How to choose school management software: a 12-point checklist

By the eSchoolApp team · July 2026

Every vendor demo looks smooth. These twelve questions find the rough edges — ask them all, in writing where possible.

Data & migration

• 1. Who migrates our existing data, and is it included in the price?
• 2. Can we export all our data out, any time, in Excel?
• 3. Where is the data hosted and how often is it backed up?

Money

• 4. Is pricing per student, per module, or per user — and what's excluded?
• 5. What does year two cost? (AMC surprises live here.)
• 6. Do online payment charges go to the school, the parent, or the vendor?

Daily use

• 7. How many taps to mark a class's attendance?
• 8. Can the report card match our exact current format?
• 9. Does the parent app carry our school's name or the vendor's?

Support

• 10. Who answers when the biometric device stops syncing — you or a third party?
• 11. What are support hours, and on which channels?
• 12. Will you retrain new staff next year, and at what cost?

We publish our answers openly — ask us the full dozen, or book the demo and bring the printout.