The support question that matters is not response time in general — it is what happens during the two weeks a year when results are being processed or fees are due and the system is blocking work. SchoolDeck commits to a thirty-minute response when fees or results are blocked, and freezes platform releases during exam weeks.
Every vendor’s support looks the same in a demo. The differences appear in the results fortnight, when a controller cannot publish, three hundred parents are calling, and the answer "we have raised a ticket" is not an answer.
The right-hand column below is what to ask them, not what we claim about them. We publish SchoolDeck and do not track other vendors’ current feature sets; anything material should be verified with the vendor directly.
Compare support on the worst week, not the average one. Ask for the response commitment specifically when results or fees are blocked, whether releases are frozen during exams, and whether the person answering can actually change anything or only log it.
| What you are comparing | TurtleDock | Skolaro |
|---|---|---|
| Response when fees or results are blocked | Thirty minutes, contractual, on Professional and above | Ask for the committed time specifically for a blocking issue |
| Releases during exam weeks | Frozen. A named engineer on standby instead | Ask whether they ship during your results fortnight |
| Who answers | Named support contact who knows your configuration | Ask whether the first responder can change anything, or only log it |
| Support hours | Monday to Saturday; extended around results and fee cycles | Ask about a Saturday in March, which is when you will need it |
| Uptime commitment | 99.9%, in the contract, with service credits | Ask whether the SLA has credits attached or is aspirational |
| Escalation path | Named implementation lead on Group tier | Ask who you call when the first line cannot help |
A school’s year has two stretches where software failure is not an inconvenience but a crisis, and they are entirely predictable.
Both are known months in advance, which means a vendor has no excuse for being surprised. Capacity for these is planned separately rather than assumed, and we do not ship platform releases into them.
Ask any vendor, including us, whether the uptime figure appears in the contract and whether missing it costs them anything. A number on a website with no consequence is a statement of intent.
Also ask what the response commitment actually measures. "First response" often means an automated acknowledgement. The number worth having is time to a person who can change something.
Phrased the way they arrive, answered so each one stands on its own.
A person who can act, not an acknowledgement, within thirty minutes, for issues blocking fee collection or result publication, on Professional and above. Other issues carry a two-hour target on Essential.
Correct — platform releases are frozen during customers’ exam and results weeks, and a named engineer is on standby instead. Emergency security patches are the only exception, and those are communicated.
Checked by the Implementations desk on 7 September 2026. Corrections go in the page, dated, rather than quietly.
Pricing is on the page, in the open, with the counting rule written next to it. Nobody has to book a call to find out what it costs.
See pricingForty minutes with an implementation engineer — your classes, your fee heads, your grading scheme, entered as we go. No slides, no sample school.