Education · head to head
Gaggle vs Securly
Gaggle
Education
Human-reviewed student safety monitoring across school email, documents and drive files
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Securly
Education
Web filtering, student safety monitoring and device management for K-12 schools
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Gaggle pricing is quoted per student per year with no published rate, and because it is charged on total enrolment rather than on accounts actually monitored, small districts pay a markedly higher effective rate than large ones.; Securly pricing stacks by module and only Filter has rates that surface publicly, so the quoted total for Filter plus Aware plus On-Call is routinely several times the number a district budgeted from the filtering line alone.
- They diverge on capability: Gaggle covers Content scanning, Securly covers Filter.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Gaggle and Securly actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Education).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Gaggle
- Content scanning
- Trained human review
- Phone escalation
- SpeakUp for Safety
- Web filter safety integration
- Incident reporting
- Google and Microsoft coverage
- District-scoped contacts
Only in Securly
- Filter
- Aware
- On-Call
- Classroom
- MDM
- Pass
- Home
- Delegated admin
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Gaggle
- A district whose board has adopted a suicide prevention policy that requires someone to act on a written disclosure within hours, at any time of yearnot Securly
- A district with no counselling capacity to triage automated alerts and that would otherwise ignore themnot Securly
- A district already running a web filter that produces safety signals nobody reads, wanting them routed to a staffed review servicenot Securly
- A district responding to a specific incident where a warning sign existed in a student document and nobody saw itnot Securly
Securly
- A district that must show CIPA compliance for take-home Chromebooks used on home broadband, where network-level filtering does nothingnot Gaggle
- A district whose safeguarding policy requires that a human being reads a self-harm alert within minutes at any hour, including school holidaysnot Gaggle
- A one-to-one iPad programme needing Apple device enrolment, filtering and classroom control from a single agent rather than threenot Gaggle
- A district under pressure from parents who want visibility of what their child does on the school device at home, without the school having to field each request by handnot Gaggle
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Gaggle
- Pricing is quoted per student per year with no published rate, and because it is charged on total enrolment rather than on accounts actually monitored, small districts pay a markedly higher effective rate than large ones.
- False positives are structural, not a tuning problem: fiction assignments, song lyrics, health coursework and jokes between friends all trigger review, and each escalation consumes counsellor time the district funds itself.
- The service reads children's private writing on school accounts, and civil liberties groups have documented cases where flagged content led to outing LGBTQ students or to discipline rather than support, which is a governance risk a board must accept explicitly.
- Coverage is limited to district-issued accounts, so a student using a personal phone, a personal email address or an encrypted messaging app is invisible, which is where much of the behaviour the district worries about actually happens.
- Escalation depends on the district maintaining accurate contact lists and staff who answer calls; when a named contact leaves and the list is stale, the service escalates into a void and the district only discovers it after an incident.
Securly
- Pricing stacks by module and only Filter has rates that surface publicly, so the quoted total for Filter plus Aware plus On-Call is routinely several times the number a district budgeted from the filtering line alone.
- The safety scanning generates false positives at volume, including song lyrics, creative writing and health-class assignments, and each one consumes counsellor or administrator time that the vendor does not pay for.
- Alerting on student writing is a surveillance decision with real community consequences, and districts that deploy it without an explicit board policy and parent notification have faced local objections after the fact.
- Coverage is strongest on managed Chromebooks; personal devices, non-Chrome browsers and encrypted apps outside the agent leave gaps that the compliance story quietly depends on nobody testing.
- Per-student pricing is charged on enrolment rather than on devices, so a district that issues devices to only some year groups still pays for every student on the roll.
Pricing, plan by plan
Gaggle
On request- Gaggle Safety Management$undefined/year
- Machine plus human review of student email, documents and files
- Escalation to district contacts including out of hours
- SpeakUp for Safety tipline included
Securly
On request- Filter$undefined/year
- Web filtering on and off network
- Tiered per-student rates that fall as enrolment rises
- Published in some purchasing co-operative catalogues, not on the vendor site
- Aware$undefined/year
- Automated scanning of email, documents and search for safety risk
- Quoted per student, no public rate
- On-Call$undefined/year
- 24/7 human review and escalation of serious alerts
- Quoted per student, priced on top of Aware
- Classroom, MDM and Pass$undefined/year
- Sold as separate per-student modules
- Quoted
Which should you pick?
Choose Securly if
- You need filter.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows.
- You also want aware.
Questions people ask
- Is Gaggle or Securly better?
- Neither clearly leads. Gaggle starts at On request and Securly at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Gaggle or Securly?
- Gaggle starts at On request and Securly at On request.
- Does Gaggle or Securly run on more platforms?
- Gaggle runs on Web. Securly runs on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows.
- What is Gaggle best used for?
- Gaggle is most often used for a district whose board has adopted a suicide prevention policy that requires someone to act on a written disclosure within hours, at any time of year, a district with no counselling capacity to triage automated alerts and that would otherwise ignore them, a district already running a web filter that produces safety signals nobody reads, wanting them routed to a staffed review service, a district responding to a specific incident where a warning sign existed in a student document and nobody saw it. Of those, a district whose board has adopted a suicide prevention policy that requires someone to act on a written disclosure within hours, at any time of year and a district with no counselling capacity to triage automated alerts and that would otherwise ignore them are not what Securly is typically brought in for.
- What can Gaggle do that Securly cannot?
- Gaggle covers Content scanning, Trained human review, Phone escalation, SpeakUp for Safety. Securly covers Filter, Aware, On-Call, Classroom.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Gaggle: How much does Gaggle cost?
It is quoted per student per year based on enrolment and requirements. No rate card is published, and effective rates fall substantially with district size.
Securly: Does Securly publish pricing?
Not on its own site. Tiered per-student rates for Filter appear in some US purchasing co-operative catalogues, falling as enrolment rises, but Aware, On-Call, Classroom, MDM and Pass are quoted.
Gaggle: Is the tipline an extra charge?
No longer. From 1 July, districts on the full Safety Management solution get SpeakUp for Safety and the web filter safety integration at no additional cost; each previously carried a per-student charge.
Securly: What is the difference between Aware and On-Call?
Aware is the automated detection that produces alerts. On-Call is the staffed service that reads the serious ones out of hours and phones your escalation contacts. Buying Aware alone leaves the triage with your own staff.
Gaggle: Do humans read every alert?
Trained reviewers assess flagged items before escalation. That human layer is the core of the service, not an optional tier.
Securly: Does it filter on home internet?
Yes, filtering follows the managed device rather than the network, which is the point for take-home Chromebook programmes.
Gaggle: Does it monitor personal accounts or phones?
No. It covers district-issued Google or Microsoft accounts. Personal devices, personal accounts and encrypted apps are outside its reach.
Securly: Is student data used for anything else?
Securly signs the US Student Privacy Pledge and district data processing agreements; check the specific DPA rather than the marketing page, since scanning scope and retention are negotiated terms.
Gaggle: What are the privacy obligations?
Districts sign a data processing agreement covering FERPA and applicable state student privacy law. Negotiate retention and scope in that document rather than relying on the marketing page.
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