Who this page is for
If your school runs Untis, WebUntis, or one of the surrounding modules, this page is for you. Untis is the most established timetable suite in the DACH region and well known across Europe, with decades of installed base. This is not an argument that Untis is bad — it is a comparison for schools whose planning team feels that the suite has become slower to work with than the value it delivers.
The short version: Untis is broad, settings-heavy, and built before AI and modern collaboration norms. Smootables is narrower in scope, planning-first, and designed to keep validation, generation, and editing in one model.
When Untis still fits, where it becomes the bottleneck
When Untis still fits
Schools deeply embedded in the WebUntis ecosystem (parent communication, calendar, messaging, registers), a dedicated Untis specialist on staff, and a planning workflow that has been tuned over multiple academic years.
Untis is also still a safe choice for schools where the institutional bar is 'the same tool as the school next door' — its broad market presence in DACH is real.
Where it becomes the bottleneck
Planners spend significant time tuning settings, constraints, modules, and exceptions before a timetable emerges. Year-level planning, workload, and individual pathways often sit outside the suite, in spreadsheets that have to be reconciled.
Learning curve is steep enough that bus-factor risk concentrates in one or two people. Optimization cycles run long. AI assistance, when present, is not part of the native planning workflow.
How Smootables is different
Smootables is designed for a different scope: school year planning, timetable generation, editing, publishing, daily changes, and AI-assisted planner workflows in one cloud workspace. It does not try to be every module Untis offers. It tries to be the planning and timetable source of truth, and to integrate with the SIS, MIS, LMS, identity, calendar, and communication systems schools already use.
The planning model — academic years, terms, periods, courses, modules, pathways, resources, and individual students — is the same model the solver and the planner AI assistant work against. Pre-solve validation explains gaps before the run; infeasibility reports explain failures after the run; planner edits, branches, undo, and audit logs keep the planner in control.
Comparison on the dimensions that usually decide it
| Dimension | Untis / WebUntis | Smootables |
|---|---|---|
| Overall positioning | Legacy enterprise timetable suite with a broad ecosystem | AI-native planning and timetabling workspace |
| Year and period planning | Usually held outside the core suite | First-class part of the planning model |
| Optimization workflow | Settings-heavy; tuning cycles can be long | Validation before solve, infeasibility explanations after, AI-assisted improvements |
| Individual pathways | Class-first; advanced pathways typically need workarounds | Group, individual, and per-placement exemption support |
| AI workflows | Not AI-native | Built in with validated commands and audit logs |
| Editing | Capable but operationally dense | Drag/drop, pin/regenerate, slot insight, branches, undo |
| Learning curve | Steep; specialist knowledge usually required | Designed to be lower, with guided setup and explainable validation |
| Ecosystem breadth | Broad: parent communication, messaging, registers, calendars | Focused on planning and timetabling; integrates with surrounding systems |
Evaluation checklist for Untis schools
When deciding whether Smootables is the right replacement, focus on the scenarios where the planning-first model and lower-friction workflow usually show up most:
- Time spent tuning settings between regenerations vs time spent on the planning model itself
- How long it takes a new planner to be productive without specialist training
- Whether year-level planning, workload, and individual pathways currently live inside the suite or alongside it
- How daily changes flow back into the master timetable and audit history
- Where AI assistance sits — outside the workflow, inside the workflow, or absent — and whether it respects hard constraints
Migration path from Untis
- Map your Untis model to the Smootables planning model: academic years, terms, periods, courses, groups, teachers, rooms, equipment, and constraints.
- Export from Untis and import into Smootables using structured import or AI-assisted extraction for older formats.
- Validate in Smootables. Pre-solve validation typically surfaces mismatches that have been worked around in Untis through manual edits.
- Run one period in parallel. Keep Untis as the published source of truth while you verify the Smootables timetable end-to-end.
- Switch publication for one scope first. WebUntis-adjacent communication features can be replaced by Smootables publication or kept alongside during transition.
- Roll out to the rest of the school in subsequent cycles. Integration with SIS, MIS, LMS, and identity providers stays in place.
Questions Untis schools ask
Do we lose ecosystem features by switching?
Some — Smootables does not try to replicate every WebUntis module. The most common features (timetable publication, substitutions, calendar export, teacher and student views, comments) are built in. Communication and parent portals are usually handled through integrations rather than re-implementation.
How is migration handled at scale?
Structured import with column mapping and AI-assisted extraction for older exports. Most schools we work with migrate one campus or one program first, then expand.
Will planners need re-training?
Less than they expect. Core timetabling concepts are unchanged. The workflow is more planning-led, the editing is more modern, and the AI assistant is new — but the conceptual model is recognizable to any Untis planner.
What about regulatory and data residency requirements?
Smootables is a cloud SaaS product with school-scoped data isolation, GDPR-compliant handling, and data hosted in secure AWS or Microsoft Azure regions.
Is Smootables ready for a multi-campus DACH school?
Yes for the planning and timetabling core. Multi-campus modeling, shared resources, campus-scoped courses, and substitution workflows are part of the platform. Some local integrations and specialist modules are added in partnership with early customers — talk to us if your stack needs something specific.