Softr for Education: Student Portals, Plans and the 50% Discount

Yes, Softr works for schools, colleges and training providers that want a student portal, a course hub or a campus request system on their own data, and education institutions can claim 50% off the self-serve plans through a form on Softr's site ^[1]. The number that decides the plan is not the price. It is who signs in. Students on Gmail count as Client users, and Pro includes 50 of them per workspace, alongside 10 Team users, at $119 per month billed monthly or $99 per month billed annually, with 50 AI credits a month. Business raises the allowance to 100 Client and 30 Team users. Free allows 5 app users in total, enough for a pilot but not for a cohort.

Who logs in, and how Softr counts each person

Softr splits app users into two buckets, and a school has people in both. Team users share the business email domain of any builder in the workspace; everyone else is a Client user, and Gmail and other free email domains always land in the Client bucket ^[2]. A teacher who builds the app on a school address therefore turns colleagues on that domain into Team users. Read literally, the rule would also put students who sign in with that same school domain among Team users, while parents and adult learners on personal email stay Client users. Confirm how your domains will count with Softr before buying.

The caps differ sharply between the buckets. Basic includes 5 Team and 5 Client users and cannot add more. Pro includes 10 Team and 50 Client users; Business includes 30 and 100. Extra users exist only on those two plans: on Pro, $3 per Team user and $1 per Client user per month; on Business, $5 and $2. They are billed monthly even on an annual plan, after a 7-day grace period, and only up to a limit. If that payment keeps failing, users beyond the included allowance are deactivated until the payment is resolved. Each email counts once across all your published apps. Builders do not count. Deactivated users do not count either, which helps when a cohort graduates.

Templates shaped around the school year

Most education projects can start from a template rather than a blank page. The Student Portal template covers course materials, schedules and assignments for students and faculty, and Softr also pitches it at vocational and adult education. Its Airtable-based version gives staff and students separate logins with personalized dashboards, course and schedule management, document sharing and directories. Softr's education page lists Intranet, Knowledge Base, Facility Management, Visitor Management System and Employee Training Management templates as well. Using any of them is free, sign-up asks for no card, and a template cannot be applied to an app you have already built.

Two more fit specific jobs. The LMS template, free and modeled on the Softr Academy, tracks progress, shows a Remaining Lessons view and a Watch Again playlist, allows comments on course pages and ships with Admin and Logged-in User roles. Work Order Management targets facilities teams on university campuses and at schools, with manager, technician and requester roles, a request form, status tracking and asset tracking. A template copies the interface plus a Softr Database filled with sample data. Swap in your own records first, then rename the roles to match your staff titles. Our Softr templates guide walks through the wider catalog.

A semester inside the app: enrollment, coursework and support

Softr's page for school portals names enrollment change requests, a learning resource library, class schedules, AI attendance insights and AI inquiry triage as typical apps. Most of that runs on forms and workflows. Softr's comparison table lists unlimited forms and submissions on every plan. Conditional sections start on Basic, which allows two branches, and Pro unlocks unlimited branching. Limiting who may submit a form by email domain is a Pro feature, separate from domain-restricted signup for the whole app, which needs Business. A staff-only request form locked to your school domain therefore needs Pro at least.

Workflows carry the routine messages. The Student Portal template's own example notifies enrolled students when a new course document is uploaded, or alerts the assigned teacher when a student registers. Every plan includes workflows, metered in actions a month: 500 on Free, 2,500 on Basic, 10,000 on Pro and 25,000 on Business. Watch the loops. An action inside a loop runs once per item, so one notice to a whole class counts once per student. At the limit, workflows pause until the month renews or you upgrade. AI steps also spend AI credits from the same monthly pool as Ask AI.

Ask AI, the optional in-app chat, can answer questions such as which courses have the highest enrollment, according to Softr's education page. Each query spends AI credits: 5 a month on Free, 10 on Basic, 50 on Pro and 100 on Business, reset monthly with no rollover. When they run out, AI features pause without any charge and the editor keeps working. Credit add-ons start at +$10 per month for 100 credits, on every plan including Free, and unused add-on credits roll over for one month. Softr publishes no per-query price, so watch a few weeks of staff use before buying extra credits. Our Softr pricing breakdown lists every pack.

Sign-in, roles and what each student can see

Email and password sign-in works on every plan. Google Sign-in starts on Pro, and Softr's docs say it also works with Google Workspace and Google Classroom accounts if the school's Google admins allow it ^[3]. Email one-time codes also start on Pro. Two-factor authentication for app users and domain-restricted signup need Business, and SSO through SAML or OpenID is Enterprise only. That last gate matters most. Universities that put every system behind the campus login should expect an Enterprise conversation rather than a card checkout.

Roles are user groups. Every plan has Visitors and Logged-in users, and custom groups number 3 on Pro and 10 on Business. Softr's education page frames roles as students, instructors, staff and admins; even with Logged-in users covering one of them, that fills Pro's three custom groups, so adding parents or alumni points to Business. Softr says parents can see only their own child's records and teachers only their assigned classes. Visibility rules are enforced on the server rather than merely hidden in the page. Softr says data is hosted in the EU (Germany) by default.

Phones are the other question schools ask. Softr's school page says a portal can be made installable in one click, but that installable app is a PWA and needs Business or higher. It cannot be published to the App Store or Google Play on any plan. It also needs an Internet connection, because the PWA does not work offline. Below Business, students still get Softr's responsive web app in the phone browser.

What schools and course builders have shipped

MIT Project Manus is the largest story. MIT replaced a custom Ruby on Rails maker portal with a Softr app that has 2,800+ registered users, and MIT reports that one person built it in under 3 months and that the custom application it replaced cost over $100K ^[4]. MIT connected Airtable as the data source and tied the app to the university's single sign-on. On today's plans, SSO sits on Enterprise. Plan a setup like MIT's as an Enterprise purchase, not a self-serve one.

Arizona State University's MLFTC launched a curriculum hub intranet on Softr and Airtable in under two months; ASU reports 1,200+ unique users and 195 accounts created in the first month. Its reason was permissions Airtable alone did not give, such as letting each user update only their own program. The United Nations International School in New York, Pre-K to 12, built a student support portal where staff log emotional support cases, with permissions per stakeholder. Staff edit Airtable records inside the app without direct Airtable access, and the principal singles out that different users see different information.

Smaller providers fit too. Peerpod built an LMS with four roles (admins, associates, clients and learners) that delivered 50+ programs to 300+ learners, and it reports its NPS rising from +70 to +85. Peninsula School of Art put a virtual gallery on a customized template in days and reports a 15% rise in art sales. The 100DaysOfNoCode founder says Softr is not a conventional LMS and used a custom code block for interactive quizzes. Custom code is a Pro feature on today's comparison table.

Choosing the plan and claiming the discount

The education discount is 50% on self-serve plans, applied through Softr's form; Softr does not publish what proof it asks for or how long the discount lasts. List prices before the discount are per workspace: Basic $25 per month billed monthly or $19 per month billed annually, Pro with 50 AI credits a month $119 per month billed monthly or $99 per month billed annually, and Business $395 per month billed monthly or $329 per month billed annually. Enterprise is custom. The free trial needs no card and can be extended once by choosing a plan, according to Softr's FAQ.

Match the plan to the people, not the feature list. A single course or club with five users can pilot on Free. A program with up to 50 Client users and a handful of staff fits Pro, which adds Google Sign-in and three custom groups. Past 50 Client users, Pro can add extra Client users at $1 per user per month, billed monthly even on annual plans and up to a limit, while Business includes 100. Move to Business for more than three custom roles, or when you need the PWA, two-factor sign-in or domain-restricted signup. Refunds apply only within 14 days of the first payment on monthly billing or 30 days on yearly. Charities filing the same form are covered in our Softr for nonprofits guide.

The bottom line

Softr suits education teams that want a portal, a course hub or a facilities desk on their own data, with roles that keep each student, parent and teacher in their own lane. The 50% discount helps, but the head count decides the bill: Gmail students are Client users, Pro includes 50 of them, Business 100, and Basic cannot add any. Pro is the realistic starting point for Google sign-in and real roles. Business brings the installable app and 2FA. Campus-wide SSO is an Enterprise conversation, so universities should open it early.