SimpleGradebook

Overview

SimpleGradebook is a web and mobile gradebook for teachers, students, parents and school staff. It is strongest for classrooms that want families to follow grades and feedback alongside routine reporting; its central trade-off is that it is a convenience layer, not a substitute for official records.

Teachers get a broad set of assessment and class-reporting tools, while Pro extends the service to attendance, communication and school-level oversight. That makes it more compelling for a school adopting it across a community than for a teacher seeking only a small, standalone grade tracker.

Key features

Assessment and classroom work

Teachers can use assignment feedback, rubrics, student self-assessment, individualized programs and BC Ministry performance scales. Mixed grading models and standards-based grading broaden its fit beyond a single grading approach. Teachers can create classes, copy assignments, export gradebooks to Excel, print report cards and generate missing-task reports. These are useful tools for recurring classroom administration, though the service itself should not become the authoritative school record.

Family access and school oversight

Parents and students can check grades, missing tasks, teacher feedback and weekly report cards. Pro adds attendance views, messaging and assignment uploads, making the portal more useful for ongoing interaction than a view-only progress check. Pro also includes parent notifications, internal messaging, referrals, observations, file attachments and printable class rosters. Administrators and counsellors can manage multiple schools, review at-risk reports and student watch lists, and manage referrals. This gives school staff more oversight, but those added tools sit behind paid Pro plans.

Privacy, support and service limits

The privacy policy says data is stored and processed only on servers in Canada and is not sold, rented or used for advertising or profiling. Teachers and authorized school administrators control user data, with SimpleGradebook acting as their service provider and data processor. The policy also describes SSL encryption in transit, encrypted internal messaging, password requirements and two-factor authentication for teacher and administrator accounts. A support forum covers FAQs, how-to questions, bug reports and feature requests.

Schools should weigh those safeguards against the service terms: uninterrupted access is not guaranteed, and the service may be modified, suspended or discontinued. SimpleGradebook explicitly positions itself as a convenience tool rather than an official school record system, so institutions that require a formal system of record should look elsewhere or use it only as a supplement.

Pricing

The free plan costs nothing and provides basic functions, with occasional donation requests that are not required. It is a sensible starting point for teachers who need core gradebook use, but it gives up Pro functionality and does include donation requests.

Simplegradebook School Pro costs $3, paid once and gives Pro functionality to the whole school: teachers, students, parents and administrators. It removes donation requests and is the clearest fit for a school that wants attendance, communications and administrator tools available across its community. Simplegradebook Single Teacher Pro costs $40, paid once and provides Pro functionality for a teacher's classes, including access for that teacher's students and their parents; it suits an individual teacher who needs the expanded classroom tools without a whole-school rollout.

The Simplegradebook District Paid-Up License has custom pricing. It allows a district to run Pro on its own server for as long as it wants and for as many students as it wants, with no donation requests. That may suit districts requiring self-hosting and an uncapped student count, but the plan price must be established directly.

Platforms

SimpleGradebook is available on the web, Android and iOS. That combination supports classroom and family access across desktop and mobile devices.

Who it's for

It is a good fit for teachers who want assessment, exports and report-card tools, and for schools that want to share grades and weekly reports with families. Pro is the more relevant choice when attendance, messaging, referrals or multi-school administrator oversight matter. It is not the right choice as an institution's official records platform, and a teacher who only needs a narrowly capped single-class tracker may prefer a simpler free option.

Pros and cons

• Pro spans classroom and school roles: teachers can use assessment and reporting tools while administrators and counsellors get multi-school oversight, at-risk reports and referral management.
• Family access is substantive: students and parents can see feedback and missing work, with Pro adding attendance, messaging and assignment uploads.
• Data practices are clearly bounded: the policy says data stays on Canadian servers and is not used for advertising or profiling.
• It is not an official record system: schools needing an authoritative institutional system must use another platform for that purpose.
• Hosted access is not guaranteed: the terms allow modification, suspension or discontinuation, a consideration for schools relying on continuous access.
• Pro choices differ by rollout: the single-teacher license covers one teacher's classes, while whole-school Pro costs more; district self-hosting has custom pricing.

Alternatives

Browse Gradebook Software for the broader category. Choose Gradebox instead if a web-only free plan limited to one classroom and 120 single-page assignment submissions or grades per month fits better; its Pro plan is $11.99 a month. NavEd Free Gradebook is a web-only option for a very small setup: its free forever plan covers one class and up to 10 students, and it has no free trial.

ThinkWave is another free-plan alternative available on web, iOS and Android. Gradebook.ng may suit readers seeking a web service with a free plan for up to 50 students; its Junior Secondary Plan is 15,000 NGN a year, with per-term payment options. GradingPal is a web-based freemium alternative, while Smart Teacher is freemium on web and Android. Madrasatey is a free web alternative.

Jupiter is worth considering when a paid platform with a free trial and broader platform coverage—including Windows, macOS, mobile, web and API—is preferable; its core includes gradebook, communications and administration, with scheduler, enrollment, payments and state reporting as optional upgrades.

Verdict

Choose SimpleGradebook if you want classroom assessment and reporting paired with parent and student access, especially if a school-wide Pro rollout can make use of attendance, messaging and administrator tools. Its Canadian data handling and one-time Pro prices are persuasive practical advantages. Look elsewhere if the school needs an official record system or guaranteed uninterrupted service; SimpleGradebook is best treated as a useful companion, not the institutional source of truth.