# Nearpod review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Interactive K-12 lessons with built-in questions and activities Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Nearpod is a K-12 teaching platform for building and running interactive lessons, videos and activities with built-in formative assessments. Lessons run live or at the students' own pace, and a library of ready-made lessons is included. Individual teachers can start free and pay for more storage and student seats, while schools and districts are quoted a license. Nearpod has been part of Renaissance Learning since 2021. - **Category:** Presentations - **Made by:** Nearpod (part of Renaissance Learning) - **Website:** https://nearpod.com - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay free: 300 MB and 40 students a lesson, and Gold lifts that only to 75. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Nearpod has a free plan, and paid plans start at $159 per year (Gold, individual educators). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **Free plan:** Silver is free: 300 MB of storage and up to 40 students joining each lesson, with the core features. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Silver | $0 | 300 MB storage and 40 student joins per lesson, with 20+ formative assessment types and access to the Nearpod Library up to the storage limit. | | Gold | $159 per year, for individual educators | Adds the AI Create question generator, Google Slides add-on, drag and drop, sub plans, 1 GB storage and 75 student joins per lesson. | | Platinum | $397 per year, for individual educators | Everything in Gold plus student notes, 5 GB storage and 90 student joins per lesson. | | Schools & districts | Custom | Unlimited storage, 250 student joins per lesson, co-teaching, LMS and rostering integrations, admin dashboards and a customer success manager. Request a quote. | Read from https://nearpod.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Nearpod before buying. ## Key features - **Interactive lessons:** Lessons, videos and activities combine slides with 20+ formative assessment types and can be run live or student-paced. - **Nearpod Library:** A library of standards-aligned lessons, activities and interactive videos, said to be made with 70+ publishers. Free and individual plans can save items up to the storage limit. - **Import your own files:** Existing PowerPoint, PDF and Google Slides files can be uploaded and turned into interactive lessons. - **AI Create:** Generates multiple-choice questions on Gold and above, and activities and lessons on school and district licenses. - **Real-time insight:** Teachers see live responses and get post-session reports. Schools get admin reporting dashboards. - **District tools:** School and district licenses add co-teaching, shared libraries, student accounts and LMS, LTI and rostering integrations. ## Good for - K-12 teachers who want to turn slides into interactive lessons - Schools needing LMS and rostering integration - Teachers who need ready-made standards-aligned lessons ## Worth knowing - Individual plans cap how many students can join: 40 on Silver, 75 on Gold and 90 on Platinum. - Silver's 300 MB of storage also limits how much of the library a teacher can save. - Co-teaching, live annotation, student accounts, LMS and LTI integrations are on school and district licenses, which are quoted. - Nearpod Math and Nearpod Social Studies programs are listed as school and district features. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Nearpod turns slides into lessons with polls, quizzes and drawing for students on their own devices. Silver is free for 40 students a lesson and 300 MB. Gold is $159 a year, and co-teaching, LMS links and student accounts sit on school and district licences that are quoted. - **Value for money: C.** Gold is $159 a year, about $13 a month, and Platinum is $397 a year. Schools get a quote. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Silver is free for good, with 20+ formative question types, 40 students a lesson and 300 MB of storage. One teacher can live on that, until a class goes over 40. - **Features: C.** Interactive lessons, a library, file import and real-time results. Co-teaching, live annotation, student accounts and LMS links are on school licences. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. Teachers build or adapt lessons from slides, and rosters need school set-up. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iOS and Android, with Google Slides, PowerPoint, YouTube and LMS links. No desktop app is listed. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Nearpod's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among presentation tools - Nearpod's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 27 of the 51 other presentation tools we grade, and level with 9. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 35 of 51) and worst on ease of use (C, above 3). - Its paid plans start at $13.25 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $10 for the category: 27 of the 37 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 9 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/presentations ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** Nothing Nearpod does is plain enough to make in a weekend. The 4 things listed below take a company. It costs $159 a year. - You could not: A slide editor. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - You could not: Several people working in it at the same moment. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## What people say - **App Store rating of the iPhone and iPad app:** 3.1 out of 5 from 1,893 ratings in the United States, read Nov 13, 2026. This is the store's rating of the app, not a score from ToolGPA. Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id523540409 ## Works with Google Slides, PowerPoint, LMS and LTI, YouTube **Tags:** Presentations, AI features, Real-time collaboration ## Alternatives - [Pear Deck](https://toolgpa.com/tools/pear-deck): Interactive classroom presentations with live student responses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nearpod-vs-pear-deck) - [Mentimeter](https://toolgpa.com/tools/mentimeter): Interactive presentations with live polls, quizzes and Q&A. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/mentimeter-vs-nearpod) - [Poll Everywhere](https://toolgpa.com/tools/poll-everywhere): Live audience polling that works inside slide decks. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nearpod-vs-poll-everywhere) - [AhaSlides](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ahaslides): Interactive presentations with live quizzes, polls and word clouds. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ahaslides-vs-nearpod) - [Wooclap](https://toolgpa.com/tools/wooclap): Live polls, quizzes and word clouds for classes and training. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nearpod-vs-wooclap) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://nearpod.com/pricing - https://nearpod.com Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/nearpod Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).