Pearspark vs Skooly
For small private schools & microschools · pricing verified August 2026 · written by the Pearspark team (how we compare)
The short answer
Skooly's Starter plan is $124/month billed annually and covers up to 100 active students, where Pearspark charges $250 at that size. It is strong on scheduling, bookings, attendance, billing and communication, and it ships store-native mobile apps. But K-12 is one of nine verticals it sells to, alongside gyms and dance studios, and the words transcript, report card and gradebook appear nowhere on its pricing page — so a school that has to produce either is comparing two different shapes of product, not two prices.
Pearspark
All-in-one platform for small private schools — records, academics, admissions, library, volunteers, scheduling, portal.
Pricing: $50/mo including 20 students, then $2.50/student/mo stepping down to $1.00 at volume. No setup fees, month-to-month, 30-day free trial.
Setup is self-serve, with importers that preview every row before anything is written — no setup fees, and free email support when you're stuck.
Skooly
Flat monthly pricing by student band, from a platform that runs schools, gyms, dance studios and coaching centers from the same product.
Pricing: Skooly publishes three flat plans by active-student band: Starter at $124/month billed annually ($1,490/year) up to 100 students, Growth at $208/month ($2,490/year) up to 250, and Scale at $333/month ($3,990/year) up to 500, with per-student add-on pricing beyond that. Annual billing gives two months free against the monthly rate. An AI Copilot add-on runs $83/month on Growth and Scale. No setup fee or minimum term is named on the pricing page, and every plan carries a 14-day free trial (as of August 2026).
What each costs at small-school sizes
| Students | Pearspark | Skooly |
|---|---|---|
| 25 students | $62.50/mo | $124/mo Starter (billed annually) |
| 50 students | $125/mo | $124/mo Starter (billed annually) |
| 100 students | $250/mo | $124/mo Starter (billed annually) |
| 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. The one thing charged by use is text alerts to families (from 2.7¢ a text, prepaid), because it is the one thing that costs us by use. No fundraising CRM and no subsidy billing. | Scheduling, bookings, live classes, check-in kiosk, attendance, invoicing, payments and communication for up to 100 active students on Starter. Transcripts, report cards and gradebooks aren't named; the AI Copilot assistant is a paid add-on on higher plans. |
Skooly pricing from its published list rates as of August 2026 — see sources below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pearspark | Skooly |
|---|---|---|
| Student records (SIS) | ||
| Attendance | ||
| Gradebook & report cards | ||
| Standards-based grading & mastery | ||
| Records protected if the school closes | ||
| Transcripts & GPA | ||
| Missing-data reports & scheduled delivery | ||
| Admissions pipeline | ||
| Class scheduling & rooms | ||
| Lending library & checkout | ||
| Equipment & room booking | ||
| Volunteer tracking & check-in | ||
| Parent & student portal | ||
| Messaging | ||
| Text alerts to families | ||
| Self-serve transcript & gradebook import | ||
| Tuition billing & payments | ||
| Published pricing (no sales call) | ||
| Fundraising & donor CRM | ||
| Subsidy & agency billing |
= varies by plan or not published — check with the vendor. We mark unknowns as unknowns rather than counting them against Skooly. 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. On texting: Pearspark reaches families as push notifications through the installable parent app, plus email — not SMS. Underlined feature names open the Pearspark page for that capability, so you can check what our ✓ actually means.
Where Skooly shines
- A flat band price — Starter's $124/month billed annually covers up to 100 active students, against Pearspark's $250 at that size
- Flat by band, so the bill doesn't move as enrollment grows within a band
- Store-native mobile apps for families and staff, alongside a web portal
- Strong scheduling and booking, live classes, a check-in kiosk, billing and invoicing, payments and communication
- No setup fee, onboarding fee or minimum term named anywhere on the pricing page
Worth knowing
- K-12 is one of nine verticals it sells to — the others include sports, music and dance, fitness and gym, and coaching and tutoring — so the product is shaped for classes and bookings rather than for a permanent school record
- The words "transcript", "report card", "gradebook" and "standards" appear nowhere on its pricing page; the nearest named features are Assessments, Feedback Report and Daily Reports. Confirm directly before assuming any of them exist
- Priced on active students, so the band you're in can change with enrollment mid-year
- Skooly Pte Ltd is a Singapore company; US-specific compliance reporting and state records requirements are not something its materials address
- The AI Copilot assistant is a paid add-on ($83/month) and only available on the Growth and Scale plans
When Skooly is the better choice
Skooly fits programs built around scheduling and attendance rather than a permanent academic record — an enrichment center, a tutoring or coaching business, a co-op that meets to run classes and bill for them. At $124/month billed annually up to 100 students, its Starter plan is about half of what Pearspark costs at that size — though at 25 students the comparison flips, $124 against Pearspark's $62.50. On the parent side, Skooly ships store-native apps; Pearspark ships an installable web app with push notifications. The question to settle first is whether you will ever need to produce a report card or a transcript. Neither is a feature Skooly publishes, and the first one a family asks for ends the price conversation.
When Pearspark is the better choice
Pearspark is built for small private schools — from a couple of students to a few hundred: microschools, classical schools, Montessori programs, hybrid schools, and homeschool co-ops. Everything is included at one published price: student records, a spreadsheet-style gradebook with built-in 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/student portal. Setup is self-serve, and built-in migration tools import your rosters, transcripts, and gradebooks from Skooly CSV exports with a dry-run preview.
The parts this comparison turns on
Common questions
Is Skooly cheaper than Pearspark?
It depends on size. Skooly's Starter plan is $124/month billed annually ($1,490/year) for up to 100 active students; Pearspark charges $62.50 at 25 students, $125 at 50 and $250 at 100. So Pearspark is cheaper at 25 students, the two are about even at 50, and Skooly is roughly half price at 100. Skooly's Growth plan is $208/month to 250 students, where Pearspark would be around $550. What the price buys is a different shape of product — see the next question.
Does Skooly do report cards and transcripts?
Its published materials don't say. The words "transcript", "report card" and "gradebook" appear nowhere on its pricing page, whose closest features are Assessments, Feedback Report and Daily Reports. We're not going to claim it can't do them — we haven't seen the product from the inside — but if a transcript is something your school has to produce, ask them for a demonstration of one before anything else. Pearspark's transcripts, GPA and report cards are included in its price and are the reason most of our schools buy.
Is Skooly built for K-12 schools?
Partly. Its own homepage asks you to "pick your school type" from nine options: online school, preschool and childcare, coaching and tutoring, sports, music and dance, fitness and gym, general academy, and K-12 school. So K-12 is supported but is one vertical among several, and the product's center of gravity — scheduling, bookings, class attendance, invoicing — reflects that. Pearspark does one thing, which is small private K-12 schools, and that cuts both ways.
Which should a homeschool co-op choose?
It depends on whether the co-op keeps records for its families or just runs the meeting day. If the job is scheduling classes, taking attendance and collecting dues, Skooly does that cheaply. If the co-op also keeps academic records families will rely on later, tracks a lending library, or schedules volunteers, that's the part Pearspark is built for, and it's not in Skooly's published feature list.
See Pearspark for yourself
Every task is on video — one minute each — and your first 30 days are free. No sales call.
Support: email support answered by a person is included with every plan, along with how-to videos and guides — there are no paid support tiers.
Sources
Last reviewed August 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.
Skooly in a wider comparison
These guides price Skooly alongside every other system in this list, at 25, 50 and 100 students.