Running a school website used to be about posting updates and keeping a calendar. Not anymore! Families expect a seamless, on-demand experience, the kind they get from the apps and services they use every day.

And with limited time and small teams, school professionals are finding it harder to keep up.

Between managing multiple tools for communications, enrollment, and content updates, it's easy to feel stretched thin. If your school website company isn’t making things easier, if it’s adding steps, creating silos, or making simple tasks feel complicated, it might be time to look for a better solution.

Many schools reach this point and start asking, “Is it time to switch website providers?” and often, the answer isn’t as simple as changing vendors, but rather, upgrading to a platform designed for K–12 schools.

A unified platform combines your website, communications, enrollment, and data tools into one connected system. That means fewer logins, fewer headaches, and more time for the work that matters most: building relationships, serving families, and supporting students.

Let’s walk through some of the most common signs that it’s time to switch websites for your school, and how the right platform can give your team the tools (and the time) to do more with less.

1. Your Website Looks Outdated on Mobile Devices

Think about the last time you visited a website that didn’t load properly on your phone. Did you stick around, or did you leave in frustration? Now think about your school’s website ... are your families having that same experience?

If your site looks great on a desktop but falls apart on a mobile device, that’s a clear sign your website provider isn’t keeping up with modern standards. More than 60% of website traffic comes from mobile users. That means the majority of your audience (prospective parents, current families, even job applicants) are likely interacting with your site on their phones or tablets. And if that experience is slow, confusing, or outdated, they may never come back.

Common Mobile Red Flags:

• Text that’s too small to read without zooming in
• Menus that are hard to tap or navigate
• Buttons or links that don’t work correctly
• Pages that load slowly or not at all
• Unintentional horizontal scrolling (yes, it’s still a thing on outdated sites)

A clunky school website design damages your school’s credibility, and that’s a loss of trust and control.

What You Should Expect:

Look for a provider that embraces mobile-first design, meaning they build the site with the mobile experience in mind and expand out to desktop. Birdville ISD is a great example of a beautiful, responsive design, and with a mobile-first strategy:

• Load times are faster on any device
• Navigation is simpler and cleaner
• The brand looks polished and professional, no matter how the site is viewed
• Visitors can find what they need fast, like lunch menus, calendars, or contact info

2. You’re Still Relying on Your IT Team for Updates

If your communications team has to file a support ticket (or worse, chase down someone in IT) every time a calendar event needs editing or a news story needs posting, it’s time to rethink your website setup.

Schools move fast. Your team needs to update content quickly and confidently, no matter if it’s a snow day alert, a teacher award, or a schedule change. If your current content management system (CMS) slows that process down or requires an engineering degree, it’s adding unnecessary friction and putting your credibility at risk.

How This Slows You Down:

• Delays in updating urgent info (weather alerts, event changes)
• Increased workload for IT staff, pulling them away from higher-priority projects
• Bottlenecks that frustrate your comms team, leading to burnout or mistakes
• Outdated content that makes your school look unorganized or unresponsive

The Ideal Setup:

Your school’s CMS should empower your non-technical staff, principals, office admins, athletic directors, and everyone else to keep pages current, without worrying about “breaking” anything. That means:

• A user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface
• Role-based permissions
• Built-in accessibility tools
• Real-time previews of changes
• Easy-to-use media tools (photo editor, video embedding, etc.)
• No need for HTML, CSS, or custom coding

What to Look for:

Finalsite Composer is a strong example of a platform that balances power and simplicity. It’s designed specifically for schools, with flexible modules that let you build and edit pages with zero coding, but with guardrails that protect your brand and keep your content consistent.

Plus, Composer lets schools assign different levels of access. Want to give a principal permission to update their own school’s news page, but not the homepage? No problem. That’s less stress for your web team and more agility for everyone else.

3. Your Communication Tools Are Scattered

If you’re jumping between three or four platforms to send updates, one for email, another for texts, another for emergency alerts, and yet another for newsletters, that’s an issue. Many schools piece together different tools over time to meet growing communication needs. But when those tools don’t work together, the result is more chaos, not better communication.

This kind of fragmentation leads to:

• Inconsistent messaging (parents hear different things in different places)
• Duplicate efforts (your team enters the same info in multiple tools)
• Missed messages (critical alerts that don’t reach everyone)
• Increased staff burnout from toggling between systems all day

It also creates a poor experience for your families, who may not know where to look for the latest updates.

You Deserve a Simpler Workflow

Your team should be able to:

• Craft a message once and send it across multiple channels
• Target different messages to different groups (like staff vs. parents vs. administration)
• Track delivery and engagement from one central dashboard
• Save time with automated workflows and templates

What to Look for:

You need a platform that brings together email, SMS, voice, mobile app push notifications, and even portal messaging, all in one place. Finalsite’s mass notifications tool is built specifically for K–12 and it lets you:

• Reach every stakeholder quickly, without switching platforms
• Personalize messages by group or role
• Automate common messages (like attendance alerts or newsletters)
• Monitor engagement and track delivery in real time

The easier it is for you to send messages consistently, the more likely your audience is to trust that your website and communication channels are the single source of truth. That helps reduce confusion, boost engagement, and cut down on unnecessary calls to the front office.

4. You’re Still Manually Entering or Updating Data

If your team is spending hours copying data between your website, student information system (SIS), and enrollment tools, that’s a signal your current provider isn’t making things easier. When all it takes is one wrong email address or an outdated class list, manual data entry not only eats up time, it introduces risk.

Sound Familiar?

• You’re exporting rosters from your SIS and uploading them into separate platforms
• New student or staff data isn’t reflected on the website until someone updates it manually
• Your inquiry forms don’t sync with your marketing and communication lists
• You’re relying on spreadsheets to manage who gets what message

These kinds of disconnects put unnecessary strain on your staff and slow down everything from onboarding new families to notifying the right audience in an emergency.

What to Look for:

A modern platform should seamlessly integrate with your SIS, communication tools, and enrollment systems, pulling in accurate data automatically so that:

• Class rosters and contact info stay current
• Staff directories update as personnel changes
• Communications reach the right families, students, and staff, every time
• New enrollees are automatically added to relevant lists and portals

Finalsite offers direct integrations with leading SIS platforms like PowerSchool, Veracross, Blackbaud, and Rediker, along with tools that connect enrollment, tuition management, and communications into one streamlined experience. That means fewer spreadsheets, fewer errors, and a whole lot less back-and-forth between systems.

6. You’re Stuck with a “One-Size-Fits-All” Design

Every school has its own voice, traditions, and personality, and your website should reflect that. If your current site feels generic, hard to customize, or looks like every other school in town, it may be time to move on.

The truth is, many older platforms limit what you can do visually. They offer rigid templates that don’t adjust to your brand, or they charge a premium for even designs that can’t be easily updated. That can leave you with a site that doesn’t capture your school’s identity or make the impression you want on prospective families or staff.

What to Look for:

You should expect flexible design options that fit your school’s timeline and budget.

Finalsite offers two paths:

• Custom Design: A fully tailored site built from the ground up to reflect your school's vision and brand. From custom animations and video backgrounds to creative layouts and interactive elements, you’ll work with award-winning designers to bring your vision to life.
   
• Theme Design: Budget-friendly, fast-to-launch options crafted by the same expert team. With 30+ modern themes, you still get a beautiful, on-brand site, without starting from scratch.

And no matter which option you choose, you’ll get a site that:

• Meets accessibility standards (ADA and WCAG 2.1)
• Performs well on all devices
• Is easy for your team to update and maintain
• Can grow with you over time, adding new modules and features as your needs change

7. You Can’t Easily Measure What’s Working

If your team is flying blind when it comes to website engagement, guessing what parents read, hoping emails are opened, or relying on IT to pull basic reports, then your current platform isn’t giving you the visibility you need to improve.

You can’t improve what you can’t measure. Without clear insights into how families interact with your website and communications, you risk spending time on efforts that don’t actually move the needle.

Signs You’re Missing Key Insights:

• You don’t know which pages get the most (or least) traffic
• You can’t see who opened your emails or clicked on links
• Your team spends more time collecting data than acting on it

In this kind of setup, important trends can go unnoticed, like which pages are driving enrollment interest, or whether your latest message about an initiative actually reached families. That disconnect makes it so much harder to advocate for more support or resources.

What to Look for:

Choose a platform that puts actionable data at your fingertips and connects you with experts who can help you use it effectively. Finalsite gives schools:

• Built-in reporting tools to track email engagement and top search terms
• Analytics from tools like Ask AI, so you know what parents are asking for, even if they don’t call the office
• Support from experienced professionals who know how to turn data into strategy

That last point matters. With Finalsite, you’re not left to interpret charts on your own. You’ll have access to a team of marketing data experts, many of whom have worked in schools themselves, to help you understand your reports, find new opportunities, and adjust course when needed.

8. You’re Still Using Paper for Key Processes

If you're still printing permission slips, mailing forms, or asking families to drop off enrollment paperwork, it’s time to rethink how your website and systems are supporting your operations.

Families expect to complete tasks from their phones; handing them a clipboard or a stack of papers sends the wrong message. And for your team, managing paperwork often means re-entering data, chasing down missing signatures, or filing physical copies that are difficult to track and easy to lose.

What to Look for:

You need a platform that supports fully digital, mobile-friendly workflows for the tasks families care about most, starting with inquiries, applications, enrollment, and re-enrollment. Finalsite makes that possible with:

• Custom online inquiry and application forms
• Secure tuition and contract management
• Dynamic digital forms that route automatically to the right staff member
• Integration with your SIS to keep records clean and synced

Plus, your site visitors can complete all of this from their phone, tablet, or computer, no printers, no trips to the office, and no lost paperwork.

Key Takeaways

If any (or all!) of these signs sound familiar, it might be time to explore a better solution. Whether you’re looking for better design, easier tools, or a true partner that understands education, switching providers could be the best decision for your school’s communication strategy.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.