ConexED Retain vs Kuali Financials
ConexED Retain
conexed.comKuali Financials
kuali.coSide by side
| Figure | ConexED Retain | Kuali Financials |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Academic Advising Software | 7.6 (#5) | 7.1 (#10) |
| Audience | ConexED says it was built for higher education leaders and advisors, including CIOs, vice chancellors, and advisors supporting hundreds of students. | Kuali Financials is designed for colleges and universities and their higher education finance operations. |
| Compliance | ConexED states that it is TX-RAMP certified and FERPA compliant. | Kuali's security page states that it has SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, completed HECVAT Full v4.x, and is TX-RAMP authorized. |
| Headquarters | Cottonwood Heights, Utah, United States | Lehi, Utah, United States |
| Integrations | The page lists Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Ellucian Banner, and PeopleSoft as compatible systems. | Financials connects with campus systems through APIs and integration capabilities. |
| Purpose | Retain helps higher education institutions identify and support students at risk of leaving. | Kuali Financials is a cloud-based financial management system built for higher education. |
| Security | ConexED says it encrypts transmitted data with TLS 1.2 or higher and data at rest with AES-256, and hosts customer data in the United States on AWS. | Kuali's Trust Center states that customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest and access is controlled through configurable roles and permissions. |
Plans
In their own words
ConexED Retain
ConexED Retain is a web platform for higher education institutions to identify students who may be struggling, route concerns to advisors and follow interventions through resolution. Activity feeds from Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle and D2L can trigger alerts for changes in attendance, grades or engagement; configurable rules also monitor missed appointments and milestone slippage. Faculty can flag a concern from a student profile, while students can submit configurable self-referrals that create an advisor case. Case records track severity, assignment, resolution reasons and change history. Advising, tutoring, financial aid and counseling teams can contribute timestamped notes, labels, attachments and threaded comments. Retain combines LMS engagement, attendance, milestone completion and advising touchpoints into success scores; alerts can assign a cohort, start a drip campaign or open a milestone. Listed integrations include Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Ellucian Banner and PeopleSoft. ConexED says it is TX-RAMP certified and FERPA compliant. Pricing is on request; the product page invites institutions to book a discovery call.
Kuali Financials
Kuali Financials is a cloud financial management system for colleges and universities. It brings accounting, budgeting, procurement, reconciliation, procure-to-pay and general ledger functions together, with restricted fund tracking and grant management. Finance teams can configure charts of accounts, controls, approval workflows and routing, and use reporting and audit support to manage financial transactions. Drag-and-drop forms and no-code workflows are intended to digitize additional processes without custom development. The system connects to campus systems through APIs and integration capabilities; Kuali describes REST and GraphQL APIs, real-time data access and Kuali Bridge for building multi-step integrations. Kuali says it delivers capabilities continuously rather than requiring institutions to wait for major upgrade cycles. Its Trust Center says customer data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with access managed through configurable roles and permissions. Kuali lists SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, completed HECVAT Full v4.x and TX-RAMP authorization. Pricing is by inquiry, and the product page invites institutions to book a demo. Kuali states that the software is not designed to process or store payment card data.