Honest comparison
Level Up Classroom vs Arcade
Arcade makes beautiful product demos for software teams, and it is genuinely good at that. It was not built for a teacher who wants to show a class how to hand in an assignment — and its pricing reflects the customer it was built for.
TL;DR — when to pick each
- ✓Pick Arcade if you are a software company publishing polished, hosted product demos on a marketing site, and you want engagement analytics, team workspaces, and CRM integrations. That is the job it is built for and it does it well.
- ✓Pick Level Up Classroom if you are a teacher making walkthroughs for students, want to record desktop software as well as websites, and would rather own the files than rent the hosting.
- ✓The honest split: Arcade is a marketing tool that teachers borrow. This is a teaching tool, built into the gradebook the walkthroughs are usually about.
At a glance
| Level Up Classroom | Arcade | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is built for | Teachers and schools | Software and marketing teams |
| Walkthroughs on the free plan | ✓ Unlimited, with a small corner mark | Free tier is capped; the cap is what paid plans lift |
| Where recordings are stored | On your computer. We never receive them | Hosted on their servers |
| If you stop paying | Your files keep working — they are files | Hosted links depend on an active plan |
| Record desktop applications | ✓ Any window on your screen | Built around capturing web apps |
| Still frames + video clips in one walkthrough | ✓ | ✓ |
| Click hotspots and text callouts | ✓ Pulsing nodes, highlight areas, bubbles on any side | ✓ Polished, with more layout options |
| Output | One self-contained HTML file that works offline | A hosted link, plus export options on paid plans |
| Made in the same app as your gradebook | ✓ No second subscription, no second login | A separate tool |
| Your own logo on walkthroughs | ✓ Pro and above | ✓ On paid plans |
| Viewer analytics | No — we never see the file | ✓ A real strength |
| Team workspaces, shared libraries, CRM integrations | Not built | ✓ |
| Price | Free, or bundled into a plan you already have for the gradebook | Per creator, per month, on top of whatever else you pay for |
Compiled August 2026 from Arcade's publicly documented product and pricing. Vendors change both — check their site for what is true today. We have tried to be fair about what Arcade does better; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
The difference is who stores the file
Almost every difference below follows from one fact. Arcade hosts your walkthroughs, so every walkthrough you make is an ongoing cost to them. Anything that costs a vendor money per unit eventually gets metered — that is not a criticism, it is arithmetic.
Level Up Classroom does not host them. Recording happens in your browser, editing happens on your machine, and the finished walkthrough is a file you export and keep. A teacher who makes five hundred of them costs us exactly the same as a teacher who makes none.
So the thing other tools charge to unlock is the thing we can afford to give away: unlimited walkthroughs, on every plan, including free.
What we charge for is the polish. The free plan puts a small Level Up Classroom mark in the corner of an exported walkthrough; any paid plan removes it, and Pro lets you put your own logo or your school's there instead. Branding is applied when you export, not when you record — so if you upgrade later, re-exporting an old walkthrough gives you a clean one.
Two things a teacher actually notices
It records anything on your screen
Tools built on a browser extension can only see inside a web page. This uses your browser's own screen-capture permission instead, so a walkthrough can cover the report card software your board makes you use, a PDF, a spreadsheet, or three of them in sequence — not just sites open in a tab.
It lives where the class already is
The walkthrough explaining how to submit an assignment is made in the same app as the assignment, by the teacher who set it, in the gradebook they were already in. No second subscription, no second login, and nothing for a student to sign into in order to watch one.
Where Arcade is genuinely better
A comparison page that pretends the other tool has no strengths is not worth reading, so:
- →Analytics. Arcade can tell you who opened a demo and where they stopped watching. We cannot, and never will, because we never receive the file. If you need to know how a demo performed, that is a real reason to pay them.
- →Hosted sharing. A link that always works, updates when you re-edit, and embeds in a marketing site is genuinely more convenient than sending a file around.
- →Team features. Shared libraries, brand kits across a workspace, and integrations with the rest of a go-to-market stack. None of that is on our roadmap.
- →Polish. They have been at this longer, and it shows in the editor.
If you are marketing software, pay them. If you are teaching a class, you should not have to.
Questions
Is it really unlimited on free?
Yes, and the reason is boring rather than generous: we do not store your recordings, so more of them cost us nothing. Free exports carry a small mark in the corner. Any paid plan removes it.
What happens to my walkthroughs if I stop paying?
Nothing at all. They are files on your computer, not links on our servers. Dropping to free only means new exports carry the mark again.
Where do the files actually live while I am working?
In your browser's own storage on that computer. That means two things worth knowing: nobody else can see them, and clearing your browsing data deletes them. Export anything you want to keep — the app says so too.
Which browsers does it work in?
Chrome and Edge on a desktop or laptop, including Chromebooks. Screen recording depends on browser features that Safari and Firefox do not fully support yet.
Do students need an account to watch one?
No. An exported walkthrough is a single web page that opens in any browser, with no sign-in and no internet connection required.
Make one and see
Walkthrough recording is included on the free plan, with no cap. You need a Level Up Classroom account and a Chrome or Edge browser.
Get started free