Showbie vs Explain Everything Whiteboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Showbie
This app facilitates paperless learning by allowing teachers to personalize assignments and provide detailed feedback on student work. It supports various feedback methods, including digital ink, text, and voice annotations, and enables the creation of digital portfolios for students. Parents can also be invited to view student progress.
- Personalize assignments and feedback
- Digital ink, text, and voice annotations
- Create digital student portfolios
- Share work from compatible apps
- Real-time class assessment
- Private student chat
- Parental access to student work
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Used by over 3 million teachers and students worldwide, Showbie is the easiest and most effective digital learning app to personalise assignments and feedback on iPad. DNA of Learning: Your Foundation for Student Success Showbie supports the improvement of everyday teaching and learning by elevating four essential strands of effective classroom practice - direct instruction, independent practice, personalised feedback and real-time assessment - all in one platform. Find out how easy it is to assign, collect and review student work from thousands of compatible iPad apps, or have your students complete assignments with Showbie’s built in tools. Provide rich feedback using digital ink, text and voice annotations right on images and PDFs, and then add your students’ best work to personalized digital portfolios that can be securely shared with parents. WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING “Showbie is my number one can't live without app! It makes the iPad workflow process a breeze! I especially love how it works seamlessly with so many other apps.” — Kristen Paino, Lead Technology Integrator at Avenues: The World School “I don't need to convince my colleagues that they need to use this app — it sells itself. I like that it gives me the flexibility in how I choose to grade my student's work, especially with the voice notes feature. There is no single third party app that I would rather champion.” — Suzanne Lustenhouwer, Teacher and iPad Coordinator, Apple Distinguished Educator “I love that Showbie is so versatile that the youngest of students can use it independently, yet it is appropriate for older grades as well. The ease of use makes it a great workflow solution for classes with iPads.” — Kristi Meeuwse, Kindergarten Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator KEY FEATURES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS • Share work from thousands of compatible iPad apps in a few taps • Use the pen tool and pin text notes directly on any PDF or image • Gauge class understanding in real-time with minute-by-minute assessment • Instantly differentiate assignments and materials to specific students • Quickly distribute instructions and materials to your whole class • Chat privately with individual students to provide timely feedback • Record voice notes for verbal feedback or language exercises • Quickly review and assess batches of student work and provide rich, valuable feedback • Add student work to individual digital portfolios, or enable students to curate their own portfolios • Invite parents to view their student’s work and keep them informed of classroom activity • Can be used with any classroom subject • Available in 18 languages ENHANCED SHOWBIE PRO FEATURES • Record and track grades as numeric scores or letter grades, along with qualitative feedback • Provide richer feedback with more pen colours and line thicknesses, by typing on the page, or by pinning voice notes directly to student work • Record longer voice notes and videos and upload larger files • Lock assignments to control student access to documents and feedback • Give parents complete access to assignments in the classes you choose
Explain Everything Whiteboard
An interactive whiteboard app for creating and sharing video lessons, notes, and drawings. It offers real-time collaboration, PDF annotation, and engagement tools to enhance teaching and learning.
- Infinite canvas for drawing and notes
- Record and edit whiteboard video lessons
- Real-time collaboration
- PDF annotation
- Interactive engagement apps (Polling, Timer, Spinner)
- Import and enrich materials with various media
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The iPad App Store Trend of the Year 2020 award-winning interactive whiteboard and note taking app for iPad. With over 25 million downloads across the globe, Explain Everything helps teachers and students with every day learning. Explain Everything Advanced, Promethean's award-winning cloud-based plan, is one of the most dynamic, easy-to-use, and powerful lesson creation and delivery tools on the market today. Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard, built to create notes and make drawings, explain concepts and share boards anywhere. Make notes and draw together on the infinite canvas. Use sticky notes, work with imported documents, and annotate PDFs. Easily record whiteboard videos and share the entire process of explaining a lesson. Use real-time collaboration to stay on the same page with your students or team. Our customers love using Explain Everything to: • Record and edit whiteboard video lessons, then share them automatically with your preferred cloud drive! • Capture ideas, create interactive presentations, and use PDF annotation for teaching purposes. • Use engagement apps such as Polling, Timer, and Spinner to promote student participation and deep focus. • Draw, write, sketchnote, visualize, and scribble using Apple Pencil then easily present materials both in-classroom or online. • Enrich your materials with images and GIFs, Sticky Notes, Clipart, 3D Models, Shapes, Web Browser, Equations, hyperlinks, text boxes and notes grid. • Digitize and store materials in one place thanks to the Explain Everything Drive cloud; available from any device, anywhere. • Collaborate with students by hosting group assignments in the classroom and in the cloud. • Broadcast through SharePlay or popular conferencing tools, including Zoom or Microsoft Teams. New Activities within Advanced Plan We’re coming with new activities to enhance your lessons and create some fun throughout your classroom. Launch and play activities right from your whiteboard canvas. Crossword – Add a list of words, provide image or text clues, and Explain Everything will generate a crossword for you. Memory game – Turn a set of images into a randomized memory pair-finding game. Matching game – Build a matching game from a collection of images, shapes, and text. Promethean Engagement Apps We’ve enhanced our Explain Everything Advanced plan with other new features, including Promethean’s ever-popular Spinner, Timer, and Polling apps; all to improve your teaching experience in the classroom. Polling – ask questions and receive responses from students instantly. Timer – use clock and stopwatch to measure time and improve executive functioning skills. Spinner – randomly select items from the built-in templates or your own lists to add excitement to any class. If you enjoy using Explain Everything please leave us a review! https://explaineverything.com/terms-of-use/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Explain Everything Whiteboard at 4.6 against Showbie's 3.7. Explain Everything Whiteboard also leads on ratings volume (8.9K vs 240) and review sentiment (48% vs 36%). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Showbie sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Explain Everything Whiteboard sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Explain Everything Whiteboard holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Explain Everything Whiteboard has 8.9K ratings behind it against 240, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Showbie's written reviews are positive against 48% of Explain Everything Whiteboard's.
Showbie ships an update every 8 days, Explain Everything Whiteboard fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Showbie | Explain Everything Whiteboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (240 ratings) | 4.6 (8.9K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 35.5% of reviews | 47.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 240 | 8.9K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 297 MB | 312 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | Showbie Inc. | Promethean Ltd. |
Customer experience
Showbie
Explain Everything Whiteboard
User reviews
Showbie
From 240 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient workflow
- 📚 Helpful for learning
- 🤝 Good for collaboration
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 💾 Unreliable file saving and syncing
- 🕰️ Slow performance and lag
- 🔍 Confusing navigation and UI
Explain Everything Whiteboard
From 8.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Amazing app
- 👍 Great teaching and learning tool
- 👍 Excellent for creating and sharing information
- 👍 Useful recording facility for students
- 👍 Intuitive and productive
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitches and bugs
- 🐛 Unstable and inconsistent line width
- 🐛 Freezes and crashes
- 🐛 Deletes projects and recordings
- 💰 Expensive subscription
Bugs and requests
Showbie
Reported bugs
4 issues- Text boxes disappearing or moving unexpectedly
- Notifications not working correctly
- Assignments not uploading or disappearing
- Compatibility issues on older devices
Requested features
4 requests- Calendar view for assignments
- More annotation tools and customization
- Offline mode for accessing content
- Better integration with other apps
Explain Everything Whiteboard
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to select desired controls
- Recordings cutting off audio
- Projects not saving properly
- Restricted account limits
Requested features
6 requests- Toggle option for consistent line width
- Improved pen and drawing tools
- Better undo/redo functionality
- Ability to move audio clips
- Animated GIF support
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- Customizable font size
In-app purchases
Showbie
- Showbie Pro$239.99
Explain Everything Whiteboard
- Individual Monthly Plan7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- [LEGACY] Individual Monthly$12.991 Month
- [LEGACY] EDU Group, Monthly$12.991 Month
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- [LEGACY] Individual Monthly7 Days trial$12.991 Month
- [LEGACY] Solo Teacher Plan7 Days trial$34.991 Year
- Advanced Plan7 Days trial$69.001 Year
- Individual Annual Plan7 Days trial$89.991 Year
- [LEGACY] Individual Annual2 variants$129.991 Year
- [LEGACY] EDU Group, Annual$129.991 Year
Questions
Is Showbie free?
Is Explain Everything Whiteboard free?
Which has better reviews, Showbie or Explain Everything Whiteboard?
Do Showbie or Explain Everything Whiteboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, Showbie or Explain Everything Whiteboard?
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