Shortly before final exams, dozens of tasks are running in parallel at many schools and universities: exam schedules need to be coordinated with departments, invigilators assigned, and forms distributed to teachers, parents, and students. Often, this work is spread across Excel spreadsheets that no one keeps in sync, long email chains between administration and departments, and files stored on multiple private devices. So what does an educational institution really need from project management software to ensure that functionality and the protection of sensitive personal data go hand in hand?
The essentials at a glance
- Education as a target for cyberattacks: According to the Check Point Cyber Security Report 2026, cyberattacks on schools and universities in Germany are significantly above the industry average.
- Decentralized structures need structure: Faculties, administration, teachers, and students often work with different tools, making transparency and meeting deadlines more difficult.
- DigitalPakt 2.0 creates more budget flexibility: From 2026, the so-calles DigitalPakt 2.0 will provide five billion euros for digital education infrastructure, including relevant collaboration software.
- Stackfield as a no-compromise solution: Stackfield combines task management, communication, and file storage natively in one application, with true end-to-end encryption for educational institutions.
Project management without compromise for your educational institution Work in compliance with data protection requirements without giving up functionality: Stackfield combines task management, communication, and file storage natively in one application, with true end-to-end encryption.
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Why is project management software worthwhile for educational institutions?
Without a shared system, faculties, administration, and teachers can quickly lose track of their work: deadlines overlap, responsibilities are unclear, and important agreements get lost in email inboxes.
Project management software for educational institutions brings tasks, deadlines, and documents together in one place. Unlike a learning management system or traditional office software, it is not designed to manage teaching content, but to organize projects and recurring workflows.
What requirements should PM software for schools and universities meet?
Before choosing a tool, educational institutions should consider the specific requirements of the sector. These differ significantly from those of a traditional business:
- Decentralized collaboration: Faculties, departments, and central administration often work on the same projects in parallel without a shared system that makes responsibilities and deadlines visible to everyone involved.
- Diverse user groups: Teachers, students, administrative staff, and sometimes external research partners need different access permissions while the tool must remain easy to use, allowing even less tech-savvy users to get started without lengthy onboarding.
- Highly sensitive personal data: Student data, including data relating to minors, requires a level of data protection that goes beyond the minimum requirements of the GDPR and supplementary state data protection laws.
- Public sector and funding: Procurement and budget requirements as well as programs such as DigitalPakt 2.0 play a role in purchasing decisions, as does the need to provide transparent records of expenditure to school authorities or university administrations.
- High exposure to cyberattacks: According to recent analyses by Check Point Research, the education sector is among the most frequently targeted industries worldwide and in Germany, partly because of the large volumes of sensitive data it holds and its often outdated IT infrastructure.
- Structured recurring workflows: Exam organization as well as semester and annual planning follow similar patterns year after year, so a PM tool should make it possible to turn these workflows into reusable templates.
Good to know: Set up recurring workflows such as exam organization or semester planning as templates once. This allows teachers and administrators to start each semester with a proven structure instead of starting from scratch.
The 5 best project management tools for educational institutions compared
The following overview shows the most important functional and security-related differences between the five tools at a glance. Detailed profiles with strengths, limitations, and pricing follow below.
| Tool |
Best suited for |
Gantt & Kanban |
Integrated team chat & video conferencing |
True end-to-end encryption |
| Stackfield |
Universities and school administrations with high data protection requirements |
✔ |
✔ (from Premium) |
✔ |
| OpenProject |
Universities with their own IT department |
✔ |
✖ |
✖ |
| Microsoft Teams |
Institutions with an existing Microsoft 365 license |
✖ (only with an additional product such as Planner) |
✔ |
✖ |
| Trello |
Individual class or course projects |
✔ (Kanban only, no Gantt) |
✖ |
✖ |
| MeisterTask |
Smaller departments with straightforward requirements |
✔ |
✖ |
✖ |
Legende:
✔ = available
✖ = not available
Stackfield: Project management without compromise for educational institutions
Stackfield combines task management, team communication, and file storage natively in one application. For the education sector, where particularly sensitive personal data is involved, Stackfield also provides true end-to-end encryption, meaning that even Stackfield itself cannot access tasks, messages, or files.
Best suited for: Universities, school administrations, and research institutions with high data protection requirements and decentralized faculties.
Strengths:
- Task management with Gantt and Kanban views, integrated directly without an additional product
- Team chat, video conferencing, and file storage natively within the same application
- Templates for recurring workflows such as exam organization
- True end-to-end encryption
- Certified according to ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and ISO 27018, and BSI C5 attested
Limitations:
- A minimum of five licenses is required
- Video conferencing is only included from the Premium plan onwards
Pricing: The Starter plan starts at €9 per user per month and includes chat, tasks, and Gantt. Video conferencing is available from the Premium plan at €18 per user per month, with a minimum of five users and a free 14-day trial.
OpenProject: Open-source project management for universities and research institutions
OpenProject is open-source project management software aimed primarily at universities and research institutions with their own IT departments.
Best suited for: Universities and research institutions with their own IT departments and a need for customization.
Strengths:
- Open-source licensing model with publicly accessible source code
- Native Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and portfolio management
Limitations:
- No integrated team chat
- No video conferencing
- No true end-to-end encryption
- Data hosting is not generally restricted to Germany and the EU
Pricing: The Basic plan starts at €5.95 per user per month when billed annually, available either as a cloud solution (minimum five users) or an on-premises solution (minimum 25 users).
Microsoft Teams: Communication tool with additional Microsoft 365 features
Microsoft Teams is already used by many educational institutions as part of Microsoft 365 Education and primarily covers communication.
Best suited for: Educational institutions that already use Microsoft 365 Education.
Strengths:
- Already available in many educational institutions through the Microsoft 365 bundle
- Integrated calendar and chat functionality
Limitations:
- No native Gantt or Kanban project planning without an additional product such as Planner
- Company is not headquartered in Germany or the EU
- No true end-to-end encryption
- Only superficially free to use, as it is part of the paid Microsoft 365 suite
Pricing: Teams Essentials starts at €3.50 per user per month when billed annually and is also available as part of Microsoft 365. Pricing varies significantly depending on organization size.
Trello: Kanban-based task management for individual class and course projects
Trello is a Kanban tool for individual class or course projects with a relatively streamlined feature set.
Best suited for: Individual class or course projects and small teams without complex requirements.
Strengths:
- Simple Kanban-based workflow with a visual board system
- Minimal onboarding effort
Limitations:
- No workflows
- Company is not headquartered in Germany or the EU
- No true end-to-end encryption
- No native-language support
Pricing: The Standard plan starts at USD 5 per user per month when billed annually.
MeisterTask: Kanban tool with an EU-based provider for smaller departments
MeisterTask is a Kanban tool for smaller departments with straightforward project management requirements.
Best suited for: Smaller schools or departments looking for a simple solution without complex project management requirements.
Strengths:
- Company headquarters and data hosting within the EU
- Simple, clean Kanban boards
Limitations:
- No portfolio management
- No integrated team chat
- No video conferencing
- No true end-to-end encryption
Pricing: The Pro plan starts at €13.50 per user per month when billed annually.
Expert tip: When choosing a tool, do not compare license costs alone. What matters are the total costs across multiple departments: time spent switching between tools, onboarding effort, and support requests across several standalone solutions can quickly add up compared with a consolidated platform. Based on our experience, it is therefore worth creating a rough cost estimate across all departments before making a decision instead of comparing only the price lists of individual tools.
What educational institutions should look for when choosing a project management tool
- Data protection and data hosting: Sensitive personal data belonging to students and pupils requires GDPR-compliant European server locations, particularly given the education sector's high exposure to cyberattacks.
- Collaboration across decentralized structures: Faculties, administration, and teachers need a shared, transparent working environment instead of tool sprawl.
- All the features in one place: When task management, communication, and file storage are combined in one application, there is less need for additional standalone tools, reducing both administrative overhead and integration risks.
- Budget and eligibility for public-sector funding: The actual total cost, including the time required for onboarding and support across multiple standalone solutions, as well as access to funding programs such as DigitalPakt 2.0, plays a role in procurement decisions.
- Ease of use for diverse user groups: Teachers, administrative staff, and students with varying levels of technical proficiency must all be able to use the tool effectively.
The benefits of digital project management software for educational institutions at a glance
- Time savings by reducing the need to switch between tools across departments
- Greater transparency around responsibilities in decentralized structures
- Better adherence to deadlines for exams, funding applications, and semester planning
- Higher data protection standards for sensitive personal data
- Scalability for growing educational institutions and new projects
Project management software for educational institutions: Combine security and functionality with Stackfield
Educational institutions face a unique combination of requirements: decentralized faculties and administrative departments, particularly sensitive personal data belonging to students and pupils, high exposure to cyberattacks, and limited IT resources for managing multiple standalone tools. Stackfield brings task management, communication, and file storage together natively in one application and protects this collaboration with true end-to-end encryption, ISO 27001 certification, and a BSI C5 attestation.
For universities, school administrations, and research institutions with decentralized faculties, this means that functionality and data protection no longer have to be competing priorities. With Stackfield, both are already combined in one project management solution for educational institutions.
Ready for project management without compromise? Stackfield brings tasks, communication, and file storage for your educational institution together in one place, with GDPR-compliant processes and data hosting in Germany.
Start your free 14-day trial
FAQ
What data protection requirements apply to project management software at public schools and universities?
In addition to the GDPR, supplementary state data protection and education laws apply, as data relating to pupils and students is considered particularly sensitive, especially when minors are involved. When choosing a tool, true end-to-end encryption is therefore worth considering as a key selection criterion, as it ensures that even the provider cannot access tasks, messages, or files. Data hosting within Germany or the EU, along with subcontractors based in the same legal jurisdiction, can further reduce legal uncertainty during reviews by data protection officers.
Can DigitalPakt 2.0 funding be used for project management software?
DigitalPakt 2.0 primarily supports the expansion of digital infrastructure and equipment, such as networks, devices, and digital learning platforms. Whether collaboration and project management software is eligible for funding in individual cases varies between the German federal states and their respective funding guidelines. There is no general guarantee of eligibility. School authorities and university administrations should therefore clarify whether a specific solution qualifies for funding directly with the responsible school authority or relevant state authority before including the purchase in their plans.
What advantages does project management software offer over Excel spreadsheets for organizing exams at schools?
A centralized platform provides transparency around responsibilities and deadlines that can quickly be lost in distributed Excel spreadsheets, particularly when several people are working on the same list at the same time. Templates for recurring workflows such as exam organization save planning effort each semester because invigilators, deadlines, and rooms do not have to be coordinated from scratch every time. A shared platform also reduces disruptions in the workflow between teachers and administration, as coordination no longer takes place across scattered email chains but is documented transparently in one place.
Is open-source software such as OpenProject more secure for universities than a commercial solution with true end-to-end encryption?
Open-source software offers customization and access to the source code, which can be an important consideration for some IT departments and help build trust in the codebase. However, this does not automatically replace true end-to-end encryption or an independent security attestation such as BSI C5, as security also depends on how the instance is operated, configured, and maintained. Which solution is the better fit depends primarily on whether the institution's own IT department is able and willing to take long-term responsibility for operations, security, and updates.
Is Stackfield also suitable for small schools or individual departments with only a few employees?
Stackfield requires a minimum of five licenses. For most smaller organizations or departments, the model can still be cost-effective once several standalone tools currently used for chat, task management, file storage, and video conferencing are replaced by a single platform, eliminating the administrative overhead of managing multiple licenses. The free 14-day trial with access to the full range of features provides a low-risk way to evaluate the platform before making a final decision.
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