Comparison

School Gateway vs Parentapps Connect

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

School Gateway

This app streamlines communication and management of your child's school life. It allows parents to receive messages, make payments for school items, manage dinner money, book clubs, and view academic reports and attendance. All your children's school information is consolidated in one place.

Highlights
  • Receive school messages
  • Make school payments
  • Manage dinner money
  • Book school clubs
  • View reports and timetable
  • Monitor attendance
  • Update contact details
Read full description

School Gateway, the easiest way to interact with your child’s life at school. Designed to support schools in achieving outstanding parental engagement, School Gateway helps you manage school communications, payments, clubs, dinner money and more all in one simple, easy to use app. Key features: • Receive push notifications and in-app messages from your school • Easily pay for items using your preferred payment method • Top-up your child’s dinner money and select meal choices • Book before and after school clubs • View your child’s timetable and end of year reports • Monitor attendance • Update the contact details your school hold for you • All your children across multiple schools in one account Things you need to know: • Your school must be subscribed to School Gateway before you can use this app • Your school controls the information shared with you • To register/login, your school must have your email address and phone number on their system. If you can’t log in, please check these details are up to date at your school • Your account will automatically display information for multiple children /schools as long as the schools use School Gateway. Please check that your email address and mobile number at all your schools match • You must turn on push notifications for the app to receive messages and updates from your school

About

Parentapps Connect

Streamline communication between parents and schools with a comprehensive platform. Easily report absences, manage consent forms, and stay updated on school events and messages. Connect with teachers and receive important notifications directly through the app.

Highlights
  • Absence reporting
  • Electronic consent forms
  • Multiple family member access
  • Calendar and term dates
  • Electronic newsletters
  • Messaging
  • Parents evening booking
Features
Read full description

Parentapps Connect has a whole host of features that will make staying informed about your child’s education easier than ever. Our system was built with the help of feedback from parents and schools and has a variety of useful features to help you engage with your child’s school. Welcome to the future of school communications. Features: • Absence reporting Quickly and easily notify your child’s school of any absences. • Electronic consent forms No more lost forms in the school yard or missed school trips. • Multiple family member access Invite other family members to the app to ensure everyone is up to date. • Calendar and Term Dates Never miss another event! • Electronic Newsletters Stay informed of all that is happening at your child’s school right from within the app. • Messaging Receive important messages regarding your child specifically as well as group messages and whole school notifications. • Parents evening booking system Finding a time to meet with your child’s teacher is easier than ever with Connect’s Parents Evening Booking System Important Information: • Please ensure that push notifications are enabled to receive messages through the app • In order to register and login you must have received an invitation from the school to set up a Parentapps Connect account. • If other members of your family want to login, please ensure their email address and mobile number are also registered with the school. • If you experience any issues, please email support@parentapps.co.uk

Screenshots

School Gateway4 screens
Parentapps Connect4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: School Gateway at 2.5 against Parentapps Connect's 2.0. Parentapps Connect's advantage is review sentiment (36% vs 16%) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

School Gateway holds the better App Store score, 2.5 against 2.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 16% of School Gateway's written reviews are positive against 36% of Parentapps Connect's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

School Gateway ships an update every 6 weeks, Parentapps Connect every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
School Gateway versus Parentapps Connect: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSchool GatewayParentapps Connect
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.5 (2 ratings) — better2.0 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews15.7% of reviews35.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings24 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.013.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperISUZ LimitedVenturEd Solutions LLC

Customer experience

School Gateway

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews108 reviews
Positive15.7%
Neutral15.7%
Negative68.5%

Parentapps Connect

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews64 reviews
Positive35.9%
Neutral9.4%
Negative54.7%

Bugs and requests

School Gateway

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Parentapps Connect

Reported bugs

60 issues
  • App crashes on opening
  • App closes immediately after opening
  • Cannot log in
  • App not finding school
  • Login loop
Show 55 more
  • Swirly whirl of doom
  • Hundreds of unread messages shown
  • Read messages showing as unread
  • Unread notifications after closing app
  • Booking systems never work
  • Reporting absences never works
  • Server error
  • Unable to open messages due to error
  • Key chain doesn't save password
  • Doesn't show account/schools
  • Unsubscribes from school
  • Cannot find school after unsubscribing
  • New families waiting weeks for access
  • Some families still cannot get in
  • Event notifications lack detail
  • Teachers/admins cannot message from mobile
  • Parents cannot access desktop
  • Slow and clunky
  • Regularly forgets school connection
  • Terrible UX
  • Multiple notifications for one item
  • Shows error when opening app
  • Logs out frequently
  • Cannot reset password
  • Forms won't load
  • Takes days to work
  • Logs out when switching schools
  • Update made it worse
  • Crashes when trying to log back in
  • More glitches than normal
  • Not working, shows error on opening
  • Keeps logging out
  • Not accepting password
  • Frozen on login screen
  • Showing 41 notifications when all are read
  • Constant errors with reminders
  • Booking parents evening didn't work
  • Cannot access app at all
  • No longer works after last update
  • Search for school doesn't work
  • Stopped working again
  • Keeps crashing
  • Cannot log on
  • Notifications pop up with high counts then disappear
  • Notification comes through twice
  • App badge shows incorrect unread count
  • App will not find school
  • Cannot open important forms
  • Last update logs out of all schools
  • Update made it stop working
  • Cannot access messages, app shuts down
  • Poor setup, URL import fails
  • Setup not straightforward
  • App crashes after opening (iPhone 6s/XR issues)
  • App incompatible with older iPhones

Requested features

7 requests
  • Ability to delete read messages
  • Print function for newsletters/homework
  • Fingerprint access
  • Flag/favorite messages
  • Option for step-parents
Show 2 more
  • Fix duplicate notifications
  • Fix app badge count

In-app purchases

None

School Gateway

No in-app purchases

None

Parentapps Connect

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is School Gateway free?
School Gateway is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Parentapps Connect free?
Parentapps Connect is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, School Gateway or Parentapps Connect?
School Gateway is rated higher. School Gateway averages 2.5 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Parentapps Connect averages 2.0 from 4 ratings.
Do School Gateway or Parentapps Connect have ads?
Neither School Gateway nor Parentapps Connect shows ads.
Which is updated more often, School Gateway or Parentapps Connect?
School Gateway ships an update every 6 weeks, and Parentapps Connect every 2 months. Most recently, School Gateway was updated on September 24, 2026 and Parentapps Connect on September 19, 2026.

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