Islamic Weekend School Software for Madrasas & Maktabs

A weekend madrasa runs on very little time. Two or three sessions a week in a mosque hall or a rented classroom, a team of volunteers with day jobs, and parents who drop their children at the door and collect them three hours later. Whether you call it a weekend school, a Sunday school, an evening maktab or an Islamic supplementary school, the problem is the same: there's no office, no full-time administrator, and no time to chase anything.

This guide is for the people who run those schools — the head teacher, the volunteer treasurer, the person who somehow ended up owning the register. It covers what's different about a weekend or supplementary madrasa (or madrassa), what software actually needs to do for one, and what it costs in the UK and the US.

What makes a weekend school different

A full-time madrasa and a weekend school track many of the same things. The difference is how little slack there is.

• Every session counts more. A child who misses one Saturday has missed half the week. Absences need to be visible the same day, not at the end of term.
• Volunteers run it from their phones. Nobody sits at a desk. If a task can't be done on a phone between lessons, it doesn't get done.
• Parents rarely meet the teacher. Drop-off is rushed, and progress conversations don't happen at the door.
• Fees arrive in every form. Cash in an envelope, bank transfers with unclear references, standing orders, siblings on a family rate — usually reconciled in a notebook by one person.
• Classes are mixed. Qaida beginners, Nazra readers and Hifz students often share the same hall, and each needs a different kind of record.

General school systems assume a Monday-to-Friday day school with admin staff. Weekend schools need something much lighter, built around the few hours you have.

What the software needs to do

1. Attendance for the sessions you actually run

Each class should carry its own schedule — Saturday and Sunday mornings, two weekday evenings, whatever you run — and a teacher should be able to mark the whole class present, absent or late from a phone in under a minute. Over a term, that builds an attendance history per student, so a pattern of missed Sundays shows up before it becomes a problem.

2. Qur'an progress that survives a week's gap

With days between lessons, memorisation fades quickly unless revision is tracked as carefully as new work. A proper Hifz record keeps Sabaq (the new lesson), Sabqi (recent revision) and Manzil (long-term revision) separately, so the next teacher knows exactly where to start. If that model is new to you, read our Sabaq, Sabqi and Manzil explainer.

Beyond Hifz, MaktabPro also records Tajweed, Salah and Tarbiyah, alongside exams and homework, so the Islamic studies side of the school has somewhere to live too.

3. Parent communication that doesn't depend on a WhatsApp group

A class WhatsApp group mixes announcements with chatter, exposes everyone's phone number, and falls apart when the admin leaves. What works better:

• One message to the right parents. Send an email to every parent, to one class, or only to families with fees still pending — without building a mailing list by hand.
• A private link for each family. Parents open a link on their phone and see their child's attendance, Hifz progress, exam results and fee status. There is no app to install and no password to forget.
• Report cards they can keep. Exam results turn into report card PDFs you can share at the end of term.

4. Fee records the treasurer can trust

The treasurer needs to know, at any moment, who has paid and who hasn't. Good software records each family's fees, marks them paid or pending, issues numbered receipts, and shows the outstanding list in one place — so the reminder email goes to the right twelve families, not all two hundred.

5. Roles that fit a volunteer team

A volunteer teacher needs to take the register and log lessons. They don't need to see the school's finances. Role-based access keeps it that way: owners and admins manage students, classes and fees; teachers record attendance and Hifz; a viewer role covers trustees who only need to look.

6. Admissions and a simple public page

Waiting lists and new-term enquiries usually arrive by word of mouth. A public page for your madrasa — with your classes, contact details and an admissions enquiry form — gives parents somewhere to send them, without building a website.

A weekend with MaktabPro

Here's what an ordinary weekend looks like once it's set up:

1. Saturday, 10:00. Each teacher opens the class on their phone and marks the register in a few taps.
2. During the lesson. The Hifz teacher logs each student's Sabaq, Sabqi and Manzil as they recite.
3. Saturday, 13:00. The treasurer records the fees handed in that morning and issues receipts.
4. Sunday evening. The head teacher emails one class about next week's assessment.
5. End of the month. The treasurer opens the pending list and sends a single reminder to the families who still owe.

Parents follow along from their private link all week, which means fewer questions at the door.

Pricing for UK and US weekend schools

MaktabPro is priced per madrasa, not per student, in bands. Prices as of September 2026:

Plan	Students	UK	US	India
Tutor	Up to 50	£19/month	$25/month	₹499/month
Academy	Up to 250	£49/month	$59/month	₹999/month
School	Unlimited, multiple branches	£129/month	$149/month	₹1,999/month

• Every plan starts with a 30-day free trial. No card is needed, and the trial doesn't convert on its own.
• Annual billing costs ten months for the year.
• Other countries are priced in local currency — see the pricing page for the current figure where you are.

For a sense of scale: a weekend school with 120 students on the Academy plan pays £49 a month in the UK, about 41p per student.

How to choose weekend school software

Use this checklist when you compare tools:

1. Can a volunteer take the register from a phone in under a minute?
2. Does it track Sabaq, Sabqi and Manzil separately?
3. Can parents see progress without installing an app?
4. Can you message all parents, one class, or only families with fees pending?
5. Does it keep fee records without forcing you onto a new payment system?
6. Are teachers kept out of the finances?
7. Is the price flat or per student — and what will it cost at 150 students?
8. Is there a free trial long enough to cover a few real weekends?

Moving off spreadsheets and WhatsApp groups

You don't have to switch everything in one go:

1. Create your madrasa and add your classes with their session times.
2. Add your students with a parent email for each family.
3. Run one weekend with attendance and Hifz only.
4. Send parents their private links once the teachers are comfortable.
5. Move the fee records over at the start of the next month.

Frequently asked questions

What is Islamic weekend school software? It's software that runs the administration of a part-time madrasa: attendance for each session, Qur'an and Islamic studies progress, fee records, and communication with parents — built for volunteers working from their phones rather than for a school office.

Does it work for evening maktabs, not just weekends? Yes. Each class has its own schedule, so weekday evenings, weekend mornings or a mix of both all work.

Can parents pay fees through MaktabPro? No. MaktabPro records fees and issues receipts; parents pay your school directly, the way they already do.

Do parents need to download an app? No. Each family gets a private link that opens in the browser on any phone.

Is it available in Urdu or Arabic? Yes. The interface is available in English, Urdu and Arabic.

How much does it cost for a weekend school with 100 students? A school of 100 students fits the Academy plan: £49 a month in the UK or $59 a month in the US, after a 30-day free trial.

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New to madrasa software? Start with our complete guide to madrasa management software, or see how the main tools compare.