An alternative to Classroomscreen for a class TV

A free alternative to Classroomscreen is OwnScreen's classroom set: a big timer, a random name picker, a team generator, a finish-time clock and a question of the day, each of which opens fullscreen from a link and needs no account. Classroomscreen is still the better tool when you want a dashboard of widgets on one screen, an annotation bar for writing over the display, or a poll that students answer from their own devices. The two are cheap in different ways, and the right pick depends on whether you want one screen with many tools or one tool filling the screen.

What Classroomscreen includes

Classroomscreen's Basic plan is $0 a month and includes all 26 widgets, the annotation bar, remote poll voting, three saved name lists, your own widget bar layout and the template library. Pro is $3 a month, billed annually at $36, and adds saving and sharing screens, unlimited name lists, custom widget themes, Pro backgrounds and background carousels. School licences are 25 licences for $525 a year, with volume discounts. These are the figures on Classroomscreen's own pricing page in October 2026.

So the free tier already covers a great deal. A teacher who wants a timer, a name list and a few other widgets together on one screen has no reason to leave.

What OwnScreen's classroom tools do

Each of these opens in a browser, fills the screen and needs no account or install:

• Classroom timer: a big countdown the whole room can read, set in minutes and started fullscreen. With a live screen, you can start, pause and reset it from your phone while you walk around the room.
• Random name picker: paste the class list, spin the wheel on the projector, and nobody is picked twice until everyone has had a turn.
• Random team generator: paste the names, choose how many teams, shuffle, and show the groups fullscreen so everyone can find their own.
• Exam timer: the current time, the finish time and the time left. The finish time lives in the link, so every room that opens the same link finishes together.
• Question of the day generator: one question for the class to start with.

The tools are separate pages rather than one dashboard. That is the trade: a single job done at full size, with nothing on the screen except the timer or the names, and nothing to set up before the lesson.

Where the phone helps

The timer and the name picker are also useful on a screen someone else controls. Sign in, press Save, choose Go live and open the live link on the class TV or projector. The screen's page on your phone becomes the remote: start, pause and reset the timer without walking back to the laptop.

Starter is US$4.99 a month or US$49.90 a year for one live screen, and Pro is US$14.99 a month or US$149.90 a year for up to five. A visible, connected live screen checks for changes every three seconds. Every plan starts with a 2-day free trial, and the tools themselves stay free without an account; only the live phone control is paid.

Group work10 minutes left

Try a classroom tool free

When Classroomscreen is the better fit

Stay with Classroomscreen, or choose it, if:

• You want several tools visible at once. A timer beside a name list beside another widget is what its widget bar is for. OwnScreen shows one sign at a time, though slides can take turns.
• You annotate the screen. The annotation bar is part of the Basic plan, and there is no equivalent here.
• You poll the class. Remote poll voting is included free, and OwnScreen has no student devices or responses.
• You want saved screens and shared templates. That is Classroomscreen Pro, at $3 a month billed annually at $36.
• Your school already pays for licences. A 25-licence school pack at $525 a year is a decision for the school, not for one teacher's browser tab.

Try both on the screen you teach from

Open the classroom timer on the projector and read it from the back row. Then open Classroomscreen and do the same. The question is not which one has more features, it is which one a teacher can start in the ten seconds between the bell and the lesson. If that is one big number with a phone in your hand, OwnScreen is enough. If it is a row of widgets you annotate as you talk, Classroomscreen earns its place.