SAGE TEACHERS
Browse the apps →
The short answer: Classroomscreen is a genuinely good free tool — every widget is free, no login needed. Its catch is that nothing saves: on the free plan you rebuild your screen every lesson and can keep just 3 name lists. Sage Teachers takes the jobs teachers use most — timer, name picker, groups, whiteboard, morning board — and makes each a full app, with your class lists saved to a free account, no cap, loading instantly in every app.
Credit where it's due, because plenty of "alternative" pages won't give it. All 26 widgets are free and you don't even need an account. It's ad-free by policy. And its core idea — lots of small widgets arranged together on one screen, a timer next to a traffic light next to today's date — is something Sage Teachers doesn't replicate. If what you want is that composable all-in-one display, Classroomscreen does it well, and you should use it.
The free plan's catch is the one every teacher hits in week one: you build your perfect screen, and next lesson it's gone. Saving screens is Pro-only. So is sharing them. Name lists — the thing the random name picker runs on — cap at three on the free plan, which doesn't stretch far once you're covering classes or teaching sets. Pro is £36 a year, and their recent updates follow a consistent pattern: new features are free to use, but saving them for reuse is Pro.
I built Sage Teachers as a working primary teacher, and I made the opposite trade. Instead of one screen of small widgets, each job gets a proper full-screen app — a timer that's built to be projected, a seating plan you lay out to match your real room, a morning board that fills the screen while the class settles. The bit I cared most about: sign in free with Google and your class lists are saved once, with no cap — then every app can use them. Pick your class in the name spinner, the group maker, the seating plan; nothing gets typed twice and nothing vanishes overnight.
| Classroomscreen free | Sage Teachers free | |
|---|---|---|
| Style | Many widgets, one screen | One full app per job |
| Saves your setup | No — rebuild each lesson (Pro: £36/yr) | Yes — classes & plans saved to a free account |
| Name lists | Max 3 saved | No cap |
| Logins | None needed | None to use; free Google sign-in to save |
| Pupil accounts | Never | Never — games join with a 4-digit code |
| Beyond the screen | Display widgets | 90+ apps: quizzes, live games, printables |
If you love having six little widgets visible at once, keep Classroomscreen open — it's the better ambient dashboard. Where Sage Teachers earns its place is the moment a widget isn't enough: when the name picker should know who's in this morning, when the seating plan needs to survive until September, when you want a whole-class quiz or a live game the children join on their own devices. And because your classes are saved once and shared across every app, the "set it all up again" tax disappears.
Yes — all 26 widgets, no login. The limits are on saving: screens don't persist on the free plan, name lists cap at 3, and saving or sharing screens needs Pro at £36 a year.
If you rebuild the same screen every day, £36 a year is a fair trade for saved layouts and unlimited lists. But before paying, check whether a free alternative covers what you actually use — for most teachers that's a timer, a name picker, groups and a noise-happy display.
Depends on the job. For the most-used widgets as proper full apps — with class lists that save and no cap — Sage Teachers. For many small widgets composed on one screen, Classroomscreen itself is still the one to beat.
No — on either. Everything runs in the browser with nothing to install. On Sage Teachers, pupils join the live games with a 4-digit code at sageteachers.com/join. No pupil accounts, ever.
Open any app below on your whiteboard — no download, no sign-up to start. If it saves you the Sunday-night rebuild, it's doing its job.
Browse all 90+ apps →