Arbor Education Reviews 

149
TrustScore 1 out of 5

1.2

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 72 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Customers find the mobile application and desktop website frustratingly difficult to navigate, with important features buried deep inside convoluted menus. Many people frequently experience persistent technical failures, such as unexpected system logouts, application crashes, and frustrating password reset issues that waste valuable time. However, some people mentioned specific difficulties regarding the management of school homework tasks and tracking student assignments properly. Reviewers also noted that simply logging into the platform takes far too much time and adds unnecessary daily stress for busy parents. Consumers feel that the software is completely unfit for its intended purpose and desperately needs a complete design overhaul.

What people talk about most

User experience

Reviewers mention negative feedback about user experience, describing the application as clunky, unintuitive,... See more

Application

Clients share negative opinions on app, expressing immense frustration regarding its poor functionality and... See more

Website

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of the website, expressing widespread frustration with its poor design... See more

Product

People report negative experiences with product, describing it as entirely unfit for purpose and a vacuum of... See more

Service

Users describe negative interactions with service, expressing deep dissatisfaction and calling the experience... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Arbor is by far the worst school app I have encountered. It is confusing and consistently makes errors. Messages from the school do not come through properly and it messes up simple things such as tim... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Worse than Parentmail, which is saying something. Like Parentmail they offer no support and direct to the school for anything (so any bug report is impossible to make). Unlike Parentmail it's impossib... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Arbor is undisputedly the worst homework app to use from a student's side. I don't know what it's like for the parent and staff counterparts, but it's inconvenient, messy, lacks so many typical featur... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Unfortunately my children’s school has changed to this new platform. It is confusing and so much more difficult to use than the prior platform. It has taken me almost thirty minutes to book breakfast... See more


Company details

Written by the company

At Arbor, we’re on a mission to transform the way schools work for the better, with brilliant, intuitive tools designed to make a difference. We’re the UK’s most popular cloud-based MIS, and are used by over 5,000 schools and 400 MATs to work more collaboratively, free staff from unnecessary admin and make a measurable improvement to the way they work each day.


Contact info

1.2

Bad

TrustScore 1 out of 5

149 reviews

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1-star

No recent history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative

Replied to 9% of negative reviews

Typically replies within 2 weeks

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1.2

All reviews

(149)

65 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely ridiculous App

Absolutely ridiculous App. Way too difficult to find what you're looking for. Far worse than the Teacher/Parent App. You have to drill down far too many menus to get to simple tasks like booking meals etc. This App needs to be scrapped and completely re-done. It was definitely not designed with parents in mind.

September 29, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Homework app is unusable by students

Homework app is unusable by students because homework only is considered submitted when teacher records this. This means that students waste lots of time trying to identify what they have not done. Students need to be able to set their homework task as complete so that it disappears to another tab. Teachers can then confirm its submitted. We have just been told that Arbor will be assigning automatic detentions for ynsubmitted work but this can be due to teachers not confirming work as complete. Awful experience.

September 28, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Logs you out all the time

Logs you out all the time. Saying password incorrect then the reset email doesn’t arrive! Not very intuitive, especially if you have more than one child registered.

September 22, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

If there was anything less than 1 star

If there was anything less than 1 star, I'd definitely use that cos what sort of user unfriendly app is this! Logs me out for no reason, says my details are incorrect when they are infact correct, refuses to send a change password link, I could go on and on.
Very horrible experience!

September 17, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Not sure it's worth one star

Not sure it's worth one star. I have children at 2 different schools and this system is unavailable more times than it works. Reset password emails never send and you are stuck days without access. Total waste of money

September 10, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Almost as if they TRIED to make it completely inaccessible

Just so so so awful. The kids hate it, parents hate it. Are they paying schools to use this? Could they not pay me? I have absolutely NO idea how to create an app so I'm probably more qualified to do it than the designers. It is almost as if they TRIED to make it completely inaccessible and frustrating.

September 8, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely abysmal experience

Absolutely abysmal experience. Sometimes refuses to log in despite both details being correct with it always flashing an error like 'choose school' when it gives you no options. The whole system is laggy and incredibly slow. Do not use.

September 7, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Terrible and not remotely user friendly

Honestly a truly awful app. It added a payment for one of my children to the other child so I can't book the nursery wrap around in as it put the money on my other child who does not attend nursery.

Incredibly hard to use, they clearly have done absolutely no user accessibility testing which in 2025 should be a core part of any app.

It is so hard to use, takes you forever to find the correct place to pay for things, it doesn't have any kind of calendar feature just a huge list that is really hard to decipher.

Honestly I don't think I have ever hated an App this much. School aren't keen either on it probably because they get lumbered with having to sort stuff because parents are either struggling or unable to sort their own tech issues out, it is like reception now need to be a service desk analyst for a third party. Just awful!

I now need to explain to school what Arbor has done to them to book in wraparound care and somehow transfer the already paid money across to my other child!!!

Truly terrible app!!

September 4, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Terrible app you are forced to use

Terrible app you are forced to use.
if you are here because you are fed up with this pathetic excuse for a portal. welcome to the club. there is no good reason to use it, other than being forced to

September 2, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

THIS APP IS AWFUL

thus app is awful it does not let me log on this is a new app in my school and tells me I cant change my password I recommend not using this app

August 28, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

consistently awful app

consistently awful app. can't believe schools routinely use it? dirt cheap maybe. bugs galore, latest one prevents me from updating meal choice.

July 7, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

From a school’s POV I am finding Arbor…

From a school’s POV I am finding Arbor the worst MIS ever (and I’ve used a few) Spending hours and hours going round and round in circles. Just about ready to pack my lovely job in, all thanks to Arbor. Some of the people helping are lovely BUT they know very little.

June 23, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Honestly the worst ever app I have…

Honestly the worst ever app I have used.
Not family friendly. Confusing. Can’t even find simple things.
UC is unable to work with it, so if you have support with childcare to work-you can’t get an invoice, you can’t get money!
They mix food, outings and wraparound care together and only show the daily price. No monthly invoice.
Who on earth managed to lie through their teeth to sell it to schools goodness knows. What a waste of money.

June 17, 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Shockingly Bad—User Experience is a Nightmare

Booking Breakfast Club through Arbor was genuinely one of the worst app experiences I've ever had. The app is utterly confusing and impossible to use effectively, and the website is just as terrible. Such awful design and frustrating user interaction for something so straightforward is simply unacceptable. Even giving this app one star feels far too generous. Hugely disappointing.

June 15, 2025
Unprompted review

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