Overview

QikKids is a management platform for Kindergarten and out-of-school-hours care (OSHC) services. It suits teams that need to coordinate attendance, enrolment, billing and family access in one service-oriented system. Its operational coverage is broad, but plan selection and GST-excluded pricing deserve close attention.

Key features

Attendance and daily operations

Digital sign-ins, real-time attendance and headcounts address the daily need to keep track of children on site. Office Lite adds a centre dashboard, contactless sign-ins, digital bookings and automated Child Care Subsidy handling; the separate Desktop & Kiosk package includes CCS attendance management, sign-in/out, headcounts, financial and attendance reports, and parent messaging. Buyers should match these package capabilities to their workflow rather than assume that similarly named products are interchangeable.

Enrolment and family access

Office Core adds child enrolment and management, custom enrolment forms, multi-service reporting and a waitlist with custom filtering. Those additions matter most to services handling demand or coordinating more than one service; a centre chiefly seeking attendance tools may not need them. Families can use mobile booking to manage casual sessions and absences, and every plan includes the Home parent app and web portal. That consistent family access is a useful baseline rather than a reason by itself to choose a higher tier.

Payments, workforce and integrations

QikKids supports automatic recurring payments and ad-hoc PayNow payments, covering both routine billing and one-off charges. Office Essential adds rostering, workforce productivity insights, staff clock-in/out and digital timesheets, making it the more relevant Office option for services that need staff workflows as well as child administration. The Essential package also includes integrations such as Xero and Ento, API access and nightly SQL-table database backups. These are meaningful capabilities for teams connecting systems or prioritising backups, though they sit above the lower tiers.

Pricing

QikKids is presented as freemium, with a free plan, but no specific free-plan cap or feature bundle is given. Paid pricing is shown with monthly and annual options, and listed prices exclude GST. The entry price is $204 per month for Lite; Core is shown at $268 per month and Essential at $397 per month. These figures are presented as localised prices, and the Essential and Core figures are not separately identified as a billing term, so confirm the applicable quote and billing schedule before budgeting.

Lite is the lower-cost paid starting point for services focused on centre operations and attendance. Core is the step up for enrolment management, custom forms, multi-service reporting and waitlist filtering. Essential is aimed at services needing workforce tools, integrations, API access and nightly database backups. Each plan includes the parent app and web portal, so the upgrade decision is about administrative depth rather than whether families can access the service.

Other plan names cover different packages: Playground tiers are grouped by capacity at 0–39, 40–69, 70–99 and 100+ places, while Office Lite, Core and Essential and Desktop & Kiosk describe feature sets. Prices for those plans are custom pricing. The capacity bands provide a useful starting point for sizing, but do not establish the cost of a particular service.

Platforms

QikKids supports web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, with mobile apps. That range can accommodate services using desktop computers alongside mobile access. The stated child capacity is 39, a consideration for services whose requirements exceed that figure.

Who it's for

QikKids is a strong fit for Kindergarten and OSHC providers that want attendance, billing, bookings and parent access within a service-focused platform. Essential is the better match when API access, third-party integrations or staff administration are priorities. A smaller service needing only a capped free option, or a buyer unwilling to clarify custom package pricing and GST, should compare alternatives before committing.

Pros and cons

Broad operational coverage: attendance, enrolment, billing, lesson planning and family communication span core service needs.
Parent access across plans: Home and the web portal are included at every tier, avoiding a family-access upgrade requirement.
Higher-tier connectivity: Essential includes API access and integrations including Xero and Ento, useful for connected operations.
GST adds to listed prices: the quoted plan amounts exclude GST, so they are not the full tax-inclusive cost.
Package pricing is opaque: the capacity-based Playground tiers and several Office packages use custom pricing, requiring a quote to compare costs.
Free-plan terms are unclear: no cap or feature allocation is given for the free plan, making it difficult to assess whether it can sustain a service.

Alternatives

Cheqdin is worth considering for a small service that can work within its free allowance of up to five students; its free tier is limited to email support and excludes personalised training and record archiving at the limit. OWNA offers a free tier with curriculum planning, attendance sign-in/out, a parent app and compliance, making it an option when those functions matter and a paid plan is not yet needed.

Xplor Education offers OSHC and premium packages combining Office and Playground, with MyWaitlist in the premium package; consider it when that package mix fits better. 6crickets is a marketplace-listing option with no seat limit on listings, but commissions apply to marketplace registrations and referral fees to provider-site registrations.

Kangarootime has a free plan capped at one program, one school and five staff, which may suit a small operation within those limits. Neztio offers a free Starter plan for up to 15 children and a $79.00 USD per month Standard plan with unlimited children, a clearer capacity-based path for services comparing those thresholds.

AfterSchool HQ is another freemium alternative, with transaction fees applying to activities processed through its free plan. Procare is a paid option at $25.00 USD per month for its home version, aimed at smaller centers and in-home daycare providers; classroom management is unavailable to in-home users.

For broader comparisons, see Childcare Management Software, Daycare Management Software and Early Childhood Education Software.

Verdict

Choose QikKids if you run a Kindergarten or OSHC service that needs joined-up attendance, billing and family access, and especially if Essential’s API and integrations fit your stack. Look elsewhere if a well-defined free allowance or transparent package pricing is essential: QikKids’ free-plan limits are unclear and several packages require custom pricing, with GST extra on listed amounts.

	6crickets	QikKids
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Enrollment forms	Yes	—
Attendance tracking	Yes	—
Family messaging	Yes	—
Billing and payments	Yes	Yes
Parent app	web	—
Staff scheduling	Yes	—

6crickets vs QikKids

6crickets

QikKids