Ad Astra vs Griddle
Ad Astra
aais.comGriddle
griddle.educationSide by side
| Figure | Ad Astra | Griddle |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · School Scheduling Software | 7.6 (#11) | 7.2 (#20) |
| Audience | The company describes its customers as colleges and universities and says it serves more than 550 institutional partners. | Griddle describes its tools as serving schools, teachers and students. |
| Headquarters | The contact page lists Ad Astra at 6900 W. 80th St., Overland Park, KS 66204. | The listed office is in Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. |
| Pricing | The official pages reviewed direct prospective customers to connect with an expert or request a demo; they do not state product prices. | The homepage refers to a Griddle subscription but does not state its price. |
| Purpose | Ad Astra provides academic and room scheduling tools to help higher education institutions streamline planning, promote financial sustainability, and enhance student success. | Griddle provides cloud timetabling for schools. |
| Support | Support includes ticket submission, a software knowledge base, and access to an expert; the company also describes onboarding, training, and consulting services. | The site provides a support email address and phone number for contacting the team. |
In their own words
Ad Astra
Ad Astra is academic planning and scheduling software for colleges and universities. Its suite handles course, room, and event scheduling, classroom optimization, registration monitoring, demand forecasting, and annual schedule planning. Real-time data and predictive analytics help institutions align schedules with student demand. Student Demand Forecasting uses pathway data and historical enrollment patterns to predict course demand. Conflict detection, teacher constraints, room constraints, and multi-campus support are listed capabilities. A report library helps institutions evaluate scheduling practices, while the Higher Education Scheduling Index provides benchmarking measures. The platform names certified, bi-directional SIS integrations with Ellucian Banner, Ellucian Colleague, Jenzabar, Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, and Workday, plus flexible APIs. Its smart scheduling platform is hosted on Amazon Web Services. Support includes tickets, a knowledge base, expert access, onboarding, training, and consulting. Pricing is paid and available on request. Ad Astra says it partners with more than 550 institutions.
Griddle
Griddle is cloud software for school timetabling and daily organisation. Its timetable tools check data, report issues, and support automated building alongside manual changes; the engine can produce timetable solutions within two hours. AI line generation creates class combinations while accounting for school constraints and teacher and room requirements. Online course-selection forms apply curriculum rules and allow individual student exceptions. Flexible student groups, automatic enrolments, and class-list changes update student timetables. One setup can coordinate shared staff, spaces, students, and cross-campus classes. Griddle supports multiple period structures, including overlapping periods and teacher break rules across structures. Daily Organisation handles teacher absences and events. Events created in Compass appear automatically, and exam schedules can be published there; Griddle Exams can create extra sittings for special considerations. Multiple users can work on the same data simultaneously, with roles and permissions controlling access. Pricing is on request.