Everything you
want to know
about TinyMatch.

You create a free match profile in about 2 minutes. You tell us your child's age group, your city, when you need care, and rank up to 3 daycares you're interested in.

When a daycare you've ranked — or any daycare in your city that matches your child's age — posts an open spot, we score every waiting family and alert the best matches first. Your ranking position and how urgently you need care both factor into your score.

You get an email the moment there's a match. No more calling down lists. No more checking websites.

Yes — TinyMatch is free. You can search all 288+ licensed daycares in Durham Region, create a match profile, rank up to 3 daycares, and receive spot alerts at no cost.

TinyMatch is live in Durham Region — Ajax, Bowmanville, Clarington, Cobourg, Newcastle, Oshawa, Pickering, Port Hope, Port Perry, Uxbridge, and Whitby.

We're expanding across Ontario city by city. Sign up now and your profile will be active the moment we launch in your area. Hamilton and the GTA are next on the list.

When you call a daycare, you get added to their list and wait. You have no idea where you stand, whether the spot will ever be available in the right age group, or whether the daycare will even call you when one opens.

TinyMatch flips this: daycares post their actual open spots with the age group and timing. You get alerted specifically because there's a real spot that matches your specific child. No guessing. No being 300th on a list that nobody maintains.

You should still call daycares you're serious about — TinyMatch works alongside that, not instead of it.

When you create a match profile, you search for and rank the daycares you want most. Your #1 ranked daycare gives you the highest priority score when they post a spot — meaning you'll be alerted before families who ranked them lower or didn't rank them at all.

You can rank up to 3 daycares. Think of it as telling TinyMatch your preference order — your #1 choice gets you the highest priority score when they post a spot.

You'll receive an email with the daycare name, the spot details (age group, availability date), and a link to contact them directly. From there it's between you and the daycare — TinyMatch introduces you, but the enrolment conversation is yours to have.

Move quickly. Spots don't last long, and other families are being alerted at the same time.

Yes — but it's off by default. When creating your match profile, there's a checkbox to include unlicensed home childcare providers in your alerts. Uncheck it and you'll only hear about licensed centres and licensed home care agencies.

Unlicensed home childcare is legal in Ontario for up to 5 children and can be an excellent option — but it's not Ministry inspected. Every unlicensed provider on TinyMatch has self-declared that they meet the child limit, hold first aid and CPR certification, and have completed a vulnerable sector police check. We recommend verifying these directly before enrolling.

Yes. Your match profile — including your name, email, and ranked daycares — is never shared publicly or with daycares directly. Daycares only know that matched families exist and how many are searching in their area.

We don't sell your data. We don't share it with advertisers. See our full Privacy Policy for details. TinyMatch is PIPEDA compliant.

TinyMatch shows all licensed daycares in Durham Region, including those enrolled in the Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) program. You can filter your search by program type to help find the right fit.

When a daycare posts a spot, they can include notes about subsidy acceptance and CWELCC enrolment. We recommend confirming directly with any centre you're interested in, as enrolment status can change.

Free to list, free to post spots, free to receive inquiries. There is no cost for any daycare during our launch phase in Durham Region.

We plan to introduce optional paid tiers in the future for daycares that want advanced features — waitlist intelligence, demand analytics, priority placement. Any daycare that joins now will receive ample notice before any paid requirement applies.

Listing means registering your daycare on TinyMatch — your name appears in search results, parents can rank you, and you're part of the matching pool. It takes 5 minutes.

Posting a spot is the action that triggers matching. When you have a specific opening — "2 toddler spots available May 1" — you post it. TinyMatch scores all the waiting families and alerts the best matches immediately. This is what actually fills your spots.

You need to list before you can post. But listing without posting means families know you exist — posting is what connects them to you right now.

No. Keep your existing system. TinyMatch is additive — when you have a spot opening, post it here and we'll surface families who are actively looking right now. You don't need to import your waitlist, change your processes, or abandon anything that's working.

Think of TinyMatch as your top-of-funnel for families who are actively searching today, not a replacement for the relationships you've already built.

Alert emails go out within minutes of you posting. How quickly families respond depends on how urgently they need care — families with an imminent start date tend to respond the same day.

We're still in early days in Durham Region, so the number of matched families will grow as more parents join. Right now we have 500+ families signed up across Durham.

Yes — TinyMatch includes unlicensed home childcare with full transparency. Unlicensed providers are clearly flagged as such, and parents must opt in to receive alerts from unlicensed providers.

To register as an unlicensed provider, you'll complete a self-declaration confirming you care for no more than 5 children, hold valid first aid and CPR certification, and have completed a vulnerable sector police check within 5 years.

A long waitlist isn't the same as a reliable waitlist. Most directors we've spoken to estimate that 30–50% of the families on their list have already found care elsewhere and simply never removed themselves.

When a spot opens, you call down the list and hit voicemails, wrong age groups, families who moved. TinyMatch shows you the families who are actively looking right now, for exactly what you have. That's a different — and much more useful — thing than a list of names.

Matt — a Pickering dad who went through the Durham Region childcare waitlist nightmare firsthand. My wife and I were on 14 lists, put deposits on daycares we didn't even want, and nearly panicked our way into a bad situation.

I have friends who went to medical school and told me about Match Day — where you rank hospitals, hospitals rank you, and an algorithm finds the best fit. I thought: why doesn't childcare work like that? So I built it.

TinyMatch is a sole proprietorship based in Pickering, Ontario. I work a full-time job and build this on evenings and weekends because I think the childcare access problem is solvable and nobody else is solving it this way.

Because it's home, and because matching works on local density — you need enough parents and enough daycares in the same area for the matches to be meaningful. Starting in one region and doing it well is better than spreading thin across the province.

Durham has 288+ licensed daycares, a fast-growing population, and a childcare crunch that's as real as anywhere in Ontario. It's the right place to prove the model before expanding.

Hamilton and the broader GTA are next. We're expanding once we've proven the matching flywheel works in Durham — meaning real families getting real spots through TinyMatch, not just signups.

If you're outside Durham Region, sign up anyway. Your profile goes into the queue and we'll activate it when we launch in your area. You'll get an email the day we go live near you.

No. TinyMatch is an independent private platform. We're not affiliated with the Ontario Ministry of Education, Durham Region, or any government body.

The licensed daycare data we use comes from the Ontario Ministry of Education's public database of licensed childcare providers. We keep it current and add self-registered providers on top.

Email hello@tinymatch.ca — Matt reads every email and replies personally. If your question is one other people will have too, it'll end up in this FAQ.