Pearspark vs Sycamore School
For small private schools and microschools. Pricing verified September 29, 2026. Written by the Pearspark team (how we compare).
The short answer
Sycamore School lists $4 per student per month with every module included, over a $2,500 minimum onboarding fee and an 18-month minimum contract, with volume discounts starting at 400 students. Pearspark's $50 base + banded per-student pricing works out cheaper at every size — $250 vs $400 at 100 students, $650 vs $1,200 at 300 — with no onboarding fee and no minimum term, and includes lending library, volunteer, and resource-booking modules.
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.
Sycamore School
An all-in-one K-12 SIS priced per student, popular with independent schools.
Pricing: Sycamore's pricing page, headed "Pricing · Updated 2026", lists $4 per student per month with every module included and no monthly platform fee, a minimum onboarding investment of $2,500, and contracts that start at an 18-month minimum, with longer terms locking the per-student rate. Its product page still shows the older $1,500 standard setup fee ($750 on the multisite tier for groups of 1,200+ students), so the two pages disagree and we quote the pricing page. Volume discounts start at 400 students. From fall 2026 it also offers pass-through licensing, under which the school pays $1 per student per month and families pay a $3 per student per month SIS license at the start of the year — the same $4 split differently, not a lower total.
What each costs at small-school sizes
| Students | Pearspark | Sycamore |
|---|---|---|
| 25 students | $62.50/mo | $100/mo + $2,500 onboarding |
| 50 students | $125/mo | $200/mo + $2,500 onboarding |
| 100 students | $250/mo | $400/mo + $2,500 onboarding |
| 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. | $4/student covers the all-in-one SIS with every module, integrated payments (Sycamore Pay) and cafeteria and facility extras, with no monthly platform fee. Underneath it: a $2,500 minimum onboarding fee, an 18-month minimum contract, and volume discounts that don't start until 400 students. |
Sycamore pricing from its published list rates as of September 29, 2026. Sources are below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pearspark | Sycamore |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Partial | |
| 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 Sycamore. 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 Sycamore shines
- True all-in-one: SIS with integrated payments (Sycamore Pay) and cafeteria/facility extras
- Simple per-student list pricing with no monthly minimum
- Established with independent and faith-based schools
Worth knowing
- $4/student is roughly double Pearspark's top marginal rate of $2.50 — which itself steps down to $1.00 at volume, and the first 20 students are bundled
- Volume discounts only kick in at 400+ students
- A $2,500 minimum onboarding fee on its pricing page — its product page still shows $1,500 — so ask which applies before you sign
- Contracts start at an 18-month minimum, where Pearspark is month-to-month
- Pass-through licensing, from fall 2026, moves $3 of the $4 per student onto families as a start-of-year license rather than lowering the total
When Sycamore is the better choice
When Pearspark is the better choice
The parts this comparison turns on
Common questions
Is Pearspark or Sycamore cheaper for a small school?
Does Sycamore require a contract?
Can I import Sycamore data into Pearspark?
Does Pearspark process payments like Sycamore Pay?
Sources
Last reviewed September 29, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.
Sycamore 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.
Email support answered by a person comes with every plan, along with how-to videos and guides. There are no paid support tiers.