--- title: "PowerSchool Reviews, Pros and Cons - 2026 Software Advice" description: "Reviews of PowerSchool. Learn how real users rate this software's ease-of-use, functionality, overall quality and customer support. Talk to our advisors to see if PowerSchool is a good fit for you!" source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/powerschool-profile/reviews/" page_type: "reviews" language: "en" --- 1 million+ businesses helped. Get advice Get Free Advice [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Talent Management Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/talent-management-software-comparison/) / [PowerSchool](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/powerschool-profile/) / PowerSchool Reviews Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. [Overview](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/powerschool-profile/) Reviews [Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/hr/powerschool-profile/alternatives/) # PowerSchool User Reviews ## Reviews summary - Overall rating: 4.3/5 - Total reviews: 180 ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.1/5 - Customer support: 4.0/5 - Value for money: 4.1/5 - Functionality: 4.2/5 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 101 reviews (56%) - 4 stars: 52 reviews (29%) - 3 stars: 18 reviews (10%) - 2 stars: 3 reviews (2%) - 1 star: 6 reviews (3%) ### Most mentioned pros - PowerSchool is best for larger schools seeking to build out from an SIS, and willing to pay a premium to gain access to more tools that integrate neatly with the core system. - PowerSchool's dashboard was useful for managing things at a bird's eye view, it was the first SIS I experienced and it was a pretty accessible tool overall. - My school also had me track HB1416 students' hours using PowerSchool and it was a good centralized place that everyone could easily access. ### Most mentioned cons - PowerSchool is only updated when the teachers decide to add in the grades, which makes it hard to keep up with things that might be late. - I’m told I’m not the only one that has had the problem of the platform, not saving the data and wiping out everything you’ve inputted if it refreshes or times you out. - Difficult to run reports or find the reports I needed without a lot of trial and error. ## PowerSchool customer reviews Showing reviews 1-25 of 180 (page 1). ### Efficient and easily adaptable software. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Transportation/ Trucking/ Railroad - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Quick to learn and transition to. Very straight forward software, excellent for quick reference and look up. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I like the ease of being able to search criteria quickly which makes my job more efficient and seamless. #### Cons I have had no issues with PowerSchool in the 5 years i have been using this software, i feel it has been critical to my job and communicates to the other software i use. --- ### PowerSchool Excellence - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: June 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered PowerSchool is one of the best tools for schools or businesses dealing with students. It’s a great tool! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros It’s user friendly for the staff and students, allows us to keep track of what’s going on with the students. #### Cons I can’t say I didn’t like anything about PowerSchool it was really helpful for attendance and grading system. --- ### Review on PowerSchool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Insurance - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: November 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall, I have had a great experience using PowerSchool since my child has been enrolled in school. I like being able to keep up with their assignments and know which classes he is struggling to keep up with for assignments. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros PowerSchool allows me to keep track of my child's grades, upcoming assignments, late assignments, and absences. #### Cons PowerSchool is only updated when the teachers decide to add in the grades, which makes it hard to keep up with things that might be late. --- ### PowerSchool: Nice Interface and Easy to Use Features - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Aaron L. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall, PowerSchool offers an easy to navigate attendance and grading system for schools. They have done a nice job with the layout in that most things are easy to find and where you would be expected to find them. There are many customizations available at the district level, so successful implementation will also be dependent on your district set up and ensuring that they are getting input from the appropriate stakeholders. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros My school district switched over to PowerSchool about a year and a half ago. I now use it for grades, attendance, lunch counts, reports, and many other things. What I like most about PowerSchool is the interface. As a teacher, when I log in, the initial screen shows the things I use on a daily basis- attendance, lunch count, and contact information. I like that it is set up in a way that the things I use the most are right there. There is then an additional menu called "Power Teacher Pro" that is used for things like grade entries and reports that I might use more on a monthly basis. The report options offer lots of different variables and allows the user to create PDF, excel, and other types of files. Having these different options has been helpful. #### Cons The user experience has been a positive one for me. However, the initial training we received could use some improvement. The training modules are fairly dry to sit through and can be confusing to navigate. --- ### Does the job, could be better - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros You can see your grades at a glance and this is really convenient for students. You can make submissions through Google Drive without relinquishing your ownership of the document like Google Classroom does (I understand the premise of that strategy, but it's majorly inconvenient). #### Cons Unlike in Canvas, you can't test what kind of grades you'll need on weighted assignments to maintain a certain overall grade. The UI/UX are also designed kind of poorly and my school frequently gets errors saying that PowerSchool is undergoing development. I never get those messages from Canvas. It's also extremely frustrating that I can't submit documents from Google Drive if they're in a Team Drive, whether or not they're owned by me. --- ### Great for employee training! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Melissa C. - Industry: Retail - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: May 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We loved using Powerschool for new employee training. It had so much to offer and was very easy to use! #### Cons There is nothing that I dislike about Powerschool. --- ### Good SIS Program - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I have used the program for the past 7 years. They have done a lot to improve it over time, especially within the last year or so. I can find most things I need but reports are something that is still more difficult than Aeries #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 2/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros It is visually easy to see the information on the page. Once I get to the page I need, which isn't always straightforward. #### Cons Difficult to run reports or find the reports I needed without a lot of trial and error. I still can't always find what I am looking for. --- ### It's Great But We Need Instructional Videos Please... - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: March 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Overall experience is positive, but I also feel like I'm underutilizing it. If I knew it better (and actually had the time to know it better) I feel like I'd be using it to its potential. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros It gets the job done and the new updates make everything more streamlined in terms of accessing information and utilizing it to build classes. #### Cons Setting up bins gets clunky--there's an expectation that teachers completely understand the math that Powerschool uses with percentages vs. numerical values, that we don't all have mastery of, right away. It would be nicer if we could just pick it up and go, rather than refer to a manual. --- ### Effective LMS - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: November 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Our school adopted Powerschool in the last 5 years. This program is way better than the system we use to use. Great for overall attendance, student records, and grading. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Fairly easy to use for K-12 education. Attendance is a breeze and helps maintain accurate class grades and records. #### Cons Not too many cons to report. Data records for families and emails tend to be a little hard to access, but this could be how our technology department uploaded this information. --- ### The best I've seen - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: January 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have used PowerSchool for about eight of my 15 years teaching. I would recommend it for any school. I would say one of the best features is being able to see my students' schedules, the grades they have for their classes, and a breakdown of their assignments. As a resource teacher, I often work with students who require credit recovery. It's so nice being able to see exactly how they're doing in their classes. It makes counseling and organizing so much easier. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I have been teaching for 15 years and have gone through many school management systems. PowerSchool is by far the best one. I am able to take attendance, keep track of grades, access communication information for the student, I can see their schedule, their grades for each class and what they are missing in that class. Everything I need is in PowerSchool. It's visually appealing, and easy to navigate. #### Cons I teach resource classes and often have several different grade levels in one class. This is set up as multiple classes with the same period number. I wish I could combine those so my attendance page and my grade book aren't so messy. --- ### To SIS and Attendance and Beyond! - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Devin J. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · weekly - Reviewed: January 2025 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered PowerSchool is best for larger schools seeking to build out from an SIS, and willing to pay a premium to gain access to more tools that integrate neatly with the core system. For small schools, it may be more difficult to justify with the alternatives out there. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros PowerSchool's dashboard was useful for managing things at a bird's eye view, it was the first SIS I experienced and it was a pretty accessible tool overall. The attendance tracking was great for admin, and was consistently accurate without error. #### Cons It's not that PowerSchool was ineffective, rather as it has grown into more from just the attendance tracking and the SIS side the number of add-ons and features has grown and the pricing became a little outside of our range. --- ### The Worst Report Card Software - Ever! - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: less than 1 year · daily - Reviewed: October 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Frustrating and infuriating. This program is way too complex for people that do not have a computer background or a programming background. It was not designed for the end-user in mind. For that reason, it should not be used in elementary school. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 2/5 #### Pros Absolutely nothing. Myself and my colleagues are literally typing our report cards in word documents or Google docs and copying and pasting them into this program because we have no other choice. See below #### Cons This software is so difficult to use. PowerSchool owned our previous software which was user friendly and specific to the needs of Ontario teachers… then they decided to stop supporting that program and encouraged our board to go with this new program. First, everything is in a very small font. The ‘comment’ window that you type in is in a black background making it equally difficult to see. The comment window does not expand to the whole screen…it might expand to 30% of the screen, which means you can never view your whole comment while you are working. There is no way to quickly preview what you were typing or to see if you have enough room for the comment. Everything in the drop-down menus is in code and not in user-friendly recognizable words. My report cards have now taken an extra 50 hours and I’ve only got through five kids with 21 more to go. Also there was no training provided for teachers beyond watching a one hour webinar. I’ve read other peoples reviews and it seems like there was lots of training involved. Quite frankly there are way too many things in this program that do not and would not be used by a classroom teacher. --- ### PowerSchool is effective and user-friendly! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Chris S. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I've had a very positive experience with PowerSchool. It's easy to submit daily attendance and create seating charts. It's user friendly and fairly simple to navigate. I can quickly find contact information regarding parents and guardians. It's a terrific resource for our school district! #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros We utilize PowerSchool to take attendance daily. This is the system used for our official grades at school. This is incredibly helpful when looking up emergency contact info, birthdates, seating charts, etc. #### Cons There are so many features that I am still learning about, and I've yet to come across something that I do not like about PowerSchool. --- ### Using PowerSchool - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: November 2022 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered I worked in a school and had many jobs from teacher assistant to office manager, so I used powerschool in several ways. I would help teachers with the technology side of it, and sometimes even enter grades from a teachers gradebook into the system. Parts of it I found to be very user friendly and other parts were not so intuitive or limiting. Like the number of characters you could put into a reports text space. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 2/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros From an office point of view it was nice that students were automatically moved up a grade at the end of the year but as an international school with a high turn over in students it took a very long time to enter each new student into the system. #### Cons The system has many many screens and options and it is hard to find the fastest way to use it and to access the information you need. --- ### The power of Powerschool is great - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros I have used powerschool both as a teacher and an administrator. What I like most about it is how well it does its job. It literally transforms how things are done. As a teacher I loved how well it was organized, well beyond what I could keep track of on my own and provided assistance in ways I didn't know I needed them. Probably most important to me is that it did all the math for me. As an Admin I like that it takes so much work off my plate. Whether it be managing student data or reviewing gradebooks Powerschool hold it all together. #### Cons I am not a fan of the app. I think this is becoming a common theme for me in general. The webportal and desktop app are great, but when it comes to taking something like this and making it for an ipad or even worse a phone... you lose features, visibility and my interest. --- ### All teachers and students should use this ! - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I like PowerSchool the parents are more involved as they can see their child grades and progress on the app it’s really great . #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros What i like most is that it tells you your schedule and the room number to your classes and it’s digital you don’t need to have a paper with your schedule and worry out losing it. #### Cons There is absolutely no cons about PowerSchool --- ### PowerSchool Education Tool - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 5001-10000 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · weekly - Reviewed: December 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros I like that PowerSchool is a one stop shop for many different things. I primarily used PowerSchool to give assessments for my students and track their progress. My school also had me track HB1416 students' hours using PowerSchool and it was a good centralized place that everyone could easily access. Inputting grades is also easy and efficient. #### Cons One thing that I do not like is how essay question answers are displayed. As an English Teacher, we often write essays and they are frequently on tests. When I go to grade them, I cannot see but a small portion of the essay at one time. It's difficult to read the essay in one go. I also am unable to leave feedback or make comments. --- ### Powerful School Management System - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Overall it functions well as a system for teachers, staff, students, and parents to share information. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 4/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros Although there is a learning curve to the software, once the user has mastered the elements that are most used, it is a pretty good interface. Demographics, attendance, grades, discipline and other alerts such as medical and legal are quick few click from any screen. #### Cons There is a learning curve and it can take awhile to get used to. It is also confusing to perform certain actions that are only done a few times a year (finalizing grades). --- ### Easy to Use, Super Helpful Tool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Higher Education - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: May 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Educational record-keeping and communication #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros As a student user of this software, it was incredible helpful. More than anything, I just loved how it was a a nice and basic layout but also afforded users the opportunity to add notes, comments, and other things of that nature. It was also nice that there were distinctly different views/options for students, parents, and instructors. #### Cons In the 4+ years that I used PowerSchool, I never once encountered any issues. It's wonderful. --- ### Powerschool meets needs but could be better - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: March 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Does what it needs to and nothing more. Has induced its fair share of frustration with slow performance. If I had a choice, we would use something else for grade books. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros Daily functionality is decent. It is an ol system for attendance, seating charts, looking up student information, etc. The in-browser functions are simple and straight forward generally. Clean interface, streamlined user experience. #### Cons Powerschool can be buggy. Some features are slow or have issues working consistently. Biggest gripe - the grade book function. It is very slow, cluttered, and can be a pain to use. Interface cannot be customized which leads to lots of unnecessary buttons. Lots of issues connecting with servers. Does not work when there are issues with internet connectivity. Needs features like building reports for student groups, assignments, progression/growth, etc. --- ### PowerSchool - Dated Software - Overall rating: 2/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · a few times a year - Reviewed: February 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. It was difficult to use and often disrupted our day to day functions instead of improving them. The amount of training needed was too much and too often. It is definitely not cutting edge. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 2/5 - Customer support: 1/5 - Functionality: 2/5 #### Pros It is used by an immense amount of schools and school districts. It has a lot of features and components. #### Cons It is like the database programs from the 80's and 90's. It has survived so long by integrating itself so deeply into so many schools. The reason it is popular is only because it is irreplaceable in these large, districts. The cost is exorbitant. The features often cost more to add on. Even normal, everyday procedures can be difficult and need training. Training is farmed out to businesses that charge even more money. It has a very old interface. Nothing is graphical or visually pleasing. Often you must learn old database terms and codes to affect changes in the software. With the amount of money they must be making, you would think they would create a new product that is easy to use, easy on the eyes, etc. But I guess then they wouldn't be able to charge all the extra fees to learn how to use it. --- ### Powerschool - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: March 2023 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Powerschool is a really helpful tool for me and my kids and all of my problems have been resolved. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### Pros What I liked most about Powerschool is that I can easily find my child's account and if they have an insufficient lunch balance I can put money into their account online #### Cons What I expected more of from Powerschool was remembering my login information. Recently, I tried logging in with my username and password and it said it doesn't remember my device. --- ### A lot of features but often too cumbersome - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 201-500 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2018 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Customer support: 2/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### Pros PowerSchool has almost anything you would ever need to know about your students stored in a single place. It is by far one of the most sophisticated student management systems I have ever used. I like how easy it is to look up a student and get relevant data ASAP. #### Cons There is almost too much in PowerSchool. PowerSchool is not set-up for you to be able to contact a support rep to get questions answered. Your district has to pay for each person who is designated a PowerSchool contact person. This person then becomes you sole liaison between you and a very complicated product. Simply put PowerSchool is powerful, but way too complicated it you want to do anything more than simple reporting. --- ### Power School - a LMS that has everything - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Lisa M. - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 1-3 years · daily - Reviewed: September 2021 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. We implemented this year after piloting a few components last year. It was been very smooth #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros Our school decided to switch our LMS to powerschool because of it's ability to do payroll and other business office functions. It truly is an all in one solution and our teachers/ instructional staff are happy because they truly get the education side of things. #### Cons It is expensive but worth it. You won't find another LMS that has everything integrated on the business and academic side of things. --- ### Expensive but powerful - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Education Management - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: 3-5 years · daily - Reviewed: December 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. Due to the expense, my school doesn’t use all of the products offered by Powerschool, so my experience is not as fruitful. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 3/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### Pros I like the scope of the products they offer, from LMS to ATS, Records management and evaluation cycles. #### Cons It is too expensive for a small or growing school to justify. ---