MagicSchool alternatives for lesson planning
Which MagicSchool alternative suits you depends on what you plan and where you teach. Eduaide Pro is the cheapest paid plan here, at $5.99 a month with unlimited generations. Brisk is free for teachers and works inside Google Docs, Slides and your LMS. LessonSmith drafts a term's scheme of work against your own term dates, on 11 national and international curricula.
LessonSmith publishes this page, so treat it as one vendor's comparison. The figures for the other four tools come from their own pricing, feature and FAQ pages, read on 26 September 2026, and each section links the pages it used. Prices change, so check the linked page before you pay.
What does each tool cost one teacher?
MagicSchool Plus costs $12.99 a month, or $99.96 a year. Four of the five tools also have a free plan that keeps going. LessonSmith does not: its free option is a demo you use once.
| Tool | Paid plan | Free use |
|---|---|---|
| MagicSchool | Plus costs $12.99 a month, or $99.96 a year | A free plan with generation limits that reset |
| LessonSmith | Pro costs $8 a month or $80 a year (KES 1,000 or KES 10,000). Max costs $40 a month or $380 a year (KES 5,000 or KES 50,000) | A demo, once: 100 lesson plans, 3 schemes of work and 10 support plans, with no account or card |
| Eduaide | Pro costs $5.99 a month, or $49.99 a year | A free plan with generation limits and no card |
| Kuraplan | Pro costs $9 a month, or 8% less billed yearly | A free plan with limited resource creation |
| Brisk | None for one teacher. Schools and districts pay per student | Free for teachers |
How is LessonSmith different from MagicSchool?
MagicSchool is a platform for a whole school, with more than 80 teacher tools and more than 50 student tools. LessonSmith is for the teacher alone and does four jobs: lesson plans, schemes of work, the term calendar they sit on, and support plans for individual learners.
| Feature | LessonSmith | MagicSchool |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $8 a month (KES 1,000) for 40 lesson plans and 5 support plans a month, and 1 scheme of work every 3 months | $12.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed yearly, with unlimited generations |
| Free use | A demo, once. Nothing made in it moves to an account you create later | A free plan with generation limits that reset |
| Curriculum | One of 11, set once, with that curriculum's own words for levels, terms and documents | State standards, Common Core or another framework you select or enter |
| Who uses it | Teachers only | Teachers, and students in student rooms |
| Languages | 9 app languages, and plans are written in the language the app is set to | 24 interface languages, and translation into 98 |
| Export | Word and PDF, in the typeface and section order you choose | Google and Microsoft exports |
| For schools | Custom: each teacher gets Pro or Max, the school is billed, and it adds and removes teachers itself | Enterprise: single sign-on, Clever, ClassLink, Canvas and Schoology, and district dashboards |
| Privacy | A published privacy policy and data processing agreement, and no third-party certification | FERPA, COPPA, SOC 2, GDPR and Ed Law 2-D compliance, and Common Sense Privacy Certified |
| AI models | OpenAI's GPT-4o-mini, with Google's Gemini Flash Lite as the fallback | Models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google, chosen by task |
The MagicSchool column is taken from its pricing page, its FAQ (last updated March 2026) and its lesson plan generator page.
When does LessonSmith fit better?
When your curriculum is one of the 11 and you plan by the term. Each curriculum brings its own levels, subjects, exam names and words. A CBC plan has strands, sub-strands and a TSC number field. A CAPS teacher gets an annual teaching plan rather than a scheme of work, and a Common Core teacher plans by semester and gets a pacing guide.
The scheme of work is built from the term calendar you set up once. Week 7 of the scheme is week 7 of your term, and the mid-term break and exam weeks appear as rows in the weeks they fall. Support plans take your system's name for them: an IEP in Kenya, an Individual Support Plan under South Africa's SIAS policy, a SEN Support plan in England.
Each paid plan has a fixed price in Kenyan shillings as well as in dollars, so Pro is KES 1,000 a month. The scheme of work generator and curriculum pages show what each curriculum gets.
When is MagicSchool the better choice?
When you want one platform for everything, or your district already pays for it. MagicSchool is ahead of LessonSmith in six ways:
- It has more than 80 teacher tools and more than 50 student tools, where LessonSmith does four jobs.
- Plus lists unlimited generations. LessonSmith Pro stops at 40 lesson plans a month.
- Its free plan keeps going, while the LessonSmith demo is used once.
- Enterprise adds single sign-on and connects to Clever, ClassLink, Canvas and Schoology. LessonSmith has neither single sign-on nor an LMS connection.
- It lists FERPA, COPPA, SOC 2, GDPR and Ed Law 2-D compliance and is Common Sense Privacy Certified. LessonSmith holds no third-party certification.
- It runs in 24 interface languages and translates into 98. LessonSmith runs in 9.
What are the other alternatives?
Eduaide
Eduaide makes lesson plans, worksheets, graphic organizers, classroom games and assessments with nine question types, and lets you apply standards from more than 50 jurisdictions, Common Core and NGSS among them. Pro costs $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year for unlimited generations, and the free plan needs no card. It exports to Google Docs, Word, Google Forms, plain text and PDF. Choose it if you want the most material for the least money. Figures from Eduaide's pricing page and home page.
Brisk
Brisk is a Chrome and Edge extension, so it works inside the page you already have open: Google Docs, Slides, YouTube, Canvas, Schoology or Google Classroom. It is free for teachers and lists generation in more than 50 languages. Its paid plans, Premium and Intelligence, are sold to whole schools and districts and priced per student. Brisk states a 95% Common Sense Privacy rating and FERPA and COPPA compliance. It suits a teacher whose planning already lives in Google Docs or an LMS. Figures from Brisk's plans page.
Kuraplan
Kuraplan's free plan has a lesson planner, a unit planner and a worksheet planner, with limited resource creation. Pro, at $9 a month with a 7-day trial, adds slides made from your plans, images and uploaded reference files. A school licence costs $99 per teacher a year, with a 30-day trial. Its pricing FAQ says every plan is aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Try it if you want each lesson turned into slides. Figures from Kuraplan's pricing page and features page.
Can I move my MagicSchool plans to LessonSmith?
No. LessonSmith has no import, from MagicSchool or anywhere else. It drafts new plans from the curriculum, class and term dates you set, and the only file it reads is a curriculum PDF for a scheme of work. Save what you need from MagicSchool before you cancel it.
Questions
Is there a free alternative to MagicSchool?
Yes. Brisk is free for teachers, and Eduaide and Kuraplan both have free plans with limits. LessonSmith has no free monthly plan. Its demo is free once and includes 100 lesson plans, 3 schemes of work and 10 support plans, with no account and no card.
Is LessonSmith part of MagicSchool?
No. LessonSmith is made by VoussoirAI in Nairobi, Kenya, and has no connection to MagicSchool or to any other tool on this page.
Does LessonSmith work for teachers in the United States?
Yes. Common Core and NGSS is one of its 11 curricula. A US plan uses grades and semesters, the term plan is called a pacing guide, and a support plan is drafted as an IEP.