The best classroom management software of 2026

Lightspeed Classroom lets a teacher see every student screen in a class, lock screens, record them, and close tabs that have nothing to do with the lesson. You can limit how many tabs students open, restrict browsing to the sites you choose, and set different browsing rules for different groups. Co-teachers can share a class, and you can merge classes when two groups meet together.

Two features stand out. Lightspeed alerts teachers to unusual browsing and shows AI activity during class, which helps when students have chatbots one tab away. It also connects to Lightspeed Hall Monitor for digital hall passes, and each class ends with a summary of engagement and which students drifted off task.

Lightspeed Classroom runs on Chromebooks, Windows and Mac. On iPads, Lightspeed points out that Apple doesn't allow third-party screen monitoring, so it uses Lightspeed MDM to manage Apple's own Classroom app instead.

Pricing is by quote only; the pricing page asks you to submit a request. Ask for the per-student price on its own and as part of any bundle, so you can compare like for like with GoGuardian.

GoGuardian Teacher gives teachers a live view of what each student is browsing and lets them take control of a student's screen remotely. Teachers can block or allow websites for the lesson, close or open tabs, send a private chat message to one student or an announcement to the whole class, and schedule classes so the controls switch on and off with the timetable. It also includes audio and video calls, which help with remote or hybrid lessons.

Administrators get oversight of digital engagement across the district, and GoGuardian shows support for Windows, Chromebooks and Apple devices.

GoGuardian doesn't publish prices. Its pricing page says the price depends on enrollment, which products you bundle, contract length and any professional services, and that multi-year contracts may cost less. The company's pitch is that its products cost less together, so GoGuardian Teacher makes most sense for a district that also wants GoGuardian's other tools.

The site doesn't mention a free trial; you request a demo. If you are comparing it with Lightspeed, ask both vendors for a quote on the same student count and contract length so the numbers line up.

LanSchool is backed by Lenovo and comes in two versions, LanSchool Air and LanSchool Classic. Between them, LanSchool offers cloud-based and locally hosted setups, and it says its tools work on Mac, Windows, Chromebooks and mixed fleets.

The practical reason to look at LanSchool first is the Lenovo deal. Every Lenovo education device comes with a full year of LanSchool at no cost. If your school is already buying Lenovo laptops or Chromebooks, you can run LanSchool for a school year before paying anything, which is a better test than any demo.

LanSchool doesn't publish prices. Its purchasing page describes two license options and asks you to contact sales for a quote, and it says changing your hosting plan later doesn't add fees. You can request a trial from the site, but the trial length isn't stated.

LanSchool's site didn't give enough detail on the differences between Air and Classic for us to compare them feature by feature, so ask sales which version fits your network before you sign.

Securly Classroom shows teachers what students are using their devices for during class. From the teacher view you can see student screens, push a website out to every device, lock devices when you need attention at the front, and chat one-on-one with a student who has wandered off.

It runs on Chromebooks, Windows and macOS.

Securly doesn't publish prices or mention a free trial on the Classroom page. You can request a demo or click through an interactive product tour first, which is a good way to see the teacher screen before talking to sales.

Securly Classroom covers the core tasks well, but Lightspeed and GoGuardian list more extras, such as screen recording, class scheduling and video calls. It earns its place on this list for schools already on Securly's filter, where one vendor and one student roster make life easier for IT. Ask for a quote on the same student count you give Lightspeed and GoGuardian, and check whether Windows and Mac devices get the same controls as Chromebooks.

NetSupport School, from NetSupport Ltd, lists Windows, Mac, Chrome, iOS and Android, bring-your-own devices and thin clients, and it is the only tool here that names thin clients. That makes it a strong fit for a school with an older Windows lab, a cart of Chromebooks and students bringing their own tablets.

Teachers see student screens, the apps students run and the websites they visit in real time, and can also monitor keyboard activity. It goes further than screen control into teaching tools: you can share your own screen, use a virtual whiteboard, run presentations and guided activities, and build surveys and quizzes that show you who has understood the lesson while it is still going on.

Licensing is based on how many devices you need, with "buy once and own forever" options alongside subscriptions. NetSupport says there are no implementation fees and that support and training are free. You get a quote rather than a price list, and a free trial download is available, though the page doesn't say how long it lasts.

If your budget comes from one-off capital spending rather than a yearly software line, the perpetual license is a real advantage over cloud-only rivals.

Faronics Insight lets a teacher run a whole class from one computer. You watch student screens in real time, blank them when you want eyes up, restrict websites and applications, and take remote control of a student's device to show them a step. It also includes testing and polling, so you can check understanding without a separate quiz tool, and a separate technician console for IT staff.

Faronics lists student support for Windows, Mac, Chromebook, Linux, iOS and Android, with the teacher console on Windows or Mac. Linux support is rare in this category, which matters to schools running Linux machines in their labs.

Faronics doesn't sell Insight online. Its product page says to contact sales about volume discounts and education pricing, and a free trial download is offered without a stated length.

Insight suits a school IT team that wants a desktop-style tool it installs and controls itself. Cloud-first schools on Chromebooks will find Lightspeed or GoGuardian easier to roll out.

Hapara is built around Google Workspace for Education. Its Teacher Dashboard lets you see each student's progress in their Google Drive files and leave feedback without opening each document. Hapara Highlights shows every student's open browser tabs in real time, so you can close a distraction or share a link with the class. Highlights works in Chrome and Microsoft Edge, and Hapara describes the dashboard as classroom management for Chromebooks.

Hapara also sells a web filter, student wellness tools and a digital hall pass, so a school can buy several from one vendor.

It is the one product here with a published starting point. Hapara's pricing page says pricing starts around $1,500, is based on the number of students rather than devices, and comes with volume discounts and multi-year agreements. Exact prices need a quote.

If your teachers already run their classes in Google Classroom and Docs, Hapara puts the files and the browsing in one view. Schools on Microsoft 365 or iPads should look elsewhere.

Classroom is Apple's free iPad app for teachers. You create a class and invite students nearby, remotely or both, then view their screens to keep them on task. You can open a webpage, an EPUB book or a PDF on every student's device at once, or launch the same app on every iPad or Mac in the room.

Classes can come from Apple School Manager, be created in your device management system, or be set up as unmanaged nearby classes. Both teacher and student devices need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi turned on. The App Store listing says it needs iPadOS 14.5 or later.

The main reason to start here is iOS itself. Apple doesn't allow third-party apps to monitor iPad screens, so tools such as Lightspeed manage Apple Classroom on iPads rather than replace it.

Classroom has no web filtering, alerts or reports. Pair it with your device management and filtering tools, and use it for what it does well, which is getting a whole class of iPads onto the same page at once.

ClassDojo covers the other half of classroom management: behavior and the conversation with home. Teachers award Points and use ClassDojo's Big Ideas to support social-emotional learning. Messages go to families and staff, and ClassDojo translates them automatically into more than 190 languages, which saves real time in a class where parents speak several languages.

Teachers can post photos, videos and updates to a private class Story, add events to a calendar with automatic reminders, and use the Teacher Toolkit for attendance sheets and timers.

ClassDojo says it is free for teachers, forever, and that the core experience of messaging, class points and Story updates is always free. ClassDojo Plus is an optional paid subscription for families, with a 7-day trial; its price isn't shown on the page.

ClassDojo doesn't control devices, so a school that wants screen monitoring will need one of the tools above as well. Because the core app costs nothing, one teacher can try it with one class before the school decides anything.