Civitas Advising

Civitas Advising brings student information, insights, and workflow tools together for college and university advising teams. Student profiles include academic information, advising notes, and alerts. The platform can help teams identify students for outreach based on factors such as shifts in persistence likelihood or unfinished schedules. Teams can coordinate work through dynamic student lists, shared notes, alerts, and outreach. Advisors and students can collaborate on degree plans and class schedules, while students can schedule appointments and message advisors through a portal. Civitas lists integrations with more than 100 systems, including Banner, PeopleSoft, Workday Student, Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, Slate, and Salesforce. Advising is accessed through a mobile website; the separate Inspire student app is native and available on phones. Civitas says it supports institutional single sign-on, acts as an institution-designated FERPA school official, and does not sell data to third parties. The Trust Center lists FERPA, GDPR, SOC 2 Type 2, TX-RAMP Level 2, and VPAT. Pricing is by request for an annual subscription, typically with a multi-year term; the quote depends on institution size, scope, and integrated systems, and additional integrations may carry fees.

Civitas Advising brings student records, coordinated outreach, and planning tools into one institutional workflow. Its quote-based annual subscription and possible integration fees make pricing dependent on the institution’s scope.

Civitas Advising is intended for colleges and universities and their advising, faculty, and student-success teams. It may suit institutions coordinating student outreach, planning, appointments, and advising records.

Overview

Civitas Advising is an advising and student-success system for colleges and universities. It is best suited to institutions coordinating support across advising, faculty, and student-success teams. Its strength is a connected workflow from student records to outreach and academic planning; custom pricing and possible integration fees make it a substantial institutional commitment.

Key features

Student profiles bring academic information, advising notes, and academic alerts together. That shared context can help staff prepare for student conversations and coordinate support without relying on separate records.

Outreach prioritization can surface students based on signals such as changes in persistence likelihood or unfinished schedules. Teams can manage follow-up through dynamic lists, shared notes, alerts, and coordinated outreach. This structure suits campuses that need a consistent way to organize interventions across staff; its usefulness depends on how well those signals and workflows fit the institution’s practices.

Advisors and students can work together on degree plans and class schedules, while the student portal supports appointment scheduling and messages to advisors. Degree audit, degree planning, early alerts, and intervention workflows make the system broader than a planning tool alone. Institutions seeking only appointment booking or degree planning may not need that wider set of functions.

Civitas connects with more than 100 systems, including Banner, PeopleSoft, Colleague, Workday Student, Canvas, Blackboard, D2L, Moodle, Slate, Salesforce, Element451, CollegeVine, and TargetX. That range can help campuses connect advising to existing student and learning systems. Additional SIS, LMS, or data connections may carry added fees, and unusual or unsupported integrations can increase the project scope.

Civitas says the mobile experience is delivered through its website; the separate Inspire student app is native for phones. Institutions should account for that distinction when evaluating mobile access for advisors and students. Civitas says it acts as an institution-designated FERPA school official, supports institutional single sign-on, and does not sell data to third parties. Its Trust Center lists FERPA, GDPR, SOC 2 Type 2, TX-RAMP Level 2, and VPAT. Each partner is assigned a named customer development lead, and product documentation points users to a support team.

Pricing

Civitas Learning platform subscription: custom pricing on an annual subscription, scaled to institution size and scope. A quote is required, and multi-year terms are typical. The price depends in part on integrated systems; additional SIS, LMS, or data integrations may cost extra, while unusual or unsupported connections can add scope. Civitas does not publish a list price, so institutions need to define their integration needs to assess the total commitment.

There are no cheaper published tiers or free-plan caps to compare. The subscription is aimed at institutions buying a broad advising workflow, rather than individuals or small teams looking for a fixed-cost standalone tool.

Platforms

Civitas Advising is available on Android, iOS, and the web. Its mobile website provides access to Advising; the native Inspire student app is a separate product. That distinction matters for campuses expecting a native advisor app.

Who it's for

Civitas is designed for colleges and universities whose advising, faculty, and student-success teams need shared student profiles, organized outreach, and collaborative academic planning. It fits institutions prepared to scope an annual platform subscription and its integrations. A smaller advising office seeking a low-cost tool with a straightforward published price is likely to find the purchase model harder to justify.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Student profiles, outreach prioritization, case management, and planning work within one advising system, supporting teams that coordinate student follow-up.
• Pros: More than 100 listed integrations span student information, learning management, and admissions systems, giving institutions a broad set of connection options.
• Pros: Institutional single sign-on, stated FERPA school-official status, and compliance coverage including SOC 2 Type 2 and TX-RAMP Level 2 address important campus requirements.
• Cons: Custom annual pricing and typical multi-year terms make costs difficult to compare before an institution defines its scope.
• Cons: Integration fees and added scope for unusual connections can increase the commitment beyond the base subscription.
• Cons: Advising uses a mobile website, so institutions requiring a native advisor app should weigh that limitation.

Alternatives

Ellucian Degree Works is another paid option, with Android, iOS, Linux, web, and API platforms. Its pricing and metrics are commercially confidential; a 2024 Ellucian document says pricing is based on full-time equivalent students. Consider it when that pricing basis or its supported platforms better suits the institution.

EAB Navigate360 uses an enterprise license for all staff and students, with pricing based on enrollment and technology scope and no per-user or per-office license fees. It may suit campuses that want institution-wide access without seat-based charges.

Slate is a paid option with a published $30,000 a year license for fewer than 1,500 annual submitted applications. Choose it when admissions and enrollment licensing with a known annual price fits the need better than Civitas’s custom scope-based subscription.

Watermark Student Success & Engagement is another paid option available on Android, iOS, and the web.

FlightPath offers a free, self-hosted web edition requiring a web server, MySQL, and PHP 7.4 or PHP 8.x. It is the option to consider when avoiding a software license cost matters and the institution can host and maintain it.

ConexED Retain is a paid, web-based alternative.

Stellic is a paid alternative with web and API platforms.

AdviseU is another paid alternative.

Browse more options in Academic Advising Software and Student Engagement Software.

Verdict

Civitas Advising is a strong fit for colleges and universities that want student records, coordinated outreach, and academic planning connected in one institutional workflow. Its broad integration reach and team-oriented case management are the main reasons to choose it. Look elsewhere if a published, predictable price or a native advisor mobile app is essential, since custom annual pricing, possible integration costs, and web-based advising can make it a poor fit.