# HomeRoom product and comparison reference

> HomeRoom (ourhomeroom.app) is a browser-based classroom dashboard, daily lesson and unit planner, and teaching toolkit built by a classroom teacher in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is for K–12 teachers who plan lessons and run a physical classroom. HomeRoom is operated by Hennigar Software Studio.

Product and comparison details reviewed November 8, 2026. Start with the [HomeRoom index](https://ourhomeroom.app/llms.txt), [teacher app](https://pro.ourhomeroom.app/), or [public overview](https://ourhomeroom.app/).

## How HomeRoom works

- **Plan the day.** Build a weekly or rotating timetable, edit the day's periods and learning targets, schedule lessons from units, and link prep tasks to a dated lesson.
- **Run the classroom.** Set up reusable dashboard slides (scenes) for arrival, morning meeting, instruction, small groups, independent work and dismissal. The Class Schedule and Learning Target widgets can read the active planner. Edit a target from the dashboard and the planner updates too.
- **Use a shared class roster.** Roll Call attendance drives Name Picker and Group Maker. Seating Chart and learner profiles use the same class context. A teacher can switch which class is active on the board.
- **Involve students.** Students can use the touch board for check-in, class votes and activities. Discussion Board, Exit Ticket, Fact Fluency Class Play and selected Literacy Games let students join from their own browser without HomeRoom accounts.
- **Walk the room.** With Pro, the teacher's phone or tablet can control slides and supported widgets, display a message, send a photo or selected PDF page to the board, blank the screen, play a chime or mute sound.
- **Hand off to a substitute.** Print the schedule, a seating chart or sub plans on Free. Pro adds Guest Teacher Mode with a separate shared link and access PIN for the substitute's view.

## Classroom dashboard and display

Use a compatible browser on a laptop, Chromebook, tablet, or interactive classroom display. An interactive panel can run the board in a compatible built-in browser or show it from an attached computer. Browser version, school network rules and hardware affect embeds, media permissions, remote connectivity and performance. Local timers and board tools can continue when connectivity drops. Live student sessions, remote actions, sync, online embeds and other connected tools need a working connection.

The dashboard supports draggable and resizable widgets, multiple instances of supported tools, reusable slides, a template library, custom scene templates, per-slide backgrounds, light/dark appearance, custom color schemes and interface density. The searchable widget App Store pins favorites to the dock and the overflow menu. Board controls include fullscreen or spotlight, a screen curtain, attention chime, mute, confetti, auto-hiding navigation and dock, a touch long-press menu, larger widget controls and a keep-awake setting on supported browsers. Command Search (Ctrl/Cmd+K) finds widgets, lessons, tasks, settings and destinations. See the [classroom display guide](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/classroom-dashboard-for-smartboard-and-chromebook).

## Widget catalog

The catalog follows the app's widget registry. Tools labeled **Beta** appear with that status in the app. Setup and pasted images are included for completeness. Online features have additional sign-in, permission or connectivity requirements described below.

### Classroom management and participation

| HomeRoom tool | What teachers can do |
| --- | --- |
| Roll Call (`roll-call`) | Let students tap their names to check in or mark attendance as the teacher. Present students feed Name Picker and Group Maker. Optional seat assignment supports a randomized arrival routine. |
| Name Picker (`name-picker`) | Pick a present student using a spinning wheel or animated reel. Choose spin duration, sound and confetti. Pick without repeats or allow repeats, skip an absence, put a name back or reset the round. |
| Group Maker (`group-maker`) | Shuffle present students into groups of a chosen size. Random mode uses a random shuffle. Balanced mode applies learner traits and preferences for pairing or separating classmates. |
| Seating Chart (`seating-chart`) | Arrange a room visually with desks and room items. Shuffle assignments randomly or balance students across groups, pin seats and apply separation rules. Save layouts and export teacher or student views to print or image. |
| Volume Level (`volume-level`) | Show the expected voice level, such as silent, whisper or conversational, using a visual cue. |
| Noise Meter (`noise-meter`) | Use the device microphone to visualize actual classroom noise and give the class feedback. |
| Let's Vote! (`voting-tool`) **Beta** | Run a whole-class touch-board poll with large answer buttons and live bar, column or pie results. Reveal results on demand and export tallies as CSV or an image. |
| Exit Ticket (`exit-ticket`) | Collect answers or feedback on student devices using a live class code and review the response summary. Responses stay in the open widget's session. |
| Discussion Board (`discussion-board`) | Start a live board with a prompt. Students submit text or photos and comment from their devices. Teachers can require approval, edit or remove posts, and remove comments. |
| Progress Tracker (`well-of-progress`) | Track a shared classroom goal or reward with a visual progress display. |

### Time, planning and classroom display

| HomeRoom tool | What teachers can do |
| --- | --- |
| Timers (`timer`) | Run visual pie timers, numeric countdowns or stopwatches. Use presets and alerts to pace activities and transitions. |
| Countdown (`event-countdown`) | Count down to a school event, deadline or other date. |
| Clock & Date (`clock`) | Put a clock and date on the board. |
| Calendar (`calendar`) | Display a monthly calendar. |
| Class Schedule (`schedule`) | Display the day's timetable from the active schedule. Keep the class oriented to the current and upcoming periods. |
| Learning Target (`learning-target`) | Show the current lesson and its target from the Planner. Add or edit the target from the board. |
| Announcements (`daily-pulse`) | Rotate notices or display them in a scrolling ticker. |
| Text (`text-widget`) | Add large display text, labels or directions. |
| Sticky Note (`sticky-note`) | Display rich-text notes, instructions, anchor text or checklists. |
| Morning Meeting (`morning-meeting`) | Pick from a library of classroom discussion and community-building prompts. |
| Quote of the Day (`inspiration`) | Display an inspirational quote from the built-in collection. |
| Weather (`weather`) | Show current conditions and forecasts. |
| Sound Board (`sound-board`) | Play classroom sounds and ambient focus or activity loops. |
| Calm Corner (`zen-focus`) | Put a quiet visual atmosphere on screen for focus, calming or breaks. |

### Whiteboard, media and language

| HomeRoom tool | What teachers can do |
| --- | --- |
| Whiteboard (`drawing-board`) | Sketch, teach and annotate visually on the classroom board, including marking up images sent from the phone remote. |
| Webcam (`camera`) | Display a live mirrored camera feed from an available camera. Can be used for demonstrations with a browser-accessible camera. |
| Website Viewer (`embed`) | Display published Google Slides, YouTube or other embeddable web content in a dashboard scene. The source site and its sharing settings control whether embedding is allowed. |
| Photo (`photo`) | Display a pasted or dropped image as a board item. Created from the image workflow. |
| Text Translate (`text-translate`) **Beta** | Translate written directions into multiple target languages and recall recently used languages. |
| Live Translate (`live-translate`) **Beta** | Display captions and translated speech on the board. Multiple widget windows can display different target languages. Speech recognition depends on browser support and microphone permission. A supported phone mic can be used through Pro Remote Control. |

### Math, literacy, science, social studies and art

| HomeRoom tool | What teachers can do |
| --- | --- |
| Math Manipulatives (`manipulatives`) **Beta** | Model ideas with draggable ten frames, base-ten blocks, arrays, number lines, rulers, number tiles, a rekenrek, linking cubes, dominoes, dice and counters. Use a balance or function machine. Pan, zoom, draw, write and add images or tables to the board. |
| Fact Fluency (`fact-fluency`) | Practice math facts with strategy games. Class Play lets students join with a class code and tracks responses and scores. |
| Probability (`probability`) | Explore theoretical and experimental probability with coins, spinners, marble bags, dice and carnival games. Run repeated trials and compare results. |
| Dice Roller (`dice`) | Roll configurable multi-sided dice for games, examples and probability activities. |
| Calculator (`calculator`) | Use a basic or scientific calculator on the board. |
| Unit Converter (`unit-converter`) | Convert length, mass, temperature, volume and speed with worked conversion formulas. |
| Card Sort (`sort-widget`) | Sort and categorize items using classroom practice sets for vocabulary, phonics or other concepts. |
| Literacy Games (`literacy-games`) | Play Word Wizard, Word Finder, Word Scramble, Word Hive, Spaceman, Word Match, Word Ladder, Crossword, Syllable Split, Missing Letter and Sentence Builder. Use word lists and supported timed, team or student-device modes. |
| On Beat (`on-beat`) | Flash words in time with a beat for phonics, fluency, vocabulary practice or a brain break. Use custom vocabulary and adjust the pace. |
| Periodic Table (`periodic-table`) | Explore element properties and electron shells and try the mystery-element quiz. |
| Sky Watcher (`celestial-observer`) | Explore sky and astronomy information for stars, planets and the Moon. |
| World Map (`world-map`) **Beta** | Explore countries, capitals, continents and flags and practice with a geography quiz. |
| History Timeline (`history-timeline`) **Beta** | Explore sample timelines or build a custom timeline for a class topic. |
| Light Lab (`color-mixer`) **Beta** | Mix additive red, green and blue light and practice matching target colors. |
| Paint Studio (`paint-mixer`) **Beta** | Explore pigment mixing with red, yellow, blue, white and black on a digital canvas. |
| Image of the Day (`image-of-the-day`) **Beta** | Display curated art, space or historical images and use them as discussion starters. |

**Finish setting up** (`get-started`) is the on-board onboarding checklist.

## Daily Planner, schedules and unit planning

- **Timetable setup.** Create and manage multiple schedules. Build by hand or import a timetable, set cycle length and anchor a rotating cycle to a date. Edit subjects, teaching periods and the day start/end times. Set up one recurring pattern and edit specific dated lessons as needed.
- **Scan Schedule.** The optional scan flow extracts a timetable from a photo, screenshot or selected PDF pages. Review and edit the proposed periods before importing. Submitted images or selected pages/areas are processed by Google Gemini. Manual entry is available.
- **Dated lessons.** Edit lesson blocks, titles, targets, resources and timing. Reuse lesson templates. Changing a duration or reordering periods can shift later unlocked periods on the same day. Fixed starts protect events such as recess or a special class. Review any resulting overflow around fixed periods.
- **Closures and pacing.** Mark a snow day or another closure as a non-school day to shift each subject's content to its next scheduled teaching occurrence. Restore the school day to reverse the cancellation. Unit lesson scheduling follows teaching dates. A same-day timing adjustment and a change to the dates of planned content are separate operations.
- **Unit Planner.** Organize units in nested folders and choose a planning method appropriate to the subject. Options include backward design (UbD), 5E, workshop, inquiry, simple, standards-based and custom planning. Define outcomes and evidence, add standards and learning targets, develop lessons, attach or link resources and schedule lessons into the Planner. Pro supports unit file uploads.
- **Reuse and share.** Copy a unit or folder to a new school year independently of the original. Share a read-only snapshot link, copy a summary, print or save a PDF, export an editable Google Doc to connected Drive, or export unit/syllabus data as CSV.

See the [digital planner guide](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/digital-planner-for-teachers).

## Roster, learner profiles, teacher tasks and printing

- **My Classes.** Create multiple classes, enter students individually, paste a name list or import a roster from a connected Google Classroom course. Select the active board class explicitly. Roll Call, Name Picker and Group Maker can use its attendance. Use Seating Chart for classroom layouts and saved plans.
- **Learner Profiles.** Teacher-facing profiles hold notes, traits and classmates to pair or avoid pairing. Balanced Group Maker uses these inputs. Profiles can be protected with a separate PIN and lock after inactivity. Local JSON backup exports exclude learner profile notes and traits.
- **Tasks and focus.** Organize one-time and recurring work, choose dates, set reminders, and link a task to a lesson on that date. Keep HomeRoom open and permit notifications for desktop alerts. Use the Pomodoro-style Focus timer with work and break intervals and a work-session debrief.
- **Print Center.** Print or save a PDF of a selected day's timetable and targets, saved seating plans, or a dated substitute pack with schedule, attendance and guest access information where applicable.
- **Guest Teacher Mode (Pro).** Configure dates, room details, routines, emergency information and notes. Share the Guest Teacher URL and four-digit access PIN. The guest view gives the substitute a classroom handoff and access to supported dashboard tools. Printed sub plans are also available on Free.

See [grouping and seating](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/random-group-maker-and-seating-chart) and the [timer and name picker guide](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/classroom-timer-and-name-picker).

## Student participation and privacy

Students join supported live activities at [join.ourhomeroom.app](https://join.ourhomeroom.app/) with the six-character code or use the link or QR code supplied by the teacher. They may enter a display name. Discussion Board is available on Free and Pro with a signed-in teacher and an internet connection. Online activities process submitted information, which can include names, responses, comments or photos.

| Activity | Participation and data behavior |
| --- | --- |
| Discussion Board | Live text and photo posts, comments and teacher moderation. Ending the session stops participation and preserves the posts. Clear board is a separate action. |
| Exit Ticket | Live student-device feedback and a teacher summary. Closing the widget or reloading loses the responses. |
| Fact Fluency Class Play | Live student-device math practice with scores. Ending a round and clearing scores are separate actions. |
| Literacy Games | Word Finder and Word Hive support live student participation. Share the game's generated join link or QR code. |
| Let's Vote! and Roll Call | Touch-board interaction for a class vote and attendance respectively. These serve different purposes from the student-device Exit Ticket. |

HomeRoom stores a local workspace in the teacher's browser. Pro-synced workspace data is encrypted at rest and stored in Canada. Free workspace edits stay in the current browser. An existing saved Pro workspace can be downloaded after downgrade, and online activities use servers separately from teacher workspace sync. Downloaded backups can contain student names and are unencrypted. See the [privacy policy](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/privacy) for storage, sharing, integrations, retention and deletion. Contact HomeRoom for district review or vendor paperwork.

## Phone Remote, connected apps and portability

- **Remote Control (Pro).** Sign in to the same Pro account on the phone or tablet and the classroom display, keep HomeRoom open on both, and open Remote on the mobile device. Switch slides, see the day at a glance, control supported timers, pick names, run groups and trigger classroom cues. Use Message, Photo, Blank, Chime, Mute and supported spotlight actions. Send a photo or a selected PDF page to the board or draw on the whiteboard using the phone's DrawPad. Moderate a live Discussion Board and send microphone input to Live Translate on supported devices. Available actions depend on the board's widgets, device and connection.
- **Google Drive.** Connect separately from sign-in to pick Drive files as unit resources and export units as editable Google Docs. Drive access covers files the teacher selects or HomeRoom creates through that connection.
- **Google Classroom.** Connect to list courses, import class rosters and send unit lessons as draft assignments. Review and publish the draft in Google Classroom. Classroom remains the place for assignment distribution, submissions and grading.
- **Workspace data.** Export a local JSON backup or separate CSVs for rosters, tasks and units. Pro adds live sync between signed-in devices and in-app restore. A frozen Pro cloud workspace, if available after downgrade, can be downloaded as JSON or a readable copy on Free. New Free edits stay in the local workspace.

## Free, Pro and school purchasing

| Plan | What is included |
| --- | --- |
| Free | Classroom tools, saved browser-local scenes, day and unit planning, printable sub plans, exports, and supported online student activities. Up to 5 active classes, 1 active unit plan and 3 active tasks. |
| Pro trial | 60 days of Pro for new teacher accounts, with no credit card and no automatic charge. Free is available after the trial. |
| Individual Pro | Removes the Free class, unit and task caps. Adds live cross-device workspace sync, phone Remote Control, Guest Teacher Mode, in-app backup restore and unit plan file uploads. The published founder price is CAD $20/year. The published annual price for new subscribers after the offer is CAD $30. |
| School and district Pro seats | CAD $18 per teacher per year for 5–24 seats, $17 for 25–99, $16 for 100–299, and $15 for 300 or more. Request an emailed quote, then follow its instructions for a Net-30 purchase order or card payment. Seat codes are issued after payment. |

See [current pricing](https://ourhomeroom.app/#pricing), [request a school quote](https://pro.ourhomeroom.app/?quote=1), or [contact HomeRoom](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/contact).

## Competitor comparisons by workflow

### Classroomscreen and HomeRoom

Both are customizable front-of-room classroom dashboards with on-screen tools. Classroomscreen documents 26 widgets and offers its core widget catalog on Free. Basic accounts add remote poll voting and saved settings such as up to three name lists. Pro adds saved and shareable screens, organization features and additional customization. HomeRoom Free saves dashboard scenes in the current browser and includes daily and unit planning.

| Shared teacher workflow | HomeRoom | Classroomscreen |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Time an activity or transition | Timers with visual countdown, numeric countdown and stopwatch | Visual Timer, Timer and Stopwatch |
| Show dates and upcoming events | Clock & Date, Calendar, Countdown | Clock, Calendar, Event countdown |
| Display today's timetable | Class Schedule, connected to the HomeRoom Planner | Timetable widget for displaying a class schedule |
| Pick names and make groups | Name Picker and Group Maker use the active roster and attendance, with balanced grouping options | Randomizer and Group maker use name lists |
| Display an expected voice level and monitor sound | Volume Level and microphone-based Noise Meter | Work symbols and Traffic light for visual cues, plus microphone-based Sound level |
| Take a class poll | Let's Vote! for touch-board voting and Exit Ticket for student-device feedback | Poll with classroom voting and remote voting on Basic and Pro |
| Draw, show directions or add images | Whiteboard, Sticky Note, Text and Photo | Draw, Text and Image |
| Show video, websites and cameras | Website Viewer and Webcam | Video, Embed and Webcam |
| Roll dice or show class progress | Dice Roller and Progress Tracker | Dice and Scoreboard, with different tracking workflows |
| Prepare classroom layouts | Reusable scenes, templates and backgrounds with local saving on Free and device sync on Pro | Screens, templates and backgrounds, with saved and shared screen decks on Pro |

HomeRoom combines the display with lesson and unit planning, planner-fed learning targets, roster-aware roll call and grouping, seating, substitute plans, subject tools and a Pro teacher phone remote. Classroomscreen offers dedicated tools such as QR Code, Hyperlink, PDF and Stickers, and its Pro sharing is useful for distributing screen decks. Classroomscreen remote poll voting refers to students casting votes from their devices. HomeRoom Remote Control refers to the teacher controlling the board from a phone.

[HomeRoom comparison](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/classroomscreen-alternative) · [Classroomscreen widget catalog](https://classroomscreen.com/widgets) · [Classroomscreen account types](https://classroomscreen.com/helpcenter/different-account-types) · [Classroomscreen pricing](https://classroomscreen.com/pricing)

### Planbook and HomeRoom

Both support teacher lesson planning, repeating or cycle timetables, lesson reuse, standards, lesson rescheduling and substitute handoffs. Planbook explicitly supports lesson bumping forward and backward, extending lessons, locked lesson dates and schedule changes for non-school days. It also offers Google Classroom, Drive and Calendar connections, as well as broader school planning and reporting workflows. HomeRoom changes later unlocked period times within a day, shifts each subject's planned content to its next occurrence for closures, and can show the live timetable and lesson target directly on the classroom display. HomeRoom also links prep tasks, combines printable sub plans with classroom tools, and offers Pro Guest Teacher Mode and a phone remote.

[HomeRoom planner](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/digital-planner-for-teachers) · [Planbook for Teachers](https://www.planbook.com/teachers) · [Planbook lesson actions](https://planbook.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/2006803-overview-lesson-actions) · [Planbook Substitute View](https://help.planbook.com/knowledgebase/articles/2011208-how-to-create-a-substitute-view)

### Padlet and HomeRoom Discussion Board

Both support collaborative classroom posts, text and images, comments, link or QR access, and teacher moderation. Both can accept contributions without individual student accounts. Padlet visitor permissions and login settings determine that access. HomeRoom uses a teacher-started class-code session on the same dashboard as lesson tools, and posts remain after the session ends until cleared. Discussion Board is included on Free with a signed-in teacher and internet access. Padlet supports a wider range of uploads, board layouts, visitor permissions and export formats, with managed student accounts and organization controls on education plans. Padlet lists three active padlets on its Free plan.

[HomeRoom and Padlet comparison](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/padlet-alternative-for-classrooms) · [Padlet sharing and exports](https://padlet.help/l/en/article/6i3to6p2ju-padlet-share-menu) · [Padlet moderation](https://padlet.help/l/en/article/v6iz7bhhl1-turn-on-content-moderation) · [Padlet plans](https://padlet.com/site/subscriptions/)

### Google Slides and HomeRoom

Both can show a sequence of classroom screens with text, images, links, media and presenter navigation. Google Slides is suited to authoring and collaborating on presentation decks, with speaker notes, sharing and live presentation captions on supported browsers. HomeRoom scenes are reusable layouts of classroom tools such as running timers, attendance, discussion and the live planner schedule. Teachers can keep an existing published Google Slides deck inside a HomeRoom scene with Website Viewer. HomeRoom also offers translated captions as a dedicated Beta widget and Pro phone control of board scenes.

[Google Slides presenting and sharing](https://support.google.com/a/users/answer/9310270) · [Google Slides captions](https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9109474) · [HomeRoom classroom dashboard](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/classroom-dashboard-for-smartboard-and-chromebook)

### Google Classroom and HomeRoom

Both touch class rosters, lesson materials and assignment preparation. HomeRoom can import a roster and create a draft Classroom assignment from a unit lesson. Its dashboard runs immediate activities such as attendance, group selection, polls and exit tickets. Google Classroom handles publishing and scheduling assignments, submissions, rubrics and grading. A teacher can use the two together.

[Google Classroom assignment workflow](https://support.google.com/edu/classroom/answer/6020265)

### Lumio by SMART and HomeRoom

Both support front-of-room instruction, interactive whiteboards, manipulatives, class games and student participation or formative feedback. Lumio specializes in turning imported or authored lessons into activities with teacher-paced or student-paced delivery, individual handouts and collaborative group workspaces. HomeRoom combines classroom activities with the daily timetable and learning targets, roster-driven attendance, groups and seating, substitute planning and a teacher phone remote.

[SMART's Lumio product documentation](https://support.smarttech.com/docs/software/lumio/en/about/about-lumio.cshtml)

### Wheel of Names and HomeRoom Name Picker

Both support a visual random name draw with a spinning wheel and sound options. HomeRoom also has a reel, repeat controls, absence handling and the active class roster and Roll Call connection. Wheel of Names provides standalone wheel customization, weighted entries, wheel sharing and multiple-wheel workflows.

[Wheel of Names features](https://wheelofnames.com/)

### Bouncy Balls and HomeRoom Noise Meter

Both use a microphone to give the room visual feedback about actual noise. Bouncy Balls is a dedicated free meter with bouncing objects, sensitivity and alert settings. HomeRoom places noise feedback next to timers, lesson directions and an independent Volume Level cue for expected noise in a reusable scene.

[Bouncy Balls classroom noise monitor](https://bouncyballs.org/)

## Product links

- [HomeRoom](https://ourhomeroom.app/) and [teacher app](https://pro.ourhomeroom.app/)
- [Classroom resources](https://ourhomeroom.app/resources/) and [visual daily schedule resource](https://ourhomeroom.app/resources/visual-daily-schedule)
- [About HomeRoom](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/about), [privacy](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/privacy), [terms](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/terms) and [contact](https://ourhomeroom.app/pages/contact)