Starter (the going rate — not what The Leveller offers)
£3/pupil/month
- Billed annually, upfront
- Minimum 500 pupils
- Most features locked
Bespoke EdTech · Built at cost · A social enterprise
Custom software should cost exactly what it costs to make.
The Leveller builds software for schools and companies that fits the way you actually work — and bills you for the hours, the hosting, and nothing else. No markup. No licence fees. No “contact us for pricing”.
01 — The going rate
EdTech pricing is a seller's market.
Schools budget per pupil, per term, forever — for software that half-fits. Companies get quoted agency rates, plus a “discovery phase”, before anyone writes a line of code. Here's the thing: the software isn't expensive to make. It's expensive to buy. The gap between those two numbers is the markup — and closing it is the entire point of The Leveller.
£0
markup, ever
0
salespeople
100%
yours — code, data, roadmap
Professional (the going rate — not what The Leveller offers)
£7/pupil/month
- Everything in Starter
- Plus the features you actually needed
- “Priority” support
Enterprise (the going rate — not what The Leveller offers)
Contact sales
- Bring a budget holder
- Three-year commitment
- Your data, their servers
The Leveller
What it costs.
- Itemised to the hour
- You own the code, outright
- That's it. That's the pricing.
The first three columns are how it's usually sold. We don't offer any of it.
02 — How it works
Four steps. No mysteries.
-
01
We talk
You tell me what's broken — the spreadsheet that's become load-bearing, the system everyone works around, the job that eats your Sunday. This part is free, because it's a conversation, not a “discovery phase”.
-
02
We design it together
You know your school or your team better than any developer ever will. I know software. We sketch the fix side by side until it looks like something your least techy colleague would actually use.
-
03
I build it, in the open
Short weekly show-and-tells. You see everything as it takes shape, steer early, and never wait months for a big reveal that misses the point.
-
04
You pay the real bill
Hours, hosting, materials — itemised, at cost. Then you own it: the code, the data, the roadmap. If we never speak again, it keeps working — and costs you nothing but the hosting.
03 — What I build
If it runs your day,
it should fit your day.
Off-the-shelf tools make you work their way. Bespoke tools work yours. Here's the sort of thing that comes out of this workshop — and if your team runs on a spreadsheet held together with hope, that's usually where we start.
- Assessment & feedback tools
- Timetabling, cover & rotas
- Parent & carer comms
- Attendance & progress dashboards
- CPD & staff training platforms
- Admissions & onboarding flows
- Trips, clubs & payments admin
- Integrations with your MIS or CRM
- Internal tools for companies
- …and the thing that outgrew its spreadsheet
04 — A note from the founder
Hello. I'm Jay, and I build software for a living.
The Leveller exists because of one conversation I kept having — with teachers, with office managers, with people running small teams. It always went the same way: the software they relied on didn't quite fit, the price went up anyway, and switching would cost more than staying. They weren't customers any more. They were hostages with a renewal date.
I know what software actually costs to make, and the honest answer is: nowhere near what most schools are being charged for it.
So here's my deal. You tell me what's broken. We design the fix together. I build it, show you everything as I go, and bill you for exactly what it cost — hours, hosting, materials. Then it's yours. Outright.
No markup. No lock-in. No per-pupil, per-month, forever.
That's it. That's the company.
Jay
Founder, The Leveller
05 — Fair questions
Asked, answered, honestly.
What does “at cost” actually mean?
Your invoice is the hours worked at a transparent rate, plus anything bought on your behalf — hosting, domains, services — at sticker price. No multipliers, no “project management overhead” line that's really margin, no rounding up. You see the same numbers I do.
What's the catch?
Scale. The Leveller is a small operation that takes on a few projects at a time and does them properly, so there's sometimes a wait. If you need a 24/7 enterprise support desk by Tuesday, I'm not it. If you want something built carefully by someone who answers their own email — hello.
Who owns what we build?
You do. The code, the data, the design, the roadmap. If you want another developer to take it over next year, they can — it's well-documented and it's yours. Lock-in is a business model, not a technical necessity.
What happens when something breaks?
If it's my bug, I fix it — free, forever. That's not generosity; it's just what “I built this properly” means. New features and changes are billed the same honest way as the original build.
We're a company, not a school. Can we still work with you?
Yes, and please do. Companies pay the same transparent, at-cost rate — and that work keeps the lights on, which keeps school projects affordable. Everybody levels somebody.
How is this sustainable if there's no profit?
“At cost” includes paying the human doing the work a fair wage — that's a cost. What it doesn't include is a margin engineered to please shareholders. There aren't any. This is a social enterprise: the mission is the return.
Tell me
what's broken.
A stuck process, a spreadsheet at breaking point, a quote that made you laugh out loud — bring it here. You'll get a reply from a person, usually within two days. Prefer a call? Say so in the message.