Free Online School Timetable Software

Searching for “free online school timetable software” mostly turns up tools sold by quote, with no public price, or portals that display a timetable already built somewhere else without ever saying who actually calculated it. The two confusions overlap: an “online” tool isn’t necessarily free, and a free tool isn’t necessarily online — some of the best solvers are software you install locally.

This ranking compares seven tools genuinely used to manage school timetables in France in 2026: what each one does, what it doesn’t, what it costs, and who it’s for — including when the answer isn’t BeeNet. Two of them (Skolengo, Beneylu) don’t appear in any other comparison published on this site to date; the three tools that already dominate the French market (Pronote, EDT, EcoleDirecte) get lighter treatment here, with links to our dedicated comparisons for pricing detail and app-store ratings.

What should you check before choosing a free online school timetable tool?

Before comparing tool names, five questions decide most of the rest of the choice:

1. Does the tool generate the timetable, or just display it? Solving under constraints — which teacher, in which room, at which time, without double-booking anyone — is a real combinatorial problem. Very few free tools solve it; many just display a timetable built elsewhere.
2. Does the free tier cover the actual need, or only part of it? A tool can be free for building the timetable and paid for distributing it to families, or the other way around — the word “free” on a homepage doesn’t say which.
3. Is the tool actually online, or does it need installing? Local software has no cloud account and no multi-device sync by default; a free cloud service, in return, needs to document where the data is hosted — few do.
4. Is the interface available in your language? Several free international solvers have never shipped a French translation, a real obstacle for a leadership team that has to use it daily.
5. Does the tool cover the school year after it starts? A timetable frozen in August almost never survives intact to the autumn break: substitutions, room bookings and exam periods change the picture, and a simple free export usually doesn’t handle them.

None of the seven tools in this comparison checks all five boxes for free. Knowing which one is your actual need decides the rest of this read.

The 7 best online school timetable tools in 2026

1. FET (Free Timetabling Software) — the one genuinely free solver in this ranking

FET is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3), built to automatically generate the timetable for a school, high school or university. It’s the only tool in this ranking that actually solves the combinatorial problem — teachers, rooms, classes, time slots — without ever charging for that calculation: the project remains actively maintained, with a new major version released on 1 September 2026.

FET installs locally (Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux via Qt): no cloud account, no data sent to a third party by default — and so, honestly, not “online” in the strict sense, unlike the other six tools in this ranking. The developer claims a complex timetable solves “in 5 to 20 minutes maximum” — a vendor claim worth testing on your own case rather than taking as a universal guarantee.

Its real limits: no French-language interface was confirmed on the official site at the time of this check — the tool appears to run in English. It’s also a pure calculation tool: once the timetable is generated, there is no family portal, no automatic notification, no mid-year substitution management. You need to pair it with another tool for that.

Best for: a school that only needs the combinatorial calculation, has someone comfortable configuring constraints in English, and plans to distribute the result some other way.

2. Skolengo — the regional school platform that builds and shares the timetable

Skolengo, published by Kosmos, is the platform behind several French regional school-IT programs — including “Mon Bureau Numérique” in the Versailles, Créteil and Montpellier education authorities (académies). Unlike Pronote or EcoleDirecte, Skolengo both builds and distributes the timetable: track and elective management, automatic absence notifications, room booking, boarding and canteen management, all accessible online and offline through its mobile app.

Hosting is one of the most specific in this ranking: data hosted in France with NFrance in Toulouse, ISO 27001 certification, and a claimed HDS certification (health-data hosting) — a bar higher than standard GDPR compliance, if it holds for your contract. The interface ships in French, English, German and Spanish — not Arabic.

Its real limit for this ranking: no public pricing was found — Skolengo sells by quote to education authorities and local governments (a B2G model), not free to an individual school. Its App Store listing shows 2.77/5 across 632 reviews, a score worth reading carefully: part of the review text follows the same pattern seen on Pronote — students joking about school as a video game rather than feedback on the software itself.

Best for: a middle or high school already attached to a regional school-IT program that includes Skolengo, or a local authority negotiating at the district level rather than school by school.

3. Beneylu — the timetable built into the primary-school platform

Beneylu School bundles about twenty apps for French primary schools, including the class timetable, alongside the digital homework notebook, school-family messaging and a class news feed. Along with Skolengo, it’s one of two tools in this ranking absent from comparisons already published on this site — a gap its presence in nearly 50,000 French primary-school classrooms, including the Créteil education authority since the 2025 school year, didn’t justify.

Its pricing is published and transparent — a rare trait in this category: €79 (tax included) per class per year or €299 per school per year for the standard tier; the “Infini” tier (€179–599/year) adds a library of teaching resources. There is no free tier for a whole school, though a single class can reportedly start for free per secondary sources. Data is hosted with Scaleway and OVH — two named French hosting providers, the most concrete GDPR-hosting claim in this ranking.

Its real limit: built for primary schools only — no middle/high-school version, no sports-club or community-center edition. No substantial Capterra, GetApp or Trustpilot review was found to corroborate user satisfaction beyond the vendor’s own marketing — a genuine research gap, not an invented answer.

Best for: a primary school or small multi-class organization that wants a timetable built into school-family communication, at a published, predictable price. See also our Beneylu alternatives comparison for a broader look at its features.

4. EDT (Index Education) — the dedicated solver for middle and high schools

EDT is the timetable-building software from Pronote’s publisher (Index Education, a Docaposte/La Poste Group subsidiary since 2020) — it feeds the timetable view families later see inside Pronote. Along with FET, it’s one of two tools in this ranking that actually solves the combinatorial problem, with substitute-teacher management enriched in 2026 (distinguishing accepted, refused and voluntary substitutions).

Pricing is not published, the same opaque model as Pronote — no free option here. Hosting benefits from Index Education’s SecNumCloud qualification, without a data-center declaration specific to EDT. No App Store or Capterra listing exists: it’s an installed administrative tool, not a consumer app, which explains the absence of reviews rather than a research gap.

Best for: a middle or high school already subscribed to Pronote that needs the dedicated solver — family-facing distribution already being covered by the existing subscription.

5. Pronote — the French default, timetable included

Pronote equips, per Index Education’s own figures, 90% of French public middle and high schools. The timetable is just one piece of its “school life” suite — grades, homework notebook, messaging, absences — but it’s the piece families check most often.

Its App Store rating (1.55/5 across 28,538 reviews) needs a caveat before it’s cited on its own: the review text is dominated by students hijacking the format to parody schooling itself as a video game — a documented genre specific to Pronote’s App Store page, not a reliable signal about the software’s quality. No public pricing exists; hosting carries the same SecNumCloud qualification as EDT.

Best for: nearly every French public middle and high school already has default access — the question is usually not “should we adopt it” but “what to pair it with,” which this ranking covers through EDT, FET and the other options here. Our detailed Pronote alternatives comparison goes deeper on this point.

6. EcoleDirecte — the portal for contracted private schools

EcoleDirecte, published by Aplim, covers grades, homework notebooks, absences, messaging and the timetable for French private schools under state contract, with more than a million claimed users. Like Pronote, it’s a viewing portal — the timetable is displayed there, not generated.

Its real, documented limit: recurring reports of connection drops and server overload during peak periods (end of term, exam season) — exactly the moments when a reliable timetable matters most. Its App Store rating (1.93/5 across 21,050 reviews) carries the same “meme review” caveat as Pronote’s. Aplim doesn’t manage user accounts directly: support routes through the school, not a direct vendor contact — a structural friction distinct from the rating itself. Hosting is declared in France, with a “Service France Garanti” certification claimed by the vendor.

Best for: a contracted private school that needs the standard portal for that sector — going in aware of the mobile app’s durably low reputation on both stores. See also our EcoleDirecte alternatives comparison.

7. BeeNet — the timetable built into communication, not a solver

BeeNet approaches the timetable differently from the six tools above: it isn’t a solver, it’s a classroom management module built into a school-family communication platform usable by schools, sports clubs and daycares under the same license. An administrator defines each session — subject, teacher, room, time slot — individually, rather than relying on an engine that computes an optimal timetable on its own. The module covers exam periods, room booking and documented substitutions (the regular teacher and the substitute are both recorded, with a reason when the school requires one, and automatic notification to affected families), all integrated into a unified calendar that brings together classes, exams, homework and meetings.

Two honest caveats worth knowing before evaluating BeeNet for this specific need:

First, like Pronote, EcoleDirecte and Beneylu, BeeNet does not solve the combinatorial problem on the school’s behalf — there is no engine that automatically generates an optimal teacher-room-class timetable under constraints. A school that only needs that calculation is better served by FET (for free) or by EDT (paid).

Second, and this is the most important point for a “free” search: BeeNet’s schedule module is not part of the free tier. BeeNet’s free plan genuinely exists — €0/month for up to 25 members — but it covers messaging and basic organization management, not classroom and schedule management, which starts with the Professional plan at €149/month (500 members). Another limit worth knowing: BeeNet does not yet offer external calendar sync (Google, Outlook, Apple), a subscribable feed, or iCal export.

What BeeNet offers in exchange for that trade-off: schedule, attendance, homework, school-family messaging and student safety share the same platform, with passwordless parent login, a native mobile app, and — the only tool in this ranking to offer it — a native Arabic interface with full RTL support alongside French and English. BeeNet is also the only tool in this ranking to serve schools, sports clubs and daycares under one license rather than a single type of institution.

Best for: a school, sports club or daycare whose real friction isn’t calculating the timetable but keeping it alive (substitutions, rooms, family communication) on a single platform at a published price, and that accepts the module itself isn’t free.

Comparison table

	BeeNet	FET	Skolengo	Beneylu	EDT	Pronote	EcoleDirecte
Generates the timetable under constraints	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Genuinely free	❌ (schedule module)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Actually online (cloud)	✅	❌ (local)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
French interface	✅	⚠️ (not confirmed)	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Room booking / exam periods	✅	⚠️ (generic)	⚠️ (n.c.)	⚠️ (n.c.)	✅	✅	⚠️ (n.c.)
Documented substitutions	✅	❌	⚠️ (n.c.)	⚠️ (n.c.)	✅	⚠️ (n.c.)	⚠️ (n.c.)
Built-in school-family communication	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅	✅
Multi-org (schools, clubs, daycares)	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Arabic interface + RTL	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Pricing published online	✅	✅ (free)	❌	✅	❌	❌	❌
Named France/EU hosting	✅ (EU)	n.c. (depends on chosen host)	✅ (NFrance)	✅ (Scaleway/OVH)	⚠️ (presumed)	⚠️ (presumed)	⚠️ (claimed, not audited)

“n.c.” means the information wasn’t found in a verifiable public source during this research pass — an acknowledged gap, not an invented answer.

Which school timetable software should you choose?

• You only need to calculate the timetable under constraints, on no budget → FET, accepting a non-French interface and no family portal.
• School attached to a regional school-IT program → Skolengo, if your education authority or local government has already subscribed.
• Primary school looking for an all-in-one platform at a published price → Beneylu, starting at €79/year per class.
• Middle or high school already subscribed to Pronote, needs just the solver → EDT, already tied to the existing subscription.
• Contracted private school → EcoleDirecte, going in aware of its durably low app-store reputation.
• Schedule, attendance, substitutions and communication in one multi-org tool, published pricing, built by hand → BeeNet, with the honest caveat that the schedule module isn’t free and starts at the Professional plan.

Frequently asked questions

Is there truly free, online school timetable software?

Only one tool in this ranking is both free and actually generates a timetable: FET, an open-source solver. But FET isn’t “online” in the strict sense — it’s software installed locally, not a cloud service. None of the other six tools, BeeNet included, offers free timetable generation hosted online.

What’s the difference between a school ENT platform and timetable software?

A French “ENT” (digital workspace) platform, like Skolengo or Beneylu, bundles the timetable, messaging, homework notebook and absences into one institutional platform. Dedicated timetable software like EDT or FET does one thing — calculate the timetable under constraints — with no built-in messaging or family portal.

Is BeeNet’s schedule module free?

No. BeeNet’s free plan (€0/month for up to 25 members) covers messaging and basic organization management, but not the classroom and schedule module, which is part of the Professional plan at €149/month (500 members) — verified directly against BeeNet’s licensing catalog at the time this article was published.

Can you manage a primary school’s timetable with the same tools as a middle school?

Not always. Beneylu and BeeNet cover primary schools; Pronote, EDT and Skolengo mainly target middle and high schools. A small organization can also stay on a paper timetable or a spreadsheet for a single kindergarten or elementary classroom, without dedicated software.

Should you use online software or installed software to manage a school timetable?

It depends on the need: FET, the only installed tool in this ranking, calculates the timetable with no cloud account and no data sent to a third party by default — an advantage for anyone who prioritizes local control. The other six tools are hosted online, which allows multi-device access and real-time updates for families, at the cost of depending on the chosen host.

How do you manage substitutions and room bookings once the timetable is built?

This is where EDT, BeeNet and, to a lesser extent, Skolengo stand apart from Pronote, EcoleDirecte or FET: EDT has documented accepted, refused and voluntary substitutions since 2026; BeeNet records the regular teacher and the substitute with automatic notification to affected families. FET, by contrast, stops once the initial timetable is calculated — handling the unexpected isn’t part of its scope.

In summary

No tool in this ranking checks “generates the timetable,” “free” and “online” at the same time: FET calculates for free but installs locally, Skolengo and Beneylu are online but paid, and BeeNet manages a timetable’s day-to-day life once it’s built without generating it or offering it for free. If your organization — school, sports club or daycare — has outgrown that framing and is looking to bring schedule, attendance and school-family communication into one tool at a published price, book a BeeNet demo to see whether the fit matches yours; it’s one option to evaluate among those listed here, not the universal answer.