Yes, completely: no licence cost, no trial limit and no upsell. It is released under the GNU GPL. That is a real option for a school with no software budget, and we would rather a school used FET than went back to a spreadsheet.

What does FET not do for an Australian primary school?

It has no concept of Australian planning time, no state vocabulary, no yard duty or wet day supervision, no daily cover, and no support. Every local rule has to be expressed by you as a general constraint, and any mistake in that translation produces a timetable that looks right and is not.

How long does FET take to set up compared with Bell Path?

Realistically several days for someone learning FET, against about an evening of setup in Bell Path. With FET you describe the school in a general constraint language rather than answering questions about a primary school. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whose hours are scarcer at your school.

Can we start with FET and move later?

You can, and some schools do. What transfers is the thinking: knowing your real rules, your entitlements and your specialist rotation. The setup itself will not transfer, because the two products describe a school in different terms.

Comparison

Bell Path vs FET

FET is free, open source, capable, and will stay available. If there is no budget, it deserves a serious look. This page is about what the zero price does and does not cover for an Australian primary school.

FET is developed by a community and released under the GNU GPL, an open-source licence. Its features are assessed from its public documentation. There is no vendor to confirm details with, which is itself part of the comparison.

Sources checked · July 25, 2026

FET project

See a sample timetable Request a 20-minute walkthrough

Two honest answers

Which product fits which school.

Choose Bell Path if

Bell Path is built for Australian primary schools.

You are short of leadership hours, not software budget
You need Australian planning time enforced rather than modelled by hand
You want daily cover, yard duty, wet day plans and events as well as the timetable
You need someone to answer when it will not generate and you cannot work out why

Choose FET if

When FET is the better fit.

Your school cannot fund software this year. FET is free forever and that matters more than any feature list
You have a staff member who enjoys this kind of problem and will own it properly
You want full control over every rule, including rules no commercial product lets you set
You are comfortable with a desktop program, manual data entry and no support

Side-by-side

What the decision usually comes down to.

Price

Published annual pricing by school size, with a founding-school rate

Free, permanently, under an open-source licence

Real cost

Setup a school leader can finish in about an evening

Setup measured in days, plus one person being the only one who understands it

Australian context

State planning-time rules, state vocabulary, yard duty, wet day and relief arrangements

None. You model every Australian rule yourself as a general constraint

When it will not generate

Names the teacher, the rule and the fix, and will not generate while a Must fix finding stands

Reports that no solution exists. Working out why is your job, with help from community forums

After the timetable

Daily cover, yard duty with a fairness record, wet day plans, event timetables, an operations calendar and a staff portal

Nothing. FET generates timetables and stops there

Support

Email support and a walkthrough on request

Community forums and documentation. Nobody is obliged to answer

FAQ

Questions schools ask when comparing Bell Path and FET.

Is FET really free?
Yes, completely: no licence cost, no trial limit and no upsell. It is released under the GNU GPL. That is a real option for a school with no software budget, and we would rather a school used FET than went back to a spreadsheet.
What does FET not do for an Australian primary school?
It has no concept of Australian planning time, no state vocabulary, no yard duty or wet day supervision, no daily cover, and no support. Every local rule has to be expressed by you as a general constraint, and any mistake in that translation produces a timetable that looks right and is not.
How long does FET take to set up compared with Bell Path?
Realistically several days for someone learning FET, against about an evening of setup in Bell Path. With FET you describe the school in a general constraint language rather than answering questions about a primary school. Whether that trade is worth it depends on whose hours are scarcer at your school.
Can we start with FET and move later?
You can, and some schools do. What transfers is the thinking: knowing your real rules, your entitlements and your specialist rotation. The setup itself will not transfer, because the two products describe a school in different terms.

Other comparisons

Keep comparing from the primary-school point of view.

Every alternative Bell Path is measured against, with the same two honest answers on each page.

See all 12 comparisons

Still comparing?

See the timetable before you decide.

Walk through a realistic primary-school example, then request a short guided review if you want to test the workflow against your own constraints.