IlmFlow vs MaktabMate: comparing two UK madrasah platforms
MaktabMate is one of the more established UK-built alternatives to IlmFlow, with published pricing and a Hifz tracker built by a serving imam. This comparison sticks to what MaktabMate publishes about itself on its own website, and says plainly where each platform is the stronger fit.
What MaktabMate is, fairly stated
MaktabMate is UK registered, with its data held in London, and built by a serving imam, which shows in the detail of its Quran tracking. Its published feature list covers juz-by-juz Hifdh tracking with tests, daily reading logs for maktab classes, attendance, fees with sibling discounts, house points, and a staff clock-in system.
Parent access is free on every plan, which is a genuinely generous stance for a paid platform to take. Card payments were still described as in testing at the time of writing, so it is worth checking directly with MaktabMate whether that has since gone live.
Pricing is published and tiered by student count: £4.99 a month for up to 10 students, £12.49 for up to 100, and £19.99 for unlimited, shown as an early-bird rate at 50% off a regular price of £9.99 / £24.99 / £39.99. Nothing on MaktabMate's public site mentions UK staff payroll, PAYE or a dedicated teacher portal.
Side by side
Based on what each platform publishes about itself in August 2026.
| MaktabMate | IlmFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| Built in | UK, data held in London | UK |
| Hifz / Quran tracking | Yes, juz by juz with tests | Yes, Sabak/Sabak Para/Dhor, plus Juz-30 and duas |
| Parent access | Free on every plan | Full portal: attendance, grades, fees, homework, tracker, chat |
| Teacher portal | Not stated on their public site | Yes, dedicated portal |
| Fees | Sibling discounts; card payments in testing | Card payments live, straight to the madrasah's own bank |
| UK staff payroll | Not mentioned | Yes, PAYE, NI, pensions and payslips |
| Pricing shape | Flat rate by student band: £4.99 / £12.49 / £19.99 per month (early-bird) | 25p per active student per month, £15 minimum |
| Free trial | Not stated as a time-limited trial | 30-day free trial, no card |
The honest reasons you might pick MaktabMate right now
None of these are knocks on IlmFlow. They are simply true things about MaktabMate's offer.
- A large madrasah pays less on a flat rate. At 200 students, MaktabMate's unlimited tier is £19.99 a month against roughly £50 a month on IlmFlow's 25p-per-student pricing. If your numbers are large and growing, that gap is real and worth doing the maths on for your own roll.
- Free parent access on every plan is a genuinely strong, simple promise, and worth crediting as such.
- It was built by a serving imam, which shows in the depth of the Hifdh tracking specifically, juz-by-juz with tests.
The honest reasons you might pick IlmFlow right now
Equally, these are simply true things about IlmFlow's offer.
- A small or mid-sized madrasah pays less on a per-student rate. Below roughly 80 students, IlmFlow's 25p-per-student pricing (£15 minimum) comes in under MaktabMate's £19.99 unlimited tier, and well under its £12.49 hundred-student tier for anything under 50 students.
- Parents and teachers get their own full portals, not just reading logs and messaging. Attendance, grades, fees, homework and progress are each visible to the right person.
- UK staff payroll is built in. If you pay teachers, IlmFlow is the only UK madrasah platform in any of our comparisons that runs PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and payslips alongside the student side.
- Card payments are live today, going straight to the madrasah's own bank account.
On price, plainly
This is a genuine crossover, not a one-sided comparison. Work out your own student count and check both pricing pages against it rather than trusting either headline figure: IlmFlow tends to cost less for smaller madrasahs, MaktabMate tends to cost less once you are well past a hundred students.
If you also pay staff through PAYE, that cost has to be run somewhere regardless of which platform you choose. IlmFlow is the only one of the two that includes it in the same place as the student records.
Your data, your madrasah
Whichever of these you choose, you are handing over named children's attendance and progress records, so it is worth asking where that data lives and who can see it. MaktabMate states its data is held in London, which is a reassuring, checkable claim for a UK madrasah to hear.
On IlmFlow, each madrasah's data is kept private to that madrasah, fee payments go straight to your own bank rather than through IlmFlow, and a full export is available on request.
How this comparison was put together
Everything about MaktabMate above comes from its own public marketing and pricing pages, read in August 2026. Most of the product sits behind a login once you go past the marketing pages, so this comparison reflects what is publicly stated rather than a hands-on trial of the finished product. If you run MaktabMate and something here is out of date, get in touch and it will be corrected.
Everything about IlmFlow comes from its own published pricing and feature pages, the same standard we hold every comparison on this site to.
Common questions
What is MaktabMate?
MaktabMate is a UK madrasah management platform, data held in London, built by a serving imam. It covers juz-by-juz Hifdh tracking with tests, daily reading logs, attendance, fees with sibling discounts, house points and a staff clock-in system, with free parent access on every plan.
Is MaktabMate cheaper than IlmFlow?
It depends on your student count. MaktabMate charges a flat rate by band (£4.99 / £12.49 / £19.99 a month, early-bird pricing), while IlmFlow charges 25p per active student per month with a £15 minimum. Below roughly 80 to 100 students, IlmFlow tends to work out cheaper; well past that, MaktabMate's unlimited tier tends to work out cheaper. Check both against your actual numbers.
Does MaktabMate handle UK staff payroll?
It is not mentioned on MaktabMate's public marketing page. Of the UK madrasah platforms compared on this site, only IlmFlow currently advertises staff payroll, PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and payslips.
What is the main difference between IlmFlow and MaktabMate?
IlmFlow adds full role-based parent and teacher portals and UK staff payroll alongside student records, on per-student pricing. MaktabMate offers free parent access on every plan and a flat rate that gets cheaper as a madrasah grows, with less publicly documented about a dedicated teacher portal or staff payroll.
Does MaktabMate track Hifz and Quran progress?
Yes. MaktabMate tracks Hifdh juz by juz with tests, plus daily reading logs for maktab classes. IlmFlow tracks Hifz across the three daily listenings, Sabak, Sabak Para and Dhor, plus Juz-30 surah and dua tracking for maktab classes.
IlmFlow adds full parent and teacher portals and UK staff payroll to the student side, with a 30-day free trial so you can weigh it against MaktabMate using your own numbers.