Compare programs
A vendor management system (VMS), a managed service provider (MSP), and a master vendor are three different models wearing similar names. Here is what each one means, then side-by-side comparisons with the programs districts actually evaluate, built only from what each company publishes about itself.
The category, untangled
Four models. The first three each leave one job with somebody; the question for your district is who.
Software the district, or its program manager, licenses and operates: requisitions, submissions, timesheets, invoicing workflows. Your staff configure it and run it.
The trade-off: somebody still has to run the program, vet agencies, chase documents, and settle disputes. The tool does not operate itself.
An operator runs the agency program for the district: onboarding agencies, administering the workflow, consolidating billing. Usually funded by a fee on the participating agencies, so the district pays nothing directly.
The trade-off: everything depends on the operator's rules, and whether those rules are written down and provable or only promised.
One staffing company holds the district's contract, fills what it can with its own workers, and subcontracts the rest to other agencies on its own terms.
The trade-off: the party that sets fill priority and subcontract economics is the party that benefits from them. Ask what record shows the order in which suppliers heard about an opening.
A team that runs your agencies for you, and the platform it runs them on. Openings released to every approved agency at the same recorded time; candidates advanced only by your office; no start date on an unapproved file; one invoice. Free to the district, funded by the agencies that participate.
How you check it: an operated program is only as good as its rules, so ours are written into the agreement you sign, and we show you the program record enforcing them before you commit to anything.
Head to head
Each comparison uses only public, published information about the other program, with sources, an "as of" date, and a standing offer to correct anything we got wrong.
Both free to the district and funded by the agencies. The differences: how many agencies genuinely compete for each opening, what stops an unapproved start, and whether every agency competes on equal terms.
Read the comparisonSunburst is Amergis's cross-sector MSP with cooperative-purchasing reach. Fullbench is a program run for you by a team that only staffs schools, with its rules in the agreement.
Read the comparisonStafferLink is healthcare-origin VMS software you license and operate. Fullbench is an operated education program: software you run versus a program run for you.
Read the comparisonThe self-described nation's largest education staffing provider employs the substitute pool itself, at negotiated markups. Fullbench keeps every agency you approve competing under your rate ceiling.
Read the comparisonAn exclusive single-employer program at contract-negotiated markups, versus a program run across the agencies you already use, with a record your own staff can open.
Read the comparisonAll comparisons are based on publicly available information as of August 2026 and each company's own published materials. Company names and trademarks belong to their owners; their appearance here is for factual comparison only. If we have gotten something wrong, tell us and we will correct it. Evaluating a program not listed here? Ask in a walkthrough and we will give you the same sourced, dated side-by-side.
Next step
Fifteen minutes on your roles, your rate ceilings and the agencies you already use, with the program open. No slides, no obligation, and no cost to your district.
What we cover
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