2026 Buyer's Guide
The Best Gradebook Apps for Teachers
A practical, honest guide to digital mark books — free and paid — for K-12 teachers. Written by a working classroom teacher, and honest about which of these you can actually buy for yourself.
A gradebook app is the digital version of the mark book teachers have always kept — the place where assessments, scores, weights, and averages live. The good ones do the boring math reliably, let you weight categories the way your course actually grades, and show students their marks without you re-typing anything.
The hard part is that "gradebook" means very different things to different people. For some teachers it's a free assignment hub that happens to show point totals. For others it's a standards-based system, or a mark book with strands and learning skills, or a full school platform with attendance and a parent portal.
How to choose: decide whether you need (1) just grade storage and averaging, (2) a fuller classroom platform with attendance, assignments, and parent communication, or (3) a system your school or board mandates. Then check the dealbreakers: weighted categories, free-tier limits, data residency, and whether students and parents can see marks in real time. Here are nine options worth knowing in 2026.
1. Level Up Classroom
Gradebook + engagement + AI in one tool · Free plan
Level Up Classroom is a gamified gradebook and classroom platform built by a working high school teacher. The core is a real weighted gradebook — any framework (Common Core, percentage, standards-based, or your own categories), auto-calculated averages, reusable mark sets, and learning-skills tracking — paired with a live student portal so students see their grades the moment you release them.
It's also more than a mark book: attendance, seating charts, a Google-Classroom-style class stream, at-risk analytics, one-click parent and student emails, and AI tools (report card comments, rubrics, assignment and lesson generators, pop quizzes) powered by Claude — with only a student's first name ever sent to the AI (never last names, student numbers, or contact details). Curriculum alignment is built in, so you can link a standards framework to a class and track coverage, including split classes. Data lives in Canada (Firebase Toronto region), PIPEDA-compliant.
Best for: teachers who want one tool that combines a real gradebook with engagement and AI, instead of stitching three apps together.
2. Google Classroom
Free with Google Workspace for Education
Google Classroom is the most widely used assignment hub in K-12, and for good reason: it's free with Workspace for Education and the Google Drive integration for distributing and collecting work is excellent. Its grading, though, is a flat list of point totals — there's no real concept of weighted categories, strands, or reusable mark schemes.
Best for: teachers on Google Workspace who mainly need to post and collect Drive assignments and keep their actual gradebook elsewhere.
3. ThinkWave
Free, browser-based, solo teachers
ThinkWave is a long-standing, browser-based gradebook aimed at individual teachers and small schools. The free tier covers core grade entry and reporting, with paid tiers adding parent and student access and richer reports. It's straightforward and works on any device without installing anything.
Best for: solo teachers who want a free, no-install web gradebook with optional parent/student portals.
4. JumpRope
Gradebook + attendance + parent portal
JumpRope, owned by Aeries, is built for standards-based grading: you assess mastery against learning targets rather than averaging percentages, and you can bring your own standards, scales and calculations. It imports from Google Classroom and a long list of student information systems. Its plans page is unusually plain about the free tier — individual teachers can use the Classroom plan free, with no upgrade ever required. What it does not do is write anything for you, take attendance, or run the room.
Best for: small schools that want gradebook, attendance, and parent communication in one hosted package.
5. Gradde
Standards-based grading specialist
Gradde is the newest of these and the most narrowly aimed: it exists to turn marks into report card comments, with thirteen built-in grading systems, rubric templates and several feedback tones, all explicitly drafted for the teacher to edit before anything is sent. The free tier covers one classroom of thirty with the AI included; paid starts at $14.99 a month. It does not track standards, take attendance or do anything beyond the gradebook and the comments.
Best for: schools and teachers committed to standards-based or mastery grading.
6. iGradePlus
Free, highly customizable
iGradePlus offers a free, customizable online gradebook with attendance and behavior tracking. It supports flexible grading schemes and works for both teachers and tutors. The interface is utilitarian, but the customization and free tier make it appealing for teachers who like to configure things themselves.
Best for: teachers and tutors who want a free, highly configurable gradebook with attendance and behavior logs.
7. SimpleGradebook
Free, Canadian-built, Canadian servers
SimpleGradebook is a free, no-frills online gradebook built by a Canadian teacher and hosted on Canadian servers — a meaningful detail for boards and teachers who care about data residency. It focuses on doing grade entry and averaging cleanly without a steep learning curve.
Best for: Canadian teachers who want a free, simple gradebook with data kept on Canadian servers.
8. Edsby
Canadian SIS-integrated K-12 LMS
Edsby is a Canadian K-12 learning management and analytics platform adopted at the district and provincial level. It combines a gradebook with messaging, attendance, and parent engagement, and integrates with student information systems. As a board-procured platform, it's typically chosen by districts rather than individual teachers.
Best for: districts and boards wanting an integrated Canadian K-12 LMS with gradebook, comms, and analytics.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Weighted categories | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level Up Classroom | ✓ 1 class, 30 students | ✓ Any framework | Gradebook + engagement + AI in one |
| Google Classroom | ✓ With Workspace | Limited | Distributing & collecting work |
| ThinkWave | ✓ | ✓ | Solo teachers, no install |
| JumpRope | ✓ Free for individuals | ✓ Standards | Standards mastery only |
| Gradde | ✓ 1 class, 10 students | ✓ | Report card comments only |
| iGradePlus | ✓ | ✓ | Customizable, tutors |
| SimpleGradebook | ✓ | ✓ | Free, Canadian servers |
| Edsby | Board-licensed | ✓ | District-wide Canadian LMS |
Where Level Up Classroom fits
If you only need a place to store and average marks, almost any tool on this list will do — pick the free one that matches your grading style. The case for Level Up Classroom is narrower and honest: it's for teachers who want the gradebook and the rest of the classroom in one place, without paying for a separate LMS, a separate gamification app, and a separate AI tool.
It is also the only one on this list that joins the two halves. JumpRope tracks the standards and leaves you to write the comments; Gradde writes the comments and does not track the standards. Level Up Classroom does both from the same marks, so standards coverage fills in from grades you entered anyway and the comment is grounded in those same numbers. Curriculum frameworks are configurable rather than fixed — Common Core, a state framework, percentage, or your own categories.
And it's free to try: one class, 30 students, full weighted gradebook, no credit card. If it's not for you, every other tool here is a legitimate choice.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free gradebook for teachers?
There are several genuinely free options. Level Up Classroom has a free plan with one active class, up to 30 students, and a full weighted gradebook — no credit card required. ThinkWave, iGradePlus, and SimpleGradebook are also free for individual teachers. Google Classroom is free with Google Workspace for Education but is an assignment hub rather than a true weighted gradebook. The best choice depends on whether you need just a mark book or a fuller classroom platform.
What is a digital mark book?
In Canada, a gradebook is often called a mark book. A digital mark book is software that replaces the paper or spreadsheet version: it stores student marks, weights them by category, auto-calculates averages, and usually adds attendance, reporting, and a parent or student portal. Level Up Classroom is a digital mark book that works with whichever framework your school uses.
Is Level Up Classroom free?
Yes, Level Up Classroom has a free plan: one active class, up to 30 students, and the full weighted gradebook, with no credit card required. Paid plans start at $4 USD per month (Basic), then $9 (Pro) and $19 (Ultra), with roughly 17% off for annual billing and cancel-anytime.
Which gradebook is best for standards-based grading?
If you only need mastery tracking, JumpRope is purpose-built for it and free for individual teachers. TeacherEase and Otus are strong but are sold to schools and districts, so an individual teacher cannot buy either. Level Up Classroom tags assessments with the standards they assess, fills coverage in from marks you have already entered, and then writes the report card comment from those same marks — which is the part a standards-only tool leaves you to do by hand.
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