TutorBird

What TutorBird is

TutorBird is web-based business management software for tutors. The homepage says that since 2014 it has been "the #1 tutor management software for private tutors, tutoring centers, and test prep centers," and it lists four kinds of user: private tutoring, tutoring centers, traveling tutors and online tutoring. It is made by Port 443 Inc., and the site describes the team as "Real people in Canada building and supporting your business." The same company runs My Music Staff for music teachers and AthletaDesk for personal trainers, so TutorBird is its version of the same idea for academic tutoring.

The product covers the office work around lessons rather than the lessons themselves: student records, a calendar with attendance, invoicing and online payments, payroll for a team, a student portal, a website builder and a set of integrations. One subscription includes all of it. A solo tutor and a center with a team of tutors use the same software; the price simply rises with the number of tutors and staff.

Students, leads and communication

The student management module keeps student profiles, family contact details, lesson tracking, progress notes and file sharing together. Tutors can track a waitlist and leads, import an existing student list, and send bulk emails and SMS messages to groups of students or parents. A consultation feature lets new families self-book a free or paid consultation on the tutor's website, with payment collected at booking, and new leads are tagged automatically so they are easy to sort later.

Scheduling and attendance

The calendar handles private and group lessons, with customizable categories and locations. Automatic email and SMS reminders go out before lessons, and the integrations page says meeting links can be included in those reminders so students join an online lesson with one click. Tutors take attendance and record detailed notes from the calendar, and rescheduling, cancellations and two-way calendar sync are listed among the scheduling features. The integrations page names Google Calendar and iCalendar for that sync, and the pricing page adds Outlook. Lessons appear in the tutor's personal calendar and personal events appear in TutorBird, which helps avoid double-booking.

For online teaching, tutors can save FaceTime usernames or virtual meeting URLs such as a Zoom link and join lessons straight from the calendar. Lessonspace collaborative whiteboards can be opened from the Home Agenda or the calendar.

Invoicing and payments

Billing is calendar-based: invoices are built from the lessons on the schedule. TutorBird creates and sends invoices automatically, takes online payments, sends overdue reminders and can add late fees. Tutors can sell packages of lessons and track how much of each package has been used. Stripe and PayPal process payments, families can pay in a few clicks or switch on Auto Pay, and the homepage lists Visa, MasterCard, Amex, ACH in the US and Bacs in the UK as accepted methods. The business features add expense tracking, mileage tracking, revenue reports and tax summaries, which suits a traveling tutor who needs to claim mileage at tax time.

Learning management and the student portal

TutorBird is not a course platform, but it does include a learning management module for the work that happens between lessons. The pricing page lists lesson notes, file sharing, video uploads, assignments and student progress tracking. Through the Student Portal, students and parents can book lessons under the tutor's own booking and cancellation policies, pay online, see payment history, submit homework and read shared lesson notes, online resources and business updates. Self-service scheduling in the portal is optional, so a tutor who prefers to set every lesson can switch it off.

Running a team

The multi-tutor features are where TutorBird fits a training team or a center. Each tutor or staff member gets an individual login and sees their own schedule, takes their own attendance and writes their own lesson notes. Permissions are set per person, so one staff member may only take attendance while another updates the website and creates reports. Payroll is calculated as a flat hourly rate or a percentage of a tutor's revenue, with category payroll overrides for cases where one kind of lesson pays differently from another. Each tutor can have their own time zone, which keeps scheduling and notifications right for a team spread across regions, and availability can be set by date range and location and controlled through the booking forms.

Website builder and integrations

The website builder uses a drag-and-drop visual editor with mobile-friendly templates, brand colors, logo and custom domain, plus a sign-up form for new students and online lesson booking. Tutors who already have a site on Wix, Squarespace, WordPress or another builder can embed TutorBird's sign-up widget and Student Portal login widget instead. The pricing page lists Stripe, PayPal, Lessonspace, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, Zoom, Google Calendar, Outlook and QuickBooks as integrations, with Zapier connecting TutorBird to thousands of other apps.

Pricing, trial and support

Pricing is a single plan with every feature included. The pricing page lists $16.95 a month, plus $4.95 a month for each additional tutor or staff member, and says there are no hidden fees. The FAQ adds several limits that matter for budgeting: there is no cap on the number of students, file storage is unlimited as long as each file is under 2GB, SMS reminders are included at no extra cost, and a website built with TutorBird is hosted for free.

The free trial runs 30 days with full access and no credit card. Plans can be upgraded, downgraded or canceled at any time with no contracts, and the FAQ says that if TutorBird is not the right fit, a customer who says so within the first 90 days gets a full refund. Support is free by phone and email, with toll-free lines for the US and Canada, a UK number and an international number, plus a support center of articles and a YouTube channel of video tutorials. The software is available in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German and Polish. The homepage shows a 4.8 rating from 265 reviews.

Customer stories

The success stories page features David O'Keefe of David O'Keefe Education in Essex, England, a former deputy head teacher who built a garden classroom into a business serving 40 students a week and tripled it, using TutorBird to recover lost revenue and automate admin without hiring office staff. Lynn Brown, M.Ed., of the Willamette Valley Dyslexia Center grew from a solo practice into a team of seven, with TutorBird running scheduling, billing, student records and communication. A testimonial from Stephanie M. on the multi-tutor page says automatic invoicing and online payments "freed up our administrative staff to do other work."

Who it suits

TutorBird suits independent tutors, traveling tutors and small to mid-sized tutoring centers that want scheduling, billing and payroll in one inexpensive subscription. The flat monthly price with no student cap works well for a tutor with a full roster, and the 90-day refund lowers the risk of switching. Centers with several tutors get individual logins, per-person permissions and payroll rules without paying for a higher tier.

The caveat is scope. The learning tools cover files, assignments and notes, not full courses, quizzes or certificates, so a business that sells self-paced courses would pair TutorBird with a course platform. And because cost grows by $4.95 per tutor or staff member, a large team should total its headcount against the pricing page first.