Pearspark vs Gradelink
For small private schools & micro schools · pricing verified July 2026 · written by the Pearspark team (how we compare)
The short answer
Gradelink is a mature SIS with strong academics and enrollment tools, priced in tiers that favor schools near the top of each band. Pearspark is built for small private schools: it costs less below roughly 40 students, and its online application form and tuition billing are included rather than paid add-ons.
Pearspark
All-in-one platform for small private schools — records, academics, admissions, library, volunteers, scheduling, portal.
Pricing: $50/mo including 20 students, then $2.50/student/mo stepping down to $1.00 at volume. No setup fees, no contract, 30-day free trial.
Setup is self-serve, with importers that preview every row before anything is written — no setup fees, and free email support when you're stuck.
Gradelink
A well-established student information system popular with private and faith-based schools.
Pricing: Gradelink lists tiered pricing — about $121/month for up to 50 students and $164/month for 51–100 — plus a one-time $275 setup fee that its Capterra listing omits. Add-ons carry their own setup fees: EnrollMe is $20.83/month plus $497 setup, SmartSend Pro $16.67/month. So a school wanting online enrollment pays $772 before its first month (as of July 2026).
What each costs at small-school sizes
| Students | Pearspark | Gradelink |
|---|---|---|
| 25 students | $62.50/mo | $121/mo + $275 setup (≤50 tier) |
| 50 students | $125/mo | $121/mo + $275 setup (≤50 tier) |
| 100 students | $250/mo | $164/mo + $275 setup (51–100 tier) |
| What the price includes | Everything in one plan: records, attendance, gradebook, standards-based grading, report cards, transcripts, admissions, scheduling, tuition billing with family autopay, lending library, equipment booking, volunteer check-in, messaging, and an installable parent app with push notifications. No setup fee, no contract. No fundraising CRM, no subsidy billing, and no SMS broadcast — announcements reach families as push notifications and email instead. | The SIS: records, attendance, gradebook, standards-based and traditional grading, report cards, scheduling, tuition. Online enrollment (EnrollMe, $20.83/mo + $497 setup) and SmartSend Pro ($16.67/mo) are add-ons, over a $275 one-time setup fee. |
Gradelink pricing from its published list rates as of July 2026 — see sources below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pearspark | Gradelink |
|---|---|---|
| Student records (SIS) | ||
| Attendance | ||
| Gradebook & report cards | ||
| Standards-based grading & mastery | ||
| Records protected if the school closes | ||
| Transcripts & GPA | ||
| Missing-data reports & scheduled delivery | Partial | |
| Admissions pipeline | Paid add-on | |
| Class scheduling & rooms | ||
| Lending library & checkout | ||
| Equipment & room booking | ||
| Volunteer tracking & check-in | Partial | |
| Parent & student portal | ||
| Messaging | Partial | |
| Self-serve transcript & gradebook import | ||
| Tuition billing & payments | ||
| Published pricing (no sales call) | ||
| Fundraising & donor CRM | ||
| SMS / text broadcast to families | ||
| Subsidy & agency billing |
= varies by plan or not published — check with the vendor. We mark unknowns as unknowns rather than counting them against Gradelink. The last three rows are jobs Pearspark does not do, listed for the same reason: a school that runs an annual fund, texts its families, or bills an agency should find that out here. On texting: Pearspark reaches families as push notifications through the installable parent app, plus email — not SMS. Underlined feature names open the Pearspark page for that capability, so you can check what our ✓ actually means.
Where Gradelink shines
- Long track record with thousands of private and faith-based schools
- Standards-based and traditional grading, lesson plans, and report cards
- Optional integrated tuition and enrollment modules
- Fair terms once you're in: month-to-month, cancel penalty-free, free standard data transfer, and a 10-day implementation guarantee
Worth knowing
- Tier pricing means a 12-student micro school pays the same $121/month as a 50-student school
- A one-time $275 setup fee applies, and it isn't shown on the Capterra listing most buyers compare on
- Enrollment (EnrollMe) adds $497 setup on top — $772 in one-time fees before month one
- No lending library or equipment-booking module in its published feature list — it does track volunteer service hours, with parent submission and admin approval
When Gradelink is the better choice
Gradelink makes sense when its tier pricing works in your favor — at 100 students its $164/month tier undercuts Pearspark's $250/month — and when a long-established vendor matters to you; its tuition tooling has more years of track record than Pearspark's newer built-in billing. The counterweight sits in the tiers themselves: the online application form and tuition billing are paid add-ons there and included in Pearspark's one price.
When Pearspark is the better choice
Pearspark is built for small private schools — from a dozen students to several hundred: micro schools, classical schools, Montessori programs, hybrid academies, and homeschool co-ops. Everything is included at one published price: student records, a spreadsheet-style gradebook with built-in student analytics (trends, score distributions, missing-work tracking), report cards, printable transcripts with GPA, school-year attendance calendars, admissions, class scheduling, tuition billing with online payments, a lending library with barcode checkout, equipment booking, volunteer check-in, messaging, and a parent/student portal. Setup is self-serve, and built-in migration tools import your rosters, transcripts, and gradebooks from Gradelink CSV exports with a dry-run preview.
The parts this comparison turns on
Common questions
Is Pearspark cheaper than Gradelink?
For most micro schools, yes. A 25-student school pays $62.50/month on Pearspark vs about $121/month on Gradelink's ≤50-student tier. The lines cross near 90–100 students, where Gradelink's $164 tier becomes cheaper on price alone — the trade past that point is Gradelink's tiers versus Pearspark's everything-included platform and volume bands.
Can I move my data from Gradelink to Pearspark?
Yes, and Gradelink's own terms make it cheap: billing is month-to-month, cancellation is penalty-free, and standard data transfer out is free. Pearspark imports student rosters (with parent contacts), historical transcripts, and assignment-level gradebooks from those CSV exports, with a dry-run preview before anything is written. Between the two, a school can leave Gradelink and land in Pearspark without paying an exit fee to anyone — and if you get stuck on an export, support@pearspark.com will help, free.
Does Pearspark handle tuition billing like Gradelink?
Yes, and it is included in the flat price rather than an add-on. Plans bill weekly, every two weeks, monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or on your own academic calendar, with fixed plan terms, automatic sibling discounts, one combined invoice per family, family autopay, check and cash recording, and online payment by bank transfer or card through the school's own Stripe account — payouts go straight to the school's bank. A school that would rather keep a third-party tuition service can do that and import the records into Pearspark instead. The online application form is included here too; Gradelink's EnrollMe is a paid add-on.
See Pearspark for yourself
Every task is on video — one minute each — and your first 30 days are free. No sales call.
Support: email support answered by a person is included with every plan, along with how-to videos and guides — there are no paid support tiers.
Sources
- Gradelink pricing plans
- Capterra: Gradelink pricing
- Gradelink features (module list)
- Gradelink reports list (140+)
- Gradelink: Service Hours Reporting
Last reviewed July 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.
Gradelink in a wider comparison
These guides price Gradelink alongside every other system in this list, at 25, 50 and 100 students.