Directors usually start a software search after a bad week: a consent complaint, a teacher who left, a family who moved to the center with the nicer Instagram. They then spend three months comparing feature grids that mix billing modules with photo features as if they were the same product. They aren't.
Before the checklist, one decision will save you most of that time.
Decision zero: one platform, or a stack?
All-in-one platforms (Brightwheel, Procare, Lillio, Famly, Playground and others) bundle attendance, billing, daily sheets, messaging and photos. They're strongest where the business is complex — subsidies, multi-site finance, ratios. Their parent experience is one tab among many.
Focused tools do one job for one audience. Oyku, for example, is only the parent-facing photo and video layer: capture, per-child tagging, school approval, reactions, social content, printed book. It sits beside whatever runs the office.
Neither is wrong. But be honest about which problem you're solving. If parents don't open your current app, adding more modules to it won't help. If billing is a mess, a beautiful photo feed won't fix it. Many centers end up with a stack — a business platform plus a parent-love layer — and that's fine.
The checklist
A. Parent experience (the part that drives retention)
- ✓Does a parent see their own child's moments in a dedicated feed, or a class stream they have to scan?
- ✓How many taps from phone unlock to their child's latest photo? (Two is great. Five is a portal.)
- ✓Can parents react without opening a chat? Do teachers see those reactions?
- ✓Does it work for two households and grandparents without exposing them to each other?
- ✓Is there anything physical at year end — a printed book — or is it all pixels?
- ✓Ask for the parent app and try it as a parent for a week. Not a demo. A week.
B. Teacher workload (the part that decides whether it survives)
- ✓How long does it take a teacher to capture and share one moment? Time it. Over 20 seconds and adoption will fade.
- ✓Is text required? Tools that need paragraphs die within a term.
- ✓Does capture go straight into the school account, or through the phone's personal gallery?
- ✓Can a teacher tag several children in one photo in one gesture?
- ✓Does the app add work (daily sheets, forms) or replace it?
C. Consent and approval (the part licensing cares about)
- ✓Is consent recorded per child with tiers (family-only / group / public)?
- ✓Is it enforced by the software — an opted-out child cannot be tagged or shared publicly — or by staff memory?
- ✓Is there an approval step before any parent sees a photo? Who approves, on what device, in how many taps?
- ✓Are there audit logs of who shared what, when?
- ✓Does the vendor use facial recognition? (If yes, that's a separate consent conversation.)
For policy wording, see our daycare photo policy template.
D. Data and trust
- ✓Who owns the content? Can you export everything if you leave?
- ✓Where is data hosted? Is regional hosting (EU/UK) available if you need it?
- ✓Will they sign a data-processing agreement? Do they publish a trust page?
- ✓Do children ever log in? (Tools with no child accounts sit in a simpler position under COPPA.)
- ✓What is their breach-notification commitment?
E. Marketing and reports (the parts that pay for it)
- ✓Can approved, consented moments be cleared for public use and organised into a library for social media?
- ✓Can you produce a per-child summary for conferences, and a parent-engagement report for licensing, without a spreadsheet?
- ✓Does the vendor help you use content for admissions, or just store it?
F. Pricing (read the model, not the number)
- ✓Per child per month, per child per year, or per center? Model it at the enrollment you expect in two years.
- ✓What's gated behind higher tiers? (Photo download quality and video are common upsells.)
- ✓Is there a pilot, and is it genuinely free — no card, no auto-conversion?
- ✓Is there a contract term? Can you leave with your data?
We've written a fuller breakdown in the childcare app pricing guide. For reference, Oyku is under $10 per child per month, most centers land near $5, and the pilot classroom is free with no card.
Three questions to end every vendor call with
- 1“What is this product not for?” (Good vendors answer immediately.)
- 2“Show me the teacher flow on a real phone, with a stopwatch.”
- 3“Show me what a parent of an opted-out child sees when there's a group photo.”
Run the checklist against Oyku
Bring the list to a 20-minute call. We'll answer every line honestly, including what Oyku doesn't do, and set up a free pilot classroom if it fits.
