Labbaik vs IBEAMS (ibeuk.org)

Disclosure: This comparison is published by Labbaik. We've tried to represent IBEAMS fairly using publicly available information, but we naturally know Labbaik in greater depth. If you spot something outdated, let us know.

At a glance

If a search result, AI assistant or fellow committee member has pointed you at ibeuk.org / IBEAMS as a UK madrasah management option, here is a practical 2026 read. IBEAMS exists, has customers — their own testimonial references a 400-student madrasah on $51/month — and the team behind it has clearly put years of work in. The comparison comes down to design generation, payment rails and pricing structure.

A newer front door, the same rooms behind it

Worth crediting: as of September 2026, IBEAMS has relaunched its marketing homepage with a cleaner, more modern design — a genuine step up from the previous version. But the product it's selling hasn't moved with it. The login screen still sits on the older dark-themed shell, and we found that some of the links inside that in-app navigation (Features, Demo, Contact Us) currently lead to pages the server returns as "Not Found" rather than a working route.

None of that stops the core admin functions from working for existing customers. But for a committee comparing options, it's a useful signal: the marketing layer has been refreshed, while the underlying product — including basic navigation — hasn't yet had the same attention.

Desktop-first dashboards vs phone-first workflows

The IBEAMS marketing screenshots centre on a desktop browser window with charts and tables designed for analysis at a PC. That works for an office administrator, but most maktab activity happens away from a desk: teachers sit on the floor with the class, taking the register from a phone, and parents check attendance and pay fees on the move.

Labbaik is designed phone-first for both audiences — a PWA for parents, in-class attendance and Hifz logging on a teacher's phone, and a clean web admin for back-office tasks when a larger screen is helpful.

Parent portal experience

A screenshot makes this easier to judge than a table, so here's a head-to-head: IBEAMS' own parent portal next to Labbaik's, both as they look in September 2026.

VS

IBEAMS' parent portal: a traditional layout with a menu-heavy sidebar and record-style diary entries — each dua or task listed as its own row, with teacher and parent notes side by side.

Labbaik's parent portal: a mobile-first experience with a full at-a-glance overview, push notifications, session recordings and one-tap joining for live sessions (with attendance marked automatically on join) — plus Legends of Labbaik, a game that makes Qai'dah and Qur'an practice something young learners actually want to open.

Pricing: low headline, capped tiers, paid add-ons

IBEAMS publishes three tiers and a list of add-ons. The headline numbers are modest, but the structure is worth reading carefully:

• Basic — $19/month, capped at 50 students.
• Medium — $38/month, capped at 150 students.
• Enterprise — $76/month, unlimited students.
• Student Diary feature — +$13/month add-on (syllabus, progress, parent comments — core madrasah workflow).
• Telephone / Telegram support — +$13/month after the first month.
• SMS — free only if you supply your own SIM and Android handset to send messages.

A medium madrasah that wants progress tracking and phone support is therefore at $38 + $13 + $13 = $64/month — every month, whether fees are collected or not. The fixed monthly bill is the key consideration when comparing models.

Fee collection: logging fees vs actually recovering them

The IBEAMS testimonial describes a familiar pain — fees arriving by bank standing order and admin staff manually allocating payments by reference number. IBEAMS' answer is internal logging and reporting. There is no Stripe checkout, Apple/Google Pay or one-tap card payment surfaced publicly in the product, so the platform helps you record fees rather than collect them. Bank-transfer chasing remains a manual job.

This is the single biggest practical gap between the two platforms. Labbaik takes card payment on a saved card and, when a charge fails, runs an automatic smart retry sequence rather than failing once and leaving it to admin staff to notice. Parents get a WhatsApp message the moment a new payment or subscription is set up, and another if a payment fails, so there's no confusion about what's being charged or what to do next — no publicly documented equivalent exists in IBEAMS. For a masjid or madrasah, that difference is not cosmetic: fewer payments silently drop through the cracks, less admin time spent chasing bank transfers, and more of what's actually owed lands in the account each month.

Mosque in name, maktab-only in practice

IBEAMS bills itself as "One Advanced System for Every Maktab and Madrasah" and targets "Private schools and Mosque" — but the public feature list is attendance, fees, parent communication and financial reporting for the maktab, with no donation tools, event management or community features we could find that a masjid committee would actually use day to day. The "Mosque" in the pitch appears to be about who buys it, not a distinct set of masjid tools.

Labbaik runs the maktab the same way, then genuinely extends to the masjid: donation campaigns, community events and bookings, verifiable Nikah, Shahada and ijazah certificates, and non-educational classes — in the same system, not a separate purchase. For a committee, that means one login and one bill instead of stitching together a maktab system, a separate donation page and a spreadsheet for events.

Committee admin: compliance tasks that can't be missed

Running a masjid or madrasah isn't just the maktab register. Committees also carry a stream of dates that are easy to lose track of in a spreadsheet or someone's inbox: utility and insurance renewals, scheduled maintenance and annual servicing, Charity Commission report deadlines, safeguarding and DBS renewals, fire safety checks, and more.

Labbaik lets committees set these up as recurring administrative tasks with an owner and a due date, then sends WhatsApp alerts as renewals approach and if the most important deadlines go overdue — so nothing safety- or compliance-critical slips through because an email got buried. We found no equivalent task or compliance-reminder tooling in IBEAMS.

Beyond the maktab: kitab-level Alimiyyah tracking

IBEAMS' published feature set is built around maktab-style diary entries — attendance, homework, a note per lesson. We found no publicly documented support for structured Alimiyyah or year-group kitab tracking.

Labbaik doesn't stop at the maktab. Institutions running Alimiyyah or other Islamic studies programmes can upload their own PDF syllabus — Bahishti Zewar, Zad ut-Talibeen, Mishkat, Hidayah, whatever the curriculum requires — and Labbaik automatically breaks it into trackable sections. Teachers then log progress kitab by kitab, section by section, page by page, and that progress is reflected live in the student and parent portal — not just an internal admin record.

What is Labbaik?

Labbaik is a UK-built, GDPR-first, ICO-registered (ZC136003) maktab and madrasah management platform built for 2026: React + TypeScript front-end, modern cloud back-end, EU data residency, native PWA for parents and teachers, Stripe in GBP for native card collection, and WhatsApp as a first-class messaging channel.

Where Labbaik wins (vs IBEAMS)

• Smart payment recovery, not just collection — automatic smart retries on failed cards, plus WhatsApp alerts to parents when a payment is set up or fails, so more of what's owed actually gets collected each month.
• Kitab-level Alimiyyah tracking — upload your own PDF syllabus and Labbaik breaks it into sections; teachers track progress page by page, visible live in the parent/student portal.
• Modern stack, modern UX — built for current browsers, phones and integrations.
• Phone-first for teachers — attendance and Hifz from a phone on the classroom floor.
• Free Safar plan with unlimited students — no hard caps to grow out of.
• Progress & Hifz tracking included — not a paid add-on.
• WhatsApp built in — fees, attendance, absence alerts and broadcasts on the channel parents read.
• Public, transparent pricing — no "Order Now" workflow to find out the real cost.
• Support included — email and chat from day one.
• Genuinely serves the whole masjid — Sadaqah/Zakat donations, ticketed community events, bookings and verifiable Nikah/Shahada certificates alongside the maktab, not just a maktab tool marketed at mosques.
• Compliance task reminders — recurring admin tasks (insurance/utility renewals, servicing, DBS, fire safety, Charity Commission deadlines) with WhatsApp alerts before they're overdue.
• Online classes with OAuth-connected Zoom, Drive & Dropbox. Start a live class on Zoom and Labbaik automatically alerts enrolled students by WhatsApp and email the moment it begins. Students and parents join straight from the portal, with attendance marked present automatically — no register needed. Recordings publish from your own Google Drive or Dropbox so anyone who missed the session can catch up, and Labbaik only ever sees the specific files your organisation publishes, never your whole Drive or Dropbox. We found no equivalent in IBEAMS.

The technology stack, as advertised

IBEAMS publishes its stack on the homepage — PHP, Apache, AJAX and jQuery alongside MySQL. Inspecting the page confirms it: IBEAMS ships jQuery 2.2.4 (2016) and Bootstrap 4.1.3 (2018), a standard mid-2010s LAMP build. That can still run a madrasah today, but it shows up where it matters to buyers — mobile experience, modern integrations like card payments and push messaging, and how quickly the platform evolves.

To be fair to IBEAMS

IBEAMS is a real product run by a real team that has supported UK madrasahs for over a decade — a longer operating history than most platforms in this category. If you already run on IBEAMS, it works, and the published testimonials read as genuine. The point of this comparison is not that IBEAMS doesn't exist; it's that in 2026 there are alternatives built around mobile, native card payments, WhatsApp and a free starting plan.

Which should you pick?

Choose IBEAMS if you value its long operating history and an admin-first, desktop-led workflow fits how your team works.

Choose Labbaik if you want a 2026 mobile-first platform with native card payments, WhatsApp messaging, a free plan you can keep using and transparent pricing. Safar takes about ten minutes to set up, has no student cap and includes Stripe fee collection out of the box.

The technology era a platform was built in shapes the experience your parents and teachers get day to day. Pick the model that fits how your school actually runs.

Frequently asked questions

Weighing up more than one option? See our full round-up of the best IBEAMS alternatives for UK madrasahs.