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
3. Traffic Violations |
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:
$89 gets you the above mentioned searches plus:
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Background checks include:
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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.