I recently found myself in the position of looking for a nanny   for my son. While I reached out to my local mother’s club, I wasn’t really able to get a good recommendation for a nanny so I turned to the web to search for a nanny. I visited several sites for my search.

Care.com Sittercity.com Nannies4hire.com Enannysource.com Sitters.com
Free Refined Search, Limited Profiles, Limited Job Posts 7-Days Trial
View profiles, Limited profiles, Limited Job Posts
Search by zip code, Limited profiles. Ability refine is for paid membership only. 7-Days Trial
View profiles, Limited profiles, No Job Posts
Search by zip code with some ability to refine. Limited access to caregiver profiles.
Subscriptions $35 for 1-month, $70 for 3-months, $140 for 12-months $9.99 per month with $39.99 sign up fee;

$9.99 per month (one time payment of $119.88) annual subscription

30-days $79;

60-days $109, with state criminal history check;

99-days $199 with multi-state criminal history, driving record, SSN trace, and sex offender background check

30-Days $49 with no background check;

90-days $119.85 with background check.

Includes unlimited access to caregivers plus free background checks .

30-Days $30;

Quarterly $60;

Annual $120

Also has Pay-As-You-Go pricing with credits for contacting caregivers

Background Check Standard Background check is free:

SSN Verification, National Criminal Database Search, State Sex Offender Registry Search

Enhances background check $59 each:

SSN Verification, National Criminal Database Search, State Sex Offender Registry Search

In-person Federal Courthouse Search, In-person County Courthouse Search (takes 1-3 days)

1. Identity Check
SSN Verification2. National Criminal Search

  • State sex offender registries
  • Prison, parole and release files from state Department of Corrections, Administrative Office of Courts, and other state agencies
  • Proprietary LexisNexis criminal record information

3. Traffic Violations
MAY appear on the National Criminal Search. Traffic violations are not checked unless a state reports these violations as a criminal offense.

Available only for 60-day and 99-day plan.

60-days plan has state criminal history check;

99-days has multi-state criminal history, driving record, SSN trace, and sex offender background check

The background check is free with Platinum memberships (90-days) , and $49 per background check for other members . (Exception: Searches conducted in New York cost $55 for Platinum members, and $104 for Gold and Free members.)

$49 gets you:

  • County court records checked in most recent county lived in*
  • US OneSEARCH scans over 300 million records from 50 states,Washington, DC, Puerto Rico and Guam.
  • National Sex Offender record search
  • Social Security number trace to locate and verify previous addresses

$89 gets you the above mentioned searches plus:

  • U.S. Alias search
  • Two county court records checked for the most recent and prior county lived in
  • Driving Report
Background checks include:

  • County Court Records
  • State Repositories
  • State Department of Corrections
  • Sex Offender information from all 50 states, including Washington D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico.
  • OFAC Terrorism Watch List
  • Denied Persons List
  • Interpol Most Wanted

Traffic:

Search Capabliities

Selectable Criteria Care.com Sittercity.com Nannies4hire.com Enannysource.com Sitters.com
Zip Code Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Distance Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Provider Age Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gender Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Language Yes, has a long list in dropdown Yes, has a long list in filter Yes, can select multiple, non-inclusive Yes, can select multiple Lists only English and Spanish
Wage Hourly Hourly Weekly No No
Last Login Yes No No No Yes
Comfortable with pets Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Willing to care for sick children Yes, under Other Care No No No
Has own transportation Yes Yes No No No
Non-smoker Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Nanny can swim No No Yes No No
Has Photo Yes No No No No
New Member Yes No No No No
Keyword Yes No No Yes No
Years of Experience Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Number of Children Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Experience with:
Newborns Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Toddlers Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Early School Age Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Preteen/Teenagers Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Special Needs Twins/Multiples

Special Need Children

ADD

ADHD

Asperger Syndrome / Autism

Asthma

Developmentally Challenged

Diabetes

Down Syndrome

Epilepsy

Hearing Impaired

Hemophilia

Obesity

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Physically Challenged

Sleep Disorders

Tourette Syndrome

Visual Impairment

Disabilities

Behavioral Issues

Twins/Multiples

Twins/Multiples

Special Needs

No
Education No Yes No Yes No
Full or Part Time Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Live-in or Live Out Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Available on short notice Yes, Care on call No No No No
Available for daytime summer care Yes No No No No
Detailed schedule Yes No No No No
Other services No Care for Sick Children

Cook

Drive the Kids

Homework Help

Playgroup Supervision

Potty Training

Sign Language

Sleep Coaching

Care for Pets

Collect Mail

Laundry

Gardening

Grocery Shop/Stock

Lifeguard

Light Housekeeping

Run Errands

Set Alarm Systems

Wash Car

Water Plants

Yard Work

Eldercare/companion care No No
Nanny has children? No No Yes No No
Can Nanny bring own children? No No No Yes No
Nationality No No Yes No No

Summary:
I found that Care.com was the easiest to use and my job post garnered the most applicants, probably because it is highly trafficked and has more visitors than all the other sites by far (see stats above). I liked the My Care.com interface, and it is the only site that allowed me to refine my search based on a schedule. This is very important and useful feature because often a candidate ends up being eliminated based on the schedule not being a good fit. For a 1-month search, this was the more affordable option.

Care.com also has this nice feature where Care.com checks out the references and the post the recording for you to listen to. That was pretty neat and a nice feature for care providers’ profile.

Sittercity.com is also a good option and its search uses a filter method instead. You search by zip code first, and then select your filters. Each filter has a number next to it, showing you the number of candidates that choosing that filter will refine your results to. I think it is the most useful if you are looking for special care as it has an extensive list of special needs to select from. he one-month usage cost is higher because of the $39.99 set up fee.

The references, if the provided listed it, has contact info right on the profile, whereas Care.com does not show the reference contact info. My job posting did not get quite as many responses compared to Care.com, and while there are some overlaps in terms of the candidates on the sites, but there is enough new candidates that I thought it was worth a look.

Nannies4hire.com was easy to use, and it was also the most expensive. They got a lot of fodder from Dr. Phil so I took a look at it. The feature that sets it apart is the more detailed background check, but the detailed background check is really not available unless you pay for the 99-day plan, which was $199 (which I did not want to pay for) ! I wished that I was able to choose a plan that was 30 days with the detailed background check but that is not an option. They also did not have a free trial, which I did not like. I was able to get get a coupon from doing an internet search and chose their most basic 30-day plan.

I thought it was interesting that they are the only one of the 5 sites that has height and weight information in their care provider profiles. Their customer service people were nice and I had no trouble reaching a rep and didn’t have to wait at all. I called them to complain about their lack of candidates in my area and they tweaked my profile a bit to help me get some more responses and gave me a few pointers as well.

I heard about Enannysource.com from my local mother’s club but I didn’t even bother subscribing at all because my free trial search yielded only 20 candidates within 25 miles of where I live, and many of them have not logged in within the last month. That’s the thing about these sites, a lot of times you won’t find too many people who have logged in recently for it to even be worth your while to pay for a subscription.

Sitters.com looks a lot like a lesser featured Care.com. I also did not subscribe to this site beyond the 7-day trial because it did not seem to have enough recently logged in candidates for me. The reason that the recently logged in candidates is important is because it means that people who are not recently logged in are not likely to be actively looking and available. Sitters.com does feature an “All Mom Editorial Team” that vets all the profiles submitted on their site.