Intro
Since the pandemic struck, education has moved even further online. Many schools are now actively transforming their programs to ensure uninterrupted remote education of high quality. This means device deployments have commonly grown to 1-to-1 — every student now has a laptop. At the same time, budget constraints don’t allow buying subscription plans for all the software schools and educational institutions need. Sounds familiar?
Luckily, multiple EdTech and cloud technology providers have discounts, special programs, and individual pricing plans for K-12 schools, colleges, and other educational organizations. We composed a list of 25+ most widely used cloud, IT, and EdTech products and services to ensure you can get the best deal for LMS apps, remote teaching platforms, and any other K-12 tech, EdTech tools, and infrastructure solutions. It includes many tools monitored by StatusGator’s customers from the education industry.
This list will be updated from time to time, to keep your hand on the pulse of the market.
1. StatusGator Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: any private or public educational organization (K-12, schools, colleges, etc.)
- How to get: contact support
- Provided discount: 20% on yearly subscription upon request
- Deal verified: ✅
StatusGator is an instant cloud monitoring tool that aggregates the statuses of the services on a single dashboard. StatusGator offers a 20% discount on a yearly subscription so that school tech admins can monitor dependencies on an instantly updated dashboard. This helps reduce the ticket volume that has risen significantly since the transition to remote learning. The dashboard can be set up as a public or private status page depending on your goals.
More information here.
2. Zoom Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: primary and secondary schools, higher education institutions
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: unlimited minutes and meetings with the Basic account for educational organizations till the end of 2021
- Deal verified: ✅
Zoom offers a free Basic Plan, but for a Pro or other plans, there’s no discount code displayed in the open to avert any abuse. Prices become available upon clicking the Buy Now button on the page dedicated to education. A meetings license allows a user to host unlimited meetings. Participant capacity varies by plan, starting at 100 participants. As for education, only an annual plan costing $1,800 is mentioned.
Grant Aldrich, the founder & CEO of OnlineDegree.com shares the experience on Zoom:
“Because of lockdown, many schools heavily relied on Zoom, which actually offers an education plan where the prices are discounted. Schools can purchase a monthly subscription for $340 to host webinars of up to 1,000 attendees. This can be used for large online courses, orientation, and for any presentation expected to have more than a few hundred participants.”
More information here.
3. Google Workspace Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools, districts, consortia, and higher education organizations in the US and Canada
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: free training and services with a purchase of Google Workspace for Education Plus or Chromebooks and the Chrome Education Upgrade.
- Deal verified: ✅
Educational facilities rely on G Suite, Google Cloud, and Chromebooks to run the education process. So, Google is open to negotiating prices and offers a special program for trading in used hardware.
More information here.
4. Microsoft 365 Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: students, teachers, faculty and school staff
- How to get: sign up with a valid school email address to get started
- Provided discount: free office 365 A1 for students and teachers
- Deal verified: ✅
Microsoft has a landing page dedicated to telling more about how their products and services can support the learning process. But they do not share many details on the pricing for the educational sector.
Here is Grant Aldrich’s opinion on using Office 365: “It is popular in a lot of higher education organizations. Because of the ease of collaboration, storage, and productivity management, a lot of academic institutions have invested in making Office 365 an across-campus thing.
There is a free version for both students and faculty that supplies them with the regular email address, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and One Note, but there are other options as well. Some schools will go with the $2.50/student or $3.25/faculty per month to make sure everyone has Access, Publisher, and Bookings too.”
More information here.
5. AWS Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools and primary education organizations
- How to get: live chat on AWS website or through public sector sales
- Provided discount: 15% of total monthly spending.
- Deal verified: ✅
Back in 2019, Amazon announced a Global Data Egress Discount for K-12 and Primary Education, where it stated that for schools, the total discount of 15% off the monthly spendings on AWS is available. Since the pandemic, they also created a support page, listing the common questions in connection to the delivery of remote education.
More information here.
6. Azure Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: education organizations
- How to get: contact reseller for information
- Discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified: ❓
Microsoft is not forthcoming about its special offers in the academic market for Azure. They provide a wide picture of the education transformation framework that includes an individual combination of several products, depending on the requirements. On Reddit, we found a thread where users say that a conversation with the reseller will help you get a discount or at least learn the prices.
According to Azure, the education segment uses license-based pricing.
More information here.
7. Adobe Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, educators, K-12 schools
- How to get: contact +1-800-685-3638
- Provided discount: $19.99/month for teachers, from $2,499 USD per year for 100 device licenses.
- Deal verified: ✅
Adobe Spark, a creative app for graphics and website design is available for free for K-12 schools, students, and teachers. Creative Cloud includes such tools as Photoshop, Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Acrobat for $19.90 per month for an individual teacher license. Then shared licenses for 100 devices start at $2,499 per year and for 500 devices at $2,475 annually.
More information here.
8. Jamf Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, educators, K-12 schools
- How to get: start a free trial or contact 1-800-685-3638
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified: ✅
Jamf School product helps manage Apple devices at school. The prices start at $5.50/year for a single device with a free trial offer. They also offer a lifetime license for a device. All prices are subject to negotiation.
More information here.
9. Apple Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 and higher education institutions
- How to get: enroll your K-12 school for Apple Business, or contact 1-800-800-2775
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified: ✅ special prices
Get in touch with Apple and negotiate individual conditions based on the needs of your school.
More information here.
10. Canvas by Instructure Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools, higher and further educational organizations
- How to get: submit a form to contact
- Provided discount: free trial, upon negotiation
- Deal verified:❓
Canvas by Instructure was developed to facilitate and manage the education process, so Instructure offers a free trial in the form of a Free-for-Teacher account.
Having created an account with Canvas, teachers have a learning environment and can deliver courses to students. The account also includes basic LMS features, so the administrators can have access to it as well.
More information here.
11. Clever Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools, districts
- How to get: submit a form on the website
- Provided discount: free for districts, custom individual plans
- Deal verified: ✅
Clever has a great deal of free rostering for the districts and has offers for application partners: secure sync rostering, single sign-on, and the library of applications.
District admins can submit a form to access Clever services at no cost by filling out a form. Individual pricing schemes are also available.
More information here.
12. PowerSchool Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 school
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified:❓
PowerSchool offers numerous solutions to support the education process, including the K-12 focused LMS, student information system and more.
Browsing through their numerous solutions, PowerSchool offers comprehensive materials to review, however, no easy way to access their price list.
PowerSchool offers a Federal K-12 Relief Funding Resource Kit, a variety of financing programs, and information on how to qualify.
However, if you simply would like to look up their prices, the shortcut would be to simply fill out the form and contact their sales.
More information here.
13. Schoology Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified:❓
Schoology is a comprehensive LMS system developed for K-12 schools and used globally. Back in October 2019, it was announced that PowerSchool was to acquire Schoology. So, one of the most popular tools for education became one of the solutions by PowerSchool. Similar to the approach taken by its parent company, there’s no information on prices or discounts available. However, specifically for Schoology, it is possible to get a demo by filling out a form or contact sales from the PowerSchool website.
More information here.
14. Blackboard Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12, higher education organizations
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified:❓
Blackboard does not keep its prices in the open. However, they offer a 30-day trial that includes 4 tools:
- Blackboard Learn: advanced learning management system.
- Blackboard Collaborate: the virtual classroom
- Blackboard Ally: product for digital course materials
- Blackboard SafeAssign: anti-plagiarism tool.
To request additional information on the tool, there’s a contact form available on their website.
More information here.
15. Nearpod Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, schools, districts
- How to get: contact sales
- Provided discount: free for teachers and students, upon negotiation
- Deal verified:❓
Nearpod is a platform for delivering engaging learning materials. Teachers can sign up for free with their school email address, Gmail, Office365, Clever, or ClassLink account. For administrators, Nearpod offers to schedule a call or request a quote.
More information here.
16. Slack Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: nonprofit educational organizations, school districts, and regional service agencies
- How to get: create education workspace, submit an application as a workspace owner
- Provided discount: 85% off the Pro or Business plan
- Deal verified: ✅
Slack qualifies nonprofit education institutions, accredited primary, secondary institutions, student groups, and school districts for an 85% discount on the Pro or Business plans.
To apply for the discount, you need to submit an application and wait for approval.
Slack qualifies nonprofit education institutions, accredited primary, secondary institutions, student groups, and school districts for an 85% discount on the Pro or Business plans.
More information here.
17. Seesaw Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, students, schools
- How to get: sign up on the website
- Provided discount: free for teachers and students, free trial of premium features for schools
- Deal verified: ✅
The core scope of services provided by Seesaw is free for teachers, families, and students. To start using the software, teachers can create an account on the website. To request a quote, fill out a form on the website.
More information here.
18. Flipgrid Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: educators
- How to get: sign up on the website
- Provided discount: free
- Deal verified: ✅
As a tool for video discussions that offers the full scope of its services completely free of charge, Flipgrid has gained popularity with teachers and educators. To start, you need to create an account on the website either with a Microsoft or Google account.
More information here.
19. Vimeo Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: students, non-profit organizations
- How to get: submit a form on the website
- Provided discount: free for students, one-time 20% discount for nonprofits
- Deal verified: ✅
Vimeo offers a one-time 20% discount for non-profit organizations like public schools, through submitting a form on the Vimeo website. Applicants need to be ready to submit documentation proving their non-profit status.
Also, the platform has a 50% discount on Vimeo Plus, Pro, Business, or Premium membership for students through StudentBeans.com.
More information here.
20. Blackbaud Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools, higher education institutions
- How to get: submit a form on the website
- Provided discount: upon negotiation
- Deal verified: ❓
Blackbaud does not have pricing on the website, and there’s a way to apply for a quote, indicating the potential for a discount.
To initiate a negotiation, a customer has to fill out a form on the website. It is also possible to send a request for a customized demo of the product.
More information here.
21. PearDeck Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, schools, and districts
- How to get: sign up, fill out a form for school
- Provided discount: free for teachers, upon negotiation for schools and districts
- Deal verified: ✅
PearDeck offers a free account for teachers with various features to enhance the lessons. Registration is done with a Google or Microsoft account.
Annual subscription includes yet more features for interactive feedback in addition to standard functionality.
Teachers can apply for a free account.
There’s also a custom version that includes integrations with other tools, customizable interfaces for every teacher and student. To learn the price, the school’s admin needs to fill out a form on the website.
More information here.
22. GitHub Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, researchers, schools
- How to get: join the GitHub Campus Program
- Provided discount: free renewable license for GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server
- Deal verified: ✅
GitHub has an opportunity for educators to request a 25% discount. However, the procedure is a bit complicated with numerous factors to ensure.
One of them is that the learning community of the educator needs to partner with GitHub as the Campus Program school.
This discount is available to the educators and researchers at higher education facilities.
For schools, GitHub Campus Program offers GitHub Enterprise Cloud and GitHub Enterprise Server free-of-charge.
It is a package of premium GitHub access for teaching-focused institutions that grant degrees, diplomas, or certificates.
The license is free for one year and will automatically renew for free every 2 years.
Typically, a dean, CTO, or technology officer enrolls a school in a program.
Read more about the program registration details for educators, researchers, and schools.
23. Box Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, researchers, schools
- How to get: fill out a form to contact sales
- Provided discount: up to 35%*
- Deal verified: ✅
Box.org offers discounts to the 501c (3) nonprofits, meaning that corporations are eligible, however not K-12 schools according to their guidelines. They make an exception for independent charter schools though.
Otherwise, a K-12 entity has an option to apply for a custom quote with a discount of up to 35%. There’s a free trial of 14 days to see if Box.org is the right tool. To contact the sales team, there’s a form that needs to be filled out.
More information here.
24. Securly Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: teachers, researchers, schools
- How to get: fill out a form to contact sales
- Provided discount: negotiable, depends on the scope
- Deal verified:❓
Securly is a tool designed to enforce the digital security of schools and students. They claim to take a tailored approach to each client, so the price is different depending on the scope of services.
Since 2017, Securly offers free management for Chromebooks. However, we found recent comments on Trustradius stating that the price for managing Chrome devices has gone up. The easiest way to find out is simply by contacting Securly, via the on-site chat, by phone 1-(855)-732-8759, or via email. It is also possible to request a demo by filling out a form.
More information here.
25. Pantheon.io Deals and Discounts
- Who qualifies: K-12 schools
- How to get: contact sales 1-855-927-9387
- Provided discount: upon request
- Deal verified:❓
Pantheon provides hosting services for organizations running on WordPress or Drupal.
They have a designated pricing page for the education organizations, although not much information about the availability of discounts or actual prices. There’s an option to try Pantheon for free, or simply contact their sales team and take on from there.
More information here.
Conclusions
As you can see, K-12 schools and other educational organizations can apply for a variety of discounts to reduce their spending on essential EdTech and related software. We will update this list from time to time to keep you posted on new opportunities, so come back from time to time.
Should you decide to start a partnership with StatusGator and ensure you safely and conveniently monitor the statuses of all the software your teachers and students use — contact us, we are always happy to talk business!