The story tends to follow a familiar pattern. You find a platform that looks right for a small school. You request a demo. A sales call follows. Then come the tiers, the implementation quote, the migration fee, the training package, and the figure you will actually pay once the standard features are unlocked. By the time you have a number you can take to the District or the Board, it bears little resemblance to what was on the pricing page. Budgeting becomes guesswork, and guesswork is not something a bursar or school secretary can afford.

This guide is about the part of that problem that Daviah directly addresses: the cost of getting started, the cost of staying, and the cost of leaving. It is honest about what Daviah does not yet solve — the complexity, implementation time and training burden that platform vendors also routinely understate — and it will not pretend otherwise. What it can tell you is how pricing and commitment work, in plain terms, before you enter a card number.

Starting costs nothing and asks for almost nothing

Signing up requires a name, an email address and a password. No card, no phone number and no domain name are needed. A school signs up and is inside.

On the free plan, you can build and save your school's entire website and view it through a private link before anyone else sees it. The site does not go public until you choose a paid plan. Nothing you build expires. If the evaluation takes three weeks or three months, what you built is still there.

That means the decision about whether Daviah fits your school can be made with a complete picture of what the site will look like, at no cost, with no clock running.

What changes when you pay — and what it costs

There are two paid plans. The Website plan, at $29.99 a month, publishes your site with its own address on the platform, a contact form, events, news and galleries. The Website and Members plan, at $79.99 a month, adds the full office behind the site: student records, fees, meetings, minutes, documents, messages, attendance, check-in and the student portal. Paying yearly costs less — $300 a year for the Website plan, or $819.99 a year for Website and Members.

Those are the prices. The price is the same whatever the size of the school's roll.

No contract and no penalty for leaving

Both paid plans run month to month with no contract. If the school's circumstances change, or if a better option appears, you stop. You are not locked in.

If a payment ever fails, nothing is withheld for ten days, and the school receives three emails before anything stops. If the school stops paying altogether, its records remain readable, and CSV exports of students, fees, payments and officers continue to work. When the school returns, the site and office come back as they were.

What you can find out before committing

Because the free plan does not expire and does not ask for a card, a small school can take whatever time it needs to build, review and evaluate. The site can be previewed through a private link. Colleagues can be invited to look. The decision can be taken to the Board or the District with a real example in hand, not a vendor's demo.

If the school decides to publish, the first charge is the first month's plan fee. If it decides Daviah is not the right fit, nothing has been spent.

What this guide does not cover

The cost problem with school management platforms is not only about the price on the invoice. The complaint that comes up most often also covers how complex these systems are to set up, how much technical knowledge they demand from the people running them, how long implementation takes, and how much training a small team needs before they can do basic tasks without help.

None of the facts about Daviah address those questions directly. This guide cannot tell you that Daviah is simple to set up, that implementation is fast, or that no training is needed — those questions are best answered by trying it, which the free plan makes possible. But this guide will not overstate what it knows.

The concern about hidden fees for features that should be standard is only partially addressed here. Daviah allows importing people from a CSV file, with automatic column matching and a review step before anything is saved. Whether that covers your school's specific migration needs depends on what you have and how it is structured, and that is worth investigating before you commit.

Questions

Does signing up require a credit card?

No. Signing up requires only a name, an email address and a password. No card, no phone number and no domain name are needed.

Can we build the site before deciding whether to pay?

Yes. On the free plan you can build and save your school's complete website and view it through a private link. Nothing expires. The site is not published to the public until you choose a paid plan.

Is there a contract or minimum term?

No. Both paid plans run month to month with no contract. Paying yearly costs less, but there is no obligation to do so.

What happens to our records if we stop paying?

Records remain readable. Exports of students, fees, payments and officers continue to work. When the school returns, the site and office come back as they were.

Does the price change based on how many students are on the roll?

No. The price is the same whatever the size of the school's roll.

Does Daviah address the complexity and training burden these platforms are known for?

Not in ways this guide can confirm. The free plan lets you find out for yourself whether the platform suits your team, but this guide will not claim that setup is simple or that no training is needed — those questions are best answered by trying it.

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