Classroomscreen is a popular classroom display tool, and I'm a teacher who built HomeRoom, so I'm biased. Here is a plain look at where they overlap, where they differ, and which one might suit your room.
A simple, widget-based screen for your board: timer, noise meter, name picker, traffic light, text, and more. Simple to start, and the free plan includes all of its widgets. A fit if you mainly want lesson-time widgets on screen.
A full classroom dashboard: custom scenes, a live day planner and unit planner, group maker, seating charts, a phone remote, and sub plans. A good fit if you want your whole school day, not just lesson widgets, on one screen.
| HomeRoom | Classroomscreen | |
|---|---|---|
| Built by | A working teacher in Nova Scotia, Canada | Says it is made by, and for, teachers. Reports 2 million+ teachers and 450k daily users |
| Core idea | One dashboard for the whole school day: scenes, planner, tools, remote | A customizable screen of 26 widgets, with saved screens and templates, for use during lessons |
| Free plan | Free forever ($0 CAD). Every tool plus the full planner, with room for 5 classes and 1 unit plan with 3 active tasks | Free Basic plan ($0): all 26 widgets, annotation bar, remote poll voting, three saved name lists, saved widget bar layout, and the template library. You can try it without logging in |
| Paid plan | Pro: $20 CAD/year (regularly $30), founder price locked in for life. Adds unlimited classes and plans, live multi-device sync, Remote Control, and guest mode | Pro: $3 USD/month, billed annually at $36 USD. Adds saved and shared screens, folders, custom backgrounds, unlimited name lists, and widget themes. A school plan starts at $525 USD/year for 25 licenses |
| Free trial | 60 days of full Pro, no credit card, no auto-conversion | A Pro trial is offered |
| Day and unit planner | Built in. Bump a lesson and everything after it slides, and learning targets sync to the board | Timetable and calendar widgets, plus screens you can prepare ahead and save (Pro). No unit or lesson planner is listed on their pricing page |
| Phone as a remote | Yes (Pro): announcements, hide the board, mute, chime, and photo drop | Remote poll voting for students. A teacher phone remote isn't listed on their pricing page |
| Groups and seating | Visibly random groups, balanced mode, drag-to-arrange seating charts | Name picker, group maker and random seats, with class lists that feed them |
| Sub plans | One-click sub plans and Guest Teacher Mode | Save and share screens (Pro), plus shared workspaces for colleagues |
| Student accounts | None. Teacher-only, no student logins | Teacher account, or no account at all. Student names are optional |
| Data location | Free data stays on your device; Pro cloud data is encrypted and hosted in Canada | Dutch company. Their policy says data is processed in the EU/EEA, with some passed to the USA under safeguards. They say they don't sell personal information and don't run ads. Google Analytics and several other third-party services are used. A free Basic account stores your name and email, plus student names if you choose to enter them |
Classroomscreen details come from their public pricing, home and privacy pages and may have changed. Check their site for current plans. Last reviewed October 2026.
If all you need is a few widgets on the board during lessons, Classroomscreen covers that and you may not need anything else. If you're juggling a planner, a timer site, a group maker, and a seating chart in separate tabs, HomeRoom is built to replace that pile. You can try both: HomeRoom's free tier and 60-day Pro trial need no credit card.
Yes, for the board-display side. HomeRoom has timers, a name picker, whiteboard, sticky notes, and 30+ tools. It also adds a day and unit planner, seating charts, and a phone remote.
Yes. The free plan is $0 CAD forever and includes every tool and the full planner, with room for 5 classes and 1 unit plan with 3 active tasks. Pro is $20 CAD a year.
Yes. It runs in any modern browser, so it works on Chromebooks and touchscreen smartboards.
No. HomeRoom is for the teacher only. Students never sign in.