Gibbon vs openSIS
Gibbon
gibbonedu.orgopenSIS
opensis.comSide by side
| Figure | Gibbon | openSIS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $0.33/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 8 |
| Spec score · Student Information Systems | 8.7 (#3) | 9.0 (#1) |
| Spec score · K-12 Student Information Software | 8.7 (#3) | 8.9 (#1) |
| Admissions | Application Form manages online school-place applications, priority queues and automatic account and family-link creation for accepted students. | Admissions and applicant processing are listed as platform capabilities and are included in the higher paid tiers. |
| Documentation and support | The project publishes open-source guides for installation, administration and development, with community support available through its forum. | Support includes a knowledge base, videos, tickets, phone, email, WhatsApp and social channels, with training offered. |
| Integrations | Google integration provides OAuth single sign-on and personal or shared Google Calendar connections through the Google Calendar API. | Listed integrations include Moodle, Canvas, Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Office 365, Azure AD, Stripe, PayPal, QuickBooks, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, Twilio-SendGrid and Authorize.net. |
| Purpose | Gibbon is a school platform for learning, teaching, and school management, designed by educators. | openSIS is a Student Information System for managing student information, enrollment, attendance, scheduling, grades, reporting, and other school operations. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.5 out of 5 from 2 reviews | 1.0 out of 5 from 1 review |
| Rating on G2 | 3.5 out of 5 from 1 review | 2.9 out of 5 from 5 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.5 out of 5 from 2 reviews | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| 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. | Community Edition can be downloaded and independently installed and managed by institutions; Professional Edition is licensed for on-premises deployment. |
| Student records | Student Profiles consolidate academic, behavioural, medical and special-educational-needs information with alerts. | The system stores student profiles, demographics, enrollment, contacts, health information, documents and custom fields. |
| Support | Gibbon offers documentation and community forums, with optional team expert support through ad hoc support or a support contract. | The pricing page says support includes self-service, bot assistance, email, telephone, and social media, with training available. |
| 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. | The current GitHub README requires Apache 2.4+, MySQL 5.7/8.0 or MariaDB 10.4.x, and PHP 8.x for Community Edition 9.3. |
| What it does | Gibbon is a web-based school platform for teachers, students, parents and administrators, combining school management, learning and assessment workflows. | openSIS is a student information and school-management system for K-12, trade, higher-education and virtual institutions. |
Plans
openSIS
- Community EditionFree
- Core Startup$4 a year
- Core Startup$5 a month
- Essential$8 a year
- Essential$10 a month
- Advanced$12 a year
- Advanced$14 a month
- District / State / EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
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.
openSIS
openSIS is a student information system for school operations, including student and staff records, enrollment, attendance, scheduling, grades and reporting. Its listed tools also cover health information, admissions, billing, discipline, lesson plans and analytics. The maker describes it for K–12, higher education, vocational and career technical schools, and virtual education. Schools can install and manage the free, open-source Community Edition themselves or choose SaaS plans. The SaaS Mobile Connect app provides access to attendance, grades, assignments, schedules, billing and school communication on iOS and Android. Listed integrations include Moodle, Canvas LMS, Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom, Stripe, PayPal, QuickBooks, Office 365, Azure Active Directory and Google Workspace. Core Startup costs $4 per staff member per month, billed annually, and is limited to 5 staff, 50 students and 100 parents at one school. Essential costs $8 per staff member per month, billed annually, and includes unlimited students, parents and schools. Advanced costs $12 per staff member per month, billed annually, and includes API access with full documentation. A 15-day trial is available.