Last year, we were drowning in spreadsheets.
No paper. No headache. No fee.
Then, on a desperate Friday night, I stumbled upon and Fedena’s free tier . I also looked at Gibbon (open source). I didn’t need bells and whistles. I needed order.
Principal, Rivermist Community School (Enrollment: 210 students)
Every morning started the same way: a paper attendance sheet passed from teacher to teacher, inevitably getting coffee-stained or lost. Fees were tracked on a crumbling notebook in the front office. Parents emailed us asking, "What’s for lunch?" and "When is the test?"—and we had no single place to answer.
We’re still using that free version today. And when we finally grow enough to pay for the pro plan? I’ll do it happily—because the free version gave us a second chance.
We had zero budget for software. I know, I know. "You get what you pay for," right? That’s what our district supervisor told me.
But for our small school? It turned chaos into calm. We went from 12 parent complaints a week to 2.