Campus Cafe 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
Integrations
User Reviews

Overview

Campus Cafe

4.7

(19)

Pricing

Starting at $1,200.00 per month

About Campus Cafe

Campus Cafe is a cloud-based student information system that helps in managing admissions, student services, business office and alumni development functions. Primary features are inquiries tracking, applicant tracking, status tracking, applicant profiling, content management, reporting and auditing. It is built for the needs of small and midsize educational institutes and universities.

Campus Cafe can be used to create a single record of the entire student lifecycle, from applicant to alumni, and it manages workflow across various college operations. It also manages operational aspects including lead management, scheduling, academics and attendance management for post-secondary career schools.

Campus Cafe has its own integrated financial modules. It provides integration with software commonly used in educational institutions, such as Moodle, CollegeNet, CollegeBoard and Easy-League. The solution is built on Java technology and is compatible with web browsers available across different platforms.

Support is available via phone, helpdesk and online documentation.

Campus Cafe Screenshots

Campus Cafe Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $1,200.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Basic

$1,200.00

per month

No plan information available

Campus Cafe Features

Popular features found in Student Information System
Assessment Management
Attendance Management
Classroom Management
Class Scheduling
Discipline Management
Fee Collection
Financial Aid Management
Online Payments
Parent/Student Portal
Report Cards
More features of Campus Cafe
Activity Dashboard
Activity Tracking
Ad hoc Reporting
Admissions Management
Alerts/Notifications
Alumni Management
API
Application Management
Attendance Tracking
Billing & Invoicing
Calendar Management
Candidate Management
Class Registration
Commenting/Notes
Communication Management
Content Management
Curriculum Management
Customizable Branding
Customizable Forms
Customizable Reports
Data Import/Export
Document Management
Document Storage
Electronic Payments
Employee Portal
Enrollments/Onboarding
Faculty/Staff Management
Fee Management
Financial Management
For Higher Education
Forms Management
Fundraising Management
Gradebook
Housing Management
Interview Scheduling
Mobile Access
Mobile App
Online Calendar
Performance Metrics
Progress Reports
Progress Tracking
Real-Time Notifications
Records Management
Registration Management
Reminders
Reporting/Analytics
Reporting & Statistics
Role-Based Permissions
Scheduling
Scoring
Search/Filter
Self Service Portal
Student Information/Records
Student Management
Student Portal
Third-Party Integrations
Visual Analytics
Workflow Management

Campus Cafe Integrations

Schoology

Brightspace

Docusign

Sinch MessageMedia

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Outlook

See all 17 integrations

Campus Cafe User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.7

Ratings Breakdown

68%

32%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.3

Value for money

4.7

Customer support

4.7

Functionality

4.6

Michael J.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

The Best (only?) mid-tier SIS on the market.

Overall, we are pleased with our switch to Campus Cafe. The leadership and development team are attentive too are needs and have been very aggressive in shoring up any deficiencies we've identified. There are very customer-centric and are intent on creating the best product possible.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Has many of the automation features of more expensive platforms. Integrates very well with platforms we were already using. Has the best feature-to-price ratio of any platform we looked at.

Cons:

We never intended to use the GL functionality, so it was not a problem for us, but it does appear to be rather limited. The Advancement/Donor module is rudimentary for functional. Lack of a parent portal is perhaps its greatest weakness.

Reasons for choosing Campus Cafe

Combination of price and functionality. The best mix of affordability and automation.

Reasons for switching to Campus Cafe

We were on the CX platform which, at this point, is barely functional. Price was also a major factor.

Anneliese S.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

The Canvas/VW of Student Information Systems?

Campus Café has been extremely responsive to questions and issues through their help desk. They are improving their Knowledge Base constantly. Users are getting comfortable with the system quickly, and with ease, and the system is allowing us to improve efficiency of our processes in many offices. Implementation in general went far better than we could have imagined (we managed it in around 12 months during the COVID chaos). My only thought is that some sort of optional change-management services that could be purchased at an additional cost to implementation could be beneficial to some institutions.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

This software was appropriately targeted to schools our size (~1000 students), without the overcomplexity and technicality of more extensive software systems such as Colleague. The "Finders" (think fairly robust, saveable filters that are understandable to many users) are a huge plus to the system - they have made data available to many non-technical constituents who need it on a daily basis, without every data pull requiring a SQL script, or a "View" to be created by a technically inclined employee. The user interface is fairly clean and intuitive for the most part, and training has been very simple to accomplish for most of the end users - particularly for students and faculty. "Activities" (think custom fields with triggering functionality, email/text functionality) have become a way for us to creatively work through some business processes, without a large amount of overhead required to implement. We have been able to construct degree audits for almost all unusual requirements in nearly all our majors well ahead of when we thought we would be able to, yielding in an extremely usable and readable advising/administrative tool, which we never were able to implement in our prior system for a variety of reasons. They are very responsive to building out new functionality in the system, and do so at a reasonable cost. We had them build a Google Workspace integration which auto-provisions applicant and student accounts for us!!!

Cons:

As a result of the willingness of the company to address individual institutions' needs, sometimes the UI lacks consistency across the pages, and there are some quirks to functionality of a few areas. Permissions are less than ideal with this system, since only one permission group can be added to each single user - layering of permission sets is not possible. This has resulted in us having to build many permission groups, which requires a decent amount of testing and time. The interface for managing permissions is also very clunky and sometimes confusing, requiring double negative logic to understand what a permission is doing. The Financial Aid area of the system still has some growing to do at this point, before we will be able to move to it. We hope that will be possible within the next 12-24 months, however. There have been a few technical quirks to the system, but the vast majority of these have been addressed in a more than satisfactory manner.

Reasons for choosing Campus Cafe

At least one competitor was priced astronomically and required far too much technical overhead on our part, and felt targeted to much larger schools. Another competitor offered us (strangely) too much flexibility that would have required far more time and training on the implementation side, and would have required offices to make many choices before understanding the system. A third competitor was targeted at schools much smaller than we are, and lacked registration functionality that we needed.

Reasons for switching to Campus Cafe

Campus Café hits a functionality sweet spot on the spectrum of simplicity and overcomplexity, much as Canvas does in the LMS market. We moved from an old, overly-complex system, lacking modern communication methods with students and flexibility. It also required self-hosting on prem, had become unreliable, was a nightmare to get data out of to people who needed it, and required a clunky desktop application to be installed and updated on end-users' machines. It also had almost no ways to easily get data into the system aside from manual entry. We required a system that had certain functionalities that allowed for processing a moderate to medium volume of student needs, but without the complexity that some of the more powerful systems bring. A system with more power than our use-case would require would have added time and complexity to data conversion and training that was unnecessary. It felt like a lot of systems were targeted at large institutions with programmers on staff, a lot more money than we had to spend, and a lot of technical expertise, as well as offices with the luxury of havin individuals doing highly specialized jobs. On the other end of the spectrum of student information systems, many are targeted at schools with a few hundred students (not close to 1000 as in our case), and lacked functionality that processing that volume of students requires. We needed a system that had functionality without being overcomplicated, and we seem to have found it.

Awit V.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2020

Campus Cafe is the way!

Overall, compared to our homegrown system, I’d say Campus Cafe is worth it! Our work is now more streamlined and time we spend on projects and validation of record accuracy has been cut in half! I would recommend Campus Cafe for institutions that are similar to our size (population of 500 or less).

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Reports are easily accessible and customizable! This is such a great feature for the Registration Department as we need accurate statistics immediately. The ability to also customize webpages, email notifications, triggers, courses as needed gave us the power to be more flexible and creative with how we focus our energy and time.

Cons:

There have been a few glitches in the system even after working through setup. An example of this is syncing Campus Cafe with Canvas LMS- students who withdraw or drop would sometimes sync with Canvas and other times it would not. So there was that inconsistency.

Reasons for switching to Campus Cafe

Our homegrown system had reoccurring issues that despite it being “fixed” would reoccur after some time. This led us to look into a more reliable software.

Lynne L.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

Campus Cafe for Higher Education

Campus Cafe Cloud service has enabled us to work in a more virtual environment and to move to a paperless student records system.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Campus Cafe modules cover major components needed for Higher Education all in one program. (Admissions, Financial Aid, Student Information System, Accounting, Development, and Alumni)

Cons:

Campus Cafe is a growing software company that has improved over the 8+ years that we have used the software. Keeping up with changes and ongoing training needs is challenging at times. However, customer support is very responsive to our questions.

Reasons for switching to Campus Cafe

We needed a program that integrated accounting functions with the student information system.

Bobbet M.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

Campus Cafe Survey

I like the customer support I receive from [SENSITIVE CONTENT].

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I like the software, merge feature, maintenance permission, expand filters etc...

Cons:

I believe it should be more user friendly.

Reasons for choosing Campus Cafe

The presentation

Reasons for switching to Campus Cafe

Campus Cafe was referred to us and at the time STARS was not up to date.

yousuf k.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

1001-5000 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2023

"A Delicious and Affordable Dining Experience at Campus Cafe"

My overall experience with Campus Cafe has been positive. From the friendly staff to the wide variety of food options, I always feel welcomed and well taken care of. I appreciate the cost-effective prices and the fact that the food is always fresh and delicious. The atmosphere is incredibly comfortable and the space is inviting. I would recommend Campus Cafe to anyone looking for a great meal or a place to hang out with friends.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The Campus Cafe software is a powerful tool that allows users to easily manage and organize their college campus events. One of the things I liked most about the software is its user-friendly interface. It was intuitive and easy to navigate, so I was able to quickly find the features and settings I needed. Additionally, the software was packed with features and customization options, making it possible to create unique events with customized details and settings. The ability to manage multiple events simultaneously was also a great feature of the software.

Cons:

The Campus Cafe software was not as user-friendly as some of the other software available. Users found the interface to be confusing and difficult to navigate, and many complained that the various menu options were overwhelming and too detailed.

Bob G.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

Campus Cafe = Remarkably Responsive

The team at Campus Cafe has been remarkably responsive to our ongoing questions and concerns. They have closed hundreds of the Support Requests we have created over several years, solving our issues and helping us to make the system work to our advantage in almost every case.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

This is a comprehensive and complete Student Information System, used by almost all of our college's departments. Although we offer a wide range of programs, for students at all ages, Campus Cafe has allowed us the flexibility to support admissions, registration/enrollment, billing, and gift management for each of these programs.

Cons:

I wish Campus Cafe could facilitate opportunities for us to speak with and learn from other higher education users of their software.

sarah l.

Verified reviewer

Financial Services

1001-5000 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

My Reivew

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The admissions, financial aid and registrar portion are all tied into together. The reports for regulatory are great but only if the data is entered into the system correctly.

Cons:

When a change is made it is only made for future dates and does not update/correct stuff from the past. The FA portion needs cleaned up a bit. To many place to import data. Can there be one place to import anything received by the DOE and the system determines where it needs to go?

Reasons for choosing Campus Cafe

Cost

Christy M.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

Good product for small graduate school

We needed a new student SIS and campus cafe fit what we needed. Customer service has been very good!

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Campus cafe handles most of what we need and it allows for uploading documents without purchasing a separate imaging system. I have to admit that I do not use all of the tools as we are very small.

Cons:

I wish the reporting function was easier to use but I can usually get what I need one way or another through pre- built reports or dynamic queries. The Activity Tracking used is a catch all for alot of things which does not always work for our purposes. I still use mail chimp for our recruiting emails because I had it set up before moving to Campus cafe, and I find the process of setting up workflows in Campus cafe to be cumbersome but it could be that I just need to devote more time to it.

Jada B.

Verified reviewer

Higher Education

11-50 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed November 2021

Campus Cafe Student Information System Is Perfect For A College

Overall, the experience with the Campus Cafe team assigned to our organization has been excellent.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The accessibility to have everything electronically and the security of knowing the information is backed up.

Cons:

The schedule preview for students. I feel like that feature could capture more information.

Showing 1 - 10 of 19 Reviews

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Campus Cafe 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

Overview

About Campus Cafe

Campus Cafe Screenshots

Campus Cafe Pricing and Plans

Campus Cafe Features

Campus Cafe Integrations

Campus Cafe User Reviews

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