920+ licensed providers from Center City to Mt. Airy, with verified 2026 tuition ranges, parent reviews, and clear information on PHLpreK and Keystone STARS quality ratings. Always free for families.
Tuition ranges are full-time, center-based monthly rates from 510+ Philadelphia providers, cross-checked against the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services licensing database.
Center City, Fishtown, Northern Liberties, and Queen Village cluster at the top of the range. Mt. Airy, Manayunk, and Northeast Philly offer the broadest mid-priced options.
Pennsylvania toddler ratios are tighter than many neighboring states, which keeps quality more consistent but does limit how much prices fall after the infant room.
PHLpreK offers free quality pre-K seats for three- and four-year-olds at hundreds of community-based daycares across the city, funded by Philadelphia's Beverage Tax.
Sources: Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Child Development & Early Learning, Child Care Aware of America 2025 Pennsylvania state report, DaycareSquare Philadelphia operator survey (Q1 2026). Updated May 2026.
Eight verified providers across the city. The full directory holds 920+ listings — filter by neighborhood, age, accreditation, and cost.
Philadelphia tuition can swing $500 per month across a single SEPTA stop. These are the neighborhoods with the most active providers in our directory.
Philadelphia has one of the most parent-friendly publicly funded preschool programs in the country, and one of the most polite pieces of conventional wisdom about it: nobody mentions PHLpreK until you ask. We wrote this guide to give Philly parents a clearer picture of the city's daycare market, including the free seats that often go unfilled because families never hear about them.
PHLpreK is the city's universal preschool program for three- and four-year-olds, funded by the Philadelphia Beverage Tax. It pays for quality pre-K seats at participating community-based daycares across the city, including many in Fishtown, South Philly, University City, and Mt. Airy. Applications open multiple times per year through Philly's online portal. Read our PHLpreK walkthrough.
Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS rating system runs from 1 to 4 stars and measures staff qualifications, ratios, learning environment, and management practices. STAR 3 and STAR 4 programs operate above the state licensing minimum on each dimension. Many PHLpreK seats are reserved for programs at STAR 3 or higher, which means free pre-K and verified quality often come bundled together.
Pennsylvania requires 1:4 for infants, 1:5 for ages 1 to 2, 1:6 for ages 2 to 3, and 1:10 for older preschoolers. Every legal daycare in Pennsylvania is certified by the Office of Child Development and Early Learning. Every provider in our directory is cross-checked against that database monthly.
In addition to PHLpreK, working families up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level may qualify for Pennsylvania's Child Care Works subsidy. All families can use the federal Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit and a Dependent Care FSA. Our tax credit explainer walks through the math at common Philly income levels.
Before your first tour, download the free DaycareSquare comparison checklist and the tour questions list.
Costs, licensing, Keystone STARS, and subsidy programs across all of Pennsylvania.
View state page → Free toolPlug in your ZIP, child age, and care type. Get your personal monthly range in about sixty seconds.
Try the calculator → Free downloadTwenty-seven questions to ask at every tour, plus a side-by-side scoring sheet. PDF.
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