Pigeonhole vs Connect Childcare
Connect Childcare publishes a headline price of £175 a month per setting plus VAT, on a fixed-term contract. Pigeonhole is from £4.13 a month, and £16.50 for 40 children, with every feature included.
£1,692 a year less than Connect Childcare.
| Children | Pigeonhole, a year | Connect Childcare, a year | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | £49.56 | £1,890 | £1,840.44 |
| 30 | £99 | £1,890 | £1,791 |
| 60 | £198 | £1,890 | £1,692 |
| 90 | £297 | £1,890 | £1,593 |
| 120 | £396 | £1,890 | £1,494 |
| 150 | £495 | £1,890 | £1,395 |
| 200 | £660 | £1,890 | £1,230 |
Connect Childcare: Its published headline price, £157.50 a month billed yearly (£175 billed monthly), +VAT, per setting. It also says it sizes a plan for each nursery, so a quote may differ. Source
A year is twelve months of each provider's cheapest published plan at that size. All prices exclude VAT. One-off setup or training fees are left out of the chart and listed below. Checked 10 November 2026; prices change, so please check before deciding.
Where Pigeonhole stands out against Connect Childcare
Priced by the size of your nursery
The price is set by the number of children, so a small setting pays a small price.
Connect Childcare: One headline price per setting, £175 a month +VAT. Source
No fixed term
A year at a time with no automatic renewal, and a refund of every whole month left if you cancel.
Connect Childcare: A fixed-term contract, whose length isn't published. Source
Try it before you pay
A 30-day free trial with every feature, and no card needed.
Connect Childcare: No free trial is mentioned; a demo and a quote. Source
The price, line by line
| Connect Childcare | Pigeonhole | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Connect Childcare: £175 a month +VAT per setting billed monthly, or £157.50 billed yearly. It sizes a plan for each nursery and sends a quote. Source | Pigeonhole: From £4.13 a month, set by the number of children; £16.50 a month for 40 children. Every feature in every size, billed annually, ex VAT. |
| Contract | Connect Childcare: A fixed-term contract with the price fixed for the term; the length isn't published. Source | Pigeonhole: A year at a time, and it doesn't renew automatically. Cancel within 30 days for a full refund, or later for a refund of every whole month left. |
| Setup | Connect Childcare: Setup is free, with an onboarding manager and training included. Source | Pigeonhole: No setup fee for standard onboarding. |
| Free trial | Connect Childcare: No free trial is mentioned; it offers a demo and a quote. Source | Pigeonhole: 30 days with every feature switched on, no card needed. |
| What's included | Connect Childcare: One package covering finance, invoicing and funding, rotas, observations and the ParentZone app. Connect Cashflow, SMS messages and postcode lookups are optional extras. Source | Pigeonhole: Everything: registers, learning journals, invoicing, council funding forms, custom forms, safeguarding, occupancy, the parent app and more, at every size. |
Connect Childcare's details are from its own website, checked on 10 November 2026. Where it doesn't publish something, we've said so rather than guess. Prices change, so please check before deciding.
What every nursery gets with Pigeonhole
Everything, at every size
No modules and no add-ons. The register, learning journals, termly reviews, invoicing, council funding forms, custom forms, safeguarding and occupancy are in the one price, so the only thing that changes it is the number of children.
Council funding forms, done for you
Parents fill in and sign their council's funding declaration online, and you get a correctly completed form every term. If your council isn't set up yet, upload its form and we'll add it.
Invoices from the sessions children attend
Invoices are worked out from each child's sessions, funded hours and extras, then synced to Xero or QuickBooks.
A parent app with nothing to set up
Families get photos, the care diary, news, invoices and forms on iPhone or Android, with a Face ID or fingerprint lock. It already works for every family at your nursery.
Learning journals written faster
Staff capture a photo and a rough note or a voice note, and AI turns it into a written observation for a manager to approve.
Built for a shared room tablet
The staff app signs people in with a PIN, so a key person can do observations and termly reviews on the room's tablet in a quiet moment.
Where Connect Childcare is strong
Connect Childcare is widely used by larger groups: it says over 3,400 UK nurseries and 70% of the top 25 UK nursery chains use it, and its ParentZone app is rated 4.7 from over 20,000 reviews. Source
Moving from Connect Childcare to Pigeonhole
Connect Childcare is sold on a fixed-term contract, so check when yours ends and plan the move for the term after it. Source
Start a free trial
30 days with every feature switched on, and no card. Run it alongside your current system until you're happy.
Bring your children and families across
Upload a spreadsheet or an export from your current system, and AI matches each column for you to check. Children come across with their parents, carers and emergency contacts; staff and funding forms import the same way.
Or copy records straight from your old system
The Pigeonhole Chrome extension reads a child's page in your current software and adds them to Pigeonhole, with no export needed.
Switch over between terms
Most nurseries move at the start of a term or month, so invoices and funding claims start cleanly in Pigeonhole.
“Pigeonhole has been the most intuitive and useful software I have used in my career in Early Years.”
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Try Pigeonhole beside Connect Childcare
30 days with every feature, no card, and no setup fee. Run it alongside your current system until you're sure.