Pearspark vs NavEd
For small private schools & micro schools · pricing verified July 2026 · written by the Pearspark team (how we compare)
The short answer
NavEd is the closest thing to a mirror of Pearspark: self-serve signup, published per-student pricing, no sales call, and the same stated audience. Which one is cheaper depends entirely on which NavEd tier you need. Its $2.50 Standard tier undercuts Pearspark up to 125 students. But standards-based grading sits in its $8 Enterprise tier, and Pearspark includes that in its single price — so a school that wants mastery tracking is comparing $8/student against Pearspark's $50 base.
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.
NavEd
A self-serve school platform sold in three per-student tiers, aimed squarely at microschools and co-ops.
Pricing: NavEd sells three tiers, all flat per-student with no volume relief. Standard ($2.50) covers student and staff records, a core gradebook, attendance, parent portal and basic reports. Premium ($5, their "most popular") adds advanced gradebook and analytics, assignment management, and a staff/family directory. Enterprise ($8) adds learning standards, custom reports, SSO, API access and priority support. Signup is self-serve with no card. Pearspark has one plan containing all of that, so the fair comparison depends on which NavEd tier carries what you need (as of July 2026).
What each costs at small-school sizes
| Students | Pearspark | NavEd |
|---|---|---|
| 25 students | $62.50/mo | $50/mo Standard · $160 Enterprise |
| 50 students | $125/mo | $112.50/mo Standard · $360 Enterprise |
| 100 students | $250/mo | $237.50/mo Standard · $760 Enterprise |
| 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. | Standard ($2.50): records, a core gradebook, attendance, parent portal, basic reports. Assignment management starts at $5 Premium; standards-based grading, SSO and API at $8 Enterprise. First 5 students free. |
NavEd pricing from its published list rates as of July 2026 — see sources below. Always confirm current pricing with the vendor.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Pearspark | NavEd |
|---|---|---|
| Student records (SIS) | ||
| Attendance | ||
| Gradebook & report cards | ||
| Standards-based grading & mastery | Paid add-on | |
| Records protected if the school closes | ||
| Transcripts & GPA | ||
| Missing-data reports & scheduled delivery | ||
| Admissions pipeline | ||
| Class scheduling & rooms | ||
| 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) | ||
| 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 NavEd. 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 NavEd shines
- Its $2.50 Standard tier is cheaper than Pearspark up to 125 students
- First 5 students free on every tier, which matters most to a school opening with a handful of kids
- Self-serve signup with no credit card and no sales call
- Explicitly built for microschools, hybrid programs and co-ops rather than adapted from a district product
- Tiers let a school buy only the capability it needs
Worth knowing
- Flat per-student pricing with no volume bands — the bill scales in a straight line as the school grows
- Assignment management isn't in the $2.50 Standard tier — it starts at $5 Premium, so the entry gradebook is narrower than it first reads
- Standards-based grading, SSO and API sit in the $8 Enterprise tier, more than triple the entry rate
- Parent access is a mobile-friendly web portal; no native or installable parent app is indicated
When NavEd is the better choice
If the Standard tier covers everything you need and you're staying small, NavEd's math works: at 25 students it is $50/month against Pearspark's $62.50, and the first five students are free. The arithmetic runs two ways, though. Against Standard, NavEd is cheaper up to 125 students, the two tie there at $300/month each, and Pearspark is cheaper from 126 up ($650/month vs $737.50 at 300). Against Enterprise — the tier you need for standards-based grading — Pearspark is cheaper at every size, $250/month against $760 at 100 students. So the deciding question isn't the entry rate; it's which NavEd tier your school actually needs.
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 NavEd CSV exports with a dry-run preview.
The parts this comparison turns on
Common questions
Is NavEd cheaper than Pearspark?
It depends which of NavEd's three tiers you need, so compare like for like. On its $2.50 Standard tier, yes below 125 students — a 25-student school pays $50 against Pearspark's $62.50. Because that rate never steps down while Pearspark's steps to $2.00/student past 100, the two tie at exactly 125 students ($300 each) and Pearspark is cheaper from 126 up: at 300 it's $650/month against $737.50. On the $8 Enterprise tier — the one that includes standards-based grading — Pearspark is cheaper at every size, $250/month against $760 at 100 students.
Which NavEd tier should I compare Pearspark against?
Whichever one carries the features you actually need, because Pearspark has a single plan with everything in it. NavEd's $2.50 Standard tier covers records, a core gradebook, attendance, parent portal and basic reports — worth knowing that assignment management sits in the $5 Premium tier, so the entry gradebook is a narrower thing than it sounds. Premium adds advanced gradebook and analytics, assignment management and a staff/family directory. Learning standards, custom reports, SSO and API are Enterprise at $8. Pearspark includes all of it, so if you'd need Premium or Enterprise, Pearspark is cheaper at every size.
How do NavEd's first 5 free students work?
Check this one directly with them, because their own pages disagree. NavEd's pricing page says the first 5 students are always free on every plan, but its FAQ prices a 12-student microschool at 'about $30/month', which is 12 × $2.50 with nothing deducted. The figures we quote here take the reading more favorable to NavEd — 5 students deducted — so we don't overstate our own case. If the FAQ example is the accurate one, Pearspark and NavEd Standard cost exactly the same from 21 to 100 students, and Pearspark is cheaper above 100.
What does Pearspark include that NavEd gates or lacks?
Standards-based grading is included in Pearspark's single price; NavEd reserves its standards catalog, SSO and API for its $8/student Enterprise tier, more than triple its entry rate. Pearspark also ships an installable parent app with push notifications, plus the wider school operation — lending library, volunteer tracking, equipment booking, records escrow — that NavEd's published materials don't describe.
Do both offer a free trial?
Both, on different terms. NavEd's first 5 students are free on an ongoing basis and its signup asks for no card. Pearspark gives 30 days free across the whole school, then $50/month covering the first 20 students; card details are taken at signup, nothing is charged until day 31, and you can cancel before then. For a school opening with 6 students, NavEd's free tier covers them; for one opening with 25, Pearspark's trial covers everyone from day one.
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.
NavEd in a wider comparison
These guides price NavEd alongside every other system in this list, at 25, 50 and 100 students.