Pigeonhole vs Daily Connect
Daily Connect charges UK nurseries £1 per child a month, with a £12.99 minimum, for up to 100 children. Pigeonhole is from £4.13 a month, and £16.50 for 40 children, with every feature included.
£282 a year less than Daily Connect.
| Children | Pigeonhole, a year | Daily Connect, a year | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | £49.56 | £180 | £130.44 |
| 30 | £99 | £360 | £261 |
| 60 | £198 | £720 | £522 |
| 90 | £297 | £1,080 | £783 |
| 120 | £396 | Not published | — |
| 150 | £495 | Not published | — |
| 200 | £660 | Not published | — |
Daily Connect: £1.00 per child a month, minimum £12.99, for up to 100 children; over 100 is by quote. Its UK page doesn't say whether VAT is included, and mentions discounts on 6-month and yearly plans without figures. 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 Daily Connect
A price that doesn't climb with every child
Priced in bands, so a few more children don't change what you pay.
Daily Connect: £1 for every child, every month. Source
Council funding forms
Parents fill in and sign their council's funding declaration online, every term.
Daily Connect: Its UK page lists parent communication, EYFS support, attendance, staff management, enrolment and portfolios. Source
Longer to try it
A 30-day free trial with every feature, and no card needed.
Daily Connect: A free 14-day trial. Source
The price, line by line
| Daily Connect | Pigeonhole | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Daily Connect: £1.00 per child a month, minimum £12.99, for up to 100 children; over 100 by quote. VAT not stated. 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 | Daily Connect: No long-term contracts. 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 | Daily Connect: None stated on its UK page. Source | Pigeonhole: No setup fee for standard onboarding. |
| Free trial | Daily Connect: A free 14-day trial, no card needed. Source | Pigeonhole: 30 days with every feature switched on, no card needed. |
| What's included | Daily Connect: Its UK page lists parent communication, EYFS support, attendance, staff management, online enrolment and digital portfolios. Source | Pigeonhole: Everything: registers, learning journals, invoicing, council funding forms, custom forms, safeguarding, occupancy, the parent app and more, at every size. |
Daily Connect'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 Daily Connect is strong
Daily Connect has no long-term contracts and a 14-day trial with no card, and says it's used by over 90,000 childcare professionals. Source
Moving from Daily Connect to Pigeonhole
Daily Connect says it doesn't do long-term contracts, so you can move when it suits you: most nurseries switch at the start of a month or term. 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 Daily Connect
30 days with every feature, no card, and no setup fee. Run it alongside your current system until you're sure.