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In brief:
The fundamental difference: bundles vs. building blocks
- Ovivio follows the traditional all-in-one nursery software model that forces you to adopt every component at once through rigid pricing tiers. Want invoicing? You must pay for the Business package, even if you don't need half the features it offers.
- eyworks is built on a modern, all-in-one architecture that allows you to adopt individual modules, such as finance, observations, recruitment, and HR, as needed. While each module is available independently, they’re all deeply integrated into the eyworks ecosystem, making growth seamless when you need more functionality.
- This is not just about cost. It’s about implementation friction and learning curve. With rigid all-in-one systems, you’re often forced to rip and replace what you already know and use all at once.
- With eyworks, you don’t have to do everything at once. You can move one department at a time, at a pace that suits your setting.
- Another differentiator is that eyworks offers dedicated early years hiring software, which no other all-in-one platform does.
A quick note on this comparison
Our intent with this comparison is simple: clarity. Software websites can be heavy on marketing jargon and light on practical detail. Our goal with this Ovivio vs. eyworks comparison guide is to provide a factual, side-by-side comparison of the two platforms and help you choose the right nursery management software for your setting.
We’ve stripped away opinions and focused strictly on features, pricing structures, and operational realities to keep this nursery management software comparison as objective as possible. All the information is drawn from verifiable, publicly available sources.
Different types of all-in-one nursery software
“All‑in‑one” nursery software often gets talked about as if it’s one fixed thing. In reality, it isn’t. There are two very different ways providers structure their platforms, and the difference matters more than most nurseries realise. At a high level, the market breaks down into two approaches:
- The traditional bundled model: you pay for a pre-set tier of features, regardless of whether you use them all or not.se them all or not.
- The grow-with-you model: you choose individual software modules and add to them over time, within a single all‑in‑one platform.
Understanding which approach your technology provider offers will help you avoid paying for software you’ll never use.
Ovivio follows the bundled software model
Ovivio offers three distinct packages: Essentials, Learning, and Business. To access the full range of features, you need to commit to its tiered system. Key features most nurseries need daily, such as invoicing, funding, and occupancy planning, are available only in the top tier. This means you must purchase the top plan, effectively paying for a bundle of tools you may never need.
eyworks follows the grow‑with‑you model
We offer a complete ecosystem – including finance, learning journals, parent communications, recruitment, and HR – but we are modular by design. This means you can sign up for the modules you need right now (e.g., finance and recruitment) and avoid paying for features you do not use.
If you need all features, you can sign up for the full suite immediately. You get the power of comprehensive nursery management software without all the unnecessary features or the pressure of forced upgrades. You can read more about our product philosophy here.
Ovivio vs eyworks feature comparison
Now let’s move from theory into practice by exploring how each platform’s approach supports or restricts your operations.
1. Restrictive pricing model that gates you out of features
The most significant downside of a tiered pricing model is the “pressured upgrade.” This happens when a specific tool you need, often a basic compliance or operational requirement, is locked behind a much more expensive tier. You are forced to upgrade your entire package, doubling or tripling your monthly bill, just to access that single feature.
Here are three common scenarios that illustrate how a traditional tiered pricing structure can lead you to overspend on features you don’t need.
Scenario one: you need to invoice parents and track funding.
You run a small to medium-sized setting. Your primary need is to move away from spreadsheets and automate your billing and funding grant allocations.
- With Ovivio: Financial invoicing, funding grant management, and occupancy planning are in the Business tier (listed at £179 monthly or £152 per month if billed annually). Even if you’re a small setting that doesn’t need complex HR tools, you must pay the top-tier price just to send an invoice.
- With eyworks: Full invoicing, funding management, and occupancy reporting are standard in our eymanage module. It costs £22/month when billed annually or £24/month when billed monthly for 20 children.
| Feature | Ovivio | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Parent invoicing | ✖ Gated behind Business tier | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| Funding grant management | ✖ Gated behind Business tier | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| Occupancy | ✖ Gated behind Business tier | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| Minimum tier required |
Business tier listed at £179 monthly (or £152 per month if billed annually) |
£22/month when billed annually (or £24/month when billed monthly for 20 children) |
| The result | You are forced to pay for advanced tools you don’t need. | You pay only for the finance tools you need. |
Scenario two: you need to manage staff rotas
Knowing who is in which room and whether you are meeting statutory ratios is a daily safety requirement.
- The Ovivio usage model: Basic digital registers are included in lower tiers, but actual staff rostering and shift planning are locked in the top Business tier. You can’t digitally plan your week’s staffing or view ratio warnings without paying the absolute maximum price.
- The eyworks usage model: We believe safety shouldn’t be gated. Rota creation, session planning, and ratio management are standard components of eymanage. You can ensure you are legally staffed without paying extra.
| Feature | Ovivio | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Daily safety requirement | Knowing who is in each room requires higher-tier tools | Real-time visibility of staff, rooms, and ratios |
| Digital staff registers | ✔ Included in lower tiers | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| Staff rota creation | ✖ Business tier only | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| Shift & session planning | ✖ Locked behind top tier | ✔ Standard in eymanage module |
| The result | Core safety tools are gated behind the highest plan. | All safety, staffing and ratio management are available with eymanage. |
Scenario three: you need to report on and assess your observations
Tracking and reporting child development isn’t just a “nice-to-have”; for many, statutory assessments such as the Two-Year Progress Check are mandatory.
- The Ovivio usage model: A nursery on the Essentials plan can log daily activities (like naps and meals), but cannot perform formal assessments or track frameworks like the EYFS. To complete a simple 2-Year Check digitally, you’re forced to jump from £79/month to £149/month when paying monthly, nearly double the cost.
- The eyworks usage model: There is zero feature gating. By selecting our online learning journal eylog, you get a full-fledged nursery observation software which allows framework tracking (EYFS, Montessori, CoEL), statutory progress checks, daily dairies, and advanced reporting for a significantly lower entry price of £19/month billed annually or £20 billed monthly for 20 children.
| Feature | Ovivio | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Daily activity logging | ✔ Meals, naps, basic activities | ✔ Standard in eylog module |
| EYFS & framework tracking | ✖ Not available on Essentials | ✔ Standard in eylog module |
| Two-Year Progress Check | ✖ Requires plan upgrade | ✔ Standard in eylog module |
| Digital learning journal | ✖ Gated behind higher tier | ✔ Standard in eylog module |
| Reporting & progress insights | ✖ Limited without upgrade | ✔ Standard in eylog module |
| Minimum monthly cost (20 children) |
£149 / month (Required to complete a 2-Year Check) |
£19 / month (annual) £20 billed monthly |
| The result | A mandatory statutory assessment nearly doubles your monthly cost. | All observation, assessment, and reporting tools are available on all plans. |
2. Recruitment: managing staff vs. finding staff
Recruitment remains the sector’s most significant challenge. Most software focuses on managing the staff you already have while ignoring the difficulty of finding them in the first place.
- The Ovivio approach: Ovivio does not have a native Applicant Tracking System (ATS). You effectively leave the ecosystem to hire, relying on disjointed emails, spreadsheets, or expensive third-party recruitment platforms. Once a candidate is hired, you must manually re-enter their data into the system.
- The eyworks approach: We know you can’t manage staff you haven’t hired yet. That is why we built eyrecruit, a dedicated ATS for the early years sector. It automates job postings to boards like Indeed and Google Jobs, tracks candidates through a visual pipeline, and seamlessly converts successful hires into staff profiles in eypeople.
The result: You get to hire the best performers and manage them efficiently with eyworks.
| Aspect | Ovivio | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Managing existing staff | Hiring and managing staff in one system |
| Built-in recruitment (ATS) | ✖ No native ATS | ✔ Standard in eyrecruit module |
| Candidate sourcing | External job boards or manual outreach | ✔ Automated posting to Indeed, daynurseries, and more. |
| Candidate tracking | ✖ Emails & spreadsheets | ✔ Visual recruitment pipeline |
| Recruitment communication | ✖ Manual email follow-ups | ✔ Automated candidate communication |
| Transition from hire to staff profile | ✖ Manual data re-entry required | ✔ One-click conversion into eypeople |
| System cohesion | Recruitment happens outside the platform | Fully integrated hiring → HR workflow |
| The result | Disconnected hiring with added cost, admin, and risk of data errors. | Hire the best people faster and manage them seamlessly in one unified system. |
3. Managing enquiries: paying a premium for growth
Every nursery goes through cycles of filling spaces and being full. Your software expenses should reflect that reality.
- The Ovivio usage model: Ovivio includes enquiry management (CRM) for tracking prospective parents and managing waiting lists only in its Business tier, priced at £179 when billed monthly or £152 when billed annually. If you’re a smaller setting struggling with low occupancy, you have to pay the highest possible monthly fee just to access the tools you need to find and manage new customers. You have to replace your entire tech stack or pay for everything, even if you only need enquiry management.
- The eyworks usage model: We treat eyenquiries as a flexible growth engine that helps you manage your enquiries efficiently. It costs £11/month when billed annually or £12/month when billed monthly.
| Aspect | Ovivio | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Designed for occupancy cycles | One-size-fits-all pricing regardless of occupancy | Built to scale up and down with your nursery |
| Enquiry & CRM access | ✖ Locked behind highest tier | ✔ Standard in eyenquiries module |
| Waiting list management | ✖ Business tier required | ✔ Standard in eyenquiries module |
| Minimum monthly cost to manage enquiries |
£179 / month (£152 billed annually) |
£11 / month (annual) £12 billed monthly |
| Flexibility of adoption | Must replace or upgrade your entire platform | ✔ Add eyenquiries without disrupting existing systems |
| The result | You’re forced to overpay just to fill spaces. | You can grow occupancy affordably. |
Since we’re a modular, all-in-one nursery management platform, you can sign up for the enquiries module individually without disrupting your existing tech stack.
Real-world scenarios as examples
To help you visualise the difference, we have modelled the costs for three standard nursery requirements.
Scenario A: boutique setting (20 children)
Context: A childminder expanding into a small nursery premise. Very tight budget.
Primary requirement: Invoicing parents and tracking government funding. No need for digital diaries yet.
| Feature need | Ovivio (Essentials) | Ovivio (Business) | eyworks (Modular) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoicing & funding | ✖ Excluded | ✔ Included | ✔ Included (eymanage) |
| Occupancy planning | ✖ Excluded | ✔ Included | ✔ Included (eymanage) |
| Primary constraint | Cannot invoice parents | Must choose the top tier | Targeted solution for finance & occupancy |
| Estimated annual cost | £804 / year | £1,824 / year | £264 / year |
| The result | The Essentials plan does not meet the core need. | You overpay significantly for features you don’t need. | You save 86% and get the exact tools you need because we’re priced to grow with you. |
Scenario B: the educational focus (30 children)
Context: A setting that wants to modernise operations. They need online observation software with EYFS frameworks and reporting features for practitioners and invoicing features for the nursery manager.
Primary requirement: Digital interactions, learning journeys, framework tracking.
| Feature need | Ovivio (Essentials) | Ovivio (Learning) | eyworks (Modular) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Observations |
✖ Excluded (Diaries only) | ✔ Included | ✔ Included (eylog) |
| Frameworks | ✖ Excluded | ✔ Included | ✔ Included (eylog) |
| Estimated annual cost | £804 / year | £1,524 / year |
£780 / year (eymanage + eylog) |
| The result | “Essentials” functions mainly as a register / diary. | You pay a premium just to access observations. | You save 49% and get full, unrestricted access to all features without being forced into the next tier. |
Scenario C: the growing nursery (60 children)
Context: A firmly established local nursery needing full functionality: invoicing, digital diaries, enquiries, recruitment, parent engagement, and HR.
| Feature need | Ovivio (Business tier) | eyworks (All-in-one suite) |
|---|---|---|
| Invoicing & HR | ✔ Included | ✔ Included (eymanage + eypeople) |
| Recruitment (ATS) |
✖ None (Manual process) | ✔ eyrecruit included |
| Core software cost | £1,824 / year |
£1,584 / year (eymanage + eylog + eypeople + eyrecruit for one vacancy + eyenquiries + eyengage) |
| External ATS cost |
+£3,600 / year (est. £300 / month) | Included with eyrecruit |
| Estimated annual cost | £5,628 / year | £1,596 / year |
| The result | Fixed price per site | You save 72% thanks to volume-based pricing |
Note: eyworks pricing is dynamic based on your specific numbers. These figures are estimates intended to illustrate the architectural differences. You can view pricing relevant to you on our pricing page. Ovivio’s prices referenced are based on its monthly billing options
At a glance: the full comparison
| Feature | Ovivio (previously Blossom) | eyworks |
|---|---|---|
| Platform architecture |
Traditional all-in-one Good if you fit its specific tiered packages. You generally pay for the highest tier required by your most advanced need (usually finance). |
Modern “grow-with-you” modular Adopt the modules you need. You avoid paying for a bundled software suite you don’t need. |
| Recruitment |
✖ Not available Users must rely on external paid 3rd-party software or spreadsheets that lack early years-specific features. |
✔ Integrated ATS (eyrecruit) A full system to find, track, and hire staff, pulling data directly into staff profiles. |
| Invoicing & finance |
Gated Unavailable in lower tiers. Requires the top “Business” tier (£179 annually or £169 monthly). |
Standard Full invoicing and funding logic included in the base eymanage module. |
| Staff rotas |
Gated Shift planning and rotas are exclusive to the “Business” tier. |
Standard Staff rotas and ratio management are included in the eymanage module. |
| Implementation |
Rip-and-replace High disruption; usually requires changing all systems at once to justify the tier cost. |
Phased Low friction; migrate one department at a time (e.g. start with learning journals, add finance later). |
The final verdict: which is right for you?
Ovivio is a good choice if:
You run a large, static setting that needs every single feature in its Business tier (finance, observations, HR), and you have very low staff turnover, meaning the lack of a recruitment module doesn’t impact your operations.
eyworks is the better choice if:
- You want to protect your cash flow: you want a system that’s built and priced to grow with your actual child numbers, rather than hitting you with high fixed costs.
- You refuse to pay for what you don’t use: you want the power of a comprehensive system but object to being forced into an expensive tier just to access invoicing, rotas, or observation tools.
- You need recruitment features built for early years: you need a system that actively helps you fill vacancies with an integrated ATS, not just one that records the staff you already have.
- You want a modern, flexible solution: you want modern all-in-one software that can grow with your setting's operational maturity. eyworks allows you to build your own "tech stack" without being constrained by a traditional all-in-one approach.
Read other nursery management software comparisons.
Curious if eyworks can work for your setting?
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