Education · head to head
Securly vs Skyward
Securly
Education
Web filtering, student safety monitoring and device management for K-12 schools
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Skyward
Education
Student information and school ERP for K-12 districts and municipalities
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: 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.; Skyward no pricing is published anywhere, so the only way to learn what a district of your size pays is to enter a sales cycle, and comparative quotes across vendors are hard to obtain before a board meeting deadline.
- They diverge on capability: Securly covers Filter, Skyward covers Qmlativ SIS.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Securly and Skyward 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 Securly
- Filter
- Aware
- On-Call
- Classroom
- MDM
- Pass
- Home
- Delegated admin
Only in Skyward
- Qmlativ SIS
- School Business Suite
- Position control
- Family and student access
- State reporting packs
- Municipality edition
- Data mining and reporting
- Employee access
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Securly
- A district that must show CIPA compliance for take-home Chromebooks used on home broadband, where network-level filtering does nothingnot Skyward
- A district whose safeguarding policy requires that a human being reads a self-harm alert within minutes at any hour, including school holidaysnot Skyward
- A one-to-one iPad programme needing Apple device enrolment, filtering and classroom control from a single agent rather than threenot Skyward
- 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 Skyward
Skyward
- A district of 8,000 students that wants payroll, position budgeting and the SIS on one vendor contract instead of paying an integrator to reconcile employee records nightlynot Securly
- A Wisconsin or Texas district where state submission deadlines are the dominant compliance burden and prebuilt state packs remove weeks of extract worknot Securly
- A district still on the older PaC client-server product deciding whether to migrate to Qmlativ or replace the SIS outrightnot Securly
- A county government buying the finance and HR half on its own, separate from any school usenot Securly
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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.
Skyward
- No pricing is published anywhere, so the only way to learn what a district of your size pays is to enter a sales cycle, and comparative quotes across vendors are hard to obtain before a board meeting deadline.
- State reporting depth is uneven: the packs are excellent in the states where Skyward has a large installed base and thin elsewhere, so a district in a low-penetration state inherits reporting work the vendor absorbs for others.
- The third-party integration ecosystem is much smaller than PowerSchool's, so an edtech tool your teachers want may support the market leader first and Skyward months later or not at all.
- Two product generations are still live and the migration from PaC to Qmlativ is a project in its own right, meaning a district can be paying for a modernisation programme rather than new capability.
- Buying SIS and ERP from one vendor concentrates risk: a pricing increase, an ownership change or a product direction you dislike affects enrolment, payroll and the general ledger simultaneously, and unpicking that is a multi-year replacement rather than swapping one system.
Pricing, plan by plan
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
Skyward
On request- Student Management Suite$undefined/year
- Enrolment, scheduling, attendance and grading
- State reporting
- Family and student portals
- School Business Suite$undefined/year
- Finance, payroll and HR
- Position control
- Usually quoted alongside the SIS as a bundle
- Municipality Edition$undefined/year
- Finance and HR for local government
- Quoted per organisation
Which should you pick?
Choose Securly if
- You need filter.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows.
- You also want aware.
Choose Skyward if
- You need qmlativ sis.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want school business suite.
Questions people ask
- Is Securly or Skyward better?
- Neither clearly leads. Securly starts at On request and Skyward at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Securly or Skyward?
- Securly starts at On request and Skyward at On request.
- Does Securly or Skyward run on more platforms?
- Securly runs on Web, iOS, Android, Chrome OS, Windows. Skyward runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Securly best used for?
- Securly is most often used for a district that must show cipa compliance for take-home chromebooks used on home broadband, where network-level filtering does nothing, a district whose safeguarding policy requires that a human being reads a self-harm alert within minutes at any hour, including school holidays, a one-to-one ipad programme needing apple device enrolment, filtering and classroom control from a single agent rather than three, 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 hand. Of those, a district that must show cipa compliance for take-home chromebooks used on home broadband, where network-level filtering does nothing and a district whose safeguarding policy requires that a human being reads a self-harm alert within minutes at any hour, including school holidays are not what Skyward is typically brought in for.
- What can Securly do that Skyward cannot?
- Securly covers Filter, Aware, On-Call, Classroom. Skyward covers Qmlativ SIS, School Business Suite, Position control, Family and student access.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
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.
Skyward: Was Skyward bought by PowerSchool?
No. Skyward remains an independent company based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and competes directly with PowerSchool in the K-12 SIS market. It is one of the few SIS vendors of scale not owned by a private equity roll-up.
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.
Skyward: Is pricing per student?
Yes, the student system is generally quoted per student per year with the finance suite priced separately, but no rate card is published and discounts vary heavily by district size and term length.
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.
Skyward: Can we buy just the finance and HR suite?
Yes. School Business Suite is sold on its own, and there is a municipality edition for city and county government with no school component.
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.
Skyward: What is the difference between Qmlativ and PaC?
PaC is the older client-server generation and Qmlativ is the current browser-based product. New districts buy Qmlativ; existing PaC districts are being migrated.
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