ChildcareHires vs EarlyDay (Wonderschool) for Hiring Early Childhood Teachers

EarlyDay is a hiring site for early childhood education.

It calls itself "The only dedicated career marketplace for early childhood educators" (its own description), and the model is two-sided: centers post openings and receive applications from its "pool of qualified, pre-screened candidates", and centers can also search candidates directly.

EarlyDay is part of Wonderschool.

Wonderschool says it "acquired EarlyDay to support Child Care Providers" and describes itself as recruiting, vetting and placing teachers in child care programs.

On top of the pool, EarlyDay says it uses "our matching technology and human touch" to get jobs in front of best-fit candidates, with location preference, education credentials and language requirements among the factors it matches on.

Its site also lists ATS integrations.

The two sell different hiring models, and that difference is the whole comparison.

EarlyDay is a curated marketplace. Applications come from its candidate pool, which it describes as pre-screened, and its matching aims to put your job in front of candidates who fit your requirements.

You are asking EarlyDay to filter the market before an application reaches you.

ChildcareHires is an open job board. Your post goes up on an early-education-only board, any job seeker can apply free and without an account, and every application goes to your center's own application page or inbox — ChildcareHires never sees or stores what candidates send.

Screening stays with you: ChildcareHires is not a staffing or recruiting agency, does not screen, interview or vouch for candidates, and does not guarantee that a listing results in a hire.

Said plainly: ChildcareHires does not do the one thing EarlyDay leads with.

If you want a platform to do the filtering, that is EarlyDay's model.

If you want applications arriving directly and control over who you screen, that is what an open board gives you.

And if what you actually want is a partner who screens and places staff for you, that is closer to a staffing agency than to either board — see our guide to childcare staffing agencies.

ChildcareHires publishes its prices on the pricing page: a Standard post is $199 and a Featured post is $399 at launch pricing (regular prices $299 and $499).

Each is a one-time payment that never renews, with nothing to sign, and each post runs 30 days.

The launch prices are introductory and can end without notice.

Centers that hire constantly can take a slot plan instead: Growth at $899 a month for up to 10 posts live at once, or Brand at $1,749 a month for up to 25.

EarlyDay's page for centers invites you to "Post a job for free" and lists no other prices.

It also invites you to book a demo call; what that call covers or costs is not published.

Wonderschool's own teacher-recruitment service, a separate offer in which it recruits, vets and places teachers, says it fills open roles "at rates that work for the child care program."

That is the clearest difference for whoever holds the budget: if a free post is what you need, EarlyDay advertises one and ChildcareHires does not offer a free posting option.

What ChildcareHires sells is a paid post at a listed price, on the page before you talk to anyone.

On ChildcareHires, a single post is a one-time payment with no contract and no renewal.

A post is published the moment Stripe confirms payment — there is no review step — and it runs 30 days from purchase; if the role is filled sooner, the post comes down on request.

Slot plans bill monthly, can be cancelled at any time with no minimum term, and are arranged by contacting ChildcareHires rather than through self-serve checkout.

EarlyDay and Wonderschool publish nothing comparable on the pages this comparison checked: no contract terms, no cancellation policy and no statement of what happens after a demo call.

If terms matter to your decision, they are a question to put to that call.

An open post on ChildcareHires appears on the matching role and city pages and is indexed in Google Jobs.

A Featured post adds the company logo, a highlighted card, top-of-feed placement and a Featured badge — the one paid placement on the board.

EarlyDay works from the other direction: your opening is matched against its candidate pool, so the applications you receive start from who is in that pool and what its matching surfaces.

Focus differs too.

ChildcareHires has 31 early-education role pages — lead, assistant, infant, toddler, preschool, pre-K, Head Start and school-age teachers, aides, floaters and substitutes, plus directors, curriculum coordinators, ECE coaches, family advocates, cooks, drivers and front-office staff — so a director search and a cook search do not share a page.

EarlyDay is a marketplace for early childhood educators; which non-teaching roles its pool covers is a question for its team.

Wonderschool publishes self-reported scale numbers: it cites 72,000+ child care teachers in its recruitment pools and a 2023 partnership with Mississippi on a statewide platform linking child care programs to substitute teachers.

EarlyDay's own pages lean on customer stories, such as one naming a customer it says hired 6 educators within her first month.

All of it is the companies' accounting of themselves — we report it because it is what they publish, not because we could verify it.

ChildcareHires publishes none of that: no candidate, applicant or reach counts anywhere on the site, and no promise that a post results in a hire.

The board is new, and its fact sheet says so plainly.

On published proof points, the gap favours EarlyDay and Wonderschool; what ChildcareHires offers instead is a printed price and a model you can inspect before paying anything.