Blog
· 6 minute read
Best Dog Boarding Software: Pick by Business Size
If you run a kennel or a daycare building with many runs, grooming and retail, a facility tool like Gingr or DaySmart Pet fits better. If you are a sitting or walking company that also takes boarders or daycare dogs, Porchlight covers boarding in every plan, with no per-staff fee.
No card. Free switch from Time To Pet, Precise Petcare, Pet Sitter Plus or LeashTime.
Last updated October 17, 2026. Prices come from each company's own pricing page, read on that date.
Disclosure
We make Porchlight (Hive Asset Group, LLC). It is in this list, and we say where it is not the right pick. Porchlight is newer than the other tools here. Where a rival wins, we say so.
Which kind of boarding business are you?
Two different businesses get called "dog boarding."
- A building with runs and kennels. A front desk, many dogs a night, grooming, retail, a point of sale. Tools built for facilities do this better.
- A sitting or walking company that also boards. A few dogs a night in rooms or runs, plus daily visits, walks and staff on the road. You need boarding and visits in one system, not two.
Pick from the right group and the rest is easy.
Comparison table
All prices are monthly, US dollars, "as of Oct 2026," from the vendor's own pricing page (linked below the table).
| Tool | Best for | Price (as of Oct 2026) | Boarding features | Per-staff pricing? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Porchlight | Sitting and walking companies that also board or run daycare | Solo $35 (owner only) or Team $79, unlimited staff. Annual: $350 or $790 | Rooms and runs, capacity checks, waitlist, vaccination expiry per pet, daily ops board, stay invoicing with visits | No. Team is flat |
| Gingr | Kennels, daycare buildings, multi-service facilities | Spa $100, Play $142, Stay $154 on annual billing. Monthly billing: $109, $169, $179. Enterprise custom | Facility front desk, reservations, mobile apps, integrated payments, marketing tools | No on the plans listed. Employee scheduling and two-way SMS are add-ons |
| DaySmart Pet (123Pet) | Small to mid-size boarding, daycare and grooming shops | Basic $29, Deluxe $69, Deluxe Growth $149, Premium $199 (with payments). Premium Growth: contact them | Boarding and daycare calendars are add-ons at $25 a month each. Digital forms (vaccination records) start at Deluxe | Users are capped by plan (1, 3, 6, unlimited). Extra users $9 each on Deluxe and Premium |
| Time To Pet | Sitters and walkers; facilities on its separate Facility plan | Facility $79. Team $40 plus $16 per active staff (admins count). Solo $50, Lite $25 | Sold as a separate Facility plan | Yes on Team. Facility is a separate plan |
| Kennel Connection | Kennels that want a long-running facility system | KC Cloud $149, Hello-Groom $69, Hybrid $149, Desktop from $89, 2-Way SMS $50. VoIP and Corporate: contact for pricing | Its pricing page lists core features across plans and does not break out boarding by plan. Free demo offered | Not stated on the pricing page |
| PetExec | Kennels and daycares | Quote-based. No price on its site | See their site | Not stated |
| ProPet | Kennels and daycares | See their pricing page (we could not load it on Oct 17, 2026) | See their site | Not verified |
Sources (all read October 17, 2026):
- Porchlight: porchlight.pet/pricing
- Gingr: gingrapp.com/pricing
- DaySmart Pet: daysmart.com/pet/pricing
- Time To Pet: timetopet.com/pricing
- Kennel Connection: kennelconnection.com/pricing
- PetExec: petexec.net (no price shown, contact form and phone only)
Gingr's Stay price assumes integrated payments are active, per its page. Check the add-ons before you compare totals. A facility bill is more than the plan price.
Short, honest picks
You run a kennel or daycare building with many runs, grooming or retail. Start with Gingr or DaySmart Pet. They are built for the front desk. Porchlight is not a full facility system, and we will not pretend it is. Ask for a demo and price your real add-ons.
You are an in-home sitter who boards a few dogs a night. Porchlight Solo is $35 a month. You get rooms and capacity checks, vaccination expiry per pet and stay invoicing without a second tool.
You run a walking and sitting company with staff, and boarding is part of the mix. This is where flat pricing helps. Porchlight Team is $79 a month for unlimited staff. On a per-staff tool, every walker and sitter you add raises the bill, even though they never touch a boarder. Time To Pet Team at 10 people is $200 a month before you add its Facility plan. The full math is in Time To Pet vs Porchlight.
You mostly groom, with some daycare. Look at DaySmart Pet first. Check the $25 daycare and boarding add-ons in your total.
You need texting built in today. Porchlight texting is coming soon. Pick a tool that has it now.
What Porchlight does for boarding
Boarding and daycare are included in Solo and Team. No extra plan. Per our dog daycare software page:
- Locations, rooms and runs with capacity and size limits
- Overnight boarding and full or half day daycare
- A capacity check for every night and day
- A waitlist when a night is full
- Vaccination expiry stored per pet
- A daily board with feeding, medication and quick logs
- A daily report card to pet parents
- Stay charges that land on the same invoice as visit fees
Beyond boarding, the same plan has scheduling, GPS check-in and check-out with the walk route on report cards, an offline sitter app (an installable web app, not an app store app) that finishes a full visit in airplane mode and syncs later, and payroll calculation with a CSV export for QuickBooks or Gusto (it does not run payroll).
Where it falls short today: no native app, no texting yet (it is coming soon), and no QuickBooks sync (CSV export only for now). It is built around visits and sitting companies, not a kennel front desk with a point of sale.
Switching in: The Switch Kit imports from Time To Pet, Precise Petcare, Pet Sitter Plus and LeashTime, with a dry run and rollback. You can export everything as CSV or JSON. See /switch.
What to check before you pick any tool
- Rooms, runs and capacity. Can it stop you from booking a 13th dog into 12 runs?
- Vaccine records. Does it store the expiry date for each pet and warn you?
- The daily board. Can staff see feeding, medication and notes for tonight on one screen?
- Invoicing. Does a stay land on the same invoice as the walks?
- The real bill. Add staff, add-ons and payment processing. Price it at headcount plus 3.
- Your exit. Can you export clients and pets before you start? Do it on day one.
For a cost walkthrough of staff-based pricing, see our pricing page, where you can enter your team size. If you mostly run walks rather than stays, read our dog walking software guide instead.
How we compared
- Prices: Read from each company's own pricing page on October 17, 2026. If a price is not shown, we say "quote-based" or "see their pricing page." We do not use third-party listings.
- Features: Porchlight's list comes from our boarding page. For others, we used what their pricing page says. We did not run a feature test of every tool.
- Our bias: We make Porchlight. If we got your tool wrong, email us and we will fix it.
Try Porchlight
Flat price on /pricing: $35 a month for Solo, $79 for Team with unlimited staff, boarding and daycare included.
Porchlight is made by Hive Asset Group, LLC.
Questions
What is the best dog boarding software for a small business?
It depends on the shape of the business. A small kennel or daycare building is usually better served by a facility tool like Gingr or DaySmart Pet. A pet sitting or dog walking company that also boards a few dogs can use Porchlight, which includes boarding in every plan.
How much does dog boarding software cost?
From about $29 a month (DaySmart Pet Basic, with payments) to $154 a month (Gingr Stay on annual billing), plus add-ons. Porchlight is $35 a month for Solo and $79 for Team, with boarding included. Add-ons, staff limits and payment fees change the real bill, so price your whole setup.
Does boarding cost extra in Porchlight?
No. Boarding and daycare are included in Solo and Team. There is no separate facility plan.
Can I run a kennel with Porchlight?
You can set up rooms and runs, check capacity, keep a waitlist and track vaccination expiry. But Porchlight is built for pet sitting and dog walking companies. If you have a large kennel with many runs, grooming and retail, a facility tool will likely fit better.
Can I move my clients from my current software?
Yes, from Time To Pet, Precise Petcare, Pet Sitter Plus and LeashTime through the Switch Kit, with a dry run and rollback. For other tools, export a CSV and ask us about it.
Free checklist
Switch from Time To Pet without losing a booking
One page covering what to export, what to check after the import, and what to tell your clients, so every booking carries over.