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Gibbon

gibbonedu.org

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Spec score 8.7 #4 of 49 in School Management Software

What it is

Gibbon is a free school platform for learning, teaching, and school management, designed by educators. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators use one web-based system with configurable access levels. The Planner supports lesson plans, homework submissions, curriculum mapping, and peer assessment. Student Profiles consolidate academic, behavioural, medical, and special educational needs alerts for authorised users. Markbook, rubrics, tracking, and formal assessment modules support recording and reviewing progress. Messenger can send group communications by email, SMS, or Message Wall. Schools can extend the platform with modules and themes, including BigBlueButton and Moodle integration; its documentation also describes Google calendar and single sign-on integration and Microsoft single sign-on setup. Gibbon is installed on a web server and hosting is self-managed. The v30 download page specifies PHP 8.0 and MySQL 8.0 as minimum requirements. Documentation and community forums are available, as is optional expert support through ad hoc help or a support contract. Older versions are not directly supported, and the security policy advises using the current stable release in production.

Spec sheet

What it does
Gibbon is a web-based school platform for teachers, students, parents and administrators, combining school management, learning and assessment workflows.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Purpose
Gibbon is a school platform for learning, teaching, and school management, designed by educators.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Intended users
Gibbon says it is used by international, public, home, and refugee schools.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Integrations
Google integration provides OAuth single sign-on and personal or shared Google Calendar connections through the Google Calendar API.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Support
Gibbon offers documentation and community forums, with optional team expert support through ad hoc support or a support contract.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
License
The core project is released under the GNU General Public License version 3.0.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Headquarters
Hong KongRead 28 Sep 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Founded
2010Read 28 Sep 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Activities
The Activities module lets schools publish activities, accept student and parent sign-ups, select participants and print attendance registers.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Admissions
Application Form manages online school-place applications, priority queues and automatic account and family-link creation for accepted students.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
API status
The FAQ says Gibbon plans to implement an API later, after its security infrastructure is sufficiently robust; no public API is documented there.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Assessment
Markbook, Rubrics, Tracking, Formal Assessment and Crowd Assessment provide grading, progress analysis, external-test data and peer-review workflows.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Attendance and behaviour
Attendance history, future absences, emergency reports and structured positive or negative behaviour notes are built in.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Available modules
Official extensions include Free Learning, Help Desk, Higher Education, House Points, Info Grid, Mastery Transcript, Moodle, Policies, Query Builder, Stream and Trip Planner.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Communications
Messenger supports email, SMS, and Message Wall formats for sending messages to groups drawn from the system.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Company and origin
Gibbon was founded in October 2010 by Ross Parker at International College Hong Kong in response to a shortage of usable open-source school platforms.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Departments and resources
Departments organize learning areas and lesson sequences, while Resources provides a searchable school-wide resource catalog.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Developer stack
Gibbon is built with PHP, MySQL, HTMX, Alpine.js and Git, and its public source is hosted on GitHub.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Documentation and support
The project publishes open-source guides for installation, administration and development, with community support available through its forum.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Extensibility
Core functionality can be enabled by role and extended with separately installed modules and themes.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Extensions
Schools can extend Gibbon with modules and themes; listed modules include BigBlueButton and Moodle integration.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Finance
Finance handles fees, billing schedules, invoices, receipts, reminders, payments and expense approvals or reimbursements.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Hardware guidance
The documentation suggests 2 CPUs, 4–8 GB memory and 50 GB storage for light use, or 4 vCPUs, 16 GB memory and 300 GB storage for larger frequent-use deployments.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Hosting
Gibbon is self-hosted software installed on a web server, and schools can host it on their own servers.Read 4 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Independent case study
An Opensource.com case study describes Gibbon being used across International College Hong Kong's two campuses for about 800 K–13 students and combining school management with virtual learning.Read 15 Oct 2026 · opensource.com
Independent implementation feedback
A Gibbon community implementation report says staff adoption was strong, Google sign-in simplified access, and parents needed extra email and PDF support to learn logins.Read 15 Oct 2026 · ask.gibbonedu.org
Install base
The FAQ reports more than 18,000 installations as of 2024 and thousands of schools worldwide.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Latest release
The download page lists stable version 30.0.01, released February 6, 2026, with Calendar and Student Alerts modules and a PHP 8.0/MySQL 8.0 minimum.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Limit: Capterra learning and mobile gaps
Capterra feedback mentions a learning curve, a previously non-responsive interface, no mobile app in the older version, and a finance module that could be easier.Read 15 Oct 2026 · capterra.com
Limit: G2 performance
That G2 reviewer reported the system could freeze and feel slow.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Limits
The security policy says older Gibbon versions are not directly supported and advises schools to use the current stable version in production.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Maker legal entity
The official code and documentation identify Gibbon Education Ltd. as a Hong Kong entity and the Gibbon Foundation as the non-profit project steward.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Messaging
Messenger supports email, SMS and Message Wall announcements to flexible groups, with attachments from the resource bank.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Planner
The Planner supports multimedia lesson planning, homework collection, curriculum outcomes, attendance comparisons and peer assessment.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Praise: Capterra value and scope
Capterra reviewers praised Gibbon as free, flexible, easy to install and rich in school features such as attendance, classes, dorms, lessons and report cards.Read 15 Oct 2026 · capterra.com
Praise: G2 usability
The sole G2 reviewer praised Gibbon's usability, user experience and interface.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Rating on Capterra
4.5 out of 5 from 2 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · capterra.com
Rating on G2
3.5 out of 5 from 1 reviewRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Rating on GetApp
4.5 out of 5 from 2 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · getapp.com
Security policy
Security reports should be emailed privately; only the current stable release is fully supported, older versions are not directly supported, and there is no paid bug bounty.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Security practices
Coding guidance requires PDO parameterized database queries and hard-coded action addresses, and follows PSR coding standards.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Security reporting
The security policy asks users to report suspected vulnerabilities by email rather than posting them publicly.Read 4 Oct 2026 · github.com
Self-hosting
Gibbon must be installed on a web server and is explicitly self-hosted rather than SaaS, leaving school data on the school-controlled server.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Shared access
Teachers, students, parents, and administrators use the same web-based platform with configurable access levels.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Student records
Student Profiles consolidate academic, behavioural, medical and special-educational-needs information with alerts.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
System requirements
Production requires Apache 2 or Nginx, PHP 8.0 or newer with specified extensions, and MySQL 8.0 or newer or a comparable MariaDB version.Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Teaching tools
The Planner supports lesson plans, homework submissions, curriculum mapping, and peer assessment.Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org
Timetable
Timetable displays student and teacher schedules, links Google Calendars, and supports room and facility bookings.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org

Plans and prices

Free Free all core features · self-hosting and server costs are separate Read 15 Oct 2026 · docs.gibbonedu.org
Gibbon Core Free Free, open-source school platform; hosting is self-managed Read 4 Oct 2026 · gibbonedu.org

Every Gibbon plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Configurable access for teachers, students, parents, and administrators
  • Planner supports lesson planning and peer assessment
  • Student Profiles consolidate multiple alert types
  • Messaging supports email, SMS, and Message Wall
  • Free and open-source

Limits

  • Hosting is self-managed
  • v30 requires PHP 8.0 and MySQL 8.0
  • Older versions are not directly supported

Who it suits

Gibbon suits international, public, home, and refugee schools seeking a shared platform for teaching and school administration. Schools need to be prepared to host and maintain the software themselves.

Verdict

Gibbon covers classroom planning, student records, assessment, and communications in one self-hosted platform. Confirm the server requirements and plan to use the current stable version in production.

Where Specifiction places it

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