Quick summary

Start from your actual problems, not a feature list

Every vendor's feature list looks similar from a distance. What matters is whether the specific things that currently take you the most time or cause the most anxiety, attendance reconciliation, care plan renewals, NCS claims, parent messages at 6pm, are handled well, not just present. Before comparing products, it's worth writing down your own three or four biggest pain points and testing every option specifically against those, instead of against a generic checklist.

Compliance and funding: modelled natively, not bolted on

This is the area with the biggest gap between vendors in practice. ECCE, Core Funding, NCS and CHICK codes are specific to the Irish system, and software built primarily for other markets often treats them as an afterthought, a free-text field rather than a proper calculation. Ask directly:

The parent side matters as much as the admin side

It's easy to focus a software decision entirely on what staff and admin see, since that's what's being demonstrated in a sales process. But a weak parent experience creates ongoing, daily friction, more phone calls, more "did you get my message" follow-ups, more staff time spent relaying information that should be self-service. Check what parents actually see: daily updates, calendar and closures, incident notifications, and how they manage things like authorised collectors or planned absences themselves.

Support and migration

Two questions are worth asking directly, with the answers confirmed in writing:

A system that's a perfect fit on paper but leaves you re-entering hundreds of family records manually, or waiting days for a support reply during your first inspection season, causes real damage that a feature comparison won't show you.

Pricing structure, beyond the headline price

Per-child pricing and flat pricing behave very differently as your enrolment changes seasonally or as you grow. Run both structures against your actual numbers, including quieter months, rather than comparing a single quoted figure.

Practical advice

  1. Ask for a demo built around your own scenario (a specific child with ECCE and NCS both applying, for example) instead of a generic walkthrough.
  2. Request a reference from a service of similar size and type, and actually call them.
  3. Get data migration and support commitments in writing before signing.
  4. Trial the parent app yourself, not just the admin side, install it, click around, imagine explaining it to a parent who's never used it.

How Tot Tracker fits this

Tot Tracker was built specifically around the Irish system, ECCE, Core Funding, NCS, CHICK codes, Tusla record-keeping and Garda vetting tracking are native, not bolted on, and the parent app is a core part of the product instead of an add-on. Whichever system you choose, testing it against the questions above will tell you far more than a features page will.

Frequently asked questions

For anything touching funding or compliance, Irish-specific matters a lot. ECCE, Core Funding, NCS and CHICK codes are specific to Ireland, and generic international childcare software often doesn't model them correctly, leaving you doing that calculation manually anyway.
Both matter, but for different reasons: the admin side determines your own workload and compliance confidence, while the parent app determines how much of your day is spent fielding questions that self-service would otherwise answer. Weak on either side creates real, ongoing friction.
Yes, and ideally from a service of a similar size and type (Montessori, full daycare, after-school) to yours, since the features that matter most vary by service type.
It varies by service size, but ask the vendor directly what data they'll migrate for you versus what you'll need to re-enter, and get that answer in writing before signing anything.
It changes how costs scale as you grow or as enrolment fluctuates seasonally. Model both against your actual numbers rather than comparing headline prices alone.