Is a nanny or daycare cheaper?

Daycare, by a wide margin, for one child. Full-time center care for an infant is $15,600 a year at the $300-a-week benchmark, against $45,240 a year for a nanny at Care.com's $870-a-week posted rate, a gap of $29,640. A nanny-share halves the nanny to $22,620 a year.

How much does a nanny cost per year?

About $45,240 a year for one infant at Care.com's 2026 posted rate of $870 a week, on a 40-hour week, before employer payroll taxes, which add about $3,460, and any agency fee, which is typically one month's salary. The true cost is closer to $48,700 a year.

When does a nanny become cheaper than daycare?

Almost never for one child, and sometimes for two or more, because the nanny's price barely moves while daycare charges per child. Two infants in a center cost $31,200 a year, and a nanny for two costs about $48,672, so the gap falls from $29,640 to $17,472, and a third child closes it further.

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The nursery ledger · Table No. 45

Nanny vs Daycare Cost

A nanny costs $45,240 a year for one infant; daycare costs $15,600. The gap is $29,640, and it is the price of a person against the price of a slot. This article prices the gap, the hidden costs, and the two children that close it.

Filed November 2, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

The gap, in one table

One infant, full-time, 52 weeks, on the same household. The center is $15,600 a year at the Child Care Aware benchmark of $300 a week. The licensed home daycare is $11,440 at $220 a week. The nanny is $45,240 at Care.com's 2026 posted rate of $870 a week, on a 40-hour week. The nanny-share is $22,620, which is the nanny split between two families at $435 a week each. The gap between the center and the nanny is $29,640 a year, which is 1.9 times the whole center bill, and which is the largest gap on this page, and which is the reason the comparison is not a price comparison. It is a comparison of two different purchases: a slot in a program, and a person in your home.

Care type (one infant)	Weekly	Monthly	Annual	5 years	Invested at 7%
Daycare center	$300	$1,300	$15,600	$78,000	$93,071
Licensed home daycare	$220	$953	$11,440	$57,200	$68,252
Nanny	$870	$3,770	$45,240	$226,200	$269,905
Nanny-share	$435	$1,885	$22,620	$113,100	$134,953

Read the table against the median household income of $87,460, and the verdict is stark. The center is 17.8 percent of the income. The home is 13.1 percent. The nanny is 51.7 percent, which is more than half the income, and which is the figure that should end the comparison for most households, because a bill that is more than half the income is not a purchase, it is a second income's whole purpose. The nanny-share is 25.9 percent, which is still over the 7 percent line by $16,498, but which is the only nanny figure that sits in the same range as the center, and which is why the nanny-share is the comparison that matters: the family choosing between a center and a nanny-share is choosing between $15,600 and $22,620, a gap of $7,020, and not between $15,600 and $45,240, a gap of $29,640. The five-year column makes the same point across time: five years of center care is $78,000 paid and $93,071 if it had been invested at 7 percent instead, and five years of a nanny is $226,200 paid and $269,905 if invested, which is $176,834 more than the center's invested figure, and which is the price of the person across five years.

What the nanny buys that the center does not

The nanny buys care in your own home, one adult to one child, on your schedule, with no commute to the center, no sick-day scramble when the center closes, and no waiting list, because the nanny is hired and not queued for. The center buys a slot in a program, with a curriculum, with other children, with backup when a teacher is sick, and with a price that is fixed per child, which is the reason the center wins on price for one child and loses on flexibility. The nanny's price is set by the local labor market for household help, which is why it tracks the wage for a nanny rather than the price of a daycare slot, and which is why it varies by city more than the center does: Care.com's 2026 local rates put a nanny at $870 a week nationally for one infant, and the metro rates run higher, because the nanny's wage is the city's wage. The center's price is set by the wage divided by the children in the room, which is why the infant room costs more than the preschool room, and which is why the center is cheaper: the adult's time is split across three or four children, and the nanny's time is spent on one.

The hidden costs are the second half of the comparison, and they run in the nanny's direction. The nanny is a household employee, which means the family is an employer, and the employer owes payroll taxes, workers' compensation insurance in some states, and a backup plan when the nanny is sick or on vacation, which is the cost the center absorbs by having more than one teacher. The payroll taxes add 7.65 percent for Social Security and Medicare plus the federal and state unemployment taxes, which on a $45,240 salary is about $3,461 in employer payroll tax alone, and which makes the true nanny cost $48,701 a year before any agency fee, which is typically one month's salary, or $3,770. The center's price is the price, and the nanny's price is the price plus the taxes plus the agency fee plus the backup care, and the household that compares $45,240 with $15,600 is comparing the nanny's salary with the center's all-in price, which understates the gap by roughly $7,200 a year.

Two children, and the gap that closes

Two children change the comparison, because the nanny's price barely moves while the center's price doubles. Two infants in a center cost $31,200 a year, at $300 a week each, and the nanny for two children costs $45,240 plus a second-child premium that Care.com's rates put at about $66 a week for a toddler, or $3,432 a year, which is $48,672 for the toddler nanny and roughly $48,672 for two, though the nanny's second-child premium varies by market and the household should get a quote. The gap between the center and the nanny for two children is $17,472, which is smaller than the $29,640 gap for one child, and which is the reason families with two or more children are the families who hire nannies: the nanny's price is nearly flat, and the center's price is per child, and the third child closes the gap further, because the center charges $15,600 for the third child and the nanny charges little more. The nanny-share is the middle ground for one child, at $22,620, which is $7,020 more than the center, and which buys care in one of the two homes, with the children together, and with the schedule negotiated between two families, which is the arrangement that works when the two families live close and the children get along, and which fails when they do not.

The new insight

The nanny is not an expensive daycare. It is a different purchase, and the price proves it: $45,240 a year is 51.7 percent of the median household income, which is more than half the income, and which is the figure that should end the comparison for most households, because a bill that is more than half the income is not a purchase, it is a second income's whole purpose. The center is 17.8 percent of the same income, and the home is 13.1 percent, and the nanny-share is 25.9 percent, and the nanny is the only figure on the page that exceeds half the income, which is why the nanny is the choice of households with two or more children, or with a second income large enough to carry it, or with a child whose needs a program cannot meet. The comparison that matters is not the nanny against the center. It is the nanny-share against the center, $22,620 against $15,600, a gap of $7,020, and the question that gap asks is whether care in your own home, one adult to one child, is worth $135 a week, which is a question the household can answer, and which the $29,640 gap does not ask at all.

How to choose, in practice

The practical way to choose is to price the center first, because the center is the cheapest option that meets the need for most families, and then to ask what the nanny buys that the center does not, and whether the household needs it. The center buys a slot, a curriculum, other children, and backup, at $15,600 a year for one infant. The nanny buys a person, in your home, on your schedule, at $45,240 a year, plus about $7,000 in taxes, fees, and backup care. The nanny-share buys the person at half the price, $22,620, in one of the two homes, with the schedule negotiated between two families. The household with one child and a median income should choose the center or the home, because the nanny is 51.7 percent of the income, and the household with two children should price the nanny, because the gap falls to $17,472, and the household with a child whose needs a program cannot meet should price the nanny regardless, because the need is not a preference. The calculator on this site prices all four on your quote, your schedule, and your income, in the time it takes to type them, and the table it returns is the comparison to carry into the decision.

Sources

Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis (center care $300 a week for an infant; licensed home daycare $220 a week; national average $13,128 a year). Care.com 2026 Cost of Care Report (2025 posted rates: daycare $332 a week for an infant, $308 for a toddler; nanny $870 a week for an infant, $936 for a toddler, on a 40-hour week). U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 (median household income $87,460 in 2025). Employer payroll tax 7.65 percent (Social Security and Medicare). All calculator figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model.