Rubric

Overview

Rubric is a campus engagement platform for universities, student unions, associations, and guilds. It suits teams that need to coordinate clubs, events, services, and student participation; its modular scope is a stronger fit for campus-wide operations than for a single-purpose event tool. Paid sales can carry transaction fees, so free subscriptions do not necessarily mean fee-free use.

Customers can select from 28 modules, while the Student CRM & Engagement Tracker connects student profiles with touchpoints such as events, clubs, and trainings and supports engagement scoring. That combination can help institutions see participation alongside the programs they manage. Rubric was founded in 2017 and is operated by MySmock Pty Ltd trading as Rubric.

For a broader category view, browse Student Engagement Software.

Key features

Club workflows and approvals

The Club Management dashboard brings members, hosted events, activity levels, forms, attendance rates, and member types together. This is useful for teams overseeing multiple clubs, though the value depends on whether they need that breadth of club oversight rather than a simpler membership register. Smart Digital Forms add drag-and-drop fields, live data from club profiles, and approval flows, linking submissions to records and review steps.

Events, outreach, and student engagement

Event & Ticketing supports membership validation, recurring events, tabling, collaborative event management, a marketplace, and ticket scanning. SMS blasts and email campaigns include templates and real-time recipient lists. These tools cover several common campus engagement tasks in one platform; organizations selling tickets or memberships should weigh the per-transaction charges separately from the subscription.

The student-facing engagement app provides access to events and activities, and the App Store listing says it is available for iPhone. Rubric supports Android, iOS, and web overall. Its integrations span student information, learning management, single sign-on, and experience management systems; named connections include Xero, QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Stripe, Wallester, Weel, SAML 2.0, AAF OIDC, Google OAuth/OIDC, Microsoft Azure AD/Graph, and StudId.

Security and service

Rubric says it uses SSL encryption, quality-assurance procedures, and industry-standard encryption and key-management practices. It states that it is GDPR compliant and PCI-DSS 3.2.1 Level 1 compliant as both a merchant and service provider. Production systems and backups are hosted on Amazon EC2, with data residency options in Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand. Rubric reports average uptime of 99.5%; support is available by in-app chatbot and email, with typical responses within 24 business hours.

Pricing

Rubric has a free plan and offers custom pricing for prospective campus customers, whom it invites to book a demo or contact its team. The US clubs plans show a free monthly subscription across all three transaction-volume tiers, but paid memberships, tickets, and merchandise incur tiered selling fees:

• Free: free, for 12 month transaction volume below $200. Monthly subscription fee is Free; paid memberships, tickets, and merchandise are Free.
• Standard: free, for 12 month transaction volume $200 – 20,000. Monthly subscription fee is Free; paid sales cost 4% + 70¢.
• Champion: free, for 12 month transaction volume above $20,000. Monthly subscription fee is Free; paid sales cost 3% + 50¢.

The Free tier is the clearest fit for clubs with very low transaction volume. Standard and Champion keep the subscription free while charging on sales; Champion reduces the stated rate for higher-volume clubs. Purchases may also carry service fees that vary by payment method, basket size, and card issuer, so organizers should factor those costs into ticket and merchandise pricing.

For institutions evaluating a wider deployment, onboarding commonly takes 30–60 days depending on package and integration or customization needs. That is a meaningful implementation commitment compared with a quick-start tool.

Platforms

Rubric supports Android, iOS, and web. Its campus engagement app provides students with access to events and activities, with iPhone availability stated in its App Store listing.

Who it's for

Rubric is best suited to universities, student unions, associations, and guilds seeking configurable tools for club administration, event sales, outreach, student services, and engagement tracking. Its breadth and integration options favor organizations coordinating activity across campus. A group seeking only a basic event page or a lightweight club list may not need a 28-module platform or its onboarding process.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Selectable modules let campus teams shape the system around their needs rather than adopt a single fixed workflow.
• Pros: Club administration, event tools, outreach, and student engagement tracking sit within one platform, supporting a view across programs and participation.
• Pros: Free monthly subscriptions across the stated club tiers lower the fixed cost of getting started.
• Cons: Paid transactions in Standard and Champion incur percentage-plus-fixed selling fees, and purchases may also have service fees.
• Cons: A typical 30–60-day onboarding period may be a poor fit for teams needing an immediate rollout.
• Cons: Institutional customers must contact Rubric for custom pricing, which makes budgeting less direct than a published subscription rate.

Alternatives

GivePulse is worth considering for organizations that prefer a free tier with defined limits of one admin, no subgroups, and five custom fields, or a Give Joy plan priced at $20 a month when billed annually with two admins and one subgroup. Zynvo is a free, web-based alternative. Modern Campus CMS is a paid option available on web and self-hosted deployments as well as mobile and API platforms. Suitable is a paid alternative for Android, iOS, and web. Civitas Advising uses quote-required annual subscription pricing scaled to institution size and scope. Pathify is a paid Engagement Hub whose pricing is based on enrollment and optional add-ons. ConexED Retain and Early Alert are other paid options.

Verdict

Choose Rubric if your university or student organization needs configurable club, event, outreach, and engagement workflows connected across campus. The combination of selectable modules and student participation tracking is its clearest reason to choose it. Look elsewhere if you need a fast, narrowly scoped tool or cannot absorb sales fees and a potentially month-long-plus onboarding process.