Widely used commercial systems that provide functionality comparable to the Grader tool include

1. Blackboard Academic Suites
2. Easy Grade Pro 3.6
3. Ggradebook
4. Gradebook Power

Each of these systems provides a wide variety of academic grade management functionality. In terms of such functionality, the goal for the Grader Tool is to provide the important core features found in these tools, not the full range of features found in all of them. The Grader Tool does provide modest funtional improvements in three areas, when compared to most commmercially available tools. These improvements are:

1. Visual adjustment in grading curves by dragging a line accross a histogram. All grades in spreadsheet are automatically adjusted to curving scheme.
2. Ability for professors to work offline and then publish grades when convenient, eliminating problems associated with a web interface while maintaining online publication of grades.
3. More convent and intuitive user interface for rapid management of all classroom grading.

A detailed review of each related tool follows in these subsections:

1. Blackboard Academic Suites
2. Easy Grade Pro 3.6
3. Ggradebook
4. Gradebook Power