Student Information Systems (SIS)

A SIS is the school's system-of-record: enrolment, attendance, transcripts, scheduling, parent contacts, official grades. It's not the same as an LMS (course delivery) or assignment platform. Most US K-12 districts buy commercial; FOSS exists for small schools and the global market. Pair with school admin / accounting, HRIS, and helpdesk for staff support.

US K-12 commercial incumbents

• ★ PowerSchool SIS — paid; the dominant US K-12 SIS; absorbed Sapphire, eSchoolPlus, others. Tightly integrates Schoology (LMS), Naviance (college / career), Performance Matters (assessment).
• Infinite Campus — paid; second-place US K-12; popular in US-Midwest districts.
• Skyward — paid; popular in Texas and Wisconsin.
• FACTS / RenWeb — paid; private / parochial school market.
• Veracross — paid; independent school market.
• Sycamore Education — paid; small private schools; cheap.
• Alma, TeacherEase — smaller US providers.
• Aspen (Follett) — paid; some New England districts.

Higher-ed SIS

• Banner (Ellucian) — paid; the dominant US higher-ed SIS.
• PeopleSoft Campus Solutions — paid; Oracle.
• Workday Student — paid; modern; replacing PeopleSoft at many universities.
• Jenzabar — paid; smaller colleges.
• Anthology Student — paid; merger of Campus Management.
• Unit4 Student Management — paid; EU.

SSO / data-sync layer (you almost always need one)

• ★ Clever — free for schools (paid for vendors); the default US K-12 SSO + rostering layer. Connects 95% of US districts to LMS / app vendors via OneRoster.
• ClassLink — paid; competitor to Clever; Microsoft-shop friendly.
• OneRoster (IMS Global) — open standard; the data-sync schema everyone implements.
• Ed-Fi — free / non-profit; broader student-data interop standard.

FOSS / self-host

• ★ Gibbon — GPL; FOSS school management for international K-12; rostering, attendance, timetable, gradebook. Active community.
  • https://github.com/GibbonEdu/core
• Frappe Education / ERPNext Education — MIT; bundled with ERPNext; good fit for schools already running Frappe / ERPNext for accounting / HR. Pairs with Frappe LMS.
  • https://github.com/frappe/education
• Fedena — free + paid; Indian-origin SIS; widely used in South / Southeast Asia.
  • https://github.com/projectfedena/fedena
• openSIS — paid + a free Community Edition; long-running.
• OpenEduCat — open source; built on Odoo.
• SchoolTool — older Python project; mostly stagnant.
• Sentry-1 — Open Source School Information System; smaller projects.

Specialised modules

• Naviance / SCOIR — paid; college / career planning.
• Aeries — paid; California-popular.
• PowerSchool Performance Matters / iReady (Curriculum Associates) — paid; assessment data.
• Securly / Lightspeed / GoGuardian — paid; web-filtering / device-management; not a SIS but often co-purchased.

Standards

• OneRoster (CSV / REST API) — the schema for class / student / enrolment exchange.
• SIF (Schools Interoperability Framework) — older but still in use.
• Ed-Fi Data Standard — broader; US-strong.
• CEDS (Common Education Data Standards) — US federal.
• CALIPER — IMS analytics standard.
• LTI 1.3 / Advantage — for plug-in learning tools.

Pick this if…

• US K-12 district, paid: PowerSchool, Infinite Campus, or Skyward (regional market share varies by state).
• US private school: Veracross or FACTS.
• US higher ed: Workday Student (modern) or Banner (incumbent).
• International / small school FOSS: Gibbon.
• You already run ERPNext: Frappe Education.
• South / Southeast Asia FOSS: Fedena.
• SSO / rostering layer: Clever (US K-12).