One Child vs Educa: An Honest Comparison for Australian Childcare Services

Educa is a long-established name in early childhood documentation, trusted by many educators across Australia, New Zealand and beyond. If you are comparing it with One Child, you are looking at two documentation specialists with very different pricing philosophies. This article compares them honestly, using Educa's own published Australian pricing, so you can see exactly where the numbers land for your service.

Both platforms let educators create observations and learning stories, link documentation to the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (EYLF) and My Time, Our Place V2.0 (MTOP), and share children's learning with families. The differences come down to how each provider prices access to features, and how each handles OSHC and larger services.

All pricing below was verified against Educa's Australian pricing page at educa.com.au on 4 July 2026 and is quoted in Australian dollars. Pricing may change, so confirm current rates before you commit.

Where Educa is good

Educa has been operating for over a decade and has built a comprehensive feature set around it, covering documentation, family engagement, planning, frameworks linking and reporting. Its 'Advanced plan' adds deeper measurement and planning tools on top of the 'Basic' offering, and the platform is genuinely global, which suits organisations that operate services in more than one country. If your service wants a well-established, feature-rich platform and is comfortable with tiered, add-on style pricing, Educa is a credible option with a long track record.

The core difference: tiered per-child pricing vs flat approved places

Educa prices in two tiers. The Basic plan is $1.29 per child per month on monthly billing, described as being for services that want to record and share documentation. The Advanced plan, which adds planning and measurement features on top of Basic, is $1.39 per child per month prepaid annually or $1.59 per child per month on monthly billing. Both plans carry a 15-child minimum, and services with more than 200 children are directed to contact Educa for custom pricing. On top of the plan price, Educa charges add-ons: student log-in access at 20 cents per child, a ratings feature at 10 cents per child, and a hub feature at 10 cents per child. Your final bill depends on which tier and which add-ons you need, and it rises with every enrolment.

One Child charges a single flat rate based on your ACECQA approved places, the licensed capacity on your service approval, with every feature included on every plan and no add-ons to configure:

• Family Day Care: $10 per month, or $99 per year
• Small (up to 50 approved places): $19 per month, or $182 per year
• Medium (51 to 80 approved places): $49 per month, or $470 per year
• Large (81 or more approved places): $79 per month, or $758 per year

Annual billing saves 20 per cent, and group operators running three or more services receive an automatic 15 per cent discount on a combined invoice.

What that looks like in dollars

Worked examples using Educa's published Basic plan rate of $1.29 per child per month, before any add-ons:

A 45-child sessional kindy or small OSHC. Educa's Basic plan comes to $58.05 per month, or $696.60 per year. One Child's Small plan is $19 a month or $182 per year on annual billing. That is a saving of more than $500 annually, and this is before any Educa add-ons are switched on.

A 75-child long day care centre. Educa comes to $96.75 per month, or $1,161 per year. One Child's Medium plan is $49 a month or $470 per year, a saving of around $690 annually.

A 120-place large service. Educa comes to $154.80 per month, or $1,857.60 per year. One Child's Large plan is only $79 a month or $758 per year, saving more than $1,100 annually.

If a service also wants student log-ins, ratings or the hub feature, each Educa add-on layers further cost per child on top of these figures. One Child's price never changes regardless of which features your team uses, because every feature is included by default.

The 15-child minimum locks out small services

Educa's 15-child minimum means small family day care educators and very small services do not fit its pricing model very well at all. One Child offers a dedicated Family Day Care plan at $10 per month, or $99 per year, built specifically for home-based educators with small enrolments. If your service sits below Educa's minimum, One Child is not just cheaper, it is one of the few options actually priced for your size.

Why flat billing matters for OSHC

Per-child pricing, whichever tier it sits in, penalises services whose active child count moves around through the year. Outside school hours care is the clearest example, with rotating before school, after school and vacation care rosters routinely pushing active enrolments above licensed capacity. On Educa's model, every child using the service during a busy vacation care period adds to the bill, and add-ons compound that further if switched on. One Child bills on approved places only, so vacation care spikes and rotating rosters never move your subscription. MTOP V2.0 is included alongside EYLF V2.0 and the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Guideline on every plan, with no tier to upgrade into.

Feature focus without a tier ladder

One Child's whole feature set, including AI writing assistance, unlimited learning stories, digital portfolios, a weekly planner, learning plans, reflections, a story approval workflow, Threads visualisation, newsletters, a centre statistics dashboard and bulk data export, is available on every plan. There is no Basic-to-Advanced decision to make and no add-on menu to work through. This connected documentation trail supports the assessment and planning cycle behind National Quality Standard Element 1.3.2, where critical reflection on children's learning drives program planning, giving educational leaders a clear evidence trail at assessment and rating time without needing to check which tier unlocked which feature.

AI writing assistance in particular is not something Educa currently advertises as a feature, so if reducing educator documentation time is a priority, this is a meaningful practical difference alongside the pricing gap.

Switching from Educa

Moving platforms is easier when the risk is staged. One Child's 14-day free trial includes every feature with no credit card required, so you can run it in a single room or your OSHC program alongside Educa before deciding. Bulk child upload from a CSV file brings your enrolment list across quickly, data is hosted in Australia, and if you pause after the trial your work is retained for 90 days.

Which should you choose?

Choose Educa if your organisation operates internationally, you specifically need the add on tools such as child login, and the per-child cost with add-ons still works at your service size.

Choose One Child if you want every feature included without tier decisions or add-on pricing, if you run OSHC or a service where active enrolments outstrip approved places, or if your service is too small for Educa's 15-child minimum. At every published size comparison above, the flat rate wins clearly on cost.

Frequently asked questions

Can I import my children from Educa into One Child?

Yes. One Child supports bulk child upload from a CSV file. Export your child list from Educa or from your centre management system and import it into One Child in minutes. Contact the One Child team if you need help with a different export format.

How much does Educa cost compared to One Child?

Educa's Basic plan is $1.29 per child per month with a 15-child minimum, and the Advanced plan is $1.39 to $1.59 per child per month depending on billing frequency, plus optional add-ons. One Child charges a flat rate by ACECQA approved places, from $19 per month for services with up to 50 places. A 75-child service pays around $1,161 per year on Educa's Basic plan compared with $470 per year on One Child's Medium plan. Pricing was verified on 4 July 2026 and may change.

Should a small family day care service use Educa or One Child?

Educa's published plans carry a 15-child minimum, so very small services and individual family day care educators may not fit its pricing model. One Child offers a dedicated Family Day Care plan from $10 per month with no minimum enrolment requirement. On pricing alone the choice is clear for small family day care providers.

Does One Child charge extra for planning, reports or family engagement features?

No. Every feature, including planning, reflections, reports, frameworks linking and family communication, is included on every One Child plan at no additional cost. There are no add-ons to configure.

Ready to compare for yourself? Start a free 14-day trial of One Child today. Import your children with bulk CSV upload, link your first observations to EYLF V2.0 or MTOP V2.0, and see the full feature set without a tier ladder or add-on menu. No credit card required.