The Business School vs TOPSIM
The Business School
thebusiness.schoolTOPSIM
topsim.comSide by side
| Figure | The Business School | TOPSIM |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Business Simulation Software | 8.4 (#5) | 6.5 (#25) |
| Device requirements | Students need a recent Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox browser on Windows, Mac or ChromeOS; phones and tablets cannot join live lessons. | The Cloud requires no special software and is not dependent on a particular device or operating system, but TOPSIM recommends Firefox, Chrome, or Safari and says mobile view is unsupported. |
| Integrations | The opened pages describe curriculum alignment with AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, WJEC, Cambridge, BTEC and IB courses but no external software integrations. | TOPSIM describes e-learning applications and digital learning solutions, but the reviewed maker pages do not specify named third-party product integrations. |
| Support | The founder page states that support is answered within 24 hours by a person familiar with the material. | Seminar instructors can contact support by email or phone on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.; TOPSIM says it does not support seminar participants directly. |
| What it does | The Business School is a browser simulation in which student teams run competing firms and make pricing, VAT, hiring, investment and negotiation decisions during a class lesson. | TOPSIM offers gamified business simulations in which participants manage a virtual company and make strategic and operational decisions. |
Plans
The Business School
- Teacher demoFree
- A-Level Business: The Complete Year£49, paid once
- GCSE Business: The Complete Year£49, paid once
- MAT licencePrice not published
- School licencePrice not published
In their own words
The Business School
The Business School is a browser-based classroom simulation where student teams run rival firms in a shared market during one lesson. Teams decide prices, hiring, loans, VAT, crises, and deals, with the effects visible in the simulation. Each session supports 6 to 32 students across up to eight firms of three or four. Teachers can pause or resume phases, trigger a crisis, review firm activity, and display a live leaderboard. Students join using a six-digit PIN and a team label or first name, without student accounts or email addresses. They can download private reports, while the teacher receives a curriculum-mapped class report by email within 48 hours. Knowledge Check questions are listed for 23 business courses, including AQA, Pearson Edexcel, OCR, Eduqas, WJEC, Cambridge, BTEC, and IB courses. Session data is stored in an EU database in Frankfurt; the company says it does not sell data or use it for advertising, and teachers can end a session at any time. A free teacher demo is listed. School and trust licence prices are by quote after the pilot. The Autumn 2026 pilot cohort is full, with a waitlist open.