A gradebook sounds like the simple part of homeschooling — until October, when the spreadsheet has three tabs, nobody remembers how the co-op class is weighted, and you realize these numbers eventually have to become a transcript. I signed transcripts as a registrar for 15 years; the gradebooks below are ranked for the whole job, not just entering marks. Pricing was checked against each product's own pages, and I'll tell you plainly when a cheaper tool is the right call.
ArborSlate
Best overallThe only gradebook here where grades flow all the way through: percentages or letter grades roll up to quarter, semester, and annual marks, honors weighting feeds a weighted GPA automatically, and the same records produce K-8 report cards, Registrar and Common App transcripts, attendance logs, and state-compliance records — plus ESA expense tracking no other gradebook offers. $29/month or $249/year after a 14-day trial; the GPA calculator and transcript builder are free with no account. Built by a homeschool mom of five who was a school registrar for 15 years.
Homeschool Manager
Best budget full gradebook$49/year (or $5.99/month) with unlimited students, a 30-day free trial, and honest depth: enter a percentage or a number-correct-out-of-total and it does the math, task types carry custom weighting, attendance records itself when assignments are completed, and its Transcript Wizard runs “what-if” GPA scenarios (“what does senior year need to look like to hold a 3.5?”). No ESA tracking or compliance guidance — but at this price, the best pure gradebook value on the list.
HomeschoolGrades
Best free tierThe one genuinely free-forever gradebook: one student and five subjects free, with paid tiers from $15–60/year. Weighted and unweighted GPA, standard/honors/AP course weighting (Starter tier and up), PDF transcripts and report cards, daily attendance, and an Android app. One caution: it sells two overlapping product lines (“Homeschool Lite” and the full “HomeschoolGrades”), so check which one you're signing up for.
Homeschool Tracker
Deepest grading engineTwenty-plus years old, with the most configurable grading options in the category — custom scales, weighting, and detailed reports. Two honest caveats from their own site: there's no free trial (their FAQ suggests starting with a monthly subscription instead), and while the homepage advertises plans “at less than $5/month,” exact tiers only appear inside checkout. If you want maximum grading control and don't need ESA or compliance tooling, it's still a serious pick.
Syllabird
Best planner-gradebook hybridPlanner-first with a capable gradebook attached: $6/month or $60/year (Essential), $9/month or $90/year (Premium — same features, more storage and priority support), 14-day trial with no card. Unlimited students, generated transcripts, and the best scheduling/rescheduling flow of the group. It publishes little detail about GPA weighting, so transcript-focused families should verify that piece against their own needs.
What happened to Homeschool Minder?
If you came here searching for Homeschool Minder: as of July 2026, homeschoolminder.com redirects to Fast Transcripts, and the standalone $4.99/month gradebook appears to be discontinued. Former Minder families migrating their records want the same gradebook-attendance-reports trio in one place — any of the top picks above covers it, and ArborSlate's free transcript builder can rebuild a transcript from your existing records without an account.
Common questions
What should a homeschool gradebook app actually do?
Record grades in the way you actually grade (percentages, letter grades, pass/fail), handle weighting for honors and AP work, compute weighted and unweighted GPA, and — the part most families discover late — roll those grades up into the documents that matter: report cards for the fridge and a transcript colleges accept. If it also carries attendance, you can retire the spreadsheet entirely.
Is there a free homeschool gradebook?
HomeschoolGrades has a genuinely free-forever tier (one student, five subjects) — the best true-free option. Homeschool Tracker’s free Basic Edition is its legacy desktop app rather than the current online product. ArborSlate’s free anonymous tools cover the GPA calculator and transcript builder without an account, and the full gradebook has a 14-day trial.
Which gradebook apps compute weighted GPA?
ArborSlate (honors weighting adds +1.0 on the 4.0 scale, computed automatically from the gradebook), HomeschoolGrades (weighted GPA from its Starter tier up), and Homeschool Manager (weighted task types plus “what-if” GPA scenarios in its Transcript Wizard) all do. Syllabird generates transcripts but publishes little detail about its GPA math.
What happened to Homeschool Minder?
As of July 2026, homeschoolminder.com redirects to fasttranscripts.com — the standalone gradebook app appears to be discontinued. Former Minder families looking for a replacement need a tool that covers gradebook, attendance, and reports in one place; any of the top picks above fits, with ArborSlate the closest feature superset.