Nanny Lane Review

Monday, December 2nd

2024 Babysitter Agency Reviews

Nanny Lane

• Over 10,000 babysitters in the US
• Free for basic account
• $55/month for PLUS membership
• Subscriber benefits include 5 background checks, payroll service, and more
• Parent company CareGuide is "A-” rated by the BBB

Nanny Lane is one of two babysitting agencies on our list that are part of the CareGuide group, a platform that connects people with services across the spectrum - not just babysitters and nannies but also handymen, petsitters, and much more. This babysitting referral platform advertises that they have more than 10,000 available sitters in the US alone.

An account is required to browse babysitter profiles

Unfortunately, there's no ability to browse the profiles of sitters near you without first creating an account on Nanny Lane. You'll start by indicating that you're a parent (and not a nanny, which is how they refer to all caregivers on the site) and then if you're willing to share your nanny. We figure that's what most people looking for a babysitter will need to choose, since they're not looking for full-time help. From there, you'll have to sign up for an account. That means you'll have to verify your phone number with a code; we appreciate that it's for safety purposes, but we don't like the possibility of opening ourselves up to spam texts either. Once you've taken that step, you'll have to set up the rest of your profile: the age of your child(ren), roughly how many hours per week (there's no setting for one-off date nights here, though you could work that out later), and your hourly rate.

Big push for $55/month package

Next, you'll be heavily encouraged to sign up for Nanny Lane's PLUS package. It gives you personal hiring assistance, five enhanced background checks, a contract builder, payroll service, the ability to track and interview top candidates, have your client profile featured, and eliminate ads. Doesn't that sound awfully complicated just to find a babysitter? It's clear that Nanny Lane is, as the name conveys, primarily a service for getting regular childcare and not just an occasional babysitter (despite using the word "babysitter” on the website). You'll pay $55/month for this membership, and it auto-renews until you cancel.

Lots of babysitters in most areas

You can also click on "I'll find a nanny myself” to skip the subscription. That takes you to your dashboard, where you can (finally) indicate that no, you don't need live-in care. You can also click yes or no to meal prep, light housekeeping, if your child has special needs, if your caregiver should have a driver's license, and so on. Those can be skipped at will. You can also jump right to the filters to sort the results in your area by qualifications, price range, location, fluent languages, and several more. Without the filters, in our metro area we were matched with over 3500 profiles within 32 miles of our address. That dropped to 600 when we set the filter for part-time, since we were only looking for a babysitter.

Background checks available for a fee

Nanny Lane doesn't give you the ability to see your matches in any particular order. It would be helpful to sort them by distance (near to far), experience, or hourly rate, but families are left to sift through that on their own. The good part is that you can run a background check on any provider once you've made an offer: that's a big plus over the other CareGuide service in our review. However, Nanny Lane stops short of spelling out what it'll cost when you only have a free account.

Lacking in support

You also won't get much support from Nanny Lane, outside of their PLUS services. The only options for contacting the company are an online Help Center, where you can submit a support ticket, or an email address just for payroll inquiries. That's a problem, because when we look beyond the glowing testimonials on the babysitter website itself and consider outside feedback, there are quite a few complaints stemming from not being able to get help, having significant issues with the paid services (like payroll and taxes), and generally being unhappy with what they got here.

Not a good fit for once-in-a-while babysitting

At the end of the day, it's not enough for Nanny Lane's parent company to have an "A-” rating from the Better Business Bureau. This site definitely doesn't make it easy to find a here-and-there caregiver with its focus on nannies (even though they claim they offer connections with babysitters). And, even for those who do want longer-term childcare, the service doesn't have a great track record for customer support. Nanny Lane is better than its sister site, but not good enough to earn our recommendation - especially for anyone who just wants a reliable babysitter.