EMPOWER SIS vs Gibbon
EMPOWER SIS
empowersis.com
Gibbon
gibbonedu.orgSide by side
| Figure | EMPOWER SIS | Gibbon |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · School Management Software | 7.3 (#31) | 8.7 (#4) |
| Admissions | The Recruiting and Admissions module supports online inquiry and application forms, document tracking, and applicant status updates. | Application Form manages online school-place applications, priority queues and automatic account and family-link creation for accepted students. |
| Headquarters | Niagara Falls, New York, United States | Hong Kong |
| Integrations | The interfaces page lists LMS connections including Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, and Schoology, plus gateways including PayPal Payflow Link, CardPointe, and Authorize.Net. | Google integration provides OAuth single sign-on and personal or shared Google Calendar connections through the Google Calendar API. |
| Self-hosting | With the self-hosted license option, the institution manages its own computer environment, security, backups, and updates. | Gibbon must be installed on a web server and is explicitly self-hosted rather than SaaS, leaving school data on the school-controlled server. |
| Support | EMPOWER describes support as including platform design, training, ongoing maintenance, and US-based customer support. | Gibbon offers documentation and community forums, with optional team expert support through ad hoc support or a support contract. |
Plans
In their own words
EMPOWER SIS
EMPOWER SIS has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Gibbon
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.