vs
The power of brightwheel. Without a quote, or a fee your families never get back.
Everything you run your classes on, on Famlo's free plan. Built for homeschool co-ops, classes and microschools.
With Famlo, you can:
Yes Fill your classes with homeschool families nearby, and see what they want that nobody offers yet Yes Run registration, waivers, the roster and the door in one place Yes Get paid by card or by Step Up, and keep your full priceNo card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
brightwheel won’t publish its price, and keeps its fee when you refund.
brightwheel: childcare software, priced by quote
brightwheel
Premium
quote only
Service fee on each online payment
not published
Service fee kept on a refund
not refunded
Famlo
To list and to run
$0
Paid by the family when they book, unless you cover it
3.7% + $1.79 a ticket
On scholarship money
nothing
Famlo: those tools in one place, on a free plan
You’re ready for Famlo if any of these sound like you
You collect the same allergy form on paper, every term
It is on the child once. Every later registration brings it with them.
A teacher needs the register, not the payouts page
Six roles. A teacher gets their own classes and register, and nothing about the money.
Half of them have registered and you cannot say how many have paid
A card registration is paid when it is made, and a payment plan collects itself on schedule.
Scholarship invoices are a spreadsheet and a calendar reminder
On the Scholarship plan Famlo raises them at checkout, one per child, and chases the unpaid ones.
Who is allowed to collect a child lives in a text thread
Authorized pickup sits on the child's record, with allergies and an emergency contact.
Get found by families who are already looking
brightwheel runs the families you’ve enrolled: billing, check-in and messages. Famlo also puts your classes on a map homeschool parents near you search by their kids’ ages and the dates they’re free, and tells families nearby when you post something new.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
Allergies, pickup and QR check-in, on a free plan with staff
brightwheel shows a child’s allergies on their name, checks families in from a QR code and lets only approved pickups take a child, and its free account can’t have staff. Famlo does all of that on its free plan, with roles for co-leaders, teachers and a bookkeeper.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
A price you can read, and a fee families get back
brightwheel quotes each program on its enrollment capacity, adds a service fee to every online payment, and keeps that fee when a payment is refunded. Famlo’s free plan has no monthly bill; families pay a booking fee when they book, unless you cover it, and get it back when you cancel.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
The complete homeschool platform
Everything a co-op, class or microschool runs on, and everything the families on the other side see.
famlo.co · Find
Riverbend Co-op · Local insights
famlo.co · Creek Day
Riverbend Co-op · Console
Riverbend Co-op · Check-in
Riverbend Co-op · Messages
Riverbend Co-op · Money
Riverbend Co-op · Scholarships
Your family · Records
Riverbend Co-op · Testimonials
“Ivy came home from science lab every Thursday with something new to show us. Lena makes it feel like a real lab.”
June Marsh · Science lab, fall term
“Registration took two minutes, and I never had to retype the allergy list. That alone sold me.”
Maria Reyes · Membership, 60 days in
A platform that moves as fast as your group
757 updates shipped since Famlo was rebuilt on July 18, 2026. About 60 a week.
Merged pull requests to Famlo's web and app codebases, with dependency and version bumps left out. Milestones are the dates each feature first shipped. Counted October 14, 2026.
Upgrade from brightwheel to Famlo in three steps
Bring your families over in an afternoon, and keep brightwheel until this term ends.
-
1
Download your families from brightwheel
Export your student roster from brightwheel. Famlo needs:
- Each family's email
- A role for anyone on your team, if you want one
-
2
Invite them in one go
Upload the file under People. Families already on Famlo join your group; everyone else gets an email to sign up and add their children once.
-
3
Publish next term
List your classes free. They go on the map and your public page, and you send families one link. Give brightwheel 30 days’ notice before your renewal date. Stuck on a step? famlo.co/support opens a ticket with the team.
Questions about switching from brightwheel
brightwheel does a lot. Why switch?
For a licensed preschool or childcare center, brightwheel covers daily reports, ratios and subsidy billing Famlo doesn’t. For classes, camps and co-ops, Famlo runs registration, rosters with allergies and pickup, check-in and payments on a free plan with staff, and lists your classes where families nearby search.
What does brightwheel cost?
brightwheel doesn’t publish prices; it quotes each program on its enrollment capacity. Online family payments carry a service fee, which a program may pass on to families. Famlo’s free plan costs your group nothing a month.
Does Famlo retry a failed payment?
Yes. Recurring dues retry a failed payment automatically; on brightwheel the family has to resubmit it.
What if we leave Famlo?
Export your registrations, rosters and attendance as CSV, then delete your group. There is no exit fee.
Where brightwheel’s figures come from
Each one is brightwheel’s own published number or wording, linked to the page it came from. Our build fails if any of them goes six months without being checked again.
Premium
quote only
“Your price is based on enrollment capacity and you get access to all features on the platform.” Renews monthly or yearly.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Service fee on each online payment
not published
A bank transfer carries “at most a $2.00 fee”; cards cost more. The program may pass it on to families.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Service fee kept on a refund
not refunded
Service fees “are not refunded to the party that paid the service fee (payer or school).”
Source checked 14 October 2026
Prices aren’t published: each program is quoted on its enrollment capacity.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Every online family payment carries a service fee, which the program may pass on to families.
Source checked 14 October 2026
When a payment is refunded, the service fee isn’t returned to whoever paid it, family or school, and online refunds stop after 85 days.
Source checked 14 October 2026
A failed payment isn’t retried; the family has to resubmit it.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Subscription payments, including a year paid upfront, are non-refundable, and changes need 30 days’ notice.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Subsidy agencies can’t pay through brightwheel; the program invoices them and logs their payments by hand.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Families check children in from a QR code, allergies show as a badge on the child’s name, and only approved pickups can check a child out.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Its audiences are preschools, childcare centers, in-home care, Montessori and multisite centers, and camps and before- and after-school programs.
Source checked 14 October 2026
Keep the check-in. Drop the quote.
Set up next term on Famlo while this one finishes on brightwheel. No credit card, no setup fee, no demo call.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
brightwheel’s plans, prices and features are from its own website and help center, linked above with the date each was checked. brightwheel is a trademark of its owner; Famlo is not affiliated with or endorsed by it, nor by Step Up For Students.