Child Care Management System (CCMS) is a free, MIT-licensed, open-source project for managing child care centers, daycares, and similar facilities through no-code or low-code applications. It is self-hosted and web-based. The system covers children’s personal details, emergency contacts, medical information, and attendance records, plus staff roles, schedules, certifications, and documents. Enrollment tools manage waitlists and availability. Billing features support invoice generation, payment tracking, and financial transactions. Attendance reports and patterns can be paired with notifications, messages, and announcements for parents, staff, and administrators. Available capabilities depend on the chosen underlying platform; implementations use forms and calendars, and SeaTable may not support parent logins. The project is described as an initial version with more features planned. Docker installation scripts are intended for local development and testing rather than production, so operators must secure deployments themselves. Feature requests are accepted through GitHub issues, and paid customization, installation, and configuration assistance are offered.
Who it is for
CCMS suits child care centers wanting a self-hosted, open-source system for records, enrollment, attendance, communication, staff, and billing. It requires choosing a no-code or low-code platform and handling deployment security.
What is good
- MIT-licensed open-source project
- Manages enrollment and waitlists
- Tracks attendance and child records
- Includes billing and payment tracking
- Supports parent and staff notifications
What to know first
- Features depend on the chosen platform
- Free bots or services are not applicable; project is initial version
- Docker scripts are not production secured
- SeaTable may lack parent logins
Verdict
CCMS provides a broad child-care management starting point without a software fee. Its initial maturity, platform-dependent capabilities, and self-hosting security responsibilities require careful implementation planning.
Child Care Management System (CCMS) plans and pricing
All plansCompared on early childhood education software
- Free plan
- Yes
- Enrollment management
- Yes
- Family communication
- Yes
- Attendance and check-in
- Yes
- Billing and payments
- Yes
