Blackboard Reviews, Ratings & Features 2026 | Gartner Peer Insights

Gartner defines student information system (SIS) software as a service (SaaS) as a core system of record for higher education institutions that serves as the central hub for storing, organizing and processing student academic and administrative activities. The SIS supports student, faculty and staff-facing functionality, including management of information assets, while also supporting back-end administrative functionality. SIS SaaS is delivered under a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription license model (with regular updates), where application support and infrastructure provisioning and management are the responsibility of the vendor. Serving the students, faculty and administrative staff, the SIS provides a chronology of business transactions, academic activity, advising interactions and educational outcomes. Additionally, it manages vital information assets, including course offerings, course catalogs, course registration, student accounts, financial aid, grades and transcripts throughout the student life cycle. The SIS may be part of a larger administrative ERP application suite and a critical component of an education institution’s larger digital technology platform.

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Find the top Higher Education Student Information System Software as a Service with Gartner. Compare and filter by verified product reviews and choose the software that’s right for your organization.

Higher Education Student Information System Software as a Service (Transitioning to Higher Education SaaS Student Information Systems)

Anthology Student

Blackboard

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

We have gone through a lot of growth challenges with Anthology as they have expanded, but they have always provided strong customer service.

Gov't/PS/ED <5,000 Employees

<50M USD

250M - 500M USD

Manager of Enterprise Applications

The financial aid sector has limited options available for software.  While CampusNexus certainly has its issues, it's probably one of the best in the market space.  Their support can be difficult to deal with at times and their response times are higher than they should be, but they do eventually get the issue resolved.  Their updates are often buggy and they make changes that are not documented.  This can be aggravating and cause upgrades to be very problematic.

VP OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CIO

Anthology Student is a well-constructed, configurable system that enables an institution of higher education to be agile in its specific implementation

Ellucian

Oracle

Jenzabar

Workday

TechnologyOne

Blackboard focuses on providing digital platforms that support teaching and learning processes within educational institutions. Its main business addresses the need for a structured, accessible, and effective learning management system. Blackboard offers technology solutions aimed at enhancing institutional operations and academic delivery, with tools designed to support educators in managing courses and students in accessing educational resources.

Blackboard delivers the digital environment for transformational teaching and learning. We serve thousands of institutions with the industry's most AI-advanced LMS, Ally for accessibility, and institutional effectiveness solutions that put educators and learners at the center. We're an education company that builds technology.

Reviews

Ratings Overview

Overall experience with

Favorable Review

Configurability Applauded But Some Features Face Issues Due to Data Migration

Critical Review

CampusNexus decent product that needs better support.

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