DreamClass Reviews

Pros

Classroom management, grade book, online registration/enrollment, invoicing and online payments.

Cons

Not as feature-rich as I would like, but the support team is incredibly helpful and responsive. I brought up one item I'd like to see added, and a few weeks later got an email that it is now implemented. Some of the workflows are not as simple as they could be, but overall, these are minor issues.

Pros

One stop shop for gradebook, parent communication, school calendar, annoucements, and invoicing. I love the customer service and the easy to use platform and it can be customized for your individual school. When issues have come up, the support team will get on a call with you and show you how to navigate or fix any issue you are having.

Cons

I wish they would have up-to-date tutorial videos for the initial set up. Some of the videos that I watched on the initial setup and tried to follow were not able to be implemented and my experience was different than I thought it would be. I think having a step-by-step system that new users can follow would be great.

Alternatives Considered

Google Forms, CANVAS and FACTS

Reasons for Choosing DreamClass

We wanted to make a switch to a cloud based system and have the ability to input outside of a server. We wanted families to have mobile access.

Switched From

Google Workspace

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

The appearance was modern and the tutorial was easy to use and there were videos using the product. The customer service was very helpful.

Pros

I am able to keep all student information in one portal, such as lesson plans, quizzes, and invoices.

Cons

Would like for the portal to be able to enroll the student

Pros

DC is great for organizing and sharing student records. At first, DC had some templates for school records (gradebooks, schedules, etc.) that make sense for most schools, but didn't make sense for us since our school functions slightly different from most. However, DC was able to accommodate our needs by making small adjustments that made a big difference for us.

Cons

Dreamclass is simple to use, but not necessarily intuitive. Fortunately, they are eager to help, and once you understand the logic behind it, it's easier to navigate.

Pros

We are a small nonprofit afterschool program with about 200 students, some in-person and some online.School periods, courses, and classes are all easy to create, enroll students in, and manage. Attendance is easy for our teachers to complete and on the admin side, it is easy to get reports on daily absences and student attendance summaries.Student profiles allow for UNLIMITED custom fields (other products charge per custom field), which was useful for us as we ask a lot information of our youth (demographic, short answer, health information, learning accommodations etc) and that information is helpful for us to have visible on the student profile. Billing is connected to Stripe and is easy to set up. Invoices can be created and sent manually or automatically on a variety of schedules. Payment schedules can easily be set up for monthly, one-off, or periodic fees, and there is no limit to the number of fees/payment plans created. It is easy to pull reports of unpaid, overdue, or uninvoiced payments. Transcripts are easy to create and download from completed courses. Student information is kept in the system (creating an automatic alumni database) and there is no maximum number of student profiles or accounts. Product is intuitive and even our less-tech-savvy staff have learned how to use it quickly. I would write more but I am running out of characters!

Cons

DreamClass launched an Admissions tool this summer. It is helpful to have a form that links directly to class enrollment, but there aren't quite enough form building options for our needs. We are still using Formstack for our main registration form then bulk uploading student data through a CSV file.Similarly, there is a gradebook on DreamClass, but there aren't great ways to upload files, create assignments or quizzes, or collect homework assignments through the platform. We are still using Canvas as our Learning Management System, then uploading the final grades to DreamClass to create transcripts. I would love to see DreamClass make their LMS portion more robust or allow for integration with Canvas.

Alternatives Considered

Bonterra Case Management, Salesforce Starter, Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT, Jumbula, Gradelink, CampDoc, PowerSchool SIS, Campminder, HubSpot CRM and Alma SIS

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

DreamClass is more affordable, has better customer service, and is structurally more inclusive than these other products.Example: DreamClass allows for unlimited custom fields and does not require certain fields such as race or sex. In contrast, one alternative product only allowed for a dropdown of ~5 racial categories, based on the U.S. census groups. If we wanted to add our own custom race/ethnicity category to better reflect the reality of our students, we would have to pay something like $100 per field. Gender was defined as Male, Female, or Prefer Not to Say, not allowing for non-binary or other groups to self-identify. DreamClass fields are open and can better reflect the needs of each organization and their student population.Further, the DC team helped us to make some custom fields only visible to the student and administration. For example, some of our youth use different pronouns in our program than they use with their families. DC helped us to have 2 fields - one pronoun field that was visible just to students/admin, and one that was also visible to families.DC customer service is far more respectful and responsive than my interactions with these other platforms. There is no limit to how many trainings or conversations you have with the support team (some alternative solutions charge per hour). Lids is always willing to jump on a call or answer emails with any questions and meet with any team members!

Pros

Other CRM have grey - complex interface that is not suitable for young students, DC is intuitive and easy to set. The customer service is excellent, if I have a problem or if I don't find something they fix immediately or send me a video tutorial. Students and teachers have access to their own area, which is easy to use and that is an important feature. I am overall happy with the platform, I will probably add the online payment anytime soon.

Cons

If I want to be very, very demanding, it could have some integration regarding expenses and some economic aspects. Right now we use another software, and it would be comfortable to have an all-in-one. But this is not, by far, a reason to change DreamClass. At the end, it is a school management software and does it job VERY well.

Pros

Onboarding was easy enough with the great support from Dreamclass. We were able to shape the software to fit our needs and the tech team in Dreamclass even accommodated small requests for our business and locale.

Cons

Minor things did not suit our school, such as monthly billing cycles for invoices. The invoice system is a little rudimentary and we would love to connect the system via API to a more robust accounting software, but this does not outweigh the benefits we have received from implementing an online invoicing system to begin with.

Alternatives Considered

QuickSchools.com and Classe365

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

It had the right features that suited our school's needs, at a great price point

Pros

DreamClass is very feature-packed student information management system at an amazing price. It combined a lot of functionality that was previously distributed across different spreadsheets and apps. It allows us to unify everything from application, to classroom management, to grading, and communication.

Also, the customer service has been top-notch and extremely responsive.

Cons

Some features are limited, or not implemented in the way that would work best for our type of program, but customer service has been extremely helpful in doing things on the back end for us, and even taking our suggestions to the development team as feature requests.

Alternatives Considered

Gradelink and PowerSchool

Switched From

Google Forms and Jotform

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

Provided most of the features we required at an amazing price; and a lot more options for customization as needed.

Pros

The customer service is outstanding! I have never worked with a company that will not only email you in a timely manner, but they will hop on a zoom call and personally work through any issues that may arise. Hands down - great experience so far with DreamClass.

Cons

I have nothing to comment in this section.

Pros

The features that are available fit what we were looking for. Previously we had spent 2 years trying to get Classter setup for our needs, we ran into one problem after another and were never able to use it! We have only been setting up DreamClass for about 2 weeks and its ready to use. Customer service is wonderful, questions are answered quickly. They are constantly rolling out new features it seems and so far it has been a vastly different experience than what we went through with Classter.

Cons

There are some features missing due to it being a newer software, but just in the 2 weeks we've been using this they have already starting rolling out some of those features. Like email templates, etc.

Pros

DreamClass offers a lot of bang for your buck - classroom or event registration, detailed user data, customizable admissions forms, a well-respected and secure payment option (Stripe integration), and great classroom management and attendance-taking ability. Teacher usability is very important for us, and the fact that our staff were able to utilize said features without much training necessary was super helpful. Parent portal information is also expertly laid out and easy on the eyes. Additionally, the tagging feature is extremely helpful for teachers and admins to organize their classes, students, parents and school resources.

Cons

Some automation features are missing, such as autopayment for invoices, quick-unenroll options for students, the ability to combine unenrolling a student with erasing their invoices and fees (all these must be done separately), the ability to mass-accept applications, and the ability to refund invoices from within DreamClass (must be done outside in Stripe), robust Excel reporting tools, or the ability to archive old periods / classes. A lot of these features, however, are in development so this review might be outdated by the time you are reading it!

Pros

1. Affordable monthly subscription, even for small organizations. No huge set-up costs.
2. Simple, intuitive, and immediate set-up. Try it yourself with a simple free trial. Then seamlessly convert to a paid subscription. No sunk set-up costs. No risk!
3. Beautiful and intuitive user-interface.
4. Excellent and responsive customer service.
5. New features rolling out regularly.

Cons

Some features are still in development.
For our purposes, the current implementation of certain features (grading, scheduling) is rudimentary.

Pros

1. Interactive features: DreamClass includes a range of interactive features such as games, quizzes, polls, and discussions that engage students and make learning more fun. These features promote student participation and help teachers gauge student understanding and progress.2. Collaboration and communication: DreamClass allows teachers, students, and parents to communicate and collaborate easily through a variety of channels, including chat, video conferencing, and messaging. This enhances engagement and helps build strong relationships between students, teachers, and parents.3. Flexibility and accessibility: DreamClass provides flexibility in terms of when and where students can learn. The platform is available on multiple devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones, allowing students to learn from anywhere and at any time.4. Analytical tools: DreamClass provides teachers with analytics and insights to track student performance, attendance, and progress. These insights help teachers tailor their teaching approach to improve student learning outcomes.

Cons

Limited integrations: I have expressed a desire for more integrations with other educational tools and platforms. Seamless integration with existing systems, such as student information systems or learning management systems, is important for data synchronization and a streamlined workflow.

Pros

Great support and sales team! Overall, the navigation and flow of the platform are great and getting better very frequently. New features are getting implemented frequently and there is a lot of new admissions and billing functionality allowing us to use DreamClass as our all-in-one school management platform.

Cons

There are sometimes some minor UI and flow bugs. Sometimes, there's a generic error "has associated data" which can be difficult to trace down, but the support staff is typically able to resolve it.

Certain features are not accessible to edit from the admin end and have to be implemented by DreamClass staff.

Pros

The features that are most impactful are the scheduling, attendance monitoring, lesson reviews, and class management. Once you have received the one to one training to use and tailor it for your company the product has been fairly easy to use with little complication. Most of the integration was easy to do, hopefully the rest of our staff feels the same way.

Cons

There were a few changes that needed to be made in order for us to use the system to our advantage. For example, the way that we would classify classes and subjects is different to how it needs to be done on DreamClass as our company is smaller and differs to the average school. The only areas that appear difficult are the ones that we have not needed to use or have not yet used, such as the grading system for our students. As mentioned before the integration was fairly easy to do, however there were little challenges as the features designed for a school have to be used differently for our company as we focus more on one to one tuition.

Pros

I like that is makes my job a lot easier compared to all the data entry and emails I used to send most are automated now. Instead of using 2-3 different platforms to collect student registration, collect payment and make contact with parents, all 3 of these are done in one place. The Dreamclass team has been so helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cons

I would love to have had a training video or manual to go over basic tasks and then also one that goes into detail about other features. There is so much that dreamclass can do and I didn't know about any of it until I asked. It would be nice to have some materials to look over on my own rather than having to always reach out.

Pros

The quick response of the team.
The way they work to improve and listen to our needs.

Cons

The fact that when a student is inactive in a class, and it still counts on the list.

Pros

DreamClass was very easy to get started with, and the customer support ([sensitive content hidden]) has been incredible. She scheduled calls in advance with our admin team, mapped out for us what we needed to do so that we could be ready to launch our new school

Cons

They have a calendar that integrates with the schedule and classes, however it is clunky and not helpful for our model of schooling. Often I don't know exactly what to do inside the platform, but when I email for help (again, [sensitive content hidden]) I get a response within a few hours.

Alternatives Considered

FACTS

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

Pricing

Pros

As we work with multiple locations, instructors, and students DreamClass has allowed us to organize our classes in a way we have not been able to in the past. Instructors can easily communicate with their students via email and vise-versa and keeps planning for upcoming classes organized. It is easy to use overall and the customer service from [SENSITIVE CONTENT] is amazing!

Cons

Few things are still in the development phase which may require some tedious work when setting up on the backend such as repeating classes through different locations and creating grade book for each class. Additionally, it is not as user friendly on a mobile phone. However they are quick to respond and take all feedback into consideration.

Pros

It was intuitive and simple to use and implement

Cons

Hours of operation is based on Greek time. Service was great when they were available to respond via support/chat. However, I didn't mind the 24 hr turnaround knowing that's expected with the time difference.

Some functions are still being upgraded and can only be implemented by support and not given as an option to the administrator.

I'd like there to be a home dashboard for families that can be decorated and customized by administrator with icons such as: WEEKLY MEMO, CALENDAR, FIELD TRIP, etc.

Pros

DreamClass is easy to use. They are quick to make modifications when needed.

Cons

There is nothing I dislike about DreamClass so far.

Pros

We are a small but growing private high school in our third year. Considering next year's graduating class, we realized that we needed to upgrade from storing everything haphazardly to having a streamlined electronic program that will comply with regulatory requirements and allow us to have everything organized in one place. The previous systems we used for school management were disorganized and inefficient. Due to our small size and limited funds, we knew we needed a simple and affordable option. DreamClass was the perfect solution and has so far been working very well in all areas.

Cons

We have certain aspects of our school structure that do not exactly align with DreamClass. This causes some kinks here and there in using the application for our unique community. However, nothing drastic so far that is preventing us from utilizing the system in the way we need it.

Pros

DreamClass is so easy to use and was easy to learn! I love that it is extremely customizable to our school needs, and it is an easy platform for parents, teachers and admin to communicate with each other! The financial invoicing makes it so easy to have everything in one place, and with the Stripe portal, parents can easily access their invoices! I hope to have some sort of way to set up automatic payments for parents so it's even more easy for them to use! Lids has been a HUGE help and is so quick to respond with advice or videos on how to navigate any problems or questions that might arise.

Cons

I know that there is a lot of development going on, I hope to see in the future better report generators as far as gradebooks and information go. I don't particularly love that when you pull bulk reports, such as grading or transcripts, that it comes out in a spreadsheet that doesn't make very much sense to parents if they were to look at if first glance.

Pros

Both my daughter and I love the easy maneuverability of Dream Class as a student management system and the simplicity of the program. I received excellent customer service from [SENSITIVE CONTENT] as she trained both my daughter and I on the system! I highly recommend Dream Class to any institution whether you are an online school or a traditional brick and mortar school.

Cons

I love the product and have not found anything that I didn't like.

Alternatives Considered

CANVAS, Blackboard Learn, Twine and Jupiter

Reasons for Switching to DreamClass

It was super easy and affordable!

Pros

We use DreamClass for our SIS and I have found it to be user friendly, clean and when I run into a problem, the support team makes custom videos to help me figure out the issue

Cons

There is not yet an admissions application, which we would love to see in the future. There is a learning curve with the software, but overall it is great for smaller companies