Realsmart vs the competition
You’ve probably looked at Greenhouse and Juniper (PrimarySite and e4education) too. Here is how we compare!
Your website, accounts and sign-in, from one MIS record.
Have a look at our product in action
How we compare
We’ve used what each company says on its own website. Where they don’t mention something, we’ve put “Not mentioned”. If anything is out of date, please let us know.
| Question | Realsmart | Greenhouse | Juniper (PrimarySite, e4education) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will it look like our school? | Yes. We design it around your school, never from a template, and give it a full refresh for free every three years. | Pre-designed, bespoke or premium designs. | A self-build site, predesigned templates, or a bespoke premium design. |
| Will you move our content across? | Yes, all of it, and we tidy it up as we go. | Up to 50 pages on bespoke and 100 on premium. On pre-designed sites, you add your own. | Content creation is included. |
| Will it help us stay compliant? | Yes. It checks itself against the DfE every night, reads inside your policies and shows you the words it found. It’s included with every website. | An audit checker and a policy Compliance Manager, in Reports Hub, a paid add-on. | A free DfE checklist to download. Automatic checking isn’t mentioned. |
| Can our policies come straight from Google Drive or OneDrive? | Yes. Save a policy in the folder and it’s on the website. Trusts can share policies across every school with Smart Policy Manager too. | Not mentioned. Auto-lists show documents uploaded to their system. | Not mentioned. |
| Will we know if Ofsted might be looking? | Yes. When a visit looks like an inspector reading, we check it with AI first, then email up to five people you choose. | Yes, Ofsted alerts at no extra cost. | Not mentioned. |
| Can AI help us write? | Yes. Smart Writer drafts from your notes, rewrites letters for parents and checks your spelling in the editor. | Yes, AI TextWizard. | Not mentioned. |
| Can parents get answers without ringing the office? | Yes. Smart FAQ chat answers parents using your own FAQs. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Can staff, pupils and parents sign in? | Yes, with their Realsmart account and two-factor sign-in. You choose which pages each group sees. | Yes, password-protected areas for parents, staff or governors. | Not mentioned for families or pupils. |
| Can pupils see their own timetable? | Yes. Signed-in pupils see their own timetable, attendance and behaviour on the website, straight from your MIS. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Can our vacancies go on Google Jobs? | Yes, and they take themselves down after the closing date. | Yes, with automatic closing dates. | Not mentioned. |
| Question | Realsmart | Greenhouse | Juniper (PrimarySite, e4education) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can we hop between our schools’ websites? | Yes. The switcher in the top bar takes you to any school’s website in one click, with its compliance score beside it. It only shows the schools you can sign in to. | Yes, their trust dashboard signs you in to every school’s website. | Not mentioned. |
| Can we see every school’s compliance in one place? | Yes. Trust Hub shows every school against the DfE, which ones need attention and why, each school’s last inspection, and a flag when one may be due. | Oversight across schools in Reports Hub, a paid add-on. | Not mentioned. |
| Can we post once to every school? | Yes. Posts, pages and alerts go to every school or just the ones you pick, each in the school’s own design, and you can see where each one landed. | Yes, trust content can publish to school websites. | Yes, policies, news and vacancies can be shared. |
| Can we share policies and menu links across every website? | Yes. Smart Policy Manager shares your policies, and shared links mean you update a menu link once for every school. | Yes, shared documents update across every school. | Yes, policies can be shared. |
| Can schools send news and jobs up to the trust? | Yes. Schools offer posts, events and vacancies to the trust, and every school’s jobs appear on one trust page. | Yes, school news, galleries and vacancies can publish to the trust website. | Not mentioned. |
| Can we put a snow-day alert on every website at once? | Yes. An alert, countdown or emergency pop-up reaches every school within about five minutes, and you see a preview first. | Alerts and pop-ups per website. A trust-wide alert isn’t mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Is there something ready for the board? | Yes. A one-page board report for trustees, and a Monday briefing email for the central team. | Report packs for leaders and governors, in Reports Hub. | Not mentioned. Trusts get an account manager. |
| Do we have to move every school at once? | No. Start with the trust website and a few schools, and bring the rest over as their contracts end. It costs nothing extra. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Question | Realsmart | Greenhouse | Juniper (PrimarySite, e4education) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can you run our Google and Microsoft accounts too? | Yes. Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra ID, Apple School Manager and Active Directory, kept up to date from your MIS. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Can pupils and staff use one sign-in for everything? | Yes. One Realsmart account for the website, Google, Microsoft and every app on their Launchpad, with QR code sign-in for younger pupils. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Will it help us meet the DfE’s cyber security standards? | Yes. Two-factor sign-in for every admin, the DfE password standard, session limits and lockouts, switched on school by school. | Not mentioned. | Single sign-on and two-factor sign-in for the people editing the website. |
| Is there a parent app? | Yes. Smart Parents sends notices with push notifications, pictures and attachments, and shows you who each one reached. | Yes, a school app with push notifications, as an optional extra. | Yes, with texts, newsletters, a parent portal and payments. |
| Question | Realsmart | Greenhouse | Juniper (PrimarySite, e4education) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is support really unlimited? | Yes, free and unlimited from our UK team. We aim to answer within the hour, and our average is under 30 minutes. | Yes, unlimited, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, including live chat. | Their website doesn’t say. |
| What’s included in the price? | One annual price covers design, hosting, support, training, every feature we build and a free design refresh every three years. We never charge for new pages, branding changes or support tickets. | A setup fee plus an annual fee for hosting, support and training. Reports Hub, the app and some design features cost extra. | Three packages, each quoted for you. |
| Can we take our content with us if we ever leave? | Yes, for free. We build on WordPress, which has a standard export. | Not mentioned. | Not mentioned. |
| Will it stay up on results day? | Every site sits behind Cloudflare on AWS, we apply the updates ourselves, and we commit to 99.9% uptime. | Secure hosting with SSL and daily backups. | Data encrypted and backed up on Microsoft Azure. |
| We’re still in a contract. Can you help? | Yes. We work back from your end date and do the design, build and content move beforehand, so your new site is ready when your contract ends. | Yes, their Liberty contract waives the annual fee until your current contract ends. | Not mentioned. |
What we do differently
We look after more than your website. Your MIS keeps the website up to date, and it also sets up every pupil’s and staff member’s Google, Microsoft and Apple accounts, signs them in and shows pupils their own timetable. Every Realsmart website also checks itself against the DfE every night, at no extra cost.
Designed for your school, never a template
Here are a few websites we’ve designed.
More features, all included
All of these come with every Realsmart website.
A cookie banner that really asks
Accept and Reject sit side by side, and nothing is tracked until a visitor says yes.
Translation
Families can read your website in more than 20 languages.
Accessibility toolbar
The Smart Accessibility toolbar is on for new websites, and your accessibility statement is ready.
Big files and iPhone photos
Upload videos and PDFs up to 500 MB. iPhone photos are converted for you.
Galleries from Drive
Show a Google Drive or OneDrive folder of photos as a gallery.
Reading age
See which pages and documents parents might find hard to read.
Review reminders
Set a review date on a policy or page and we’ll email you when it’s due.
Social feeds and forms
Show your social media posts and build your own forms.
New features
Your dashboard shows new features you haven’t switched on yet.
Thinking of moving?
Here’s how moving to us works:
- We move all your content across, and tidy it up as we go
- We work back from your contract end date, so there’s no gap
- Everything’s built beforehand, and nothing goes live until you say so
- We can set up your accounts and sign-in too, whenever you’re ready
Questions
Are PrimarySite and e4education still around?
They’re both part of Juniper Education now. Juniper bought PrimarySite in May 2021 and e4education that November, and sells websites as Juniper Websites.
Doesn’t Greenhouse have Ofsted alerts too?
Yes, they do. Ours uses AI to check a visit before emailing anyone, so search engines don’t set it off, and trusts can get the alerts too. It’s an early warning, not a guarantee. Inspectors usually phone the day before.
Is compliance checking extra with you?
No. Every Realsmart website checks itself against the DfE every night. It’s part of the price.
Can we move our website to you?
Yes, whoever it’s with now. We move all your content across, design the new site around your school, and work back from the day your contract ends.
Can we keep our parent app and payments?
Yes. Your website can link to whatever you use now.
Do all our schools have to move at once?
No, and most trusts don’t. Start with the trust website and a couple of schools, then bring the rest over as their contracts end. It doesn’t cost any more.
See it working for your schools
We’ll show you your website, accounts and sign-in running from one MIS record, the way they would for your school or trust, and answer any questions about cost.