ACTIVE Education (ACTIVE Net) vs. brightwheel vs. iGradePlus

Really like the appearance of reporting and the web booking.

Incentivized

Any preschool can benefit from brightwheel, no matter the size. Brightwheel is also excellent for billing, which is especially helpful for schools that do not have other databases and billing systems. Because our school is a PS-12, it is a little cumbersome to have brightwheel along with another management system that we use school-wide. It would be nice to have a separate price point that does not include the things that another database system does for schools that are required to use what the older grades also use.

Incentivized

The program works very well for me, even though I am the only one in my school to use it. My colleagues are Thai, and they would have a difficult time working with this English program. Also, there is quite a bit of the program that deals with parental contact and other items used more in a United States school system that wouldn't work here very well.

• Separation of payer and the person attending the activity. For example: children incur charges, but the parent is responsible for paying them.
• Fast - in our old system there was a delay while customers waited for the system to respond.

Incentivized

• Recording data for students.
• Connecting to parents with photos, videos, and messages.
• Signing in and out electronically and saving paper daily.

Incentivized

• It's record keeping function is robust in its free version.
• Client support is very responsive.
• It's set up guide is thorough.
• The homepage with the news feed is clean and easy on the eyes.

• I really like the look and feel of ActiveNet Reporting, but it isn't extremely customizable. Maybe there is something I am missing, but other employees have shared that same feedback.
• It would be nice to have the system synchronize with other software we use. (EMS, StarRez, etc.) When planning conferences, we currently have hotel guests and registration that we would like to share information for through each system. Currently it is just double data entry.
• Would like to be able to add more resources and details to a room booking and have the corresponding departments be notified of the order/track inventory.

Incentivized

• Offering a price point that does not include billing.
• Allowing more freedom of uploading own documents.

Incentivized

• The transcript templates need to be improved.
• I would love to see them add services for canteen management (point of sale).
• I would love to see them add services for library management (circulation).

They have good instructions. There are some pages that appear confusing at first, but there are enough directions around for me to figure out what I need to do to accomplish what I need to. I don't always remember what I need to do when it is a task that happens only once or only a few times a year. The grade report section looks difficult, but I have always been able to find out what I need to do there without too much time or effort. Also, when I need to import students from a previous year into a new grade book, the program has provided the information I need to do that

ACTIVE Network allowed: grouping of classes, good interface, allowed importing of records, complex payment plans, per class fee structures, user fees, and trial classes.

Incentivized

Brightwheel does much more for the preschool level than FACTS does. The creators of this app know early childhood. The company also provides helpful webinars that are unrelated to their software, such as staff retention or ways to market. They understand the business of early childhood and exist to make the lives of providers easier.

Incentivized

I have worked with FACTS (formerly known as RenWeb) and I enjoyed all of its features. It almost has too many rings and bells. iGradePlus has many of the same features for a much lower price. Parents and students are able to log in to see the grades. We can print our report cards. We can keep track of tuition. There are some features that I would like to see in the future, such as canteen management (point of sale) and library management (circulation) but for right now, it is perfect for our young school

• Not sure yet.
• It is newer to me and my department.
• Double data entry which is just extra man hours.

Incentivized

• Value add for parents
• Saves paper
• Benefits for teachers who fully utilize

Incentivized

• More than half of our clients monitor their child's attendance and lesson logs as seen through the parent portal access count.
• Our record keeping is now centralized.
• iGradePlus became a proof of our legitimacy for some of our parents.