PowerSchool Student Information System vs. Prophix vs. Synoptix

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
PowerSchool SIS
Score 7.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
The PowerSchool Student Information System covers administrative needs, such as scheduling, attendance, reporting, data management, faculty management, emergency/medical and health management, registration, and more for K-12 schools and districts. It is easy to use and boasts an industry-leading gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro. Users enjoy a fully web-based SIS that is flexible, configurable, and scalable with real-time updates on any operating system, browser or device.N/A
Prophix
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Prophix One, a Financial Performance Platform, is used to improve the speed and accuracy of decision-making within a harmonized user experience. To reduce complexity and uncertainty, the software offers automated insights and planning, budgeting, forecasting, reporting, and consolidation functionalities.N/A
Synoptix
Score 7.5 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Synoptic provides ERP financial reporting tools and analysis. This solution is designed to deliver real-time data. The vendor’s value proposition is that their solution empowers users to create financial and operational reports with spreadsheet ease of use.N/A
Pricing
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PowerSchool SISProphixSynoptix
Free Trial
NoYesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptionalOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Features
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Student and Faculty Administration
Comparison of Student and Faculty Administration features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
8.5
3 Ratings
2% above category average
Prophix
-
Ratings
Synoptix
-
Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-Party Education Technology9.02 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Online Registration Management10.02 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
District Communications, such as messaging and alerting8.12 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Roster Management9.03 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform Customization7.73 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Teacher Self-Service9.03 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Student Data Security9.43 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Community Support7.43 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Class Scheduling9.43 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
State and National-level Reporting7.12 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance Support7.62 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
Teacher and Parent Mobile Application8.03 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
6.1
28 Ratings
21% below category average
Synoptix
6.0
5 Ratings
22% below category average
Pixel Perfect reports00 Ratings5.310 Ratings5.83 Ratings
Customizable dashboards00 Ratings6.327 Ratings5.85 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates00 Ratings6.526 Ratings6.44 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.4
122 Ratings
18% above category average
Synoptix
7.4
7 Ratings
5% below category average
Drill-down analysis00 Ratings9.8121 Ratings7.37 Ratings
Formatting capabilities00 Ratings8.8116 Ratings7.07 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration00 Ratings9.7114 Ratings8.24 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages00 Ratings00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.2
110 Ratings
14% above category average
Synoptix
7.7
5 Ratings
4% below category average
Publish to PDF00 Ratings9.8105 Ratings8.45 Ratings
Report Versioning00 Ratings7.982 Ratings7.63 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling00 Ratings9.896 Ratings7.34 Ratings
Publish to Web00 Ratings00 Ratings7.64 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
8.6
48 Ratings
15% above category average
Synoptix
6.9
3 Ratings
7% below category average
Predictive Analytics00 Ratings8.648 Ratings6.82 Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)00 Ratings00 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization00 Ratings00 Ratings6.82 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings00 Ratings6.82 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.5
116 Ratings
12% above category average
Synoptix
7.6
6 Ratings
10% below category average
Multi-User Support (named login)00 Ratings9.8112 Ratings7.36 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model00 Ratings9.8112 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)00 Ratings9.8115 Ratings7.75 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings8.557 Ratings7.35 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)00 Ratings00 Ratings7.86 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.6
60 Ratings
25% above category average
Synoptix
6.7
4 Ratings
11% below category average
Responsive Design for Web Access00 Ratings9.660 Ratings6.74 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings00 Ratings6.82 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile00 Ratings00 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting
Comparison of Budgeting, Planning, and Forecasting features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.7
221 Ratings
17% above category average
Synoptix
6.6
8 Ratings
21% below category average
Long-term financial planning00 Ratings9.7187 Ratings6.06 Ratings
Financial budgeting00 Ratings9.8216 Ratings6.57 Ratings
Forecasting00 Ratings9.6207 Ratings6.64 Ratings
Scenario modeling00 Ratings9.6171 Ratings5.94 Ratings
Management reporting00 Ratings9.8211 Ratings7.88 Ratings
Consolidation and Close
Comparison of Consolidation and Close features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
8.6
179 Ratings
10% above category average
Synoptix
7.6
7 Ratings
2% below category average
Financial data consolidation00 Ratings9.7144 Ratings8.26 Ratings
Journal entries and reports00 Ratings9.788 Ratings7.03 Ratings
Multi-currency management00 Ratings7.372 Ratings7.14 Ratings
Intercompany Eliminations00 Ratings7.586 Ratings6.82 Ratings
Minority Ownership00 Ratings7.135 Ratings9.12 Ratings
Local and consolidated reporting00 Ratings9.9124 Ratings7.55 Ratings
Detailed Audit Trails00 Ratings8.8109 Ratings7.46 Ratings
Financial Reporting and Compliance
Comparison of Financial Reporting and Compliance features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
8.7
210 Ratings
10% above category average
Synoptix
7.2
8 Ratings
9% below category average
Financial Statement Reporting00 Ratings9.8192 Ratings7.18 Ratings
Management Reporting00 Ratings9.8203 Ratings7.78 Ratings
Excel-based Reporting00 Ratings8.8185 Ratings8.07 Ratings
Automated board and financial reporting00 Ratings9.8161 Ratings7.37 Ratings
XBRL support for regulatory filing00 Ratings5.510 Ratings5.83 Ratings
Analytics and Reporting
Comparison of Analytics and Reporting features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
8.9
186 Ratings
9% above category average
Synoptix
6.5
6 Ratings
22% below category average
Personalized dashboards00 Ratings8.8173 Ratings6.46 Ratings
Color-coded scorecards00 Ratings8.8126 Ratings5.94 Ratings
KPIs00 Ratings8.7138 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Cost and profitability analysis00 Ratings9.6135 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Key Performance Indicator setting00 Ratings8.8111 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Benchmarking with external data00 Ratings8.875 Ratings6.73 Ratings
Integration
Comparison of Integration features of Product A and Product B
PowerSchool Student Information System
-
Ratings
Prophix
9.7
207 Ratings
16% above category average
Synoptix
7.4
6 Ratings
11% below category average
Flat file integration00 Ratings9.8168 Ratings7.33 Ratings
Excel data integration00 Ratings9.8182 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Direct links to 3rd-party data sources00 Ratings9.5158 Ratings6.96 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
Centage
Centage
Score 9.4 out of 10
Centage
Centage
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
Schoolmint Hero
Schoolmint Hero
Score 9.7 out of 10
OneStream
OneStream
Score 8.8 out of 10
OneStream
OneStream
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(32 ratings)
8.8
(233 ratings)
7.5
(18 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(16 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.6
(49 ratings)
7.1
(7 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(30 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.7
(29 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.5
(12 ratings)
8.2
(121 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(1 ratings)
9.0
(19 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(11 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.8
(29 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(27 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.5
(23 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.6
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PowerSchool Student Information SystemProphixSynoptix
Likelihood to Recommend
PowerSchool Group LLC
PowerSchool Student Information System is a cool software that can be highly recommended to anyone who is living in the educational management space. It is proven that this software can reduce your manual workload massively if you use it right. Plus it is really worth the price you pay. Especially if you are in the administrative field, this software will help you to minimize manual efforts put into student registrations, staffing recruitment, and main resource management processes.
Read full review
Prophix Software
If the budgeting is done with Excel spreadsheets, and your company is small to medium in size, Prophix is the system for you! Additionally, if your company is also doing monthly forecasting in Excel, Prophix will save you time and reduce errors. There are also many other worthwhile features, such as Account Reconciliation and consolidations.
Read full review
Synoptix
Synoptix has been great for us to allow end users access to the data and information they need to make informed decisions without letting them have full access to all ERP functions. It has also been very easy to create custom reports that meet our needs. It is also nimble enough to create quick reports that are needed with a small turnaround
Read full review
Pros
PowerSchool Group LLC
  • PowerSchool houses student or staff information that can be easily accessed by those teachers and administrators who need the information. This allows everyone to go to one place to access information.
  • Parents can view their child's grades at any time with their protected login on a parent portal. This allows teachers to keep parents informed and involved in their child's progress at school. When everyone works together it increases our students' chance for success.
  • PowerSchool offers videos to train new users. When we have new employees, the videos can be accessed at any time the employee needs as opposed to them waiting for someone to help them.
Read full review
Prophix Software
  • Reporting - single report that can be opened by multiple users, each will see only aspect specific to them based on their security access.
  • Budgeting - workflow driven budget data collection, visibility of its current status, ability to take action to ensure timely completion. Ability to snapshot budget data at a point in time. Ability to perform what-if scenarios.
  • Forecasting - as above with added benefit of either reusing budget level of grain or forecasting at high level.
  • Granular planning - ability to create unlimited number of subsidiary models to assist with the planning process. Non-financial data collected during budget/forecast process help with operation planning and variance analysis.
Read full review
Synoptix
  • Easy report building interface with an query interface that allows financial users the ability to conduct complex queries without difficulty.
  • The ability to create reporting that allows us to review in-depth financial review by drilling down into accounts to find transnational data easily.
  • Easily maintained and monitored with simple upgrade installations and end point installation.
  • Great knowledge base for review and trouble-shooting.
  • Highly knowledgeable and easy to work with staff.
Read full review
Cons
PowerSchool Group LLC
  • Does not consistently communicate with related software such as Illuminate for Special Education Students.
  • Drop down menus frequently refresh as data is entered which slows down the user's ability to enter information.
  • Icons are sometimes unclear and not easily understandable. Word labels for some items might be more effective.
Read full review
Prophix Software
  • Prophix could improve on its dashboarding capability - it is very basic and we always present our graphs/visuals in Excel.
  • We would love it if Prophix could improve its line item detail reports. They are not great right after downloading and require a lot of manipulation in Excel.
  • It would be awesome if we could fully integrate our invoicing software with Prophix. This would allow us to view invoices within Prophix rather than having to go into another tool.
Read full review
Synoptix
  • It has a poor install procedure which is not standard. It almost requires copying folders from an existing computer to the new install.
  • The update process is less than desirable. It seems like Compusoft needs to do a better job of testing before releasing updates.
  • The interface is a bit archaic. It looks more like a program from 20 years ago than one used today.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
PowerSchool Group LLC
We would be starting over at square one if we did not continue our PowerSchool subscription. We do not have a program in a place that would take its place.
Read full review
Prophix Software
The system works well for us, and meets all of our needs. All of our future plans can and will be achieved within Prophix, so there is no need to pursue another product. Prophix has continuously proven to improve their product over the years, which provides an even higher level of confidence in this tool, and future developments
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Synoptix
There is no question that we will continue to use this product for as long as it's available
Read full review
Usability
PowerSchool Group LLC
Great features, but it can feel very cumbersome at times
Read full review
Prophix Software
I have used other reporting software over the years and so far this has been the simplest to set up, the most flexible to use and we have not yet used Prophix to its full capacity. Over the next year or so I can see us extending our use of Prophix to include any number of other functions.
Read full review
Synoptix
It didn't take long to learn how it works and has always been easy to navigate and accomplish all that we have needed. Whenever there have been any issues Synopotix has been great to address them in a timely manner and have always been able to resolve the issues we have had
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Reliability and Availability
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
The availability in Prophix is relatively good. We have occurred random outages in different versions that wipe out data, which can be brought back. Or we have ran into system wide slowness that impacts all users in the system, but we have been able to get more capacity to supply our performance.
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Synoptix
No answers on this topic
Performance
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
Prophix has always performed consistently. We are using on-premise so many factors can contribute to slower than desired performance, most having nothing to do with Prophix itself. If we move to the web-client cloud based solution I believe performance will even be better.
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Synoptix
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
PowerSchool Group LLC
Overall, I have not had to use support for PowerSchool Student Information System because our school district gives us training in each area in which we will be utilizing PowerSchool Student Information System. In terms of in-user support, I feel that there is mild to moderate user support that is built into PowerSchool SIS.
Read full review
Prophix Software
The Prophix staff is very helpful and quick to respond. I like that they teach me instead of doing it for me when possible, so I don't have to contact them as often! Never talked to anyone at Prophix that I didn't respect or think highly of! Very professional, great customer service!
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Synoptix
Support does not know much about software solutions. As an example, I have struggled for weeks just to set up LDAP that should be fairly simple.
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In-Person Training
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
Training is essential for this software to be successful for any company. We unfortunately had a bad implementation and training manager so I can say with confidence that if we had the CSM we have now - we would be light years ahead of our knowledge of the system. I highly suggest taking all training opportunities and not rushing the implementation training
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Synoptix
No answers on this topic
Online Training
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
We used our system and created a test cube to work with our own data. We ran through the different functions of Prophix and covered alot of material. We did two sessions a week, with homework tasks assigned. We were able to ask questions and cover any questions during the followup sessions.
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Synoptix
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
Prophix Consulting should bring, in house, chargeable expertise in Oracle EBS table access for Drill Across and provide reasonable limits on dimension member combinations so there are no unreasonable expectations about the application of multi dimensional cubes to detail, such as revenue by product and customer.
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Synoptix
Good guidance of what steps will halppen.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
PowerSchool Group LLC
I have heard good things for Infinite Campus and Skyward. I would [evaluate] each of them and see what fits your needs. Each has their strengths and weaknesses and so picking the right one for your needs is important. PowerSchool [Student Information System] does have some great features, but lacks some fundamental reports and functions to make it top notch.
Read full review
Prophix Software
We felt Prophix was much more flexible than Briq and offered a more solid financial reporting and budgeting package. Briq is more custom built solution-focused. They build solutions to fit your specific needs. The primary reason we went with Prophix is that we wanted something we could tweak and design on our own after the initial build-out of the solution.
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Synoptix
Synoptix is more oriented to users as their own developers. You do not need to understand any sort of coding or languages. If you are working in financials you just need to know your trial balance. The menus and programing are so user friendly the programming is "kinda obvious"
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Scalability
PowerSchool Group LLC
No answers on this topic
Prophix Software
I gave Prophix a 10 on scalability because we currently deploy the solution to department heads across our entire organization and never have any issues with those individuals using or accessing the system to look at their financial information within premade templates . They currently enter budgets and review reports within the system currently. The only issue is they cannot typically use the ad hoc functionality because that would require higher level licenses that cost more and it is not worth it to give them more costly licenses since they really aren't working in the system quite like the robust finance users
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Synoptix
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
PowerSchool Group LLC
  • It has created shortcuts for all staff members, saving us time.
  • In creating shortcuts and combining many different systems into one, it is saving our school money.
  • It has created a safety net for teachers because grades and student information is stored electronically, which means teachers not having to worry about losing or misplacing their grade books.
Read full review
Prophix Software
  • Prophix has made it possible to move away from some Excel reporting we were doing, which allows for 50% quicker reporting on a monthly basis.
  • Although it has saved us time, an improved PowerPoint feature that automatically updates our decks would save an additional 75% on top of what we already do.
  • Our Board Reporting has improved by 10 hours by moving our reports fully into Prophix.
Read full review
Synoptix
  • As a reporting tool it has allowed us to make fact based decisions. We have a significant annual cost with relation to our legacy system and Synoptix provides us with the best tool to mine the data that resides in our legacy system.
Read full review
ScreenShots

PowerSchool SIS Screenshots

Screenshot of Student attendanceScreenshot of Standards-based gradingScreenshot of At-risk dashboardScreenshot of Parent view of student schedule

Prophix Screenshots

Screenshot of Prophix One Portal: One single point of entry into Prophix One through its portal simplifies access and authentication but also allows seamless movement between applications.Screenshot of Chart Insights, one of the AI Insights capabilities that utilizes Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to provide enhanced business awareness.  Chart Insights extends the important details contained within dashboards, and analyzes the complete dataset behind the dashboard, automatically surfacing the data relationships not obvious in dashboard visualizations alone. It then provides a summary of key performance metrics found buried within Prophix charts.  It also summarizes the important insights in plain English.Screenshot of Prophix One Financial Planning & Analysis: Prophix's self-serve dashboards and visualizations are directly integrated with data, workflow tasks, announcements, and external URLs and databases. Dashboard Studio helps users to be informed and make better business decisions.Screenshot of Detailed interactive charts and graphs that Prophix offers to uncover insights. Prophix’s visual analytics are linked directly to data with transaction details.  There is no need to input the numbers.  Prophix does this tedious work, automatically.Screenshot of Prophix’s Workflow Manager, used to assign tasks to users and facilitate approvals across the business.  Stakeholder input can be captured directly with the ability to add comments and notes in a single unified database.Screenshot of Cell Comments, that allow users to add supporting details like notes and attachments to data.  Since comments are stored with the data, they can be viewed in any template along with their trailing history. Cell Comment Reports can also be generated to show all comments from any data view in one convenient report.