---
title: "Do parents pay anything to use the app?"
description: "The app is free for parents to download and use. Online tuition payments carry a small convenience fee, and families can choose optional paid extras."
type: overview
updated: 2026-10-09
canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/faq/do-parents-pay-to-use-the-app
roles: ["super_admin", "center_admin"]
platforms: [web, ios, android]
---
The app is free for parents to download and use: the feed, messages, documents, pickup codes, and everything your daycare shares are free, just as NestliCare is free for your daycare.

Families can also choose optional paid extras in the app, bought from NestliCare through the App Store or Google Play. Nothing your daycare shares sits behind them, and your daycare never pays for them.

The one place money appears for your daycare is **online tuition payment**. When a parent pays an invoice online, there's a convenience fee. For daycares billing in US dollars it's 2.9% + $0.50 for cards, or 1% capped at $6 for bank payments; other currencies have their own rates. Where it's allowed, the parent covers it by default, shown on its own line at checkout, and your payout equals the invoice amount. You can absorb it instead under **Invoices & Finances → Finances → Who pays the convenience fee** (**Parent pays** or **Daycare pays**).

In Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Louisiana, Puerto Rico and Quebec, and for daycares outside the US and Canada, the daycare pays the fee and parents pay exactly the invoice amount. Details and every rate: [Who pays the online payment fee?](/owners/faq/who-pays-the-processing-fee).

Families who pay by cash or check pay no fee at all; you record those payments manually and nothing flows through online processing.

Related: [Pricing](/getting-started/pricing), [Enable online payments](/owners/billing/enable-online-payments), [What parents see in the app](/owners/communication/what-parents-see).