Switch from Smootables to Academic Scheduler
Smootables is a planning-first platform built for vocational colleges — powerful, but sold through a demo and pilot with no published pricing. Academic Scheduler publishes every price, starts at $10/month, and lets you generate your first conflict-free timetable the same day you sign up.
The Smootables alternative you can price and try today
Why schools look for a Smootables alternative
Smootables is a capable platform. These are the practical reasons it doesn't fit every school.
No published pricing anywhere on the site
Smootables does not list plans, tiers, or prices publicly. You cannot budget for it, compare it, or take a number to your finance committee without first booking a call and waiting for a quote.
You have to talk to sales before you can try it
Evaluation runs through a demo and a pilot — Smootables says so directly. There is no self-serve sign-up, so a scheduling coordinator can't simply create an account on a Tuesday afternoon and test it against real data.
Built for vocational complexity most schools don't have
Smootables targets career and technical colleges whose schedules 'exceed standard class-grid tools' — workshop rotations, off-site workplace learning, per-placement exemptions. If you run a standard class-grid school, that depth is configuration you pay for and never use.
A newer platform that asks for a parallel pilot
Smootables states it is newer than Untis, aSc, or Edval and recommends treating a parallel run as part of the evaluation. That means operating two scheduling systems side by side for a term before you can commit.
What Academic Scheduler does differently
Four areas where we've made different, better choices.
Every price is published — no quote required
Basic, Pro, and Premium are listed on our pricing page with exact figures. You can build your budget, compare us against anyone, and get internal approval before you ever speak to us.
- Basic $10/mo · Pro $15/mo · Premium $20/mo
- 20% discount on annual billing
- No custom quotes, no enterprise sales cycle
Self-serve 14-day trial — no demo call to get in
Sign up in under two minutes with no credit card and no sales conversation. Every feature is unlocked during the trial: PDF and Excel export, substitution management, and secure link sharing.
- Full access from day one — nothing watermarked or disabled
- No credit card and no demo booking required
- Evaluate on your own timetable data, on your own schedule
First timetable in under an hour, not a pilot term
Our guided wizard walks you through teachers, subjects, rooms, and classes, then generates a conflict-free schedule automatically. No parallel run, no migration project, no implementation phase.
- Guided setup wizard built for non-technical administrators
- Excel and CSV import for your existing data
- Conflict-free generation with automatic clash detection
Multi-branch management on standard plans
Run several campuses or branches from one centralised account without an enterprise tier, a custom contract, or a sales call to unlock it.
- Centralised dashboard across all your branches
- Per-branch timetable customisation
- Unified conflict detection across your network
Academic Scheduler vs Smootables — Feature by Feature
| Feature | Academic Scheduler | Smootables |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing published publicly | Yes | No — quote only |
| Self-serve sign-up | Yes | No — demo required |
| 14-day free trial (no card) | Yes | Demo & pilot |
| Starting price | From $10/mo | Not published |
| Cloud-based platform | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic conflict detection | Yes | Yes |
| Excel / CSV data import | Yes | Yes |
| PDF / Excel / CSV export | Yes | Not published |
| Substitution management | Yes | Not published |
| Exam timetable scheduling | Yes | Not published |
| Share timetable via secure link | Yes | Not published |
| Multi-branch / multi-campus | Yes | Yes |
| Setup measured in hours | Yes | Pilot recommended |
| Multi-year (3–5 year) academic planning | No | Yes |
| Pre-generation validation reports | No | Yes — 13 checks |
| AI conversational planning assistant | No | Yes |
| Individual learner pathways & work placements | No | Yes |
| Scenario branching & version snapshots | No | Yes |
| Interface languages | English | 5 languages |
Published pricing vs a quote you have to ask for
Academic Scheduler costs $10–$20/month, listed publicly, cancellable any month. Smootables does not publish pricing — you book a demo and wait for a quote.
- Unlimited schedule generation
- Conflict & clash detection
- PDF & Excel export
- Secure shareable links
- Everything in Basic
- Collaborative sharing
- Substitution management
- Priority support
- Everything in Pro
- Exam timetable creation
- Exam clash prevention
- Analytics dashboard
Smootables: Smootables publishes no pricing, plans, or tiers on its website. The product is evaluated through a demo and a pilot, with cost provided as a quote after a sales conversation. Because no figures are disclosed, a direct price comparison isn't possible — which is itself the difference we're highlighting.
Switch from Smootables to Academic Scheduler in 3 steps
Start your free trial
Sign up in under 2 minutes — no credit card, no demo call, no waiting for a quote. You get 14 days of full access to every feature.
Bring your school data across
Import your teachers, subjects, rooms, and classes from Excel or CSV, or enter them through our guided wizard. Most schools finish this in under an hour.
Generate and share your timetable
Academic Scheduler builds a conflict-free schedule automatically. Publish it to staff and students via a secure link or export to PDF and Excel — the same day.
No credit card required · 14-day free trial · Cancel anytime
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about switching from Smootables to Academic Scheduler.
Ready to Make the Switch?
Join 250+ institutions that create conflict-free timetables in hours, not days. No credit card required.
14-day free trial · No credit card · Cancel anytime