Ad Astra vs Peñalara GHC
Ad Astra
aais.comPeñalara GHC
penalara.comSide by side
| Figure | Ad Astra | Peñalara GHC |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $691.67/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 10 |
| Spec score · School Scheduling Software | 7.6 (#11) | 8.9 (#2) |
| Headquarters | The contact page lists Ad Astra at 6900 W. 80th St., Overland Park, KS 66204. | Segovia, Spain |
| Integrations | The company lists integrations with Jenzabar, Banner, Workday, Colleague, and Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions. | GHC exchanges data and timetables with named regional academic managers including SÉNECA, SIGAD, SAUCE, GESTIBWEB, and EKADE, and provides an open exchange format for external applications. |
| Purpose | Ad Astra provides academic and room scheduling tools to help higher education institutions streamline planning, promote financial sustainability, and enhance student success. | GHC helps educational institutions create and manage timetables, including schools, vocational institutions, universities, colleges, and arts and music schools. |
| Security | Ad Astra's privacy notice says it uses encryption, secure servers, and monitoring to safeguard data. | Peñalara says its website uses an extended validation SSL certificate to encrypt communication and identify the website owner. |
| Support | Support includes ticket submission, a software knowledge base, and access to an expert; the company also describes onboarding, training, and consulting services. | Customer service is available Monday–Thursday 8:30–14:00 and 15:00–18:30 and Friday 8:30–14:30 Madrid time by phone and email. |
Plans
Peñalara GHC
- GHC DemoFree
- GHC LiteFree
- GHC Optimum — up to 10 teachers$8,300 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 15 teachers$12,000 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 20 teachers$15,700 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 25 teachers$19,400 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 30 teachers$23,100 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 35 teachers$26,800 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 40 teachers$30,500 a year
- GHC Optimum — up to 45 teachers$34,200 a year
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.
Peñalara GHC
Peñalara GHC is timetabling software for educational institutions, with tools to plan, optimise, edit, and publish academic schedules. Its planner imports data and handles complex schedules with strict and flexible conditions, including identifying conditions that may be impossible to satisfy. GHC Optimum searches for a balanced timetable based on user-set preferences and criteria. The editor supports drag-and-drop changes, conflict warnings, and reports on assignments and preference compliance. GHC App gives administrators, teachers, and students access to published calendars and supports absence and substitution management. Timetables can be exchanged in formats including CSV, DBase, Paradox, XML, Excel, and PDF. The downloadable program supports Windows versions from Windows 7; Peñalara says Linux users can run it through PlayOnLinux or Wine. Paid software is single-user, stores information locally or in an enabled cloud repository, and cannot operate over a network. GHC Lite is free with reduced functionality. GHC Demo is free for 15 days, up to 10 teachers and three computer activations. Full GHC Optimum plans start at $8,300 a year for up to 10 teachers, with other teacher-capacity tiers available.