You can try the homeschool transcript builder without a credit card, and you do not need a yearly plan to keep using it. There is no account. The Marigold Paper Co. transcript kit on Etsy is only for print, PDF and PNG.
I built the line there on purpose. A parent who is still deciding whether this page even fits their family should not have to subscribe to find out. Some transcript tools sell a yearly cloud plan. This one does not.
What the homeschool transcript builder gives you for free
Open it in a browser. Enter the student, the courses, the grades, the credits and the grading scale. Choose how the page looks, including colour and type. That work is free.
You can also fill the extra pages that sit beside the one-page transcript: course descriptions, activities, a reading list, a counselor letter, and a diploma. Those views are in the tool from the start. Filling them does not require the kit. Printing them, or saving them as PDF or PNG, still does.
Save a backup, and open it again later. The backup is a JSON file named from the student. It is this tool’s own save file, not a PDF and not a printable page. Keep that file. If you change browsers or machines, it is how the record comes with you.
The worksheet rules already live on the guide hub. GPA math is how to calculate homeschool GPA and weighted versus unweighted GPA. Credit hours are how to assign high school credit. This page is only the product line.
What the kit unlocks
Printing, PDF and PNG. That is the paid boundary.
The tool says it plainly: build and style everything for free; printing, PDFs and image downloads unlock with the access code from the transcript kit. I will not pretend those exports are free, and I will not print a code here.
If you want the files you can actually attach, print, or put in an envelope, you buy the kit from the Etsy shop. I am not going to invent a listing URL or a price. The shop is the shop.
Checking an access code sends the code to the tool. It does not send the student record.
Where the records live
There is no user account. Course records save in the browser on that computer. If you skip the backup and the browser data is cleared, the work is gone. That is the honest trade for not putting a child’s record in a database I run.
What you type stays on the computer. Optional dictation is different. The tool first tries an on-device speech pack so the voice never leaves the machine. If that pack is not used, the browser maker’s speech service receives the audio after a consent prompt: Google for Chrome and Edge, Apple for Safari. Typed notes are unchanged either way.
Requirement presets are a planning check
The builder can check a plan against typical college prep, UC A-G, NCAA Division I core, or a custom list you set. Those ticks are a way of seeing gaps while you still have time. They are not a guarantee that a college, the University of California, or the NCAA will accept the record.
UC A-G rules live on the current UC admissions pages. NCAA homeschool rules live on the current Eligibility Center pages. Each college writes its own. Check the page of the place you are sending to.
I am not an accreditor, an admissions officer, or a lawyer. The file is yours to stand behind.
Who this is actually for
It is worth opening if you want to see a parent-made transcript as a finished page before you spend anything. The free pass is the whole record, styled, sitting in front of you.
It is worth opening if you are comparing this with a yearly cloud service and you care where the data lives. Here it lives on your computer, and the backup file is your copy.
It is worth buying the kit when you need to print, save a PDF, or download a PNG: a sealed envelope, a portal upload, a copy for the file you keep. How that PDF then leaves the house is how to send a homeschool transcript.
It is not worth buying yet if you are still gathering the pile. What to keep so the transcript is not invented from memory and when to start the file are the earlier jobs. The homeschool resources page is the front door for those.