School management system cost: pricing models, hidden costs and four worked examples
School management system cost in England and at international schools: how MIS pricing works, the costs no price list shows, four examples worked out to the euro — a primary, a secondary, an international school and a trust — and how schools and trusts budget for it.
What does a school management system cost? In England a management information system (MIS) is typically priced per pupil per year, often on top of a base fee per school, with set-up, data migration and training charged separately. The large English suppliers do not publish prices on their own websites, so the school management system cost you can compare is the one in a quote, worked out over the whole contract. Bildena School publishes its price: €5 per pupil a year, at least €1,000 a school, plus VAT where it applies. A primary school of 250 pupils pays €1,250 a year. The licence, though, is only part of the bill. Introduction, training, a spell of running two systems, support and the eventual exit cost money or staff time, and none of them appears on a price list.
Other suppliers' prices appear only where their own websites publish them (checked 11 October 2026). Bildena's are in euros on every Bildena page, the UK and US ones included.
School management system cost: the pricing models
Per pupil per year, often with a base fee
A common model in England: the price grows with the roll, and a base fee or a minimum covers the fixed cost of a small school. Bromcom's pricing page, for example, says its MIS "is priced on a per-pupil basis, which varies depending on your establishment type and the package you select", without figures. Check the day the pupils are counted and what happens when the roll grows. Bildena counts once a year, on 1 October (in 2026 also England's autumn census day): €5 per pupil, at least €1,000 a school, every pupil above 1,000 at half price, logins free and unlimited.
A flat price per school
Easy to budget for, relatively dear for a small school and cheap for a large one. Bildena Scheduler, the timetable on its own, is priced this way: €490 a school a year for Standard (the timetable, cover and the duty rota) and €1,490 for Pro, which adds course requests, electives and a personal timetable for every student. Until the end of 2026/27 Pro costs €990 at the founding price.
Packages and modules
Many suppliers sell the MIS in tiers, with parent communication, analytics or finance higher up or as separate modules. Ask for the price of the package you expect to need in year three, not the one you start with.
One-off charges, and where to find real price lists
Set-up, migration of data from the old system and training are often priced separately: per school, per extra year of history, per session or per day on site. Arbor and Bromcom show no prices on their websites, but both have published price lists for public-sector buyers on the government's Digital Marketplace (G-Cloud), Bromcom's for 2026/27 and Arbor's for 2025. Both are built the same way: a base fee per school plus a fee per pupil, three packages, separate charges for onboarding and training, data migration free or charged depending on the school and the offer, and discounts that grow with the number of schools. SIMS and iSAMS publish no prices on their websites. In any quote, have every item listed separately, including the price in each later year.
The costs the price list leaves out
Over a three-year contract a good part of the total cost is often staff time, so compare offers over the whole contract, not the first year. Put a figure on each of these:
- Introduction: setting up the year, classes, users and permissions. Ask what the supplier does for you.
- Training: every teacher needs an introduction; the office, the data manager and the timetabler need much more. Count the hours.
- Data migration: which data comes across (pupils, contacts, attendance, assessment), how many years back, and who checks it before the old system is switched off.
- Parallel running: MIS contracts rarely end on the best day to switch; Arbor's own G-Cloud price list speaks of schools "paying for two systems until their contract end date". Where one system cannot do a statutory job, such as the school census, two run side by side for good.
- Integrations: parent apps, payments, catering and sign-in tools connect to the MIS. Some suppliers charge per connection, and a new system means connecting them all again.
- Support: included in every year, or bought from a partner?
- Exit: what data comes back, in which format, at what cost, after what notice, and when it is deleted.
Four worked examples
Worked out with Bildena's price list, in euros, net of VAT, with the roll and the prices unchanged over three years. The calculator on our pricing page works out your own.
| School | Pupils | Bildena School a year | Per pupil a month | Over three years | Scheduler only: Standard · Pro* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary school | 250 | €1,250 | €0.42 | €3,750 | €490 · €990 |
| Secondary school | 1,100 | €5,250 | €0.40 | €15,750 | €490 · €990 |
| International school | 600 | €3,000 | €0.42 | €9,000 | €490 · €990 |
| Multi-academy trust, eight schools | 4,190 | €16,340 | €0.32 | €49,020 | €3,136 · €6,336 |
* Pro at the founding price, until the end of 2026/27; the list price is €1,490 a school. Trust row: eight schools with 20% off each.
A primary school of 250 pupils
250 × €5 comes to €1,250 a year; below 200 pupils a school pays the minimum, so a primary of 180 pays €1,000. The price covers the register, letters and consents, cover, the calendar, all-day care, and grades and reports. But a state-funded primary in England must submit the school census, and Bildena does not produce the census return. Bildena runs beside the MIS, so the honest sum is the MIS plus €1,250, which is worth it only where Bildena replaces other paid tools or saves the office real time. For the timetable and cover alone, Scheduler Standard costs €490.
A secondary school of 1,100 pupils
The first 1,000 pupils cost €5 each and the other 100 cost €2.50: €5,250 a year. That includes the full Scheduler Pro, with course requests and a timetable for every student. The census point applies here too, so a secondary that keeps its MIS may want only the timetable, at €990 a year on the founding price. Count the hours it takes to get the timetable into the MIS: Bildena exports it in Untis and aSc formats, so check whether your MIS reads either.
An international school of 600 students
600 × €5 comes to €3,000 a year. An international school outside the UK does not submit the DfE census, so it can run on Bildena School alone: records, the register, grades and reports, letters, enrolment from application to re-enrolment, and finance with invoices, payment plans and fee reductions. Check first which returns your regulator expects. Bildena invoices in euros, so a school that budgets in pounds, dirhams or dollars carries the exchange rate; VAT or sales tax depends on your country.
A multi-academy trust of eight schools
Take six primaries of 105, 210, 210, 315, 420 and 630 pupils and two secondaries of 900 and 1,400. Each school is counted on its own: the village school of 105 pays the €1,000 minimum, the secondary of 1,400 pays €5,000 plus 400 × €2.50, and the eight together come to €20,425. From three schools every school gets 20% off, so the trust pays €16,340 a year, about €3.90 per pupil, with all eight schools in one view. Bildena is not on G-Cloud or any DfE framework, and in a trust it runs beside the MIS; before buying it as part of your MIS provision, check paragraph 2.30 of the Academy Trust Handbook.
How schools and trusts budget for it
- Start from the contract end date. DfE's MIS framework is expected to launch on 1 September 2027. Academy trusts must award MIS contracts under it as soon as practicable after launch, in line with the expiry of their current contract; a contract that expires before the launch may be extended by no more than 12 months (Academy Trust Handbook 2026, paragraph 2.30). Maintained schools are expected to use it. DfE says the framework will help "provide greater transparency over pricing and contractual terms". More in buying school software.
- Plan over three years. Maintained schools submit a three-year budget forecast to their local authority every year, academy trusts to DfE. Put the whole cost in, the overlap year included.
- Match the invoice to the financial year. A maintained school's financial year ends on 31 March, an academy trust's on 31 August. Bildena counts pupils on 1 October and invoices the year in advance; an invoice that follows the count falls halfway through a maintained school's financial year and early in a trust's. Ask every supplier when its invoices fall.
- Get VAT right. Bildena's prices exclude VAT where it applies. How VAT is accounted for on a service from a supplier in Germany depends on your organisation, so ask your finance team or local authority. For maintained schools, VAT incurred when spending funding from the local authority is reclaimed by the authority; academies and trusts not registered for VAT can claim VAT on their non-business activities from HMRC on form VAT126.
- Allow for growth and currency. At Bildena small changes in the roll cost nothing; growth above 10% brings one top-up invoice at mid-year. Price changes come at least three months ahead, never mid-term. The pricing page can show pounds at the day's rate; invoices are in euros.
A note for US schools
In the United States the software is usually called a student information system (SIS). QuickSchools publishes its prices: $0.99, $1.49 or $2.99 per student per month by plan, a minimum charge for 30 students per school, and special pricing above 300 students (11 October 2026). PowerSchool does not publish prices for its SIS. Compare offers per student per year. Bildena's list is the same in the US: set in euros, shown to US visitors in dollars, invoiced in euros, plus sales tax where it applies (more on the US school page).
What Bildena costs, and what comes with it
- One price for every module. Switch off what you do not use; the price stays the same. Bildena runs in the browser with nothing to install, on a smartphone too, and is hosted in Germany.
- A free first month with every feature and your own data, no card needed.
- Data in: pupils, staff, classes and lessons from Excel or CSV, such as your MIS's export, with the columns matched on screen; timetables also from aSc and Untis. There is no direct connector to Arbor, SIMS or Bromcom. The price list has no set-up fee; help with the introduction, the data or training can go into a quote.
- Data out: subjects, teachers, classes, rooms, students and lessons as Excel or CSV; the timetable as Untis XML, Untis DIF or aSc XML. Availability, planning rules and user accounts are not exported. After the contract ends the data is kept for 90 days, then deleted, or earlier if you ask.
- Terms and paperwork: support by email in English, German and French; the subscription renews for the chosen term and can be cancelled in the product to the end of it. The data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR) is signed at the start, the data-protection pack comes on request, and a one-page overview is a download.
Bildena does not produce the DfE census return and cannot read or write common transfer files, so in a state school in England its price comes on top of the MIS (see the MIS and the school census). It is also new to the market: the company, Bildena GmbH i. Gr. in Berlin, is not yet entered in the commercial register. Test it with your own data in the free month and look at the export before you decide. Everything included is on the Bildena School page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a school MIS cost per pupil?
The large English suppliers publish no prices on their websites; the G-Cloud price lists of Arbor and Bromcom combine a base fee per school with a fee per pupil. Bildena School costs €5 per pupil a year, at least €1,000 a school, plus VAT where it applies.
Do academy trusts have to use the DfE MIS framework?
Yes. Under paragraph 2.30 of the Academy Trust Handbook 2026, MIS contracts move to the framework as they expire once it launches, planned for September 2027. Maintained schools are expected to use it.
What does Bildena cost beside an existing MIS?
Its full price, because it does not replace a census MIS: €5 per pupil a year for Bildena School, or €490 a school for the Scheduler alone. Weigh that against what it replaces and the time it saves.
Work it out with your own school: in the free month you use Bildena School with every module and your own data, no card needed.
