Pearspark vs Alma SIS

For small private schools and microschools. Pricing verified September 29, 2026. Written by the Pearspark team (how we compare).

The short answer

Alma is a modern K-12 SIS with strong reviews and customized per-school pricing — you request a quote. Pearspark publishes its price ($50/month including 20 students, then $2.50/student stepping down to $1.00 at volume), sets up self-serve, and bundles library, volunteers, and equipment booking — a fit for small private schools.

Pearspark

All-in-one platform for small private schools: records, academics, admissions, library, volunteers, scheduling and the portal.

Pricing: $50 a month including 20 students, then $2.50 a student a month, stepping down to $1.00 at volume. No setup fees, month to month, 30-day free trial.

Setup is self-serve: the importers preview every row before anything is written, and email support is free when you're stuck.

Alma SIS

A modern, well-reviewed K-12 SIS serving independent, charter, and district schools.

Pricing: Alma prices by customized package per school or district — no published list price.

What each costs at small-school sizes

Students	Pearspark	Alma
25 students	$62.50/mo	Quote required
50 students	$125/mo	Quote required
100 students	$250/mo	Quote required
What the price includes	Everything in one plan: records, attendance, gradebook, standards-based grading, report cards, transcripts, admissions, scheduling, tuition billing with family autopay, lending library, equipment booking, volunteer check-in, messaging, and an installable parent app with push notifications. No setup fee, month-to-month. No fundraising CRM, no subsidy billing, and no SMS broadcast — announcements reach families as push notifications and email instead.	Quoted per school or district as a customized package, so what a given quote covers is set in that conversation. Library management is not in it: Alma lists it as an integration with Follett Destiny, a separate system the school buys and runs.

Alma does not publish pricing; figures shown are the best public information we could verify as of September 29, 2026. Sources are below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.

Feature comparison

Feature	Pearspark	Alma
Student records (SIS)
Attendance
Gradebook & report cards
Standards-based grading & mastery
Records protected if the school closes
Transcripts & GPA
Missing-data reports & scheduled delivery		Partial
Admissions pipeline
Class scheduling & rooms
Lending library & checkout
Equipment & room booking
Volunteer tracking & check-in
Parent & student portal
Messaging
Self-serve transcript & gradebook import
Tuition billing & payments
Published pricing (no sales call)
Fundraising & donor CRM
SMS / text broadcast to families
Subsidy & agency billing

= varies by plan or not published; check with the vendor. We mark unknowns as unknowns rather than counting them against Alma. The last three rows are jobs Pearspark does not do, listed for the same reason: a school that runs an annual fund, texts its families, or bills an agency should find that out here. Pearspark reaches families by push notification through the installable parent app, and by email, not by text. Underlined feature names open the Pearspark page for that capability, so you can check what our ✓ actually means.

Where Alma shines

Modern, well-designed interface teachers tend to like
Strong reviews on ease of use and support
Scales from single independent schools to districts and even state level

Worth knowing

No published pricing — buying starts with a demo and a quote
Built for a broad K-12 market, not specifically for microschool workflows
No volunteer-tracking or equipment-booking module in its published feature list, and no built-in lending library — Alma lists library management as an integration with Follett Destiny, a separate system the school buys and runs

When Alma is the better choice

Alma fits an independent or charter school growing past a couple hundred students that wants district-grade state reporting and has time for a proper procurement cycle. It's a well-reviewed modern SIS; the trade is quote-based pricing and a footprint sized well past what a 20-student school needs.

When Pearspark is the better choice

Pearspark is built for small private schools of a couple of students to a few hundred: microschools, classical schools, Montessori programs, hybrid schools and homeschool co-ops. One published price includes student records, a spreadsheet-style gradebook with student analytics (trends, score distributions, missing-work tracking), report cards, printable transcripts with GPA, school-year attendance calendars, admissions, class scheduling, tuition billing with online payments, a lending library with barcode checkout, equipment booking, volunteer check-in, messaging and a parent and student portal. Setup is self-serve, and the built-in migration tools import your rosters, transcripts and gradebooks from Alma CSV exports with a dry-run preview.

The parts this comparison turns on

Common questions

How much does Alma cost compared to Pearspark?

Alma doesn't publish pricing — packages are customized per school, so you'll need a demo and quote. Pearspark's full price is public: $50/month including 20 students, then $2.50/month per additional student (volume bands to $1.00). A 40-student school pays exactly $100/month, no quote needed.

Can I migrate from Alma to Pearspark?

Yes. Export rosters, transcripts, and gradebooks to CSV from Alma and use Pearspark's built-in import tools — every import shows a dry-run preview of what will be created before anything is written.

Who should pick Alma over Pearspark?

Charters with state compliance reporting needs, or anyone standardizing across multiple large campuses. Pearspark is purpose-built for the small private school that wants everything in one place at a flat published price — and you can test that claim without a quote: every task is on video, and a real signup takes a roster CSV, previews every row before writing it, and has attendance running the same afternoon.

Sources

Last reviewed September 29, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.

Alma in a wider comparison

See Pearspark for yourself

Every task has its own short video, and your first 30 days are free. No sales call.

Start your 30-day free trial Watch it working

Email support answered by a person comes with every plan, along with how-to videos and guides. There are no paid support tiers.