Edsby vs SchoolMessenger
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Edsby
Access key school communication and learning management features on your mobile device. Stay connected with your school community, track progress, and manage assignments. Designed for K-12 education, it offers a streamlined experience for students, parents, and educators.
- On-the-go access to school features
- Community engagement
- Learning management
- Assessment & reporting
- Student well-being tracking
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If your school uses Edsby, this free app lets you access some of its features on the go. The Edsby app has many of the capabilities of the main Edsby web browser interface. Some complex features for certain types of users, such as the Edsby gradebook used by teachers, aren't available on devices with small screen sizes. Edsby is helping education transform to the modern digital era. School districts, states, provinces, and countries adopt Edsby for community engagement, learning management, assessment & reporting, and student well-being. Your education organization manages its own, private Edsby system. To log into it, you’ll need to know its Edsby server address. If you don’t know it, ask your school.
SchoolMessenger
Stay connected with your school or district through this app. It provides a unified inbox for notifications and messages, allowing for two-way communication between teachers, parents, and students. Manage your notification preferences and receive alerts for important updates.
- Unified inbox for notifications and messages
- Two-way teacher-parent-student communication
- Scrollable notification history
- Customizable notification preferences
- Push notifications for alerts
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The new SchoolMessenger app gives busy parents, students, and staff a powerful way to stay engaged with their school or district, and connect to each other. App Features: - Easy-to-read inbox that captures all SchoolMessenger notifications, and now two-way teacher-parent-student messages (if enabled by school or district) - Scrollable notification view to review all phone, email, and text content in a single place - Detailed preference control allows adjusting notification settings - Push notifications are available for alerts when school or district sends a message Requirements: - For notifications, school or district has SchoolMessenger notification service subscription with SchoolMessenger app enabled - For notifications, valid email address on file with your school or district - WiFi or data plan for internet access - iOS 14+ Note: SchoolMessenger app is not for sending broadcast messages. If you are a SchoolMessenger Communicate notification customer looking to send broadcast messages, please download the SchoolMessenger Admin sender app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: SchoolMessenger at 4.5 against Edsby's 1.3. SchoolMessenger also leads on review sentiment (53% vs 13%) and ratings volume (802 vs 9). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SchoolMessenger holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SchoolMessenger has 802 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 13% of Edsby's written reviews are positive against 53% of SchoolMessenger's.
Edsby ships an update every 3 months, SchoolMessenger every 2 months. Both last shipped on October 3, 2026.
| Parameter | Edsby | SchoolMessenger |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.3 (9 ratings) | 4.5 (802 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 13.1% of reviews | 53.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 802 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 43 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | CoreFour Inc. | PowerSchool Group LLC |
Customer experience
Edsby
SchoolMessenger
User reviews
Edsby
From 9 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Helpful for tracking grades and assignments
- 🚀 Easy access to school information
- 💡 Useful communication tool between teachers and students
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 🔍 Poor organization and navigation
- ⏱️ Slow and laggy performance
- 🔒 Login and account issues
- 💬 Unreliable notifications and messaging
SchoolMessenger
From 802 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Convenient for reporting absences
- 📢 Helpful for staying informed about school events
- 💡 Consolidates all school communications in one place
Room to improve
- 🐛 Messages still show as unread after being read
- 🔍 Difficult to mark multiple messages as read
- 🔄 Frequent log-outs and need to re-login
- 🔔 Excessive and repeated notifications for the same message
- 📱 Small text size and poor formatting in the app
Bugs and requests
Edsby
Reported bugs
3 issues- Disappearing grades and assignments
- Inability to access certain features or content
- Inconsistent behavior across devices and platforms
Requested features
4 requests- Improved notification system with push alerts
- Better organization and customization options
- Seamless integration with other educational platforms
- Streamlined grading and assignment submission
SchoolMessenger
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to report late arrivals or early departures
- Attendance reporting not working for some users
- Syncing issues between app and school records
- Verification emails not being delivered
Requested features
4 requests- Add option to mark all messages as read
- Improve navigation and message management
- Implement dark mode and accessibility features
- Allow parents to initiate messages to teachers
In-app purchases
Edsby
No in-app purchases
SchoolMessenger
No in-app purchases







