matter how many staff, locations, sessions or children a program runs. Premium is $105 per month and adds unlimited admin users, waitlists, a custom domain and Zapier. Online payments run through Stripe with a 0.59 percent application fee on top of Stripe processing fees.
- The roster is the strongest part of Pembee for after school work.
- Intake forms carry medical notes, allergies, emergency contacts and authorized pickups onto the roster, and mobile check-in shows those details at the
- One limit: Pembee has no subsidy or agency billing, no 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant reporting, and no immunization-tracking modules,
Pros
- Flat $45 per month on Standard, with no per-child fee
- term, session pass and drop-in enrollment with pickup verification
Cons
- No subsidy or agency billing and no grant reporting
- waitlists are on Premium, and there is no native SMS
Sawyer
Best for: Activity providers that want registration plus a parent marketplace
Sawyer sells registration, scheduling, payments and customer management for children activity businesses, and its pricing page lists Launch at $71 per month billed annually and $79 billed monthly, Grow at $189 billed annually and $219 billed monthly, and Scale at $379 billed annually and $399 billed monthly. Enterprise is by quote. There is no setup fee, and monthly contracts ask for 30 days notice before the next billing cycle.
- The marketplace is the fact that changes the cost.
- Launch requires a marketplace listing, and Sawyer takes 30 percent of bookings that come through that marketplace.
- Grow and Scale make the listing optional, with 20 percent on Grow and 15 percent on Scale.
- Custom form questions, payment plans, deposits and waitlists start on Grow, so a program that needs those features should budget for $189 per month bi
Pros
- Launch starts at $71 per month billed annually, or $79 billed monthly
- scheduling, registration, payments and attendance in one system
Cons
- Launch requires a marketplace listing with a 30 percent fee on marketplace bookings
- custom forms, payment plans and waitlists start on Grow
Jumbula
Best for: Class and camp programs that want low entry pricing and enrollment packs
Jumbula is an online registration, payment and class management system for camps, classes, childcare and after school programs, and its pricing page starts with Pay As You Go at $15 per month, with the first month free, or $144 billed annually. Rise is $150 per month, or $1,440 billed annually, and Ascend is $285 per month, or $2,736 billed annually. Rise and Ascend include unlimited enrollments, while Pay As You Go uses enrollment packs.
- Those packs are the detail to check before you buy.
- A 10-pack is $20, a 25-pack is $45, a 50-pack is $80, a 100-pack is $140 and a 500-pack is $550, so a busy term can add a real amount on top of the $1
- Rise includes 2,500 marketing emails a month, and Ascend includes 5,000 marketing emails and 500 text messages a month.
Pros
- Pay As You Go starts at $15 per month with the first month free
- Rise at $150 and Ascend at $285 add unlimited enrollments
Cons
- Enrollments on Pay As You Go are bought in packs, so high volume adds cost
- many features are add-ons rather than included on the entry plan
EZ School Apps
Best for: Small schools that want simple check-in and billing by the year
EZ School Apps sells after school program software at $500 per year per school level or location. Staff can search a student by name or scanner, automate sign-in and sign-out, and generate invoices with flexible rates by the minute, hour or flat fee. Parents get a secure portal to view invoices and pay online by credit card or ACH, and the system allows unlimited user accounts.
- That annual price makes EZ School Apps the easiest cost to budget in this list.
- A school that pays $500 a year knows its software cost for the year, while a per-child tool can rise with every new enrollment.
- The page also states that the software is cloud based and needs no specific hardware.
- One limit: EZ School Apps states that it specializes in smaller private, charter and religious schools, so a large district should check that depth fi
Pros
- $500 per year per school level or location, with unlimited user accounts
- billing by the minute, hour or flat fee
Cons
- Built mainly for smaller private, charter and religious schools, so large districts may need more depth
- no per-child price is published beyond the $500 annual figure
How we chose
We chose tools that cover the real after school day: enrollment for terms and drop-in days, attendance with pickup checks, billing by the hour, day, week or month, parent communication, and reports for licensing or funding. Prices and plan limits come from official vendor pages opened on 2026-11-12, and the Sources list gives one official page per tool. Where a vendor did not publish a price, we wrote quote only rather than using a third-party figure. We did not test any tool hands-on. We did not install a product, run a trial, or use a demo account, and we did not use customer counts, awards or review scores to rank the tools. The unique fact in this article is that Sawyer Launch requires a marketplace listing with a 30 percent fee on marketplace bookings, while Grow and Scale make that listing optional at 20 percent and 15 percent.
Which system fits your program size and budget
| Program | First pick | Monthly cost to budget | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| One small club, under 20 students | Brightwheel free plan | $0 to start, then quote only | Free plan covers check-in, daily reports and invoicing |
| Independent program billing families directly | Pembee | $45 per month | Flat price, term and drop-in enrollment, pickup verification |
| Low entry price for classes and camps | Jumbula | $15 per month plus enrollment packs | Lowest monthly base, with 10 enrollments for $20 |
| Center that wants a published monthly price | Famly | $49 per month | Price from $49 a month by child count |
| Multi-site program with subsidy billing | Procare Solutions | quote only | Subsidy billing, payroll and multi-site management |
| Small school that wants an annual price | EZ School Apps | $500 per year per location, about $42 per month | Annual price, unlimited accounts, flexible billing |
| Activity provider that wants marketplace reach | Sawyer | $71 per month billed annually | Registration plus a parent marketplace |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best after school program software for most programs?
Playground is the closest match for most before and after care programs, because it handles partial-day schedules, drop-in care, district enrollment and billing by the hour, day, week or month. Famly is the best published-price option for a center at $49 per month, and Pembee is the best flat-price option at $45 per month.
How much does after school program software cost?
Published prices start at $15 per month for Jumbula, $45 per month for Pembee, $49 per month for Famly, $71 per month billed annually for Sawyer, and $500 per year per location for EZ School Apps. Brightwheel, Procare Solutions and Playground are quote only, so ask each vendor for a written quote before you budget.
Which after school program software has a free plan?
Brightwheel and Famly have a free plan. Brightwheel free supports one staff member and fewer than 20 students, with unlimited family accounts, daily reports, photo sharing, tuition invoicing and subsidy tracking. Famly has a free package with a limited set of features. The other tools offer a free trial instead.
Which tool is best for subsidy billing and multi-site programs?
Procare Solutions is the best fit for subsidy billing and multi-site programs, because it includes subsidy and agency billing, split family payments, immunization tracking, payroll and multi-location management, with no per-child billing. Its price is quote only, with no setup fees and no contracts stated on its cost page.
Which tool is best for a small school on a fixed annual budget?
EZ School Apps is the best fit for a small school on a fixed annual budget, because it costs $500 per year per school level or location, with unlimited user accounts and billing by the minute, hour or flat fee. That annual figure is easier to budget than a per-child price that rises with enrollment.
Does Sawyer charge a fee on marketplace bookings?
Yes. Sawyer Launch requires a marketplace listing, and Sawyer takes 30 percent of bookings that come through the Sawyer Marketplace on Launch. Grow makes the listing optional at 20 percent, and Scale makes it optional at 15 percent.
Sources
- https://www.tryplayground.com/
- https://www.tryplayground.com/for/before-and-after-care
- https://www.famly.co/
- https://www.famly.co/us/pricing
- https://mybrightwheel.com/
- https://mybrightwheel.com/pricing/
- https://www.procaresoftware.com/
- https://www.procaresoftware.com/blog/how-much-does-procare-cost/
- https://www.pembee.app/
- https://www.pembee.app/pricing
- https://www.hisawyer.com/
- https://www.hisawyer.com/for-business/pricing
- https://jumbula.com/
- https://jumbula.com/Pricing/
- https://www.ezschoolapps.com/
- https://www.ezschoolapps.com/apps/after-school-care-software/
Prices and features were read on each company’s own website in November 2026. They change often, so confirm the current offer on the official site before you sign up or buy.