Running a STEM or robotics program for kids takes far more behind-the-scenes work than most people expect, and choosing the right STEM camp registration software is one of the highest-leverage decisions a program director can make. Registration windows open and inboxes flood. Parents want confirmations, waivers, and schedule updates. Instructors need group lists before day one. And once camp wraps, you’re already trying to fill next season’s sessions.
The right platform brings all of that under one roof. The wrong one just adds another tab to the browser.
This guide compares six platforms used by youth STEM programs, coding academies, and robotics camps: Activity Messenger, Sawyer, Jackrabbit, Amilia, Jumbula, and Regpack, with a focus on what actually matters when you’re running hands-on learning programs for kids.
DISCLAIMER: Activity Messenger is our software. We built it after watching STEM and robotics program directors burn hours every week on disconnected tools: one for registration, one for email, one for waivers, and another for post-camp surveys. This article compares the options honestly, but we think you’ll see why we built something different.
Before getting into specific platforms, it’s worth unpacking what sets STEM and robotics program registration apart from other kids’ activities:
✅ Skill and age groupings matter more than in most programs. A seven-year-old in a beginner Scratch coding session and a twelve-year-old who has already built two LEGO Mindstorms robots should not land in the same group. Registration forms need to capture experience level upfront, and instructors need that data before they design their first lesson, not after spending day one figuring out the room. Unlike recreational sports, where kids of mixed ability can often share a field, hands-on STEM instruction breaks down quickly when the group is not appropriately matched.
✅ Session-based and week-by-week formats create back-to-back registration cycles. Many STEM camps run in weekly themed blocks: one week is robotics, the next is game design, the next is rocketry. Families often want to register for multiple sessions at once, mixing and matching across weeks. Software that cannot handle multi-session enrolment in a single checkout forces extra steps that parents abandon mid-flow.
✅ Parent communication is the whole communication strategy. In youth programs, every reminder, cancellation, schedule update, and post-camp survey needs to reach the adult who registered, not the ten-year-old who is excited about building a robot arm. Platforms designed primarily around appointment booking tend to treat the registrant as the participant. That assumption creates real friction in junior programs where the person paying and the person attending are two different people.
✅ Re-enrolment is your highest-value audience. A family whose child just completed your summer robotics camp is the most likely family to book your fall coding clinic or next summer’s advanced session. If your registration platform doesn’t let you reach that audience with a targeted re-enrolment campaign without exporting a spreadsheet and importing it elsewhere, you’re leaving real revenue on the table when their interest is highest.
✅ Digital waivers and health information need to be collected before day one, every time. STEM camps involve equipment such as soldering kits, power tools for older groups, and moving robots. Liability waivers and allergy or medical notes are things instructors need to have reviewed before a session starts. Platforms that chase these down after registration closes create an administrative scramble that falls on staff every single session.
📝 Registration forms that go beyond name and payment. Good intake forms for youth STEM programs capture coding experience or prior camp attendance, age and grade level, equipment needs or accessibility requirements, emergency contacts, allergies and medical notes, and signed digital waivers, all in the same flow. If families have to fill out a second form after registering, a meaningful percentage will not complete it.
🧾 Multi-session enrolment in a single checkout. A platform that lets parents register for multiple weekly sessions in a single transaction, with capacity tracking and automatic confirmation for each, removes a step that otherwise costs you registrations.
📣 Automated communications that account for the parent and participant being different people. Confirmations, reminders, and surveys should reach the registered adult automatically, without staff having to manually trigger each message.
📊 Segmented email marketing connected to your registration data. When your participant list and your email tool share the same database, you can run targeted re-enrolment campaigns without exporting a spreadsheet or switching platforms.
👨🏫 Instructor access without full admin permissions. Your robotics instructor needs to see who is in their Tuesday afternoon group and whether any camper has a nut allergy. Role-based access that gives instructors what they need, saving time and reducing the risk of accidental edits.
💳 Flexible payment options. Families have different needs: some want to pay in full, others want a deposit with installments, and some have a subsidy code to apply. Programs that can only accept a single upfront payment turn away families who would otherwise become long-term participants.
⚙️ Automations that run the repetitive work. Every session follows the same lifecycle: registration opens, a confirmation goes out, a waiver reminder follows up with stragglers, a day-before reminder lands, and a post-camp survey is sent 24 hours after the last session ends. Software that runs those workflows automatically frees up staff to focus on the program rather than the admin queue.
| Platform | Best Fit | Key Strengths | Starting Price | Capterra Rating |
| Activity Messenger | All-in-one registration, communication and automation for STEM/robotics programs | Registration, email marketing, SMS, surveys, waivers, automations, certificates | From ~$89/mo | ⭐ 4.8/5 |
| Sawyer | Youth enrichment and junior STEM camps | Parent-friendly booking, marketplace discovery | From 3% transaction fees | ⭐ 4.5/5 |
| Jackrabbit | Multi-instructor STEM academies with recurring class schedules | Class scheduling, recurring billing, family accounts | From ~$49/mo + student count | ⭐ 4.6/5 |
| Amilia (SmartRec) | Large recreation departments and multi-site STEM operators | High-volume enrolment, financial reporting | From ~$99/mo | ⭐ 4.3/5 |
| Jumbula | Camp-focused STEM programs needing reliable core registration | Camp registration, basic communication tools | From ~$15/mo (Pay-As-You-Go) | ⭐ 4.5/5 |
| Regpack | Programs with complex pricing structures or conditional enrolment logic | Conditional registration, payment plans, reporting | Custom; Demo Required | ⭐ 4.4/5 |
Most registration software solves one problem: getting someone signed up. What happens after that, confirmations, waiver reminders, pre-camp communications, post-camp surveys, re-enrolment campaigns, gets handled in separate tools, or does not get handled consistently at all.
Activity Messenger was built around the idea that registration is the beginning of the relationship, not the end of the transaction. For a robotics camp running weekly themed sessions across the summer, that means a family registers, receives a confirmation with their waiver linked, gets a reminder before each session, receives a post-camp survey when it ends, and gets a re-enrolment email when next season opens. None of that requires manual effort from staff.
💬 What our customers say:
“Activity Messenger makes communicating with your customer base a breeze while also making your customer feel like they are getting a communication that was uniquely made for them. It is easy to create and manage class lists.” — Sarah B., Administrator, Sports
“ The team is incredibly helpful, I honestly cannot say enough about the customer service this company provides. The new forms I’ve built are beautiful (who knew forms could ever be beautiful!?) and the way it tracks the information that our participants provide has saved a ton of time. Our class teachers can check their registration and class lists directly as well, taking me out of the equation entirely. It’s fabulous.” — Annie C., Enrolment Coordinator, Education Management
Registration forms built for what STEM programs actually need. Intake forms are fully configurable: coding experience level, prior camp history, emergency contacts, allergy and medical notes, and digital waiver signature, all collected in the same flow. No chasing parents down after the registration window closes.
Multi-session enrolment that works for busy families. A parent can register their child for your robotics week, your game design week, and your 3D printing week in a single checkout. The platform handles session logic, capacity tracking, and confirmation for all three at once.
Built-in email marketing, not just automated notifications. Activity Messenger lets you segment your participant database and send targeted campaigns: re-enrolment emails to families who attended last summer’s coding camp, early-bird announcements to your robotics alumni list, and welcome sequences for first-time registrants. Because registration data and the email tool live on the same platform, there is no export, no import, and no need to reconcile two separate lists.
SMS for time-sensitive updates. Weather cancellations, room changes, waitlist notifications, and pickup reminders do not always get seen in an email inbox. Activity Messenger’s SMS feature lets you reach registered parents directly on their phones.
Post-program surveys connected to enrolment data. Surveys are automatically sent after a session ends, addressed to the right parents based on what they registered for. Responses live in the same platform as your registration data, so you can act on the feedback rather than just collect it.
Digital waivers and e-signatures. Liability forms are built into the registration workflow and collected before day one. No paper forms, no PDF attachments, no chasing.
Completion certificates. Activity Messenger generates and sends personalized completion certificates automatically at the end of a program, a detail that signals to families that your operation is organized and professional.
Attendance tracking. Mark attendance directly in the platform, by session or by day, and flag participants who were absent for follow-up.
Flexible payment handling. Full payment, deposit plus installments, and offline payment options are all supported. Families who cannot pay up front do not have to be a manual exception.
Automations that run the session lifecycle. Set up the confirmation, waiver follow-up, pre-session reminder, and post-program survey sequence once. The platform runs it every time, for every session, without staff triggering each message manually.
Bilingual EN/FR support. Available for Canadian operators running programs in both English and French communities.
See how camps and programs manage registration and communication without the extra tools.
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Sawyer is a registration platform built for children’s enrichment providers. It includes a marketplace where families can browse and register for local kids’ programs, and its checkout flow is designed with parents in mind.
For youth-focused STEM programs, it covers the basics of registration: session management, family accounts, and standard payment options.
Jackrabbit is a class management platform that originated in dance and gymnastics studios. It includes tools for recurring billing, multi-instructor scheduling, and family accounts, which some STEM academies that run ongoing weekly classes have adapted to their needs.
Programs with a structured, term-based schedule may find the core features workable. For seasonal camps, themed week-long formats, and flexible multi-session bundles, the platform requires significant configuration.
Amilia, also known as SmartRec, is a large-scale platform primarily used by municipal recreation departments and multi-site organizations. It is built to support high volumes of registrations across multiple program types running simultaneously on the same system.
For organizations where STEM programming is one of many categories, the infrastructure may make sense if the broader platform is already in use. For operators focused primarily on STEM lessons and camps, the setup requirements alone are a significant consideration.
Jumbula is a registration platform focused on camps. It covers the standard workflow: online sign-ups, session management, payment processing, and basic parent notifications.
The platform supports multi-session enrolment, discount codes, and roster management. The setup is straightforward, and the registration flow works for parents. However, its communication and automation capabilities are basic, which is a gap worth weighing.
Regpack is a registration platform built around conditional logic and payment plan management. It is designed for organizations with multi-step intake flows, tiered pricing structures, or financial aid and scholarship processes.
For programs with those specific requirements, the platform can handle complexity that simpler tools cannot. Outside that use case, the setup requirements and learning curve may outweigh the benefits.
A booking tool lets someone pick a time and reserve a spot. STEM camp registration software handles the full intake process: configurable forms that capture experience level, age group, and medical information; digital waiver collection; flexible payment options; parent communication workflows; and post-program reporting. For a solo instructor with ten recurring students, a booking tool might be sufficient. For anyone running multi-session camps with real intake requirements and parent communication needs, a full registration platform pays for itself in hours saved per week.
Not if you choose the right platform. Activity Messenger, Amilia, and Jackrabbit all handle both camp-style enrolment and recurring class formats within the same system. Running two separate platforms, one for camps and one for ongoing classes, means double the admin work, split payment data, and a fragmented experience for families.
The families who attended your summer robotics camp are your best audience for next summer’s advanced session or your fall after-school coding series, but only if you reach them before they forget. Platforms like Activity Messenger with built-in email marketing, where your registration list and your communication tools share the same data, let you send a targeted re-enrolment campaign to last summer’s robotics families without exporting a spreadsheet or switching platforms.
Yes, and for most programs, it is worth setting up from the start. The best platforms let you build a communication sequence once and run it automatically for every session: a registration confirmation with a waiver link, a reminder two days before the session starts, a post-camp survey the day after the last session ends, and a re-enrolment nudge when the next season opens. Platforms that only support manual or one-at-a-time messaging put that work back on staff for every single session.
For robotics camps specifically, the most important feature is structured intake at registration. This ensures participants are grouped correctly by age and experience level, which directly impacts learning outcomes and classroom management. Automated communication and waiver collection are also critical for safety and efficiency.
Class management software is typically built for recurring lessons (like weekly dance or music classes), while STEM camp software is designed for seasonal, session-based programs. Camp software focuses more on one-time registrations, themed weeks, multi-session enrolment, and communication around short-term programs.
👉 Looking for advice on managing your camp, lessons, or program? Our YouTube channel offers tips, tutorials, and feature walkthroughs to help you streamline business operations. Plus, our AMplify podcast offers additional insights from one of our founders, Olivier Rousseau.
The right STEM camp registration software depends on the shape of your programs and where your admin time is actually going.
If you are running simple, recurring weekly classes with a stable roster, a lightweight tool can handle it. If you are managing multi-week summer camps with dozens of participants, weekly themes, and ongoing parent communication, you need something more robust. And if you are losing hours to follow-up emails, waiver chasing, and manual re-enrolment campaigns, an all-in-one platform pays for itself quickly.
For most STEM and robotics programs, the biggest operational improvement does not come from a better scheduler. It comes from bringing registration, communication, waivers, surveys, and re-enrolment into one place, so the admin work that currently spreads across multiple tools runs automatically in the background while instructors focus on teaching kids to build robots.
That is what Activity Messenger was built to do.
👉 Want to see how Activity Messenger handles STEM camp registration, parent communication, digital waivers, and re-enrolment campaigns without stitching three tools together? Book a demo, and we’ll walk through how programs like yours are using it today.
