Zande vs Crèche Central: an honest comparison
Both are South African companies building for South African crèches, and both publish their prices, which already puts this ahead of most software decisions you will make. The choice comes down to two questions: what a plan covers at your learner count, and whether the problem keeping you up is parent fees or classroom compliance.
Updated September 2026 · Crèche Central details read from their own site on 12 September 2026 — check it for their current features and pricing
Respect where it's due
Crèche Central is a capable, locally built product with a genuinely broad ECD feature set. Their public materials describe live attendance tracking, DBE compliance reports as PDFs, an NCF programme planner covering ELDA, an incident and accident register, staff registers with ratio checks, pickup verification with audit logs, and full child record exports. They publish a price list and offer a free plan for up to three children with a 30-day full-feature trial. If your centre's pressure is classroom programme planning, ratios and inspection readiness, that is a serious list and you should look at it properly.
Where the two differ
The clearest difference is what a plan covers at a given size. Both companies publish their tiers, so this is checkable rather than a claim.
| Centre size | Zande | Crèche Central |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 children | R99/mo (Starter, up to 40) | R99/mo (Seed) |
| About 30 learners | R99/mo (Starter) | R349/mo (Starter) |
| About 40 learners | R99/mo (Starter) | R799/mo (Pro, up to 80) |
| About 100 learners | R299/mo (Pro) | R1,499/mo (Premium, up to 300) |
| Unlimited learners | R499/mo (Growth) | Enterprise — custom pricing |
| Free entry | Set up free, activate a paid plan when ready | Free plan up to 3 children, 30-day full-feature trial |
Both price lists read from each company's own site on 12 September 2026. Prices change — verify before deciding.
Where each one puts its attention
Crèche Central's published feature list leads with the classroom and compliance: attendance, programme planning, incident records, ratios, DBE reports, subsidy and financial reports. Their billing feature is described as subscription billing — auto-generated invoices, payment history and payment failure alerts — which is about your subscription to them.
We did not find parent fee collection, arrears tracking or EFT reconciliation stated publicly on their site. That is what we found, not proof it does not exist — ask them directly if it matters to you, because a feature can be real and simply undocumented.
Zande starts from the other end. It is built around the money a centre is owed: who still owes and how much, monthly statements parents can actually read, WhatsApp fee reminders, and matching EFT payments to the right learner when the reference says nothing useful. It also builds the attendance register the R24 DBE subsidy claim depends on.
The honest decision rule
- Look hard at Crèche Central if: your pressure is classroom programme planning, ELDA and NCF work, staff ratios and inspection readiness, and fee collection is already under control.
- Look hard at Zande if: the thing that actually costs you money is parents who have not paid, and you want to know your fee position without rebuilding a spreadsheet each month. At 30 to 100 learners the published price difference is also substantial.
- Either way: both are South African, both understand the DBE subsidy, and both publish what they charge. You are choosing a focus, not a country.
What starting looks like
- Set up your centre free — no card needed. From R99/month after.
- Upload your learner list from Excel — we map the columns, or WhatsApp us and we do the import for you at no charge.
- Fee reminders and attendance registers start working the same week.
Built in South Africa, around getting the centre paid.
Set up your centre free. Activate a paid plan when you're ready — from R99/month. No card, no contract.
Set up free → See pricing