School Onboarding
Two ways to get started, and neither of them involves buying the software
Two Paths
Zafarios is open source, so the first question is not what it costs but who runs it.
- Run it yourself. Install the software on a server you control. You need someone technical who can keep it running, updated and backed up. You pay us nothing, and we can still help if you get stuck and want to arrange that.
- We host and set it up. We run the server, move your data across, configure the school and train your staff. This is the part we charge for — the software is still open source, and you can take it in-house later.
What Setting Up Involves
Either way, the same work has to happen. We do not publish a timeline for it: how long it takes depends on how much data is being moved, what condition it is in, and how many people need training. We will estimate it once we have seen your current system, not before.
Talk it through
What your school runs now, what actually needs to change, and whether Zafarios covers it. If it does not cover the part you care about, we say so at this point.
Decide who runs it
You host it yourself on a server you control, or we host and run it for you. The software is the same either way, and you can change your mind later.
Move your data
Students, staff, classes and subjects come across from your current system or your spreadsheets. This is usually the part that takes longest, and how long depends on the state of the data.
Configure the school
Classes, subjects, terms, roles and the messaging rules that decide who may contact whom at your school.
Train the people who will use it
Administrators, teachers and office staff, on the parts they will actually touch rather than on every screen in the product.
Start with one group, then the rest
Run it with a small group first, fix what that surfaces, then open it to everyone.
What We'll Need From You
- Student data: Names, classes, contact information
- Staff data: Teachers, administrators, and their roles
- Academic structure: Classes, subjects, grading systems
- Schedule: Timetables and academic calendar
- Key stakeholders: Project leads from your school
What You Can Expect It to Do
Attendance — including with no connection — assignments and grading, teacher and parent messaging, video and audio classes, parent and student portals, timetables, documents, in-app notifications and role dashboards. Fees, invoicing, transport, cafeteria, assessments and reports are in development and should not be part of your plan for this year.
Support Afterwards
Support is one of the services we are paid for, so what you get is what is written into your arrangement — including how quickly we answer. We are not going to promise round-the-clock cover on a web page. Tell us what your school actually needs out of hours and we will price that rather than a slogan.
If you run it yourself, you are not dependent on us for it to keep working. That is the point of it being open source.
Ready to Get Started?
Get in touch and tell us which path interests you. If it is the self-hosted one, we will point you at the source and what it needs to run.