⚖️ 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