Tool profile
Famly: cost, fit and limits
Famly is a nursery and early years management platform made by Famly that combines parent messaging, child observations, attendance, staff rotas and invoicing for single settings and groups, with a Sidekick writing assistant and further AI features on its top published package.
What to know first
Famly sells three packages per setting at £79, £159 and £209 a month excluding VAT, plus a quote-based Custom plan for groups of 10 or more sites. The cheapest tier covers the news feed, child profiles, daily logs and Tax-Free Childcare. Rotas, automatic invoicing and the built-in AI sit on the top package. The privacy page names a Frankfurt AWS center and Swiss backups.
Famly at a glance
| Maker | Famly (legal entity name not stated on the pages read), Not stated on the vendor pages |
|---|---|
| Free plan | No |
| Entry price | £79 per month (Foundation, excl. VAT) |
| API access | Yes |
| Category | Best AI Childcare Management Software in 2026, rank 1 of 12 |
| Website | famly.co |
Who Famly is best for
Single nurseries on a tight budget
Foundation at £79 a month covers child profiles, daily logs, enquiries and the Sidekick writing assistant, which lets a small setting start with parent communication before paying for rotas or invoicing.
Settings that claim Tax-Free Childcare
The integration is listed on the cheapest package, so a nursery that bills UK families through that scheme does not need an upgrade to reach it.
Groups with 10 or more sites
The Custom plan adds group onboarding, a dedicated account manager, API access, white-label branding, cross-site insights and Azure AD single sign-on under an SLA.
Famly plans and pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation | £79 per month excl. VAT | News feed, child profiles, daily logs, website enquiries, Tax-Free Childcare integration and the Sidekick writing assistant for a single setting. |
| Premium | £159 per month excl. VAT | Adds medication and accident forms, debt and revenue reports, an occupancy report, custom parent permissions, staff qualifications and absence management. |
| Professional | £209 per month excl. VAT | Adds registration forms, staff rotas, live translation, unlimited custom curriculums, automatic invoicing, safeguarding disclosure reporting and built-in AI features. |
| Custom | Contact sales | For 10 or more sites: group onboarding, account manager, API access, white-label branding, cross-site insights, Azure AD single sign-on and an SLA. |
Checked November 2026.
What Famly does
- Parent partnership tools
- Staff send instant messages, observations and updates to parents from the app, and a personal news feed gathers each child's day in one place for families.
- Child development records
- Digital observations and assessments feed curriculum tracking, and the Professional plan removes the cap on custom curriculums that Foundation sets at five lists. Foundation allows five custom lists, so a setting that tracks many frameworks upgrades.
- Staffing and ratios
- Rota and holiday planning include automatic ratio checks, so a manager sees a gap before the room is short. Rotas start on the Professional package.
- Finance and funding
- In-app payments, funding and reconciliation are listed, and batch invoicing arrives on the Professional plan, which matters to settings that bill funded and private hours together.
- Sidekick and built-in AI
- Sidekick is a writing assistant named in the Foundation feature list. The Professional plan is described as including built-in AI features, though the pages read give no further description.
How Famly handles your data
The privacy page states that data is stored in an Amazon Web Services data center in Frankfurt, Germany, with backups in a separate data center in Switzerland. Famly lists Cyber Essentials Plus plus ISO 27001 and 27701, and notes that AWS holds ISO 27001, 27701, 27017 and 27018. The pages read did not say how long records are retained after cancellation, and they did not state whether customer data is used to train AI models, so the vendor's policy was not checked for either.
Where Famly falls short in practice
- Public API costs extra. The feature comparison table shows the public API as an add-on on all three published packages, so a nursery that wants to connect its own tools pays on top of £79, £159 or £209.
- Rotas and invoicing start high. Staff rotas and automatic invoicing begin on Professional at £209 a month. A setting that needs both pays for the third package even if it needs nothing else from it.
- AI detail is thin. Beyond Sidekick, the pages describe AI only as in-built features on Professional. A buyer cannot tell from them what the AI drafts, which model runs it or what data it sees.
Works with
Alternatives to Famly
Famly: common questions
Does Famly charge per child or per nursery?
The pricing page prices packages per setting, not per child. Foundation is £79, Premium £159 and Professional £209 a month excluding VAT on the monthly view, with an annual saving shown. Groups of 10 or more sites move to the Custom plan on a quote.
Where does Famly store nursery data?
The privacy page names an Amazon Web Services data center in Frankfurt, Germany, with backups in a separate Swiss data center. It also lists Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701. Ask for the contract wording on retention, because the pages read did not state it.
Which Famly plan includes the AI features?
The Professional plan is described on the page as including built-in AI features, and the Sidekick writing assistant appears in the Foundation feature list. The pages do not describe the AI in further detail, so request a live example before choosing a plan for AI alone.
Can Famly handle Tax-Free Childcare?
Yes. A Tax-Free Childcare integration is listed on the cheapest Foundation package, so UK settings that take payments through the scheme do not need a higher tier to reach it. Funding and reconciliation tools are listed separately for the finance side.
Is there a free plan or trial for Famly?
The pages read show no free plan. Packages start at £79 a month, and the annual billing view shows a saving of £240 on the entry package. A trial or demo was not described on the pages we read, so ask sales what a new setting receives.