Comparison

Compass School Manager vs RollCall Parent

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

Head to head
About

Compass School Manager

Access school news, events, and assignments. Stay informed about your child's academic progress and school activities. Designed for seamless communication between school and home.

Highlights
  • School news updates
  • Event calendars
  • Assignment tracking
  • Parent-teacher communication
  • Student progress monitoring
Features
Read full description

Compass School Manager provides access to school news, events, upcoming assignments and more. This application is designed for staff, students and parents.

About

RollCall Parent

Track your child's school bus in real-time and receive safety alerts. Manage absences, bookings, and monitor bus activity for a secure commute. This app enhances school bus safety and communication.

Highlights
  • Real-time school bus tracking
  • Bus monitor and guardian features
  • Register absences
  • Adjust bookings
  • Real-time safety alerts
  • Excursion management
Read full description

Know your child is on the right bus, at the right stop, every trip. RollCall is the parent app for schools and bus operators that run on the RollCall school bus management system. When your child taps on with their smart tag or student card, you get a notification. From there you can watch the bus on the live map, all the way to school and home again. Follow every journey • Watch the bus move on the live map, updated in real time • Know the moment your child scans on and scans off • See each trip as a timeline, with the time and place of every scan Bookings made easy • Set up regular term travel in one sitting, morning and afternoon • See the week ahead at a glance and adjust single days • Report an absence in seconds, for one day or a stretch of days • Find the right stop with the built-in stop finder Alerts you choose • Be notified when your child boards, gets off, or gets on or off at the wrong stop • Route changes come straight to you, and you can acknowledge them in the app • Read everything back in the Messages tab, and pick which alerts reach you Payments sorted • Check your balance, see what you have been charged, and top up in the app where your school uses RollCall Pay Share access with carers • Add another parent, a grandparent or a regular helper with their own sign-in, so pick-ups and drop-offs are always covered Signing in is simple. Enter the email address your school has on file and the app works out the rest, including whether you use a password or your school's single sign-on. After that it stays signed in, so the map is only ever a tap away. Behind the app, RollCall pairs travel smart-tag technology with GPS tracking so schools, parents and bus operators all see where students are, from tap-on to tap-off. Drivers complete Bus Guardian walk checks so no child is ever left on the bus, and schools get the real-time visibility their duty of care demands. Your child's data is encrypted in transit, and RollCall's information security management system is independently certified to ISO/IEC 27001. RollCall is for families whose school or bus service uses RollCall. Not at your school yet? Ask them to book a free demo at rollcall.com.au. No obligation. No payment required.

Screenshots

Compass School Manager4 screens
RollCall Parent4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Compass School Manager at 35% against RollCall Parent's 19%. Compass School Manager also leads on ratings volume (142 vs 14). RollCall Parent's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.7). 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

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

RollCall Parent holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Compass School Manager has 142 ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 35% of Compass School Manager's written reviews are positive against 19% of RollCall Parent's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Compass School Manager ships an update every 3 weeks, RollCall Parent fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Compass School Manager versus RollCall Parent: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCompass School ManagerRollCall Parent
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (142 ratings)4.9 (14 ratings) — better
Positive reviews35.4% of reviews — better18.7% of reviews
Number of ratings142 — better14
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size73 MB57 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCompass Operations Pty LtdRollCall Safety Solutions

Customer experience

Compass School Manager

All ratings142 ratings
Positive90.8%
Neutral2.8%
Negative6.3%
Written reviews356 reviews
Positive35.4%
Neutral13.2%
Negative51.4%

RollCall Parent

All ratings14 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews75 reviews
Positive18.7%
Neutral16.0%
Negative65.3%

Bugs and requests

Compass School Manager

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Unable to log in or search for school
  • Notifications not working as expected
  • Learning tasks page layout issues
  • Landscape mode not functioning properly
  • Inconsistent behavior across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add dark mode option
  • Improve navigation and organization
  • Allow students to remove submissions
  • Show class rosters within each class
  • Provide more customization options

RollCall Parent

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Compass School Manager

No in-app purchases

None

RollCall Parent

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Compass School Manager free?
Compass School Manager is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is RollCall Parent free?
RollCall Parent is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Compass School Manager or RollCall Parent?
RollCall Parent is rated higher. Compass School Manager averages 4.7 out of 5 from 142 ratings, while RollCall Parent averages 4.9 from 14 ratings.
Do Compass School Manager or RollCall Parent have ads?
Neither Compass School Manager nor RollCall Parent shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Compass School Manager or RollCall Parent?
Compass School Manager ships an update every 3 weeks, and RollCall Parent fortnightly. Most recently, Compass School Manager was updated on September 25, 2026 and RollCall Parent on September 24, 2026.

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