TL;DR — FACTS, Blackbaud, and Sycamore are all legitimate, mature school-management platforms, and for a lot of schools one of them is the right answer. FACTS is the deep, established default (especially in ACSI circles). Blackbaud is powerful and priced for well-funded institutions. Sycamore is the transparent-pricing option at $4/student/month. All three are full school systems. The question worth asking before you buy any of them: do you actually need a whole school system, or is enrollment the only thing that's broken?
We make school software, so treat this with the skepticism it deserves. But we're not going to pretend these three platforms are bad — they aren't, and you'd figure that out in five minutes anyway. What follows is the comparison we'd give a school that called us and turned out not to be a fit for us.
The short version
FACTS is the incumbent. It's deep, mature, and it's the default at a huge number of faith-based schools — one administrator called it the go-to solution for many ACSI schools, and that matches what we see. It does SIS, gradebook, admissions, tuition, financial aid, and family communication in one place. The most common complaint isn't that it's bad; it's that there's a lot of it. Reviewers describe a steep learning curve and note there's "almost too much" — more system than a small school knows what to do with. Pricing is quote-only.
Blackbaud is the enterprise option. It's genuinely powerful, and it's the right call for larger independent schools that need fundraising, fund accounting, and an SIS all speaking to each other. The tradeoff is cost and complexity. Reviewers are blunt about this — one described starting around $20k and rising to $28k after three years, and another said smaller schools would need to be well-financed to afford it. Implementation gets described as heavy. If you're a 90-student co-op, this isn't your platform, and Blackbaud would probably tell you the same.
Sycamore is the honest-pricing option. $4 per student per month, all-in, published right on their site — SIS, admissions, tuition billing, communication, and a parent app, with a $2,500 minimum onboarding fee and an 18-month contract. That transparency is a real virtue in a market full of "request a quote," and it's built specifically for small-to-mid independent schools. If you need a full SIS and you want to know what it costs before you get on a call, Sycamore is a strong answer.
Comparison at a glance
FACTS
What it is: A full school suite — SIS, gradebook, admissions, tuition, and financial aid
Best for: Established faith-based and private schools that want everything in one system
Worth knowing: There's a lot of system here; plan for a real learning curve
Pricing: Quote only
Blackbaud
What it is: An enterprise school suite with fundraising and fund accounting
Best for: Larger, well-funded independent schools that need those pieces talking to each other
Worth knowing: Implementation is a project, not an afternoon
Pricing: Quote only
Sycamore
What it is: A full school suite with published, flat pricing
Best for: Small-to-mid independent schools that need a real SIS and want to know the cost up front
Worth knowing: It's still a complete SIS, even if you only need part of it
Pricing: $4 per student per month, all-in
Lazarus
What it is: Enrollment applications plus tuition billing and payments
Best for: Schools where enrollment and payments are the part that's actually broken
Worth knowing: Not a full SIS — no gradebook, attendance, or transcripts
Pricing: Free to collect applications; paid tiers for billing and beyond
How to actually choose
Forget the feature lists for a second. Three questions get you most of the way there.
First: do you need a student information system, or do you need enrollment? This is the question almost nobody asks, and it's the one that matters most. An SIS is the system of record for your whole school — grades, attendance, transcripts, health records. If that's what's broken, buy an SIS, and FACTS, Blackbaud, and Sycamore are all real answers. But a lot of schools go shopping for a full platform when the thing actually causing pain is much narrower: families can't apply online, applications get lost, tuition gets chased over email, and payments live in three places. If that's your situation, buying a full school system to fix it is buying a cathedral to hang a door. You'll pay for — and have to learn — a great deal you don't need.
Second: what happens to your budget if you're small? Per-student pricing is honest and normal — we use it for our own paid tiers, so we're not going to pretend otherwise. But it means cost scales with enrollment, and for a 60-family co-op, a full suite can be real money for capability you'll never touch. Also look for the costs that aren't on the pricing page: implementation fees, training time, and the hours your staff spend learning a system. One Blackbaud reviewer described paying thousands in implementation and still feeling like they did most of the work themselves.
Third: who's actually going to use it, and will they? The best-fitting software your registrar refuses to open is worse than the simpler thing they'll actually use. Small schools are often one part-time administrator holding the whole operation together. Match the tool to that person, not to an org chart you don't have.
Where Lazarus fits — and where it doesn't
We built Lazarus for the second case above: schools where enrollment and payments are the broken part. Families apply online, the application actually works on a phone, and tuition and fees run through one system instead of three.
Two honest limits. We are not a full SIS — no gradebook, no attendance, no transcripts. If that's what you need, we're not your platform, and one of the three above probably is. And we're young: a small number of schools use us today, where FACTS and Blackbaud have decades and thousands. If you want the safety of the incumbent, that's a legitimate thing to want, and we'd rather you buy it knowingly than be talked out of it.
What we do offer is a different entry point. Collecting enrollment applications is free — our $25 platform fee only applies if your school already charges an application fee, and even then you choose whether to pass it to applicants or absorb it. If you don't charge an application fee, you pay us nothing. There's no contract to sign before you find out whether the thing works.
The bottom line
If you need a full school system: FACTS if you want depth and don't mind the learning curve, Blackbaud if you're large and well-funded, Sycamore if you want a real SIS with pricing you can read on a website.
If what's actually broken is enrollment and payments, don't buy a whole school system to fix it. That's the case we exist for — and if it isn't your case, one of the other three genuinely is.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between FACTS, Blackbaud, and Sycamore?
All three are full school-management suites. FACTS is the deep, established option common in faith-based schools. Blackbaud is enterprise-grade and priced accordingly. Sycamore is built for small-to-mid independent schools and publishes flat per-student pricing.
Which is cheapest for a small school?
Of the three, Sycamore publishes the clearest pricing at $4 per student per month, all-in. FACTS and Blackbaud are quote-only, and Blackbaud in particular is widely described as expensive for small schools. Always ask about implementation and training fees, not just the subscription.
Do I need a full SIS if I just want online enrollment?
Often, no. If grades, attendance, and transcripts aren't your pain point, a full SIS is more system than you need. A dedicated enrollment and payments platform will usually be faster to adopt and cheaper to run.
Is Lazarus a replacement for FACTS or Blackbaud?
Not entirely. Lazarus handles enrollment applications and tuition billing and payments, but it isn't a student information system — there's no gradebook, attendance, or transcripts. If you need those, one of the platforms above is the better fit.
What does Lazarus cost?
Collecting enrollment applications is free. A $25 platform fee applies only if your school charges an application fee, and you choose whether to pass it to applicants or absorb it. Tuition billing and additional features are paid plans.
Where can I see the head-to-head comparisons?
We've put each one on its own page, with a line-by-line table and the sources: Lazarus vs. FACTS, Lazarus vs. Blackbaud, and Lazarus vs. Sycamore.