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Clema vs Edify
EAB Edify is a full data platform sold to CIOs and CDOs. Clema is an AI assistant for IR and IE teams that sits on top of the data you already have. Here is how they actually compare.
Last reviewed June 2026
Free to start, with published plans from $99 per month. No implementation fee. Pilot in days.
The short version
Edify is the right call when the institution needs a new governed data platform and the CIO owns the budget. Clema is the right call when the IR team already has the data and needs answers from it this week.
The price gap follows the scope gap: Edify is an enterprise contract whose published fee schedule ran $36,000 to $216,000 per year plus service hours. Clema starts free, with published plans from $99 per month.
At a glance
Six dimensions that decide most IR procurement conversations.
| Dimension | EAB Edify | Clema |
|---|---|---|
| Product category | Higher-ed data platform: warehouse + lake, governance suite, embedded AI assistants | AI assistant for IR and IE teams that sits on top of the data you already have |
| Primary buyer | CIO, CDO, or central IT, with IR as a stakeholder | IR or IE director who can evaluate, pilot, and own the tool |
| Time to first answer | Core platform in around 10 days, then 6 to 8-week build sprints | Days on a connected dataset. No warehouse migration required. |
| Data posture | Shared higher-ed data model with 150+ entities and pre-built accelerators | Partner-only models. Your data trains your model, not a cross-school one. |
| Predictive analytics | EAB Rapid Insight, sold and licensed as a separate product | Built in. XGBoost retention and graduation models with SHAP explanations. |
| Pricing posture | Custom enterprise pricing: annual platform fee plus billed professional service hours. A published fee schedule ran $36,000 to $216,000 per year. | Free to start, with published plans from $99 per month; Enterprise is custom-priced. No implementation fee. |
Pricing
What each one actually costs
One is an enterprise platform contract. The other is a published monthly price.
Published fee schedule from a public university report. Now priced by enrollment.
- Annual platform fee plus professional service hours at $250 to $325 per hour beyond the contracted block
- One documented five-year contract totaled over $914,000, about $220,000 per year
- Multi-month implementation with 6 to 8-week build sprints
Source: Fitchburg State University Financial Sustainability Task Force report (public record).
Free plan available. Published pricing, no enterprise sales cycle required.
- No implementation fee. Connect your existing warehouse and start asking.
- Predictive analytics (retention, graduation, yield, program margin) included, not licensed separately
- Pilot in days, not quarters. Cancel any time.
Where each fits best
Both tools are well-built for their intended buyers. The honest question is which buyer you are.
You need a governed enterprise data platform
- You are buying for the whole institution (HR, finance, registrar, advancement), not a single team.
- The CIO or CDO owns the budget and the campus-wide rollout.
- You can absorb a multi-month implementation and the professional services that go with it.
- The 150+ entity higher-ed data model and 50+ pre-built reports map directly to your reporting backlog.
You need answers from the data you already have
- You are an IR or IE team that needs to answer real questions in days, not quarters.
- You want partner-only models. Your data does not improve another institution's answers.
- You want to evaluate, pilot, and own the tool without a campus-wide procurement.
- You need predictive analytics (retention, graduation, yield) built into the same workflow, not licensed separately.
Side by side
Three layers: how each tool handles data, how each handles AI and analytics, and how each deploys.
Data layer
| Capability | EAB Edify | Clema |
|---|---|---|
| Data warehouse + lake | Yes. AWS-hosted, vendor-agnostic. | No. Clema connects to your existing warehouse rather than replacing it. |
| Higher-ed data model | 150+ pre-modeled entities and 200+ default definitions | No pre-built model. Clema reads your existing schema. |
| Pre-built connectors | 15+ named connectors (Banner, Slate, Canvas, Workday) | Connects via SQL to any warehouse the IR team already uses |
| Governance, lineage, profiling | Full governance suite included | Relies on the governance posture of your existing warehouse |
AI and analytics
| Capability | EAB Edify | Clema |
|---|---|---|
| Natural-language Q&A over your data | Edify AI: Query Assist, Data Search Assist, SQL Explainer | Conversational answers across SIS, LMS, aid, and federal data |
| Pre-built reports and dashboards | 50+ "must-run" reports across 10 functional areas | No pre-built dashboard library. Clema answers questions rather than ships reports. |
| Federal-data AI agents | Not a primary surface | Dedicated agents for IPEDS, STATS (FVT/GE), College Scorecard, Pell, EADA, PSEO, DAPIP, and more |
| Predictive modeling | EAB Rapid Insight, separate product | Built in. Retention, graduation, yield, and program-margin models |
Deployment and posture
| Capability | EAB Edify | Clema |
|---|---|---|
| Onboarding cadence | 10 days to core platform, 6 to 8-week customization sprints | Days to first answer on a connected dataset |
| Strategic services team | Dedicated three-person team included in annual fee | Lighter touch. Clema is built to be self-serve for IR teams. |
| Data isolation | Shared higher-ed data model; cross-school accelerators | Partner-only. Your data does not improve another institution's answers. |
| Procurement scope | Campus-wide platform purchase | Single-team tool that scales to the institution as IR demonstrates value |
Skip the procurement cycle. See Clema answer a real IR question on your data this week.
Book a demoThe honest tradeoffs
Both tools have real strengths. An IR director who has seen both demos should read this and nod.
Where Edify is genuinely broader
- A full data warehouse and governance suite that Clema does not replace.
- A 150+ entity higher-ed data model and a strategic services team included in the contract.
- 50+ pre-built reports across HR, finance, registrar, and student success.
Where Clema is genuinely different
- Partner-only training, with no cross-school pooling of institutional data.
- An IR-practitioner buyer flow. Pilot, evaluate, and own it without a campus-wide procurement.
- Conversational answers over existing systems in days. No warehouse migration required.
Frequently
asked questions
No, not directly. Edify is a data platform that includes a warehouse, governance, and AI assistants. Clema is an AI assistant that sits on top of existing institutional data. If you need to build or replace the data platform, Edify is in that conversation. If you have the data and need answers from it, Clema is.
Yes. Clema reads from any warehouse the IR team has SQL access to. An institution running Edify as its data foundation can still use Clema as the IR-facing question-answering layer. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Clema uses partner-only models. Your data trains your model and does not flow into a shared cross-school system. Edify is sold partly on the strength of its higher-ed data model and pre-built accelerators, which benefit from shared structure across institutions. Both postures are valid. Many IR teams prefer the partner-only choice.
Connect a single dataset (often the SIS or a warehouse extract), define two or three real IR questions the team wants answered, and run Clema against them. The pilot is measured in days, not quarters. No campus-wide procurement, no enterprise rollout, no committee.
Yes, built in. Clema runs gradient-boosted retention, graduation, yield, and program-margin models on the institution's data, with SHAP-backed explanations for each per-student prediction. EAB sells Rapid Insight as a separate product alongside Edify. The capability is comparable in scope; the packaging is different.
EAB does not publish Edify pricing, but public records give a clear picture. A public university task-force report disclosed an Edify fee schedule running $36,000 to $216,000 per year, plus professional service hours billed at $250 to $325 per hour beyond the contracted block. That same university's five-year Edify contract totaled over $914,000, about $220,000 per year. EAB has since moved to enrollment-based pricing. Clema starts free, with published plans from $99 per month (about $1,188 per year on the Pro plan), and no implementation fee. The two are not like-for-like (Edify includes warehouse and governance Clema does not replace), but the order-of-magnitude gap is real.
See Clema on your institution's data
The fastest way to compare the two is to walk through a real IR question on your real data. Days, not quarters.
Researching alternatives? Read our cost and vendor reality check for the broader landscape.