Gibbon vs Sentral
Gibbon
gibbonedu.orgSentral
sentral.com.auSide by side
| Figure | Gibbon | Sentral |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · School Management Software | 8.7 (#4) | 6.8 (#38) |
| Spec score · Student Information Systems | 8.7 (#3) | 6.9 (#25) |
| Spec score · K-12 Student Information Software | 8.7 (#3) | 6.8 (#18) |
| Finance | Finance handles fees, billing schedules, invoices, receipts, reminders, payments and expense approvals or reimbursements. | Finance features include online payments, configurable fees and discounts, financial reporting, and integrations such as Xero and Microsoft Dynamics. |
| Founded | 2010 | 1998 |
| Integrations | Google integration provides OAuth single sign-on and personal or shared Google Calendar connections through the Google Calendar API. | Sentral describes open integrations and flexible APIs for connecting learning, finance, HR, wellbeing and operational systems. |
| Support | Gibbon offers documentation and community forums, with optional team expert support through ad hoc support or a support contract. | Sentral offers Australian-based support by phone on weekdays from 7:30am to 7:00pm AEST, and says it responds to support tickets within one business day. |
Plans
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.
Sentral
Sentral is a cloud-based school management platform for administration, online learning, and student management. It serves government, independent, specialised, and multi-campus schools, bringing administrative, wellbeing, finance, and engagement tools together. Schools can manage profiles, enrolments, health records, activity permissions, transport, classes, attendance, and wellbeing. Finance functions include online payments, configurable fees and discounts, reporting, and links with Xero and Microsoft Dynamics. Teachers have an app for attendance and wellbeing tasks. Parents can use an app or browser portal for notices, teacher messages, absences, payments, and interview bookings, depending on what their school enables; students can view timetables, attendance, notices, and learning tasks. Sentral describes open integrations and flexible APIs, and says schools can configure more than 35 modules. It is available on Android, iOS, web, and API. Sentral says it is ISO 27001 certified and uses encrypted cloud storage. Demographic management is available to independent schools only. Pricing is available through demo and enquiry links, with no public subscription price stated.