Studybugs
Studybugs is a UK-based, staff-owned EdTech platform serving 6,000+ schools, parents, academy trusts, and local authorities with a free absence-reporting and safeguarding core plus paid modules for attendance, self-registration, wellbeing, and parent video meetings.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2014
- HeadquartersBrighton, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Studybugs does
Studybugs is built on Scala and PostgreSQL and hosted on AWS in the Republic of Ireland, with real-time two-way integrations to major UK school MIS systems (SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom) plus Wonde for broader MIS coverage. A central technical differentiator is its NLP pipeline that converts free-text parent illness descriptions into coded symptom representations while discarding original text to protect privacy; the resulting six-year anonymised dataset of 1.5M+ annual reports is exposed via a public Open Database License API and feeds UKHSA syndromic surveillance, NHS collaboration, and academic research including the BSMS-led INSPIRE childhood asthma project. The go-to-market combines self-serve free registration for schools and parents (iOS, Android, web, with Apple/Facebook/Google/Microsoft social sign-in) with a consultative field sales motion through dedicated Schools Consultants targeting schools, MATs and local authorities for premium module and bundle sales.
Studybugs firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Studybugs
- Legal name
- Studybugs Limited
- Website
- https://studybugs.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2014
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Studybugs is a UK-based, staff-owned EdTech platform serving 6,000+ schools, parents, academy trusts, and local authorities with a free absence-reporting and safeguarding core plus paid modules for attendance, self-registration, wellbeing, and parent video meetings.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Studybugs industry classification
Industry- Product category
- School Attendance Management and Safeguarding Software
- NAICS
- Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion Compliance Reviews (EDADAGAJ)
Keywords
Where Studybugs is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brighton
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Studybugs business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Freemium Core Platform for Schools: Core absence reporting, attendance tracking, messaging, and safeguarding tools are provided free to all UK schools. Funded by government commitment and school premium modules.
- Registers Module: Self-registration system for primary schools with per-class licensing. Schools using Registers gain 3 weeks of teaching time per year. Pricing around £30 per class.
- Parent Time Video Meetings: School-parent video meeting system licensed per pupil. For average primary school approximately £30 per month. Includes bundle discounts for schools using other Studybugs products.
- Public Health Data Partnerships: Anonymised aggregated data shared with NHS, UKHSA, and research institutions for public health purposes. Data is provided free under Open Database License.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Free | Free Platform - Core absence reporting and attendance management |
| Subscription | Monthly | Parent Time - Video meeting system for school-parent meetings |
| Subscription | Monthly | Registers - Self-registration system for primary schools |
| Subscription | Annual | Trust/LA Bundle Discounts |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
Studybugs product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Studybugs operates a multi-agency school attendance and safeguarding platform sold to UK primary and secondary schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and Local Authorities. The core platform (free for all UK schools under a Department for Education commitment) provides app-based absence reporting, attendance tracking, instant messaging, safeguarding and wellbeing alerts, and two-way MIS integration, complemented by paid sub-branded modules including Registers (primary self-registration), Attendance (intervention alerts), Wellbeing (mental-health monitoring), and Parent Time (school-parent video meetings). A public Open Database License API exposes anonymised coded symptom data to researchers.
Product overview
Studybugs is a multi-agency platform for children's welfare in the UK, consisting of a free core platform plus paid modules. The core free platform provides app-based absence reporting, MIS integration, and messaging. Paid modules include: Studybugs Attendance (attendance management with automated alerts), Studybugs Registers (primary school self-registration saving 3 weeks of teaching time), Studybugs Wellbeing (mental health monitoring with automatic alerts), and Parent Time (video meeting platform for parent-school interactions). Anonymised data is available via a public API under open database license. The platform integrates with SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom and other MIS systems via Wonde.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Studybugs Registers: A supervised self-registration system for primary schools where children tap themselves in, choose their lunch and get on with learning. Schools using it gain 3 weeks of teaching time every year.
- Studybugs Attendance
- Studybugs Wellbeing
- Parent Time
Products and services
- Studybugs Core Platform (Free for UK Schools) The free core service for UK schools providing app-based absence reporting, parent-reported illness with health guidance, live health alerts, two-way MIS integration (SIMS, Arbor, Bromcom, Wonde), instant group messaging with templates and read receipts, and safeguarding functionality. Committed to remain free under a Department for Education partnership and used by 6,000+ UK schools.
- Studybugs Registers Supervised self-registration system for primary schools where children tap themselves in on arrival and select their lunch options, with automatic MIS synchronisation. Priced at approximately £30 per class, schools gain around 3 weeks of teaching time every year per classroom and around 23 minutes every day.
- Studybugs Wellbeing Whole-school pupil wellbeing monitoring module that automatically alerts key staff when parents report children's absence due to wellbeing concerns such as anxiety, stress, crying, fatigue or depression. Designed to operationalise early intervention on pupils' mental health and safeguarding signals inside the Studybugs Core Platform.
- Studybugs Attendance Attendance management and intervention module that completes the whole-school approach by automatically alerting staff to attendance triggers and patterns, surfacing persistent absence and providing dashboards used by attendance officers, SLT and local authorities. Schools using Studybugs Attendance reported a 7x improvement against the national attendance average and 2-3x faster persistent absence reduction in 2024/25.
- Parent Time Flexible school-parent video meeting system. Teachers set available slots and parents book and join appointments, supporting multiple participants and integrating with Studybugs messaging. Licensed per pupil at approximately £30 per month for an average primary school, with bundle discounts for schools using other Studybugs products and free for parents.
- Studybugs Anonymised Open Data API Public API providing anonymised sick and well reports in JSON or CSV (gzip-compressed) to researchers, NHS, UKHSA and other public health partners. Endpoints return coded symptoms, time, approximate location with random offset, gender, birth year and anonymous keys, with up to 10,000 reports per request and offset-based pagination. Licensed under the Open Database License.
Quantifiable outcome
- Schools improve attendance 7x national average
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use Studybugs
Customer profileNamed customers9 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles5 records
Studybugs technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability2 records
Feature4 records
Studybugs partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
14 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Brighton & Sussex Medical School (BSMS)coreINSPIRE project collaboration to improve health of children with asthma. Collecting data via Studybugs app and delivering tailored advice. Co-authored research on childhood asthma.
- Royal Alexandra Children's HospitalcoreINSPIRE project partner working with Studybugs to improve childhood asthma management and reduce school absence.
- EpiConceptminorPublic health specialists partnered on INSPIRE project for childhood asthma research.
- Open Data Institute (ODI)coreAwarded backing from the Open Data Institute (co-founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee) in September 2015 to accelerate collection of open data for public health benefit.
- UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)coreStudybugs feeds anonymised illness data into UKHSA's syndromic surveillance system, providing early warnings of disease outbreaks and supporting public health response.
- Department for EducationcoreCommitted to providing core platform free forever at DfE's request to maximise school access. Supports government attendance and safeguarding objectives.
- Brighton & Hove City CouncilcoreDirector of Public Health partnership. Featured in annual public health report. Working on local public health developments for children's health.
- NHScoreWorking with NHS on early intervention and collaboration. Support for NHS trusts and healthcare providers. NHS logo featured as partner.
- Police / Operation EncompasscoreSupport for Operation Encompass and other police/public agency initiatives to ensure children's health and safety.
- WondecoreMIS integration partner for schools not using SIMS, Arbor, or Bromcom. Enables Studybugs to work with most MIS systems.
- SIMS (Capita)coreMIS integration for real-time two-way synchronisation of attendance and student data.
- ArborcoreMIS integration for real-time two-way synchronisation.
- BromcomcoreMIS integration for real-time two-way synchronisation.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)corePhysical infrastructure hosted and managed by Amazon in Republic of Ireland. AWS provides secure, high-availability data centre services.
Scale indicators13 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Studybugs competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Weduc: UK parent-school communication and attendance platform. Directly comparable freemium SaaS targeting UK schools with similar attendance messaging focus.
- ScholarPack: UK school MIS targeted at primary schools with attendance, assessment, and reporting. Comparable single-country UK K-12 SaaS with overlapping attendance/wellbeing workflows and primary-school focus.
- iSAMS: UK-focused MIS for independent schools with attendance, safeguarding, and parent portal features. Comparable school management SaaS in the UK K-12 segment targeting a related but slightly different buyer (independent schools).
- SIMS (Capita): UK's leading school MIS with attendance, safeguarding, and parent communication features deeply embedded across UK state schools. Directly competes with overlapping attendance/management capabilities and broader SIS scope.
- Arbor: Cloud-based UK school MIS with attendance management and parent communication. Direct competitor with overlapping features and similar school-facing GTM in UK state schools.
- Bromcom: UK school MIS with attendance, assessment, and communication tools. Direct overlap with Studybugs in attendance tracking and primary/secondary UK state school customer base.
- Groupcall: UK attendance, messaging, and parental engagement platform for schools, now part of IRIS. Direct functional overlap with Studybugs' attendance and communication product suite targeting UK schools.
Emerging players
- CPOMS: UK safeguarding software for schools with mental health and wellbeing tracking. Overlaps specifically with Studybugs' Wellbeing module on the safeguarding and child-welfare side.
- Medical Tracker: UK student health and first-aid tracking software for schools. Overlaps with Studybugs on the child health/illness data capture and parental reporting side.
Broad incumbents
- ParentPay: UK's dominant school payments and parent engagement platform (part of IRIS). Broader incumbent with adjacent attendance/comms features already embedded in most UK schools, with much larger portfolio reach than Studybugs.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Studybugs social profiles
Digital presenceStudybugs compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance7 records
Studybugs financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Studybugs leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Studybugs funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Studybugs M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Studybugs
What does Studybugs do?
Studybugs operates a multi-agency school attendance and safeguarding platform sold to UK primary and secondary schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and Local Authorities. The core platform (free for all UK schools under a Department for Education commitment) provides app-based absence reporting, attendance tracking, instant messaging, safeguarding and wellbeing alerts, and two-way MIS integration, complemented by paid sub-branded modules including Registers (primary self-registration), Attendance (intervention alerts), Wellbeing (mental-health monitoring), and Parent Time (school-parent video meetings). A public Open Database License API exposes anonymised coded symptom data to researchers.
Is Studybugs a public or private company?
Studybugs is a private company. It is classified as management employee owned and is currently operating.
When was Studybugs founded?
Studybugs was founded in 2014. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Studybugs based?
Studybugs is headquartered in Brighton, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Studybugs make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Freemium Core Platform for Schools are the primary driver. The others are registers Module, parent Time Video Meetings and public Health Data Partnerships.
Who are Studybugs's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Weduc, ScholarPack, iSAMS, SIMS (Capita), Arbor, Bromcom and Groupcall. Emerging players are CPOMS and Medical Tracker. ParentPay is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Studybugs have an API?
Yes. Public API for accessing anonymised sick reports and well reports collected by Studybugs. Returns JSON or CSV format data compressed with gzip. Endpoints: GET https://studybugs.com/public-apis/sickdata (sick reports) and GET https://studybugs.com/public-apis/welldata (well reports). Requires Accept header for format specification (application/vnd.studybugs.data+json;v=1 or application/vnd.studybugs.data+csv;v=1). Returns up to 10,000 reports per request, using offset for pagination. Data is licensed under Open Database License. Developer documentation is at studybugs.com/opendata/access.
What industry is Studybugs in?
Studybugs's product category is School Attendance Management and Safeguarding Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDADAGAJ, Equity, Accessibility & Inclusion Compliance Reviews. Its NAICS code is 611710 and its SIC code is 8200.