Edsby Reviews

Pros

In my opinion, this platform is the best choice for students. There's no need to provide users with a separate mailbox as they can access all school activities through Edbsy. Additionally, users can communicate with anyone within the organization.

Cons

At times, the software experiences significant slowdowns. While the overall support is satisfactory, they struggle to provide a timeline for resolving issues. It takes a considerable amount of time for new releases to become available.

Pros

Being able to access everything from anywhere has been a big plus for keeping up with classes and materials. The platform is flexible enough to fit into a busy schedule. That said the teacher app feels like it's missing a few key capabilities so it doesn't fully match the convenience you get elsewhere.

Cons

The LMS portion could be more user friendly because navigation and handling the learning content isn't as easy as it should be. Also, the teacher app still needs improvement especially around marking since the current workflow makes grading feel more time-consuming than it needs to be.

Pros

I've been using Edsby for years basically every day, to share and collect information from my students, parents and staff. The voting buttons are handy and I also really appreciate the way it notifies me when messages have been read. Classroom roster sheets are included too which saves time when I'm managing day-to-day communication. Overall it's a solid classroom management tool that does what I need without making everything feel complicated.

Cons

Only thing I'm still waiting on is a timestamp option so I can choose exactly when certain posts appear to students.

Pros

Edsby feels like a true educator's dream for running a classroom. It's an online system that lets teachers plan, build, support and stay connected with every student and their family. Once grades are uploaded in the grade book, they show up immediately when shared with a click so students can always see where they stand overall. Instead of waiting until midterm or finals for updates, students can view their results throughout the entire semester. That makes it easier for them to track their learning outcomes, understand their progress and better grasp how course weighting works. Teachers can also send broadcasts to students and parents to share updates like upcoming field trips, new projects and learning goals. The daily journal helps keep students on top of what still needs to be submitted and it also gives insight into what was missed for anyone who can't make it to class. Overall, Edsby pulls the different parts of classroom learning into one unified online program that supports both the student's journey and the teacher's day-to-day workflow.

Cons

There was a small learning curve though it wasn't very tough and didn't take long to get it integrated across the school community. Looking back, it was definitely worth the effort to bring everyone on board.

Pros

This tool feels pretty easy to use and it actually lines up well with what classroom teachers need day to day. Messaging and communication support are helpful for keeping things organized in a classroom setting.

Cons

Messaging system could use an upgrade and work more like standard email. It should allow things like deleting and forwarding messages more naturally. Also, the report card features haven't been reliable for me and you end up needing folders (or something similar) just to store and quickly retrieve comments.

Pros

It really works as a one-stop hub for educators. It bundles the everyday tasks, attendance, updating the daybook/lesson journal and assessing learning, into a single place instead of bouncing between tools. The journal part has been a standout for me since students can see what's going on even when they're out so teachers don't have to keep track of a separate "what you missed" folder. When you make a journal entry, you can type out the day's agenda, drop in links to resources and attach any documents students might need. On the assessment side, the Edsby Gradebook lets you set up your course breakdowns at the start of the year and copy them over from one class/section to another. After that, creating assessments is pretty flexible, you can enter items straight into the Gradebook or use formative assessments so both teachers and students can see progress over time without turning everything into a graded score. It also supports different ways of assessing learning, letter grades, percentages, learning skills, rubrics or even a simple "mark out of" option. Reporting is just as helpful, with options like pulling incomplete assignments and generating report card comments. I've also found the course-building tools useful. You can create whole courses and share them with other teachers which I'm still digging into but it seems like it could save a lot of time. And beyond courses, the groups feature supports collaboration between teachers and students especially the Professional Learning Communities, where teachers can share resources.

Cons

Edsby's messaging is handy for reaching students and parents but it doesn't feel as organized or polished as other messaging apps. Being unable to sort chats, rename group messages or use threaded conversations makes it harder to keep things straight. The phone app also feels awkward to use, the interface is kind of outdated and it takes more effort to find the pages you want.

Pros

The grade book feels really user-friendly. Creating organizing, updating and displaying assignment evaluations for both students and parents is easy and everything stays clearly laid out.

Cons

My only frustrations are pretty minor. I can't remove groups from the "My Groups" area when they aren't tied to my teaching activities and a more flexible consolidation feature in the grade book would make things even better.

Pros

Genuinely enjoy how quickly I can enter grades for my students and sort everything into the right categories. The layout makes it simple to work through assignments without getting tangled up and the communication tools are solid for keeping students and parents in the loop. Overall, it's a convenient way to share updates and stay organized.

Cons

One limitation is that it won't let me use Terms which is a bit frustrating. I also dislike that the data view ends up showing the whole year at once instead of letting me focus on specific time periods.

Pros

Gradebook feature has been a total game changer for our workflow. One of the best parts is that it automatically fills in at report card time which saves a ton of manual steps and keeps everything consistent.

Cons

Sending attachments to students can be hit-or-miss since there are pretty frequent issues when we try to send files.

Pros

I really enjoy how easy it is plus the insights it gives me. It clearly shows my child's grades and also what assignments are coming up, including what's due and when which makes it a lot easier to stay on top of everything.

Cons

Nothing feels like it's missing, overall I'm really happy with it.

Pros

Feels genuinely comprehensive, it covers pretty much everything you'd want from an LMS. The interface is also very easy and compared to other LMS tools it takes the fewest clicks to complete the same kind of task. After rolling it out, two teachers even thanked me in the hallways which says a lot about how much smoother their day-to-day work became versus cobbling things together with "free" tools or other partial options.

Cons

They're always adding new features which is mostly a good thing but it also means there's another thing to stay on top of as the product keeps evolving.

Pros

This app really helps parents and teachers stay in the loop with communication which is what it's meant to do. Messages and updates are clear enough for day-to-day coordination between the two sides.

Cons

When something goes wrong or an issue pops up, there's no customer service to contact. That makes problem-solving harder since there's nobody to guide you or resolve concerns.