Campus Cafe vs Populi

Ellucian

Cegid HR

Sycamore School

Orbund

ACADEMIA ERP / SIS

Blackbaud Student Information System

Compare Campus Cafe and Populi based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

Ellucian is a suite of operations tools for higher education institutions with modules for enterprise resource planning (ERP), student information systems (SIS), constituent relationship management, & analytics. It offers mobile apps, third party integrations & student self service.

Orbund is a web-based SIS and education management solution to automate academic functions such as recruitment, registration, e-learning, and contact management

Academia ERP software for schools, colleges, universities, and training institutes. It comes with 30+ modules that assist the academic and administrative staff in managing, monitoring, and administering all the operations in an institute. Includes - admissions, attendance, examination, MIS, etc.

Campus Cafe is a web based campus management solution that manages admissions, registration, student services and finance management features in a single platform.

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Ad hoc Reporting

Admissions Management

Alerts/Notifications

Alumni Management

Application Management

Assessment Management

Attendance Management

Attendance Tracking

Billing & Invoicing

Calendar Management

Candidate Management

Class Registration

Class Scheduling

Classroom Management

Commenting/Notes

Communication Management

Content Management

Curriculum Management

Customizable Branding

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Data Import/Export

Document Management

Document Storage

Electronic Payments

Employee Portal

Enrollments/Onboarding

Faculty/Staff Management

Fee Collection

Fee Management

Financial Aid Management

Financial Management

For Higher Education

Forms Management

Fundraising Management

Gradebook

Housing Management

Interview Scheduling

Mobile Access

Mobile App

Online Calendar

Online Payments

Parent/Student Portal

Performance Metrics

Progress Reports

Progress Tracking

Real-Time Notifications

Records Management

Registration Management

Reminders

Reporting & Statistics

Reporting/Analytics

Role-Based Permissions

Scheduling

Scoring

Search/Filter

Self Service Portal

Student Information/Records

Student Management

Student Portal

Third-Party Integrations

Visual Analytics

Workflow Management

Campus Cafe

Android

Linux

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Vice President for Technology, Professor of Mathematics

The interface for managing permissions is also very clunky and sometimes confusing, requiring double negative logic to understand what a permission is doing.

Users are getting comfortable with the system quickly, and with ease, and the system is allowing us to improve efficiency of our processes in many offices.

Vice President for Business and Finance

Has the best feature-to-price ratio of any platform we looked at.

Director of Enrollment and Records

We needed a new student SIS and campus cafe fit what we needed. Customer service has been very good.

Financial Aid Representative

Being a not so technical person, I found this system user friendly and easy to access and familiarize with.

Bookkeeper

Once I posted the financial aid of the student, I could not delete it anymore if I happen to make a mistake. I have to make another entry to negate it.

Registrar

An example of this is syncing Campus Cafe with Canvas LMS- students who withdraw or drop would sometimes sync with Canvas and other times it would not. So there was that inconsistency.

Our work is now more streamlined and time we spend on projects and validation of record accuracy has been cut in half.

Campus Cafe screenshot: Student Profile- Easily View/edit all the data in a student's record in 1-2 clicks.

Campus Cafe screenshot: Student Financial Aid Acceptance- Give students access to financing options in our easy-to-use self-service portal

Campus Cafe screenshot: Application Documents- Students and administrators can easily upload documents and keep track of their application status.

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Small Business

Blackbaud's SIS enables K12 private schools and higher education institutions to manage student records and data from one central location—and in real time. Cloud-based SIS software for school personnel gives users access to essential information about students, educators, and parents/guardians.

Sycamore School is a feature-rich, affordable school management system with top-rated customer support that gives small to mid-sized private schools the power to streamline day-to-day operations, enhance reporting, and transform communication between educators, parents, and students.

Cegid TalentSoft provides HR teams and recruiters with tools for human resource (HR) and talent management. It offers products for recruiting, performance and competency tracking, learning management, talent review, compensation management, onboarding, and workforce management.

Web-based management for higher education. It's secure and easy-to-use, with simple pricing, great customer support, and no upfront costs.

Academic/Education

Access Controls/Permissions

Assignment Management

Asynchronous Learning

Bookstore Management

Built-in Course Authoring

Client Portal

Course Authoring

Course Management

Course Tracking

Event Calendar

Facility Management

Independent/Private

Learner Portal

Learning Management

Library Management

Mobile Learning

Multi-Language

Real-Time Data

Single Sign On

Synchronous Learning

Tests/Assessments

Video Conferencing

Populi

Chief Operating Officer

Great team, great price, and a product that works great for our very small online higher education institution.

Assistant Professor

I believe it's a good product and it has good potential, given the team's impressive efforts toward meet the rapid changing needs of their current and future customers.

Also, Populi's customer service is very impressive - very responsive and professional. They understand very well and resolve your issue very effectively.

Financial Administrator

Very satisfied and  have experienced a great deal of positive and helpful customer support. Really, no walks through a string of  phones tree choices to get to someone who can help.

Director of Admissions

The product is easy to use and intuitive. There is much room for continued growth both within our company and our ability to utilize all that populi will be able to do in the future.

System Integrator

Populi is straight-forward in it's functionality and use. It is intuitive, which is a great help to new users.

Communications & Outreach

The developers and staff at Populi are extremely responsive and helpful, responding quickly and thoroughly to all of our many questions and requests.

I had the pleasure of working with Populi for five years when I worked at a small private college. We were looking for cost-effective college management software that fit our needs.

Lead Pastor

It is nice having all of the information I need for my classes right at my fingertips.

Even sending emails to selected students is a hassle. Adding meeting times to courses is awfully difficult and annoying.

Director of Enrollment Services

Populi is a terrific platform for integrating various data silos across your organization.

Populi is very customizable, with great options to optimize its many functions for our unique organization.

Academic Dean

It is so great to have student records, financial records, academic catalog info, communications, and even recruitment working in the same integrated environment.

We've struggled with finding some features at times, and in the case of marketing automation, we've discovered that Populi's system isn't quite fully-featured enough for our needs.

Executive Director

Populi provides a solid solution for online learning.

Overall Populi has been a very solid product for e-learning. Although it is not an elegant or beautiful UX, it gets the job done and would be a fine solution for any online learning needs.

Compared to some competitors however, Populi is limited.

It is difficult to learn by self training through videos and tips.

Campus Cafe vs Populi Comparison (2026)

Campus Cafe

Populi

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives