Helium is a free, open-source student planner with real-time grade tracking, at-risk alerts, and calendar sync. See features, pricing, and alternatives.
Helium is a free, open-source student planner and academic calendar built by independent developer Alex Laird under the HeliumEdu project. It gives students one place to manage classes, assignments, grades, and notes, replacing the usual mix of a paper planner, a spreadsheet for GPA tracking, and a separate notes app. The product is a modern rebuild of Get Organized, an earlier Java desktop planner from the same developer that was used by tens of thousands of students, now reimagined as a synced web and mobile experience.
The app is available on the web and as native iOS and Android apps, with accounts syncing instantly across devices. Rather than charging for premium tiers, Helium is funded entirely through voluntary community support on Patreon and GitHub Sponsors, which covers hosting and ongoing development costs while keeping every feature free and ad-free for students.
At the core of Helium is a color-coded calendar with Month, Week, Day, and Agenda views that lets students drag and drop classes and assignments to reschedule work quickly. A dedicated Todos view keeps day-to-day tasks separate from long-term academic planning, and a rich notebook lets students attach formatted notes — with headings, lists, quotes, and links — directly to a specific class or assignment, then search across the whole library later.
Helium's most distinctive feature is real-time grade tracking: as assignments are graded, Helium recalculates overall and per-category grades instantly, flags classes as 'at risk' when they fall below a set threshold, and shows whether a student is ahead of, on track with, or behind their target pace. A built-in 'what grade do I need' calculator lets students model hypothetical scores before turning in a final assignment or sitting an exam. Two-way sync with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and iCal feeds keeps everything current with a student's existing scheduling tools, and push notifications on iOS, Android, and web (or email) provide reminders for upcoming deadlines.
Helium has no paid tiers. Every feature — the calendar, grade calculator, notebook, calendar sync, and notifications — is available at no cost to any student who signs up, whether via web, iOS, or Android.
Instead of a subscription model, Helium is sustained by voluntary contributions through Patreon and GitHub Sponsors, which fund the infrastructure needed to keep the service running for the thousands of students who rely on it daily. There is no ad-supported tier and no paid upgrade path, making it a genuinely free alternative to subscription-based student planners.
Yes. Helium is free for all students on web, iOS, and Android, with every feature included. It is funded through voluntary Patreon and GitHub Sponsors contributions rather than subscriptions.
Helium was created and is maintained by independent developer Alex Laird, building on his earlier Get Organized desktop planner.
Yes, Helium offers two-way synchronization with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and generic iCal feeds.
Yes, Helium's code is published on GitHub under the heliumedu organization.
Helium is available as a web application and as native iOS and Android apps, with accounts syncing across all of them.
Yes, Helium includes a 'what grade do I need' calculator that models hypothetical scores against your current grade.