An sdui alternative: more than communication
sdui grew up as a school app for communication: messenger, parent letters, cover plan, cloud. Anyone looking for an sdui alternative is rarely looking for another messenger, but for something that also carries the organisational part of the school day – class register, absences, grades, report card preparation – while still covering parent communication. That is where SchuleVernetzt sits. On data protection there is little between us: both providers are based in Germany, host here and work in line with the GDPR. The difference is in scope, and in the network across school boundaries.
Coming soon
- GDPR-compliant
- Hosted in Germany
- Free for teachers
A product of SavePaper.work
What an sdui alternative should bring
Communication stays
Parent letters with read receipts, messages to classes and staff, sick notes filed by parents – the communication side does not fall away when you move.
Organisation is added
Class register, absences, grade management and report card preparation sit behind the same login instead of in a second system alongside.
Free for teachers
A single teacher can start alone, with no decision from the school board. If the school moves later, their own classes come along.
Beyond your own school
A shared cover pool, joint courses and shared material between schools. No established platform carries that network.
How a move or a parallel run works
In four steps, and deliberately not starting with parent communication: what parents already know is touched last.
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1
Read in classes and contacts
Class, student and contact lists come across as CSV – first name, surname, class, contact. A preview shows duplicates and faulty rows before anything is saved.
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2
Build up the organisation
Class register, absences and grades are set up for one year group. That is the part the previous system did not cover, so it is the part with the most visible gain.
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3
Bring the staff along
The parent side only follows once teachers know the routine. Four weeks of lead time is usually enough if one person on the staff is available to ask.
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4
Move communication
Parent letters and sick notes change last. An announcement over the old channel and a firm cut-off date stop parents keeping two apps open for months.
Two different scopes
Communication, organisation and the network
Where the two systems overlap
The shared ground is parent communication, and sdui is strong there: parent letters with responses, messages to classes and groups, sick notes filed by parents, the cover plan on display, and an app many families already know. None of that is missing here, but the honest position is this: in the breadth of the communication side, in the number of connected schools and in experience with large rollouts, an established product is ahead. The reason to move is therefore rarely communication itself. It is the question of how much of the school day still sits beside it in spreadsheets, paper files and a second program.
What only works across schools
The difference with no equivalent shows itself wherever communication crosses the school boundary. An all-day partnership, a joint elective, a trip with the neighbouring school: as soon as two staff rooms are involved, parent communication falls apart into two distribution lists, two response routes and two versions of the truth. Platforms that only know your own school cannot solve that differently – their roles end at the school gate. SchuleVernetzt is built the other way round: a course can hold pupils from several schools, one parent letter reaches every family involved through a single channel, and the read receipt lands with both head teachers. The shared cover pool and shared material run on the same foundation. This is not an add-on module; it is the assumption the data model rests on.
When sdui is the better choice
There are cases where we would advise against us. If the need is purely communication and the organisation already runs in a system the school is happy with, then a move solves a problem that does not exist. If a federal state or an education authority prescribes or funds sdui, the question is settled. If video and cloud are part of daily operations, a product built for that covers more. And if maturity counts – a product with large rollouts behind it – that is an argument a young product cannot counter: SchuleVernetzt is still before launch. If you want the organisational part solved too, or want to connect schools, this is the other scope.
What a move actually involves
The move is easier than expected because it does not start with communication. Class and contact lists come across as CSV, parent letters and sick notes run from day one. Class register and grades follow – that is the part you moved for in the first place. Running both side by side for one term is the usual route.
Common questions about the sdui alternative
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