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Gibbon Review

Depends

Should I use Gibbon?

Gibbon is a flexible, open source school management platform designed to make life better for teachers, students, parents and leaders. - gibbonedu.org

· 1 month ago

Schools with their own IT staff get a genuinely free, full-featured school platform — if they commit to fast security patching. Small schools, tutoring outfits, and anyone wanting vendor-hosted support should look elsewhere.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 15 public sources; user reviews are thin — most 'Gibbon' hits are unrelated products (slacklines, speakers, apes).

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of useNo usability evidence in sources
  • Feature depth
  • Support quality
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Community (self-hosted)

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Schools with in-house IT
  • Budget-constrained schools wanting a full SIS
  • Open-source-friendly admin teams

Not for

  • Schools without a sysadmin — the CVE history demands fast patching
  • Tutoring or small teams needing just a gradebook
  • Buyers who need vendor support and SLAs
  • Anyone expecting polished hosted onboarding

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Self-hosted: you provision hosting, run upgrades, and must patch fast when RCEs land

high

CVE-2026-8207 SQL injection affects versions before v30.0.0 — verify currency before deploying

medium

Free core, but budget for hosting, migration, and admin time; no vendor tiers published

medium

Security info lives in a community forum category, not a proper security page

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free and open source — no license fees
  • Broad school modules, including finance
  • Active community of users, admins, developers
  • Publishes security advisories on GitHub
  • Tracked on G2, Capterra, and AWS Marketplace

Cons

  • Repeated serious CVEs: RCE, SQL injection, file inclusion
  • No security page found on the official site
  • Open source means hosting, updates, backups are on you
  • No published vendor pricing or hosted tiers

Sources & method

- 15 sources - Rough record: multiple RCE, SQL injection, and file-inclusion CVEs between 2023 and 2026; patching discipline is mandatory.

official x4review x4security x7
  • CVE-2026-8208 — RCE via local file inclusion, Gibbon LMS local file inclusion leading to remote code execution.
  • CVE-2026-8207 — SQL injection, Affects Gibbon versions before v30.0.0.
  • CVE-2024-24724 — remote code execution, RCE vulnerability in Gibbonedu Gibbon.
  • CVE-2024-24725 — PHP deserialization, Deserialization vulnerability exploited in Gibbon LMS.
  • CVE-2023-34598 — local file inclusion, Gibbon v25.0.0 vulnerable to LFI.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 15

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Free, open source; no license fees
  • Ease of use. No usability evidence in sources
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Full school platform including finance module
  • Support quality: 2/5. Guess: community forum support, no vendor SLA
  • Security posture: 1/5. Six-plus CVEs 2023–2026, including RCEs
  • Free Starting price Open source, self-hosted
  • 6+ Public CVEs found 2023–2026, incl. RCE and SQLi
  • 10 G2 alternatives tracked Competing school platforms

Pricing

Community (self-hosted)

Free

  • Full open-source school platform
  • You host, maintain, and patch

Security

Rough record: multiple RCE, SQL injection, and file-inclusion CVEs between 2023 and 2026; patching discipline is mandatory.

  • CVE-2026-8208 — RCE via local file inclusionGibbon LMS local file inclusion leading to remote code execution.⁹
  • CVE-2026-8207 — SQL injectionAffects Gibbon versions before v30.0.0.10
  • CVE-2024-24724 — remote code executionRCE vulnerability in Gibbonedu Gibbon.11
  • CVE-2024-24725 — PHP deserializationDeserialization vulnerability exploited in Gibbon LMS.12
  • CVE-2023-34598 — local file inclusionGibbon v25.0.0 vulnerable to LFI.13

What users say

No substantive user reviews of the school platform surfaced; most 'Gibbon' search results concern unrelated products like slacklines and speakers.

Full analysis

Based on 15 public sources; user reviews are thin — most 'Gibbon' hits are unrelated products (slacklines, speakers, apes).

Free open-source school platform; real value if you have IT staff, but a rough CVE record means patch fast.

Methodology

Based on 15 public sources; user reviews are thin — most 'Gibbon' hits are unrelated products (slacklines, speakers, apes).

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. official
  2. official
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  5. review
  6. review
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  9. security
  10. security
  11. security
  12. security
  13. security
  14. security
  15. security

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