Comparison

Number Line, by MLC vs Explain Everything Whiteboard

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Number Line, by MLC

This app allows students to visualize number sequences and demonstrate mathematical strategies. It supports various number types and offers tools for annotation, problem-solving, and sharing work. Ideal for elementary classrooms and iPad learning environments.

Highlights
  • Visualize number sequences
  • Demonstrate counting, adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing
  • Use whole numbers, fractions, decimals, or negative numbers
  • Add custom tick marks and labels
  • Hide and reveal numbers and jumps
  • Annotation and drawing tools
  • Save and share work
Features
Read full description

Number Line helps students visualize number sequences and demonstrate strategies for counting, comparing, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. Choose number lines labelled with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, or negative numbers. Or use a blank number line, with or without tick marks. Describe intervals between points on the line using forward or backward jumps above and below the line. Jumps can be labelled with their values or left blank. Add custom tick marks to the number line to show equivalence or compare number values. Show strategies with drawing and annotation tools. Hide elements of the sequence shown on the number line, which challenges students to use what they know about number relationships and computation to identify those missing elements. This virtual number line is an open-ended educational tool, ideal for elementary classrooms and other learning environments that use iPads. For more Number Line resources and other apps, visit: www.mathlearningcenter.org/apps FEATURES • Mark the number line with multiples of whole numbers, fractions, or decimals. In addition, set the starting value of the line, including using negative values. • Add and manipulate forward and backward jumps, above or below the line. • Label jump bars, manually or automatically, to show intervals or hide labels altogether. • Add custom tick marks and values to blank number lines. • Hide and reveal numbers on the number line. • Hide and reveal jumps, numbers, and other elements with resizable covers to create your own problems and model strategies. • Use the drawing tools to annotate work and show understanding. • Add equations, expressions, and descriptions with the math text and writing tools. • Share your work by saving an image or providing a share code to others. MORE APPS For more Number Line resources and other apps, visit: www.mathlearningcenter.org/apps LEARN MORE To learn about Bridges in Mathematics, an elementary curriculum that employs visual models like number line, visit: www.mathlearningcenter.org/bridges/overview ABOUT US This resource is brought to you by The Math Learning Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to K-12 education since 1976. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This app was crafted by Clarity Innovations. We help improve teaching and learning by creating solutions that match promising technologies with the needs of education. Visit us: www.clarity-innovations.com

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Explain Everything Whiteboard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Number Line, by MLC at none against Explain Everything Whiteboard's 10. Number Line, by MLC also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 48%). Explain Everything Whiteboard's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 13 months) and ratings volume (8.9K vs 15). On price, rating, ads and iOS requirement 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Explain Everything Whiteboard sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Number Line, by MLC asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Explain Everything Whiteboard holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Explain Everything Whiteboard has 8.9K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 67% of Number Line, by MLC's written reviews are positive against 48% of Explain Everything Whiteboard's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Number Line, by MLC ships an update every 13 months, Explain Everything Whiteboard fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Number Line, by MLC versus Explain Everything Whiteboard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNumber Line, by MLCExplain Everything Whiteboard
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (15 ratings)4.6 (8.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better47.9% of reviews
Number of ratings158.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 13 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS16.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size7 MB312 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperThe Math Learning CenterPromethean Ltd.

Customer experience

Number Line, by MLC

All ratings15 ratings
Positive86.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative13.3%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

Explain Everything Whiteboard

All ratings8,901 ratings
Positive90.1%
Neutral3.1%
Negative6.8%
Written reviews374 reviews
Positive47.9%
Neutral12.6%
Negative39.6%

Bugs and requests

Number Line, by MLC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
Show 1 more
  • Customizable font size

In-app purchases

None

Number Line, by MLC

No in-app purchases

9 purchases

Explain Everything Whiteboard

Subscriptions9
  • Individual Monthly Plan7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • [LEGACY] Individual Monthly$12.991 Month
  • [LEGACY] EDU Group, Monthly$12.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • [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 Number Line, by MLC free?
Number Line, by MLC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Explain Everything Whiteboard free?
Explain Everything Whiteboard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Number Line, by MLC or Explain Everything Whiteboard?
Explain Everything Whiteboard is rated higher. Number Line, by MLC averages 4.4 out of 5 from 15 ratings, while Explain Everything Whiteboard averages 4.6 from 8.9K ratings.
Do Number Line, by MLC or Explain Everything Whiteboard have ads?
Neither Number Line, by MLC nor Explain Everything Whiteboard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Number Line, by MLC or Explain Everything Whiteboard?
Number Line, by MLC ships an update every 13 months, and Explain Everything Whiteboard fortnightly. Most recently, Number Line, by MLC was updated on October 9, 2026 and Explain Everything Whiteboard on November 3, 2026.

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