⚖️ HONEST COMPARISON
CubbyBook vs. paper & spreadsheets
Paper works. That's why every provider starts there. But it works by borrowing your evenings. Since CubbyBook's core is free too, the real comparison is time, not money.
Try CubbyBook free No card · free forever plan
CubbyBook
Paper & spreadsheets
Morning sign-in
One tap, timestamped
Clipboard, pen, "I'll log it later"
Finding last March's attendance
Date-range export in seconds
A weekend with the filing cabinet
Incident documentation
Structured form, parent e-signs on their phone, auto-PDF
Handwritten, hope it's legible and signed
Daily updates to parents
Shared feed + private messages
Texts scattered across your personal phone
Corrections
Change history kept automatically
Scratch-outs and white-out
Allergy info at a glance
Severity badges on today's dashboard
A binder page you have to remember
Cost
Free forever · Pro $15/mo
"Free," plus your evenings
What providers get back
🌙 Evenings, returned Logging as you go means no after-dinner paperwork shift. The record was done at pickup.
🗂️ Records that stay found Nothing fades, tears, or hides in the wrong folder. Three years of records, seconds away.
😌 Calm when someone asks Licensing visit? Agency review? Export the date range and hand it over. No scramble.
Common questions
Is CubbyBook actually free, or free-trial free? +
The Free plan is free forever: unlimited children, attendance, daily logs, messaging, and the parent portal. No credit card and no expiry. Pro ($15/month or $149/year) adds photos, incident e-signatures, PDFs and exports, and custom branding.
I've used paper for years. How hard is switching? +
Setup takes about 2 minutes, and Quick Enrol adds your existing children without sending forms to parents. Most providers run paper and CubbyBook side by side for a week, then quietly stop printing.
What if I like my spreadsheet? +
Spreadsheets are great at math and bad at daycare: no timestamps, no parent signatures, no change history, and one mis-drag can eat a month. If yours works for you, keep it. CubbyBook's free plan is there when it stops working.
Paper is free until it costs you an evening.
Try the free plan tonight. The clipboard will understand.
Free forever · 14-day Pro trial · cancel anytime