Nearpod vs Teach Starter

Nearpod helps educators create and deliver interactive lessons, with options for live participation, student-paced work or front-of-class teaching. Teachers can build lessons from scratch or import PowerPoints, Google Slides, PDFs, videos and YouTube videos, then add formative assessments and media activities such as Draw It, Polls, Drag & Drop, VR Field Trips and PhET simulations. Its library contains more than 22,000 customizable, standards-aligned lessons, videos and activities, including K–12 content. Teachers can review real-time feedback and post-session reports to assess student understanding and work. AI Create can generate interactive lessons, activities and multiple-choice questions; the plan details list the question generator with Gold and AI Create with school and district plans. Nearpod works on Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows and the web, and lessons can be embedded in an LMS through a link. Integrations include Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Clever, ClassLink and LTI 1.3 platforms such as Canvas, Schoology and Blackboard. Silver is free; Gold costs $159 a year and Platinum $397 a year. School and district pricing is by quote.

Teach Starter is a web-based library of teaching resources, classroom tools, and educator apps for K–6 teachers. Its collection covers curriculum-aligned printable and digital worksheets, activities, games, and classroom materials across subjects including English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, health, fine arts, languages, and social-emotional learning. Resources come in formats such as Google Slides, PowerPoint, PDF, Word, and Google Sheets. With Plus, teachers get editable resources, lesson plans that combine materials with differentiation and assessment guidance, and unit plans that group lessons. Teach Starter Studio supports creating and adapting resources and display materials. The Free plan costs nothing, requires no credit card, and limits downloads to free resources, which are non-editable. Plus costs $6.08 a month, billed $73 yearly. School Plan costs $73 a year per teacher, requires at least five teachers, and includes Plus and one administrator account. Plus resources and digital tools remain available only during the subscription period.