SimpleGradebook

Overview

SimpleGradebook is an online gradebook for teachers, students, parents and administrators. It is best suited to schools and teachers who want families to follow classroom progress alongside staff reporting tools. Its strongest case is broad access to grades and feedback; it should remain a supplement, not the official school record.

Key features

Assessment and class work

Teachers can work with mixed and standards-based grading, BC Ministry performance scales, rubrics, student self-assessment and individualized programs. That range suits classrooms with varied assessment approaches. Class creation, copied assignments, Excel exports, printable report cards and missing-task reports help with recurring administration, though the terms make clear that the service is not a substitute for institutional systems.

Family access and Pro tools

Students and parents can view grades, missing tasks, teacher feedback and weekly report cards. Pro adds attendance views, messaging and assignment uploads, making the portal more useful for ongoing classroom communication. For teachers and school staff, Pro also adds attendance, parent notifications, referrals, observations, file attachments and printable class rosters. Administrators and counsellors can manage multiple schools, review at-risk reports and student watch lists, and manage referrals in Pro.

Privacy and support

User data is stored and processed on servers in Canada, and the policy says it is not sold, rented or used for advertising or profiling. Teachers and authorized school administrators control the data; SimpleGradebook acts as their service provider and data processor. The privacy policy also describes SSL encryption in transit, encrypted internal messages, password requirements and two-factor authentication for teacher and administrator accounts. A support forum covers FAQs, how-to questions, bug reports and feature requests.

Pricing

SimpleGradebook Free costs 0.00 USD per free and provides basic functions, with occasional donation requests that are not required. It is the sensible starting point for a teacher who needs core gradebook functions and can do without Pro tools.

SimpleGradebook School Pro costs 3.00 USD per once and gives Pro functionality to the whole school, including teachers, students, parents and administrators, with no donation requests. It suits a school that wants shared access to the expanded toolkit at a one-time price. SimpleGradebook Single Teacher Pro costs 40.00 USD per once and gives Pro functionality to one teacher's classes, including Pro features for the teacher, students and their parents; it is the more targeted option for an individual teacher. Both paid plans remove donation requests and add the Pro features, but the school plan covers a wider community.

SimpleGradebook District Paid-Up License has custom pricing. It allows a district to run Pro on its own server for as long as it wants and for as many students as it wants, without donation requests. That makes it the option for districts seeking self-hosting and no student cap.

Platforms

SimpleGradebook is available on Android, iOS and the web, covering mobile access as well as browser-based use.

Who it's for

Choose SimpleGradebook if a teacher or school wants a shared gradebook with family access, reporting and optional school-level tools. Its Canadian data handling may matter to institutions evaluating where student data is processed. It is a weaker fit when the gradebook must serve as an official institutional record or when uninterrupted hosted access is essential: the terms say access is not guaranteed and the service may be modified, suspended or discontinued.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Families can see grades, missing tasks, feedback and weekly reports, reducing the gap between classroom assessment and parent or student visibility.
• Pro: Pro combines attendance and communication with referrals, observations and administrator oversight, extending beyond a teacher-only gradebook.
• Pro: The one-time prices for School Pro and Single Teacher Pro avoid a recurring subscription term.
• Con: The free plan is limited to basic functions and may prompt donations, so it does not provide the expanded Pro workflow.
• Con: Hosted access is not guaranteed, and the service is explicitly not an official-record replacement.

Alternatives

Browse Gradebook Software for more options. Choose Jupiter if you want a paid gradebook that also includes communications and administration, with scheduler, enrollment, payments and state reporting as optional upgrades. Additio App is a paid alternative with a Teachers Standard plan at 13.99 EUR per year, including unlimited students and groups, evaluations and rubrics. TeacherEase may suit a large organization comparing paid systems; its listed 104.06 USD per year plan is for 500–999 teachers, with price based on active employees.

iVake Gradebook is another paid option. Gradebox offers a web-based freemium alternative, while ThinkWave and Smart Teacher also have free plans. GradingPal is a web-based freemium option without a free trial.

Verdict

SimpleGradebook is a strong fit for teachers and schools that want family-facing progress reports plus classroom and administrator tools, especially when a one-time Pro plan is appealing. Look elsewhere if your system must be an official record or guaranteed-available hosted infrastructure; those are explicit limits, not minor qualifications.