Anchor vs NetSupport School

Anchor is classroom software for schools using managed or bring-your-own-device Windows laptops. A teacher starts a focus session for a class, selects allowed app and website bundles, and watches student states and off-list events on a dashboard. Microsoft 365, Smartschool, and GeoGebra are named selectable bundles, and teachers sign in with existing school Microsoft accounts. Off-list apps are set aside rather than closed; off-list Microsoft Edge pages show a block page with an access-request option. Anchor provides activity monitoring, web filtering, and device controls, but no live screen view or behavior tracking. It observes activity only during an active teacher-started session. During that session, the extension sends off-allowlist visits, unblock requests, integrity signals, and liveness heartbeats to the school backend. Each school runs a single-tenant backend in its own Azure subscription. Anchor is GPL-3.0 licensed, self-hostable, and publicly auditable. It is free, with no licence fee or per-seat charge, though Azure hosting costs may apply.

NetSupport School is classroom-management and student-monitoring software for teaching, managing devices, and assessment. Teachers can monitor student screens, applications, websites, typing, and collaboration in adjustable thumbnails, then remotely control screens or blank and lock selected devices. For instruction, they can share screens, applications, presentations, videos, and websites with annotation tools. File transfer supports sending files and folders to students and collecting files from them. The software supports mixed-platform classes across Windows, Mac, Chromebooks, Android, and iOS. SIS mode integrates with ClassLink OneRoster and Google Classroom, but requires the NetSupport Connectivity Server installed on Windows Server. A 30-day trial supports up to 40 devices, includes all features, and does not require a credit card. Pricing is available on request; licensing is device-based, and a 100-machine deployment requires a 100-user license even when loaded from a server. Pricing includes free weekday support across global time zones and online training. The Android student app supports Android tablets running version 12 or later, with arm64-v8a on versions from 15.10.0003.