Pearspark vs Jupiter Ed
For small private schools & micro schools · pricing verified July 2026 · written by the Pearspark team (how we compare)
The short answer
Jupiter Ed centers on a fast, deep teacher gradebook with LMS features, at roughly $7–10 per student per year with about a $500/school minimum. Pearspark is the whole-school platform around the gradebook — admissions, library, volunteers, scheduling, transcripts — at $50/month including 20 students, then banded per-student pricing from $2.50.
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.
Jupiter Ed
A gradebook-centered LMS/SIS used across K-12, priced per student per year with a school minimum.
Pricing: Jupiter runs roughly $7–10 per student per year with pricing starting around $500 per school per year; exact quotes come via demo (as of July 2026).
What each costs at small-school sizes
| Students | Pearspark | Jupiter |
|---|---|---|
| 25 students | $62.50/mo | ≈$42/mo ($500/yr minimum) |
| 50 students | $125/mo | ≈$42/mo ($500/yr minimum) |
| 100 students | $250/mo | ≈$58–83/mo ($7–10/student/yr) |
| 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 gradebook and LMS core with parent and student access, over a ~$500/school/year minimum. Operations — library, volunteers, equipment — aren't part of it, and a final number comes via a demo. |
Jupiter does not publish pricing; figures shown are the best public information we could verify as of July 2026 — see sources below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pearspark | Jupiter |
|---|---|---|
| Student records (SIS) | Partial | |
| Attendance | ||
| Gradebook & report cards | ||
| Standards-based grading & mastery | ||
| Records protected if the school closes | ||
| Transcripts & GPA | ||
| Missing-data reports & scheduled delivery | Partial | |
| Admissions pipeline | ||
| Class scheduling & rooms | Partial | |
| Lending library & checkout | ||
| Equipment & room booking | ||
| Volunteer tracking & check-in | ||
| Parent & student portal | ||
| Messaging | ||
| Self-serve transcript & gradebook import | ||
| Tuition billing & payments | ||
| Published pricing (no sales call) | Partial | |
| 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 Jupiter. 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 Jupiter shines
- Deep, fast gradebook teachers like (rubrics, weighting, dropped scores)
- Strong parent/student communication and real-time grade visibility
- Per-student annual pricing is cheap at mid sizes
Worth knowing
- A $500/year school minimum means a 15-student school pays mid-size prices
- Gradebook/LMS core — thin on operations like library, volunteers, or equipment
- Final pricing requires a demo conversation
When Jupiter is the better choice
If the teacher gradebook is the product you're really buying, Jupiter's case is strong — rubrics, weighting and dropped scores in one grading screen, at a low per-student cost past 60 students. If your school also needs admissions, a library, volunteers, and printable transcripts in the same login, that's the rest of the platform Pearspark exists to provide.
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 Jupiter CSV exports with a dry-run preview.
The parts this comparison turns on
Common questions
Is Jupiter Ed cheaper than Pearspark?
At 60+ students, usually yes on list price (about $7–10/student/year). Below ~40 students, Jupiter's ~$500/year school minimum and Pearspark's $50-month base land in similar territory — the real difference is scope: gradebook-first vs whole-school operations.
Can I import Jupiter gradebooks into Pearspark?
Yes — export a class gradebook as a CSV matrix and Pearspark's per-class import creates the assignments and grades, with a preview of unmatched students before anything saves.
Does Pearspark's gradebook match Jupiter's?
Pearspark covers weighted categories, per-assignment weights, custom grade scales, posting, report cards, and transcripts, and rubric grading is an optional module a school can switch on. Jupiter still goes deeper on gradebook power-features like dropped scores. If those are essential, Jupiter earns its spot — some schools even run both.
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
Last reviewed July 2026. Spotted something out of date? Email us and we'll fix it.
Jupiter in a wider comparison
These guides price Jupiter alongside every other system in this list, at 25, 50 and 100 students.