vs
Band keeps the conversation. It keeps nothing about the children.
Everything you run your classes on, on Famlo's free plan. Built for homeschool co-ops, classes and microschools.
With Famlo, you can:
Yes Fill your classes with homeschool families nearby, and see what they want that nobody offers yet Yes Run registration, waivers, the roster and the door in one place Yes Get paid by card or by Step Up, and keep your full priceNo card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
Band or Famlo, side by side.
Band: free, and it cannot be beaten on price. The comparison that matters is what it does not do rather than what it costs.
Band
Band
free
Nothing else — and no way to collect money either.
Famlo
To list and to run
$0
Paid by the family when they book, unless you cover it
3.7% + $1.79 a ticket
On scholarship money
nothing
Famlo: those tools in one place, on a free plan
You’re ready for Famlo if any of these sound like you
You retype the same allergies and emergency contacts every September
Entered once by the family. It rides with every registration after that.
Your helpers need the register without seeing what anyone paid
Six roles. Money is visible to the owner and whoever you give it to, and to nobody else.
Twenty families said yes and you are still chasing eleven of them
A card registration is paid when it is made, and a payment plan collects itself on schedule.
The Step Up invoices eat an evening every month
On the Scholarship plan, raised automatically, one per child, so one hold never freezes a family.
Only one person knows who is allowed to collect which child
Authorized pickup, allergies, medications and an emergency contact, on the child.
Tuesday morning, without the clipboard.
Attendance is per meeting, parents check themselves in from a QR code on the door, and one message reaches everyone registered — in the app, by email and on their phone.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
The things you would never want to get wrong, held properly.
Allergies, medications, special needs, an emergency contact and who is allowed to collect the child ride with the registration. The waiver is frozen exactly as it was signed, and every look at a sensitive record is written down.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
Band is free, and Famlo is not trying to beat it on price.
Band costs nothing and it is genuinely good at what it does. The question is not price — it is what happens the moment your group needs to collect money or hold a record.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
The complete homeschool platform
Everything a co-op, class or microschool runs on, and everything the families on the other side see.
famlo.co · Find
Riverbend Co-op · Local insights
famlo.co · Creek Day
Riverbend Co-op · Console
Riverbend Co-op · Check-in
Riverbend Co-op · Messages
Riverbend Co-op · Money
Riverbend Co-op · Scholarships
Your family · Records
Riverbend Co-op · Testimonials
“Ivy came home from science lab every Thursday with something new to show us. Lena makes it feel like a real lab.”
June Marsh · Science lab, fall term
“Registration took two minutes, and I never had to retype the allergy list. That alone sold me.”
Maria Reyes · Membership, 60 days in
A platform that moves as fast as your group
757 updates shipped since Famlo was rebuilt on July 18, 2026. About 60 a week.
Merged pull requests to Famlo's web and app codebases, with dependency and version bumps left out. Milestones are the dates each feature first shipped. Counted October 14, 2026.
Upgrade from Band to Famlo in three steps
Bring your families over in an afternoon, and keep Band until this term ends.
-
1
Download your families from Band
Export your customer list from Band as a spreadsheet. Famlo needs:
- Each family's email
- A role for anyone on your team, if you want one
-
2
Invite them in one go
Upload the file under People. Families already on Famlo join your group; everyone else gets an email to sign up and add their children once.
-
3
Publish next term
List your classes free. They go on the map and your public page, and you send families one link. Stuck on a step? famlo.co/support opens a ticket with the team.
Questions about switching from Band
Our group already lives in Band. Do we have to leave?
No. Most groups that use Famlo keep the chat where it is. Famlo handles the registration, the money and the roster; Band keeps being the place people talk.
Band is free. Why would we pay for Famlo?
You may not. If your group is free to attend, Famlo is free too: listing and running cost nothing. Families pay a booking fee only when they book a paid class, and you can cover it instead.
Where Band’s figures come from
Each one is Band’s own published number or wording, linked to the page it came from. Our build fails if any of them goes six months without being checked again.
Band
free
Ad-supported. Ad-free is $1.99 for 30 days; 100GB of storage is $16.99 for six months or $33.99 a year.
Source checked 18 July 2026
Band has no money layer at all — no dues, no registration payments, no refunds and no payouts. Whatever you collect, you collect somewhere else.
Source checked 18 July 2026
Band holds no child records — no allergies, no authorized pickups, no emergency contacts.
Source checked 18 July 2026
A Band group is private and is not publicly discoverable, so a family searching for a co-op in your area will not find you through it.
Source checked 18 July 2026
Keep the tools. Drop the bill.
Set up next term on Famlo while this one finishes on Band. No credit card, no setup fee, no demo call.
No card. Listing stays free whether or not you ever collect a penny through us.
Band’s plans, prices and features are from its own website and help center, linked above with the date each was checked. Band is a trademark of its owner; Famlo is not affiliated with or endorsed by it, nor by Step Up For Students.