{"question": "best student information systems for colleges", "category": "student-information-systems", "category_name": "student information systems", "audience": "colleges", "audience_name": "colleges", "engine": "Claude (Anthropic) with web search", "model": "claude-opus-5", "asked_at": "2026-10-06T22:08:06Z", "permalink": "https://bikoosh.com/answers/s/student-information-systems-colleges-2026-10-06", "question_page": "https://bikoosh.com/answers/q/student-information-systems/colleges", "brands_named": [{"position": 1, "brand": "Ellucian", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 2, "brand": "Anthology", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 3, "brand": "Ellucian Banner", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 4, "brand": "Workday", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 5, "brand": "Workday Student", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 6, "brand": "Jenzabar", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 7, "brand": "Ellucian Colleague", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 8, "brand": "Oracle", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 9, "brand": "Oracle PeopleSoft Campus Solutions", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 10, "brand": "Anthology Student", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 11, "brand": "Populi", "label": "mentioned"}, {"position": 12, "brand": "Classe365", "label": "mentioned"}], "sources_cited": [{"url": "https://www.ellucian.com/newsroom/ellucian-completes-acquisition-anthologys-sis-and-erp-business", "domain": "ellucian.com", "source_type": "vendor"}, {"url": "https://campustechnology.com/articles/2026/01/05/ellucian-officially-acquires-anthologys-sis-and-erp-business.aspx", "domain": "campustechnology.com", "source_type": "other"}, {"url": "https://listedtech.com/blog/north-american-sis-highered-market-share-january-2025-update/", "domain": "listedtech.com", "source_type": "other"}, {"url": "https://listedtech.com/blog/which-products-is-workday-student-replacing/", "domain": "listedtech.com", "source_type": "other"}, {"url": "https://hub.williams.edu/workday/", "domain": "hub.williams.edu", "source_type": "reference"}, {"url": "https://www.minnstate.edu/system/its/nextgen/nextgen-highlights/articles/20250328.html", "domain": "minnstate.edu", "source_type": "reference"}, {"url": "https://news.uark.edu/articles/70733", "domain": "news.uark.edu", "source_type": "reference"}, {"url": "https://questoraclecommunity.org/learn/blogs/bp4d26-how-oracle-is-evolving-psft-campus-solutions/", "domain": "questoraclecommunity.org", "source_type": "other"}, {"url": "https://www.rfp.wiki/education-training/higher-education-student-information-system-saas/populi/classe365", "domain": "rfp.wiki", "source_type": "other"}, {"url": "https://www.softwareadvice.com/student-information-system/", "domain": "softwareadvice.com", "source_type": "review"}], "answer_text": "The honest headline first: this market just consolidated. Ellucian closed its acquisition of Anthology's SIS and ERP business on December 31, 2025, bringing 260+ more institutions under one roof. So \"best\" now depends heavily on your size, and your shortlist is shorter than it was a year ago.\n\n**For most four-year institutions**\n\n1. **Ellucian Banner** - The default answer and the market leader at ~24% share in North America. Deepest functional coverage for complex curricula, financial aid, and registrar work; largest consultant and integration ecosystem, so hiring people who know it is easy. The flip side is that it's an older architecture - Ellucian's cloud story is real but it's a migration, not a rewrite. Pick it when you need everything to work on day one and you have IT staff to run it.\n\n2. **Workday Student** - The one to beat on architecture. Only ~3% share, but it's growing fastest and taking customers from Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, and Jenzabar. It's the obvious choice if you already run Workday HCM/Financials, because you get one data model across student, staff, and finance. Two serious caveats: implementations are multi-year and staged (Williams is doing four sepa", "answer_truncated": true, "measurement": "One answer from one engine on one date. Not a ranking and not a claim about the world; brands the engine did not name are not recorded.", "limitation": "Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.", "alerts": {"name": "Answer Watch Pro", "price_usd": 79, "period": "month", "gets": "daily change alerts for up to 5 brands in what one AI answer engine says, history, CSV export. Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included", "url": "https://bikoosh.com/answers"}}