Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 2 months ago by Rene.

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

Author
Posts
February 27, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Rene
Participant
Can anyone here give a comparison between the SCM Organizer and Homeschool Tracker? Does anyone use both?
February 27, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Des
Participant
hi, I have not used the SCM organizer, but I do use HSTP because I had it before the organizer was available. I would suggest that you use the free trial for the organizer and use the basic HST and see which one you like best. Both of these programs have excellent customer service. I do know that HSTP does have a learning curve. HTH!
February 27, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Doug Smith
Keymaster
One of the big differences is that, as far as we know, the CM Organizer is the only one designed specifically for a Charlotte Mason style education. That means you don’t have to try to force your flexible ways into a mold made primarily for tracking attendance, grades, and such.
Another big difference is that the CM Organizer is an online service instead of software you have to mess with installing. We think there are some big advantages to this approach, which we talked about in a couple old blog posts: 5 Reasons the CM Organizer Is an Online Service and Are my school records safe in the CM Organizer?.
Of course, the important thing is to find something that fits your family and style. That’s why we have the Organizer free trial. I would encourage you to take it for spin and also see if Homeschool Tracker has a demo. You might also want to have a look at our tutorial videos if you haven’t already.
Homeschool Tracker has a set of videos for their plus version you can look at too.
Hopefully, there are others here who have tried both and can give some feedback about their experience. By the way, if something fits your family better than what we offer we’re okay with you discussing it here. Please feel free to talk about all the options and we’ll all learn from your experience together.
February 27, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Susan
Member
I used the Homeschool Tracker free basic version for a couple of years and this year I switched to the SCM organizer. The main problem I had with HS Tracker is if you missed a lesson, you would have to reschedule all the upcoming lessons with a new date. I could never find an easy way to do this. I did like that you could put in grades if you wanted to use them and the reports were nice. Also you could print out the week’s worth of assignments or just the next day but with SCM you can only print the current day of assignments. It’s been a long time since I used Hs Tracker so I really can’t remember everything about it. It would be worth it to try both since the basic version of HS Tracker is free and you can try the free trial of SCM.
Good luck!
February 27, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Rene
Participant
Thank you, Doug. I *was* wondering if it was okay to ask about/discuss other organizers. 🙂
I started using the Organizer 2 days ago and LOVE it!! Everything about the way it works is nice, and it’s visually appealing as well. The main thing I love is that it updates unfinished assignments for me – but I might give HST a try to compare.