Comparison · compiled August 2026
AltEd vs TutorCruncher
TutorCruncher is the UK agency tool, and it takes a percentage of what you earn. AltEd is a flat £19 a month with prepaid session packs — but it is not an agency platform, and we will be straight with you about that.
The short answer
Two tools, two different jobs
Both of these are real recommendations. If the right answer for you is on the right-hand side, take it.
Choose AltEd if you are a tutor, not an agency
If you teach the sessions yourself — solo, or with a small tuition practice — you are paying agency prices for agency machinery you never open, plus a slice of every pound you earn. AltEd is a flat fee, prepaid packs, a shared ledger, and a real learning record for the family. Growth costs you nothing extra.
- Flat £19 a month however much you bill — no percentage of revenue, now or later.
- Prepaid session packs: sell a block up front, each completed session draws one down. Our analysis records this as a known gap at TutorCruncher and a frequent complaint.
- The families you teach get a real record — curricula, marked work, attendance, evidence, a printable education record — not just an invoice.
- UK-native throughout: pounds, UK English, and the Children Not in School register treated as a real concern.
Stay with TutorCruncher if you run an agency
TutorCruncher is built for tutoring agencies and AltEd is not. Our analysis credits it with UK invoicing, tutor payroll and agency workflows — the machinery of paying a roster of tutors, running multiple branches and handling agency-scale communications. AltEd has one provider account per business and no payroll at all. If you have tutors on your books to pay, this comparison ends here.
- Tutor payroll — AltEd has nothing equivalent.
- Multi-branch and multi-staff agency structures; AltEd is single-account today.
- Established UK product with years of agency-specific workflow and support behind it.
- Communications tooling built for agency scale; AltEd has in-app messaging and notifications, and no SMS.
Pricing
What each one costs
| AltEd | TutorCruncher | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free for one learner — no card, no time limit | Paid from the start; roughly £25–30/month (as of August 2026) |
| Provider plan | £19/month, or £190/year — unlimited students and families | Roughly £25–30/month plus around 1% of revenue processed, per our August 2026 analysis |
| Percentage of your revenue | None, ever. Bill £500 a month or £5,000 — the price is the same | Around 1% of revenue, which our analysis records as the most-complained-about pricing in the segment |
| At £4,000/month billed | £19/month | Roughly £65–70/month once the revenue percentage is included — verify against their current terms |
| Card processing | Stripe's standard fees, passed through with nothing added on top | Card payment supported; the processor's fees apply on top of the revenue percentage |
The revenue percentage is the whole argument, so please verify it against TutorCruncher's current terms rather than taking our figure — it is a compiled snapshot from August 2026 and their pricing model may have changed. The worked example above is arithmetic on that snapshot, not a quotation.
Feature by feature
The honest matrix
Rows where AltEd loses are in here on purpose. So are the rows where we simply could not establish the answer.
- Yes — built and working
- Partial or unclear — partly there, or our research couldn't establish it
- No — not available
| Capability | AltEd | TutorCruncher |
|---|---|---|
| Flat pricing with no revenue share | Yes. £19/month or £190/year, whatever you bill. This will not change for the model. | No. Our analysis records roughly £25–30/month plus around 1% of revenue, and identifies the revenue share as a significant source of user resentment. |
| Prepaid session packs | Yes. Sell a block of sessions up front; each completed session consumes one, and the balance is visible to both sides. | No. Our August 2026 analysis records prepaid packages as absent from TutorCruncher and as a frequent complaint. |
| UK invoicing and GBP throughout | Yes. Built in the UK: pounds, UK English, UK-facing throughout. | Yes. UK invoicing is one of its recorded strengths. |
| Tutor payroll | No. Not built, and not planned in the near term. If you pay tutors, this is a blocker. | Yes. Payroll is one of the agency workflows our analysis credits it with. |
| Multi-branch, multi-staff agency structure | No. AltEd has a single provider account per business. No branches, no staff sub-accounts, no per-tutor permissions. | Yes. Agency workflows are what the product is built around. |
| Session billing ledger both sides can see | Yes. Lesson pricing with volume discounts, automatic charges, credits with approval, prepaid packs, payment reminders and a shared transaction history. | Yes. Billing is core to the product — although structured around the agency rather than shared with the family as an education record. |
| Online card payments | Yes. Families settle a balance by card via Stripe; we never see or store card numbers. | Yes. Card payment is part of the platform. |
| A learning record the family keeps | Yes. Curricula, lessons, assignments with marking and feedback, a gradebook, and a resource library owned by the family. | No. TutorCruncher is an agency platform. Our analysis found no family-side planning and records product; families are counted as clients. |
| Attendance, hours and evidence for a local-authority review | Yes. Hours and attendance logged per learner, portfolio evidence tagged to subjects, and a printable education record. | No. Our analysis found no local-authority or Children Not in School framing anywhere in this segment, TutorCruncher included. |
| SMS to families | No. AltEd has in-app messaging and email notifications. There is no SMS. | Yes. Agency-scale communications tooling is part of the platform; check their current plans for what is included at which tier. |
| Two-way Google Calendar sync | No. One-way iCalendar subscription feeds only — your AltEd calendar shows in Google, Apple or Outlook, but edits there do not come back. | Partial or unclear. We did not establish TutorCruncher's calendar-sync behaviour either way. Our analysis records two-way sync as unsolved across this segment. |
| Maturity and user base | No. AltEd launched in 2026 with a small user base. For a business that depends on its billing tool, that is a real consideration. | Yes. An established UK product with a substantial agency customer base. |
Reasons people switch
What tips the decision, when it tips
The revenue share grows and the software doesn't
A percentage of revenue means a good term costs you more for exactly the same product. A flat fee means growth is yours.
You want to sell blocks of sessions
Prepaid packs improve your cash flow and cut the family's admin to one payment a term. AltEd does them today; our analysis records them as a gap at TutorCruncher.
You are a practice, not an agency
If nobody is on your payroll, you are paying for payroll, branches and agency machinery that will never earn their keep.
Your families are home-educating
UK home-educating families need a record and evidence, not just an invoice. That is the half of AltEd an agency platform does not have.
How to move across
Switching, without a leap of faith
Step 1
1. Start free, in parallel
Sign in with your email — no password, no card. Set up one learner (or one family) alongside your current tool rather than instead of it. Nothing is cancelled and nothing is at risk.Step 2
2. Re-key what's live, not what's history
There is no automated importer today — we won't pretend otherwise. In practice you only need what's currently running: active students, the subjects they're studying, and your lesson prices. Past invoices are best left where they are, exported as PDFs for your records.Step 3
3. Connect the other side
Families invite providers (or providers invite families) and the other side consents. Consent is what grants access to a learner's records, and a family can withdraw it at any time — so nobody is handing over a child's data on trust.Step 4
4. Run one cycle on both
Schedule a fortnight of sessions in AltEd while your old tool still runs. Confirm sessions from both sides, watch the charges land in the ledger, and take one card payment. If the numbers agree, the switch is proven.Step 5
5. Close the old account — after you've exported
Download your invoices, client list and any reports from your existing tool before you cancel. Once you're on AltEd your records stay exportable too; leaving later should never cost you your history.
FAQ
Questions, answered
About this comparison
Everything on this page about TutorCruncher was compiled in August 2026 from public pricing and product information and public review sources, as recorded in our internal market analysis. We have not tested the product first-hand, and the pricing figures — including the roughly 1% revenue share the comparison turns on — are a snapshot that may since have changed. Please check tutorcruncher.com before making a decision, and tell us if anything here is out of date.
TutorCruncher is a trademark of its respective owner. AltEd is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them.
Try it yourself
Try AltEd alongside TutorCruncher
Running both for a fortnight tells you more than any comparison table — including this one. One learner costs nothing and needs no card.
Free plan · No card needed · Built for UK home education