Four revenue lines. Every one of them disclosed on this page, with the rules that keep them from corrupting the editorial.
Every site that helps you find something charges someone, somewhere. The honest move is to say who, and how. So: here is exactly how DaycareSquare earns money, what we will and will not do for it, and the editorial rules that sit on top.
DaycareSquare earns money in four ways. None of them change where a daycare appears in our editorial ranking. None of them involve selling your contact information.
| Revenue source | Who pays | Approx. share |
|---|---|---|
| Premium provider listings | Daycares | 45 to 55% |
| Parent lead generation | Daycares | 20 to 25% |
| Display advertising | Mediavine ad network | 15 to 25% |
| Affiliate links | Baby and family brands | 5 to 10% |
Numbers reflect the rolling 12-month average through April 2026 and shift quarter to quarter. We will update this table at least twice a year.
Daycare operators can upgrade their listing from Free to one of three premium tiers: Starter at $99 per month, Pro at $199, or Premium Plus at $399. Premium tiers add more photos, video, featured cards on city pages, lead delivery tools, an annual or quarterly editorial review, and a multi-location dashboard for chains. See the full tier comparison.
Premium does not change the editorial ranking. A free listing and a Premium Plus listing are scored identically by our ranking algorithm (accreditation, licensing standing, profile completeness, parent ratings, and visit recency). Premium adds visibility on the page — featured cards, top-3 placement banners — that is labeled and visually distinct from the editorial list.
If a Free-tier daycare is rated higher than a Premium Plus daycare in the same neighborhood, the Free-tier listing ranks higher. We have city pages where this is true today.
When you submit a contact form on a daycare profile, that inquiry is sent to the daycare. On Free listings, the inquiry is sent as a plain email. On premium listings, the inquiry is delivered through enhanced tools (branded email, SMS, or API). The daycare pays us a per-lead fee in the range of $15 to $50 depending on the city.
You, the parent, are never charged. Your contact information is shared only with the program you contacted, exactly once, and not sold or resold to anyone else.
We run display advertising on certain pages of the site through the Mediavine ad network. Ads are labeled "Advertisement" and never appear inside an editorial ranking. We do not run ads on the homepage, on daycare profile pages, or on any page where they would interrupt a decision the parent is actively making (the cost calculator, the comparison checklist, the tour-questions tool).
Mediavine handles ad inventory and pays us a CPM (cost per thousand impressions). They follow IAB Better Ads standards. We override Mediavine's defaults to disable autoplay video, sticky bottom ads on mobile, and ads served by competitor marketplaces.
Some articles include affiliate links to baby and family brands — baby gear, family insurance, parenting books. If you buy through an affiliate link, the brand pays us a small commission. The price you pay is identical to the price you would pay if you went to the brand directly.
Affiliate links are clearly marked in the article body. We only link to products we would recommend regardless of the commission. An affiliate relationship never determines whether a brand is mentioned, ranked, or recommended.
Some things are off the table, full stop. Even if a sponsor offered us a lot of money. Even if it would help growth this quarter.
If we ever break one of these, we will say so plainly — on this page, in the homepage footer, and in a public correction.
If you spot something on the site that looks like undisclosed sponsorship, a ranking that does not match its underlying data, or a labeling problem with an advertisement, tell us. We read every message. We publish a public correction whenever a reader catches a meaningful error.
For the underlying methodology behind our reviews and rankings, see our editorial standards.