The competitor columns below come from each vendor's own published pages. The ScolaOS column was checked against our source code, which means it includes four capabilities our own marketing would happily imply and the code does not support.
That asymmetry is unavoidable and worth naming. We can read our code and not theirs, so a blank against a competitor means their site did not state it on the date checked. It is not a finding that the product lacks it. Ask them.
Competitor pages verified 20 July 2026. ScolaOS column verified against source on the same date.
The decision most schools make last
Attendance software divides on one question: daily, or period by period?
Daily marking records that a student was present today. Period marking records presence lesson by lesson, and it needs a timetable the attendance system can read. This is not a settings toggle. It changes the data model, the teacher's daily workflow and the reports.
ScolaOS marks daily attendance only. The PeriodAttendance model exists in our schema with zero write sites and no marking interface anywhere in the product, which in practice means it does not exist. Three of the five vendors below state period-wise marking. If your school needs it, they meet that requirement on today's evidence and we do not, and you should stop reading here rather than book a demo.
The comparison
| Capability | Fedena | Entab | Campus 365 | Vidyalaya | Classe365 | ScolaOS (code) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily marking | STATED | STATED | Partial, card scan per session | STATED | STATED | Yes, whole-day, one record per student per day |
| Period or subject-wise | STATED, optional module | STATED, either or both | NPS | NPS | STATED | No. Schema model exists but is never written to |
| Biometric | STATED | Partial, "add devices later" | STATED | STATED | NPS | No integration code. Two matches, both catalogue entries |
| RFID or card | STATED | NPS | STATED | STATED | Partial, barcode ID card | No. Zero code matches anywhere |
| Teacher marking on mobile | STATED | Partial, web and app | NPS | STATED | STATED | Yes, full section from the class register on phone, tablet or desktop |
| Automatic absence alert | STATED, SMS and push | STATED, SMS and in-app | STATED, SMS or push | Partial, channel unnamed | STATED, SMS | Yes, automatic on every mark, but in-app and portal only. No SMS, email or WhatsApp |
| Correction with audit trail | NPS | NPS | NPS | NPS | Partial, edit stated | Re-marking yes, audit trail no. The prior value is overwritten |
| Minimum-attendance rules | NPS | NPS | NPS | NPS | NPS | No. Reports return a percentage; nothing compares it to a rule |
| Reports | STATED | STATED | STATED | STATED | STATED | Per-section over a date range, plus a daily dashboard. No branch-level report |
| Staff attendance | STATED | STATED | Partial | STATED | NPS | Yes, including geo-tagged check-in |
| Staff attendance to payroll | STATED | Partial | NPS | STATED | NPS | Yes, computed. Loss of pay derives from the attendance record |
A fairness note. The five publish at very different depths. Fedena and Classe365 have operational support documentation. Vidyalaya has detailed feature pages. Entab has module listings and one attendance page. Campus 365 has marketing pages only, and its documentation site was unreachable, so its blanks are the least reliable of the set. An NPS here is more often a documentation gap than a product gap.
Hardware deserves less weight than it gets
Biometric and RFID dominate this category's marketing, and three points matter more than any device specification.
A reader is an input, not a system. The value sits in what happens to the mark afterwards. A fingerprint scanner wired to something that cannot notify a parent has automated the cheapest part of the problem.
Ask for specific models. "Biometric supported" is a category claim. Ask which devices by model, whether the integration is live or planned, and whether it is core or charged separately. Our own position is instructive here: ScolaOS has an app-catalogue entry for biometric integration and no integration code behind it, which is exactly the kind of gap this question is designed to expose. Ask us the same way you would ask anyone else.
Ask what happens when the device fails. It will, usually on a wet morning, and if there is no usable manual fallback the school simply stops taking attendance that day.
What happens after the mark
Recording an absence changes nothing on its own. Four things determine whether attendance software has any effect.
Notification, and specifically the channel. In ScolaOS this is automatic and genuinely so: every bulk mark filters the absentees and notifies the student and their parents without anyone pressing send. But it writes an in-app notification with a live push, and nothing else. It also requires the parent to have a linked portal account. Four of the five vendors state SMS on this path. An SMS reaches a parent who has never opened the app, and an in-app notification does not, so this is a real difference rather than a presentational one.
Thresholds and eligibility. Many schools want a rule: below 75%, flag them; below 60%, block the examination. ScolaOS returns the percentage and applies no rule to it, and no vendor in this table states eligibility rules either. If you need automatic enforcement rather than a number a human reads, ask all six of us specifically.
Correction. Attendance gets disputed. In ScolaOS a mark can be re-marked and the record shows who marked it and when, but the previous value is overwritten rather than retained. If you need to prove what a register said last Tuesday before it was changed, that is not a capability we have. Nobody in the table states one either, which is worth noticing.
Payroll, for staff. This is where ScolaOS is strongest and it is verifiable rather than rhetorical. Payroll reads the staff attendance record for the period, derives present, leave and absent days, and feeds loss-of-pay days into the payroll calculation. The deduction traces back to specific days rather than being hand-keyed at month end, which is the difference between a query and a dispute. Fedena and Vidyalaya state the same connection; Entab states it partially.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between daily and period attendance?
Daily records presence for the day; period records it lesson by lesson and requires a timetable to read. It changes the data model rather than a setting, so decide it before shortlisting. It eliminates products rather than differentiating them.
Does ScolaOS support period-wise attendance?
No. ScolaOS marks whole-day attendance for students and staff. A period-attendance model exists in the schema but nothing writes to it and no interface exposes it, so treating it as a feature would be dishonest. Fedena, Entab and Classe365 state period marking on their own pages.
Does ScolaOS support biometric or RFID attendance?
No. There is an app-catalogue entry for biometric integration with no integration code behind it, and no RFID code anywhere in the repository. Fedena, Campus 365 and Vidyalaya state both; Entab states biometric partially. If gate hardware is central to your plan, that is a genuine gap on our side today.
Are parents notified automatically when a child is absent?
In ScolaOS, yes, automatically on every mark, but as an in-app and portal notification with a live push, and only to parents with a linked account. There is no SMS, email or WhatsApp on that path. Four of the five vendors compared state SMS. If reaching parents who do not use the app matters, weigh that seriously.
Can attendance software enforce a minimum-attendance rule?
None of the six, on the evidence checked. ScolaOS produces the percentage and leaves the rule to the school. If you need automatic exam-eligibility blocking, ask every vendor directly and ask for a demonstration rather than a feature tick.
Does attendance connect to payroll for staff?
In ScolaOS it does, and it is computed rather than entered: payroll derives loss-of-pay days from the staff attendance record. Fedena and Vidyalaya state the same; Entab partially. This matters less for accuracy than for disputes, because the deduction can be traced to the days behind it.
What should we test in an attendance demo?
Three things. A teacher marking a real class unaided on a phone, timed. An absence, watched all the way to whatever the parent actually receives. And a correction, to see what the record retains afterwards.
In summary
Attendance is the most repeated task in school software, so friction costs more than features. But the decision is made by granularity, which most buyers settle last, and by the channel an absence alert actually travels on, which most demos leave vague.
Read the blanks above as questions. Ask us the hardware question exactly as hard as you ask anyone else, because on today's code the honest answer is that we do not have it.
ScolaOS is a product of Terra System Labs Pvt Ltd, which is ISO 9001:2015 compliant and ISO 27001:2022 compliant.
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