School management software helps manage administrative tasks and learning activities.
For school staff and administrators, managing day-to-day operations can be exhausting. Recording student information and attendance, tracking grades, scheduling classes, and planning activities require both manual effort and staff resources, and the need to communicate information to parents makes the process even more complicated.
School management software simplifies this process by providing a centralized dashboard to store and manage student information; track attendance and performance; automate class scheduling; and facilitate communication between teachers, parents, and school administration.
This article highlights, in alphabetical order, the top seven school management software based on verified software reviews. Read more.
Check out the complete list of school management tools in Capterra's software directory.
1. Alma SIS: Sends alerts during emergencies
Alma SIS is a student information system designed for K-12 institutes. It offers a centralized dashboard that you can use to generate reports showcasing students’ grades, attendance, and behavioral incidents, among other data.
The software allows your faculty to distribute assignments to students and evaluate their submissions online. They can also create competency-based assignments to ensure personalized learning for students.
Product features of interestEmergency and system-wide communication: Sends real-time email and SMS alerts to students and staff in case of emergencies or natural disasters.
Gradebook management: Maintains a personalized grade book to record student grades, assessments, achievements, and overall progress.
Virtual file cabinet: Stores student records digitally and offers role-based access for your staff members.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Dashboard in Alma SIS (Source)
2. brightwheel: Provides attendance-based billing
brightwheel is a school administration software solution built for daycare centers and educational institutes. It helps automate day-to-day operations such as attendance tracking, communication with parents, and staff management.
With the software, you can manage the admission process for new students and set up automated billing to collect tuition fees and additional charges for extracurricular activities. Your teaching staff can create digital lesson plans for their classes and generate student activity reports to share with parents.
Product features of interestAttendance-based billing: Tracks student attendance and applies an hourly tuition rate to calculate the total fee.
Staff messaging: Sends messages to staff members to share daily updates or notify them of changes in the administrative process.
Learning and assessment: Records student progress and shares the results with faculty and parents.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Student activity report in brightwheel (Source)
3. Gradelink: Offers built-in chat for parents and staff
Gradelink is a student information system that helps school administrators manage student data; communicate with students, parents, and staff; and track student performance via reports. It allows your school staff to input student grades, attendance, and discipline information.
The software offers a dedicated portal for parents and students to access homework assignments, attendance reports, assessments, and grades. It also has a built-in live chat function that lets your educational institution communicate with parents in real time, reducing the need for phone calls and emails.
Product features of interestFamily directory: Maintains a record of student information, including addresses and contact numbers of family members.
Teacher schedules: Provides visibility into your staff's weekly schedule and lets you reschedule classes to prevent overlaps or clashes.
Volunteer and service hour reporting: Allows parents and students to submit volunteer or community service hours in the system and tracks the total hours submitted.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Maintaining student records in Gradelink (Source)
4. iGradePlus: Provides a web portal for students and teachers
IGradePlus is a grading and assessment platform designed to help educators digitize their grading process. It offers a web portal where teachers can enter assessment feedback and students can check the feedback and grades.
The software lets your faculty create interactive quizzes and puzzles to support students’ learning needs. It also lets them prepare and send homework assignments online and set deadlines for submissions.
Product features of interestSchool year calendar: Offers a school year calendar that you can share with staff and students. The calendar provides dates for grading periods, off days, and scheduled events, among others.
Parent profiles: Creates dedicated profiles for parents and allows them to access their child’s grade cards and performance reports.
Video meetings: Facilitates online video meetings between staff and parents to discuss student performance.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Assignment scoring in iGradePlus (Source)
5. ParentLocker: Lets your staff create photo albums
ParentLocker is a school management system that helps track students' academic activities, assignments, and attendance. It allows your staff to send email and SMS notifications to parents to inform them about school events, their child’s health, etc.
The software features a built-in database to store student information such as their grades, admission year, date of birth, address, and parent’s contact number. You can apply filters such as grade level, class, and graduation year to search and retrieve information about any student. You can also create customizable report cards to share with parents via email.
Product features of interestOnline grade book: Maintains an online grade book to record a student’s overall progress.
Photo albums: Makes photo albums to store images from school events and share them with parents via email.
Class schedules: Creates printable class schedules that your staff can customize and share with students.
Customer support options:Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Conference scheduler in ParentLocker (Source)
6. Pikmykid: Offers a silent alarm to report emergencies
Pikmykid is a school safety and dismissal management platform for parents and educational institutes. It helps schedule transportation for students and notifies parents via SMS once the vehicles leave school premises.
The software has a dedicated mobile app that sends real-time alerts to staff members and parents in case of emergencies such as natural disasters, intruders on the campus, or inclement weather. It also offers location services to help school personnel instantly know the location of any reported incident.
Product features of interestDispersal plans: Creates clear dispersal instructions for students and staff to follow when entering or leaving school premises.
Parent engagement: Allows parents to make pickup, delegation, and attendance changes through a mobile app. They can also choose who has pickup permissions.
Silent alarm: Uses a silent panic button to alert respondents about an incident without sounding loud alarms or creating dangerous panic.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Dashboard in Pikmykid (Source)
7. Sawyer: Automates tuition payments
Sawyer is a school administration platform that centralizes communication between teachers, students, and parents. It helps automate processes such as student record-keeping, attendance tracking, and grade management.
The software lets you create reports showcasing student activity and engagement levels. It also allows you to schedule activities and classes for multiple batches and send out reminders to parents for upcoming events.
Product features of interestPayment processing: Provides multiple payment options and allows parents to pay for individual classes or whole semesters.
Bookings and registrations: Offers a dedicated portal for parents to register their children for individual classes and courses.
Marketplace: Builds listings for activities and events that your educational institute offers and enables parents to book classes.
Customer support options: Chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Starting price
Device compatibility
Screenshots
Calendar management in Sawyer (Source)
How to choose the best school management software
Consider these factors to ensure you select the best school management system for your educational institute:
Look for automated attendance management. This feature will save you from the hassle of manually checking and marking the attendance of each student. It’ll also save time and effort for your faculty members, prevent manual data entry errors, and significantly reduce attendance-related paperwork.
Check whether the software facilitates communication between parents and teachers. Look for software that offers communication channels such as chat, email, SMS, and video conferencing to allow teachers and parents to discuss their child’s performance, interests, involvement in school activities, etc.
Assess the student enrollment and admission functionality. The school management software you pick should have a centralized dashboard to help manage enrollments, collect admission fees, and validate student documents.
How much does school management software cost?
Pricing for school management software products is usually available on quote. You can inquire about individual product prices from vendors.
Hidden costs associated with school management software
Check for these hidden costs when buying school management software:
Additional user costs: Some vendors charge an extra fee for additional user seats.
Payment processing fee: Some vendors charge an additional processing fee for each payment you process through their application.
Common questions to ask when buying school management software
Here are some questions to ask vendors when buying school administration software for your educational institution:
Does your software track school finances?
Financial management features will help you keep track of school finances, such as fee management, budgeting for school events, and general expenses for upkeep.
Does your software include library management?
School administration software with built-in library management will allow you to maintain a database of books, monitor circulation, record borrower details, track due dates, and manage late fees.
How does your software protect student information?
School management software with data security features such as encryption, authentication, and tokenization will help you protect sensitive student data. Also, look for an administrative dashboard that lets you define who has how much access to school and student records.