A detailed comparison
TondroAI Extract vs. Stellic Explore
Purpose-built AI evaluation platform vs. transfer credit module from a leading degree audit company.
At a glance
How does TondroAI Extract compare to Stellic Explore at a glance?
Stellic added transfer evaluation to a mature degree audit platform. TondroAI Extract was built from day one for document processing.
- AI-powered transcript extraction, equivalency management, and SIS output in a single platform
- Stellic Explore: Transfer credit module within Stellic’s degree management platform (1M+ students, 90+ institutions)
- Template-free AI reads any format — no manual data entry, no per-institution training
- Stellic Explore: OCR-based transcript extraction — students upload transcripts or enter coursework manually
- Built-in multi-layer fraud detection and document verification
- Stellic Explore: Accepted credits auto-populate into degree plans via Stellic’s audit engine
- Three equivalency mapping types including faculty review and complex conditional
- Stellic Explore: Automated routing to departments and faculty for credits needing review
- Express App for real-time student-facing applications
- Stellic Explore: Student-facing portal with program exploration, cost/time scenarios, and degree path visibility
- Salesforce-native with integrations across all major SIS platforms
- Stellic Explore: Integrates with Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, and Jenzabar
- $2.50 per transcript — published pricing
- Stellic Explore: Quote-based — pricing not published
This comparison is based on publicly available information as of February 2026. We aim to be fair and factual. If anything here is inaccurate, let us know at contact@tondro.ai and we’ll correct it.
Credit where due
What does Stellic Explore do well?
Stellic’s killer feature is connecting transfer credits to degree requirements — students see how credits apply, not just that they transfer.
- Transfer credits integrated directly into degree audit
- This is Stellic’s defining advantage. When a student’s credits are evaluated, they automatically populate into the degree plan through Stellic’s constraint-aware audit engine. Students see exactly how their credits map to degree requirements, which requirements remain, and how long it will take to graduate. No other competitor in this comparison offers this level of degree-to-credit integration natively.
- Mature degree audit platform as foundation
- Stellic’s core product (Progress) is a modern degree audit and planning platform replacing legacy tools like DegreeWorks. Institutions like Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Cornell, Ball State, and the University of Nebraska Omaha use Stellic for degree management. Explore inherits this mature infrastructure — including “what-if” scenario planning, double/triple-dipping handling, and exception chain management.
- Student-facing program exploration
- Stellic Explore lets prospective students browse majors, requirements, and pathways with public program access. Students can explore multiple scenarios, understand cost and time to completion, and evaluate program fit — all before applying. This enrollment-oriented transparency goes beyond basic credit display.
- Automated faculty and departmental routing
- Credits needing additional review are automatically routed to specific departments or faculty members within Stellic’s workflow. Students see a transparent evaluation process — what has been reviewed, what is pending, and what has been approved.
- Strong institutional roster for degree audit
- Stellic serves 1M+ students across 90+ institutions, including Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Cornell, Ball State, UNO, and Santa Monica College. The company has raised $13.6M and is actively replacing DegreeWorks installations. This institutional depth validates the platform even though Explore is new (launched November 2025).
Where it stops
Where does Stellic Explore fall short for transcript evaluation?
Stellic is a degree audit company that added transfer credit — not a document processing company that built evaluation as its core.
- OCR-based extraction, not AI-native
- Stellic Explore uses OCR for transcript processing. No accuracy benchmarks are published, and no generative AI or template-free AI capabilities are described. OCR-based extraction inherently struggles with handwritten content, non-standard layouts, and international transcripts compared to AI-native document understanding.
- Very new transfer credit product
- Stellic Explore launched November 6, 2025. Santa Monica College is the first publicly announced Explore adopter. While Stellic’s degree audit platform is mature and proven, Explore’s transfer credit evaluation capabilities are still early-stage with limited public track record.
- No non-transcript document processing
- Stellic Explore processes transcripts only. Institutions that need to extract data from immunization records, financial documents, test scores, military records, or other non-transcript documents must use a separate system.
- No document verification or fraud detection
- Stellic Explore does not offer multi-layer document authenticity analysis, fraud detection, or verification of submitted transcripts. Institutions must rely on their own processes to validate document integrity.
- No complex conditional mapping
- Stellic Explore’s equivalency matching integrates with the degree audit engine but publicly available materials do not describe multi-course, multi-condition mapping rules for complex transfer scenarios.
- Not Salesforce-native
- Stellic is not built on the Salesforce platform and no specific Salesforce integration is publicly documented. Institutions using Salesforce as their CRM must manage data separately.
- Pricing not published
- Stellic uses a quote-based model. Because Explore is a module within the broader Stellic platform, institutions may need to purchase the degree audit product to access transfer credit capabilities — potentially paying for more than they need if their primary goal is transcript evaluation.
Feature by feature
How do TondroAI Extract and Stellic Explore compare feature by feature?
TondroAI Extract goes deeper on document processing. Stellic Explore goes deeper on degree-to-credit integration and student planning.
- Core purpose
- Stellic Explore: Transfer credit within a degree audit platform
- End-to-end transcript evaluation
- Extraction technology
- Stellic Explore: OCR-based (no accuracy benchmarks published)
- Template-free AI (proprietary)
- Document order preservation
- Stellic Explore: OCR-based — not confirmed
- AI maintains chronological order
- Equivalency management
- Stellic Explore: Integrated with degree audit engine
- Built-in — three mapping types
- Faculty review workflow
- Stellic Explore: Automated routing to departments/faculty
- Email-based — no login, no training
- Complex conditional mapping
- Stellic Explore: Not described in public materials
- Multi-course, multi-condition rules
- Degree audit integration
- Stellic Explore: Core platform — credits auto-populate into degree plans
- Not a degree audit tool
- “What-if” scenario planning
- Stellic Explore: Multiple program, major, and minor scenarios
- Not applicable
- Non-transcript document processing
- Stellic Explore: Transcripts only
- Any document type ($0.50/doc)
- Document verification
- Stellic Explore: Not available
- Multi-layer ($0.10/verification)
- Fraud detection
- Stellic Explore: Not available
- Multi-layer detection
- Student-facing application
- Stellic Explore: Student portal with program exploration
- Express App — real-time results
- SIS integrations
- Stellic Explore: Banner, Colleague, PeopleSoft, Jenzabar
- All major platforms
- Salesforce native
- Stellic Explore: Not confirmed
- Yes
- Published pricing
- Stellic Explore: Quote-based
- $2.50/transcript
- Product maturity (transfer)
- Stellic Explore: Launched November 2025
- Launched 2025
- Institutional base
- Stellic Explore: 90+ institutions (degree audit); Explore early-stage
- New product
Two categories
What’s the difference between a degree audit module and an evaluation platform?
A degree audit module maps credits to graduation requirements. An evaluation platform extracts, validates, and maps credits from source documents.
- Transcript arrives from any source — student, staff, or automated intake
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): Student uploads transcript or enters coursework manually
- AI extracts all data in document order with confidence scores
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): OCR extracts course data from uploaded transcripts
- Evaluator validates extraction against original transcript
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): Equivalency engine matches courses against institutional rules
- Three mapping types: simple, faculty review, complex conditional
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): Credits needing review routed to departments and faculty
- Fraud detection and document verification built into the pipeline
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): Accepted credits auto-populate into degree plan
- Evaluated credits delivered to SIS as individual records
- Degree Audit Module (Stellic Explore): Student sees degree progress, “what-if” scenarios, and graduation timeline
The decision
Which platform is right for your institution?
Stellic fits institutions replacing their degree audit. TondroAI Extract fits institutions automating transcript-to-credit evaluation.
- Your primary need is turning uploaded transcripts into evaluated transfer credits in a single workflow
- Choose Stellic Explore if…: You’re replacing DegreeWorks or another legacy degree audit system and want transfer credit evaluation integrated
- You need non-transcript document processing, verification, and fraud detection in the same platform
- Choose Stellic Explore if…: Showing students exactly how credits apply to degree requirements and graduation timelines is a core enrollment need
- Complex conditional mapping (multi-course, multi-condition rules) is a requirement
- Choose Stellic Explore if…: “What-if” scenario planning across multiple programs and majors matters for student advising
- Your institution runs Salesforce or Slate and wants native CRM integration alongside the evaluation workflow
- Choose Stellic Explore if…: Your institution is already using or evaluating the broader Stellic platform (Progress, Care)
- Published, predictable pricing matters — $2.50 per transcript with no annual minimums
- Choose Stellic Explore if…: Non-transcript document processing, fraud detection, and Salesforce-native architecture are not priorities
$2.50 per transcript.
Per transcript, not per page. A five-page transcript costs the same as one page. No seat licenses. No annual minimums.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Is TondroAI Extract better than Stellic Explore for transfer credit evaluation?
They solve different primary problems with different architectural foundations. Stellic is a degree audit and planning platform (1M+ students, 90+ institutions) that added transfer credit evaluation through Explore, launched November 2025. Stellic’s core advantage is that accepted transfer credits auto-populate into degree plans — students see exactly how their credits apply to graduation requirements, not just that they transferred. TondroAI Extract is a purpose-built evaluation platform that automates the full pipeline from transcript upload through AI extraction, equivalency mapping with three mapping types, faculty review, fraud detection, and SIS output at $2.50 per transcript. If your bottleneck is connecting transfer credits to degree requirements, Stellic Explore is built for that. If your bottleneck is processing and evaluating transcripts at speed, TondroAI Extract handles the complete evaluation workflow.
Does Stellic Explore use AI for transcript extraction?
Stellic Explore uses OCR (optical character recognition) for transcript processing. No accuracy benchmarks are published, and no generative AI or template-free AI capabilities are described in publicly available materials. Students can also enter coursework manually as an alternative to OCR upload. TondroAI Extract uses proprietary template-free AI that reads document context, structure, and meaning — handling any format, orientation, or institution without pre-configuration, preserving document order, and processing transcripts at $2.50 each.
How much does Stellic Explore cost compared to TondroAI Extract?
Stellic does not publish pricing. Because Explore is a module within the broader Stellic platform (which includes Progress for degree audit and Care for advising), institutions may need to evaluate the full platform rather than purchasing transfer credit capabilities independently. Specific per-transcript or per-student costs are not publicly available. TondroAI Extract costs $2.50 per transcript regardless of page count, $0.50 per non-transcript document, and $0.10 per document verification, with implementation starting at approximately $25,000. TondroAI Extract has no seat licenses, no annual minimums, and no long-term commitments. TondroAI Extract is the only transcript evaluation platform in the market that publishes its pricing.
Does Stellic Explore include faculty review for transfer credit decisions?
Yes. Stellic Explore automatically routes credits needing additional review to specific departments or faculty members. Students can see a transparent evaluation process showing what has been reviewed, what is pending, and what has been approved. TondroAI Extract routes uncertain courses to faculty via email with a direct link — no login, no training, no new system. Faculty see the original transcript, review the course, and approve or reject. Their decision flows back into the evaluation workflow automatically, with transcript processing at $2.50 each and faculty review included in the standard workflow.
Does Stellic Explore show how credits apply to degree requirements?
Yes — this is Stellic’s defining advantage and no other competitor in this comparison offers it natively. Accepted transfer credits automatically populate into degree plans through Stellic’s constraint-aware audit engine. Students see exactly how their credits map to specific degree requirements and electives, which requirements remain, and how long it will take to graduate. “What-if” scenario planning lets students explore changing majors, adding minors, or adjusting graduation timelines with instant results. TondroAI Extract evaluates and maps credits to equivalencies and delivers them to your SIS at $2.50 per transcript, but does not include degree audit functionality. Institutions that need both may use TondroAI Extract for evaluation and Stellic for degree planning.
Does Stellic Explore process non-transcript documents?
No. Stellic Explore processes transcripts only — through OCR upload or manual coursework entry. Institutions that need to extract data from immunization records, financial documents, test scores, military records, or personal statements must use a separate system. TondroAI Extract processes any document type at $0.50 per document using the same template-free AI engine, alongside transcript evaluation at $2.50 per transcript.
Can TondroAI Extract and Stellic Explore work together?
Yes — and this may be the right answer for many institutions. TondroAI Extract handles the evaluation pipeline: AI extraction, equivalency mapping, faculty review, fraud detection, and SIS output at $2.50 per transcript. Stellic Explore handles the degree planning side: mapping evaluated credits into degree requirements, “what-if” scenarios, and student-facing graduation pathways. Institutions that use TondroAI Extract for evaluation can feed the resulting evaluated credits into Stellic’s degree audit engine through standard SIS integration, giving students both accurate evaluations and clear degree path visibility.
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See a Transcript Evaluated in Real Time
Bring your own transcripts to a 30-minute demo. We’ll process them live — extraction, validation, equivalency mapping, and SIS output.