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Licensing is a public instrument used to control welfare services. One such service is residential care for children, which is targeted at children who experience maltreatment in their home environment and/or have behavioural problems and have been separated from their parents by the authorities. In Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark, residential care may be provided by public or private (not-for-profit or for-profit) providers. The aim of this article is to explore and compare how public authorities in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Denmark, license residential care for children. The data consist of application forms and instructions for how to apply for a licence as well as interviews with key staff responsible for licensing. The findings show differences in how national agencies license residential care providers. Licensing models may be centralised/general (Sweden, Finland) or regionalised/specialised towards residential care (Norway, Denmark). The process can be more investigative (Sweden, Norway) or consultative (Finland, Denmark), and the review of standards formality-oriented (Sweden, Finland, Norway) or content-oriented (Denmark). Finally, the models of supervision post-licence vary in terms of being non-intervening (Finland), semi-intervening (Sweden, Norway) or intervening (Denmark). The discussion centres on the possible contribution of the different models to the regulation of the residential care markets.