Best Higher Education Software

Coursedog is an integrated academic operations platform for higher education that unifies academic scheduling, event scheduling, curriculum management, and online catalog production. It syncs bi-directionally with major student information systems such as Ellucian, Anthology, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Workday, so curriculum changes and schedules stay consistent across systems.

The platform helps registrars, provosts, and faculty build optimized class schedules that respect room capacity, faculty availability, and course demand projections, while streamlining faculty governance approvals for new courses and programs. Coursedog, headquartered in New York City, serves more than 400 campuses and 3.3 million students. Pricing is custom and quote-based; institutions must contact Coursedog's sales team for a proposal.

Anthology Reach is a customer relationship management platform built specifically for higher education, covering prospective student recruitment, admissions, advising, retention, and alumni and advancement engagement. It is built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 and includes an applicant portal, document tracking, integrated communication tools, and Microsoft Copilot generative AI features for drafting emails, building audience segments, and creating engagement journeys.

Anthology Reach is a product of Anthology, the education technology company formed by the 2021 merger of Anthology and Blackboard and headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. Because it runs on the Microsoft ecosystem, it integrates with Outlook, Teams, Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps. Anthology does not publish pricing; institutions receive a custom quote based on which core and premium modules they select.

Classe365 is a cloud-based education management platform combining a student information system, CRM, and learning management system for schools, colleges, and training organizations. Its modular design lets institutions activate only the components they need, such as admissions, gradebook, attendance, fees and invoicing, alumni management, or e-commerce, and scale from a handful of students to large enterprises.

Core pricing starts at $100 per month for institutions with up to 100 students, billed monthly or annually with a 10 percent discount, while larger enrollments require a custom enterprise quote. Classe365 offers a 15-day free trial with no credit card required. The company is headquartered in Hornsby, New South Wales, Australia, and serves customers in over 130 countries.

Workday Student is a cloud-based student information system from Workday, the enterprise software company headquartered in Pleasanton, California. It covers the student lifecycle from recruitment and admissions through curriculum management, registration, financial aid, and tuition management, built on the same platform as Workday's human capital management and financial management products.

The system emphasizes real-time data updates rather than overnight batch processing, role-based dashboards for students, faculty, and advisors, and self-service workflows for tasks like registration, transcript requests, and payments. Workday does not publish list pricing for Workday Student; institutions receive custom quotes based on enrollment size and modules selected under multi-year contracts.

Education Cloud is Salesforce's education-focused edition of its Sales and Service Cloud CRM, aimed at recruitment and admissions, advancement and alumni relations, and student services teams. It is built on the standard Salesforce platform and includes core CRM objects and automation tailored for the education sector, plus a web API for custom integrations, and is offered by Salesforce, headquartered in San Francisco, California.

According to Salesforce's official education pricing guide, the Enterprise Edition costs $48 per user per month billed annually, and the Unlimited Edition, which adds automation, chat, and 24/7 support, costs $96 per user per month billed annually. Both editions require an annual contract, and pricing is described as informational and subject to change with a sales representative.

Ellucian is a higher education technology company based in Reston, Virginia, that builds student information systems (SIS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for colleges and universities. Its core products include Banner, Colleague, and the newer cloud native Ellucian Student platform, covering admissions, registration, financial aid, student records, and academic advising. The Ethos data platform connects these systems with other campus tools.

In 2026 Ellucian acquired Anthology's Enterprise Operations business, adding the Anthology Student SIS/ERP line to its portfolio following Anthology's bankruptcy restructuring. Ellucian serves thousands of institutions worldwide and offers both cloud and on premises deployment options, with pricing negotiated individually per institution rather than published.

Watermark provides a suite of higher education software tools focused on assessment, accreditation, faculty activity reporting, and course evaluations. Its Planning and Self-Study product centralizes institutional planning, assessment, and program review, while separate modules cover faculty success reporting, student learning evidence, and AI-assisted survey analysis for course evaluations.

Aimed at provosts, deans, institutional effectiveness offices, and CIOs, Watermark is used by more than 1,700 higher education institutions worldwide. The company, headquartered in Austin, Texas, does not publish pricing; costs are quoted individually based on which modules an institution selects and its size, so prospective customers must request a demo and custom quote.

TargetX is a higher education CRM built natively on the Salesforce platform, now owned and sold by Liaison International, a company headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts. It supports recruitment and admissions teams with tools for territory management, event registration, mobile-first online applications, and engagement tracking across the recruitment cycle, and is used by more than 400 higher education institutions.

Because it runs on Salesforce, TargetX customers need separate Salesforce platform licenses in addition to TargetX's own fees, and pricing is not published publicly. Total cost depends on modules selected, user roles, Salesforce licensing tier, implementation scope, and ongoing administration, with quotes provided directly by Liaison's sales team.

Oracle Student Cloud is Oracle's next-generation, cloud-native student lifecycle platform for higher education, intended to eventually succeed the long-standing PeopleSoft Campus Solutions product. It is designed to integrate with Oracle's HCM and ERP Cloud applications and cover functions such as admissions, financial aid, responsible borrowing guidance, and support for varied academic models including traditional, sponsored-program, and pay-to-enroll structures.

As of 2026 Oracle Student Cloud remains an early-stage product; Oracle has stated the first wave of institutions is expected to go live in Fall 2027, with more following in 2028. Oracle continues to support PeopleSoft Campus Solutions, with a commitment extending through at least 2037, so most institutions are not yet running Oracle Student Cloud in production. No public pricing is available.

PowerCampus is a student information system and administrative ERP from Ellucian, aimed at smaller colleges and universities. It combines a student information system with human resources, finance and accounting, and financial aid management modules, along with configurable workflows, communication tools, and reporting and analytics to support the full student lifecycle from recruitment through alumni outreach.

Ellucian is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, and PowerCampus is widely reported by user communities, including the PowerCampus Users Group, to be heading toward end-of-life status, with Ellucian expected to move the product into a maintenance-only phase rather than continued active development. Ellucian has not published a formal sunset date or public pricing; prospective customers are directed to contact sales.