Papeez against ZipGrade, GradeCam, Scantron, Akindi, Gradescope and Plickers: eleven criteria, every cell read on the vendor's own page and dated, including when the answer is "not stated".
Sources verified on 24 August 2026 on each vendor's public pages.
This table applies a written editorial policy: where each fact comes from, what "not stated" means, and how to ask for a correction. How we build our comparisons
These are the tools a teacher or an academic technology team meets in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia when a stack of multiple-choice papers has to be marked: the OMR incumbent and its forms, two phone-scanning apps, two institutional platforms and one classroom card system. The other languages of this site compare other tools, because the markets do not overlap: Scantron and ZipGrade are not what a French school buys, and Auto Multiple Choice is not what an American district installs.
| Criterion | Papeez | ZipGrade | GradeCam | Scantron | Akindi | Gradescope | Plickers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware needed | A scanner, an office copier or a smartphone. No optical reader to buy. Papeez features | A phone or tablet: the pricing page lists Android and iOS mobile grading apps as the grading tool on both tiers. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pricing page describes a digital and paper assessment solution without naming any capture device or hardware requirement. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | A dedicated OMR reader: the store lists the iNSIGHT 1500c, iNSIGHT 700c, iNSIGHT 4 ES, OpScan 4 ES and Scantron Score machines. store.scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | None: the vendor states you can have a solution in place "within days without purchasing any equipment". akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the Get Started guide has a "Scan exams" step but names no scanner or device requirement. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | A phone and one printed card per student: the app scans the room with the phone camera. help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026 |
| Answer sheets | Nominative or anonymous grids · Custom layout (columns, answer boxes) Papeez pricing grid | Plain paper: 20, 50 and 100-question forms as PDF or PNG, plus a custom answer sheet wizard. The vendor advises printing "on standard white copier paper". zipgrade.com/forms · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pricing page does not describe the answer form or how it is produced. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Proprietary pre-printed forms, described by the vendor as "the gold standard in high-speed OMR hardware and custom-printed forms". scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Plain paper: the vendor states you "use regular paper and any scanner". akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | The Get Started guide documents a "Create a bubble sheet assignment" workflow; the paper itself is not described on the pages read. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Not an answer sheet: a reusable card per student, printed free from the vendor as a standard set of forty, with sturdier versions sold on Amazon. help.plickers.com, Get Plickers Cards · read 24 August 2026 |
| Scanning device accepted | Scanner, office copier or smartphone; PDF, JPG and PNG files are accepted. Papeez features | The phone camera, through the mobile grading app. The pages read describe no desktop or copier workflow. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pricing page. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Its own OMR readers, sold in the store alongside their rollers and separator parts. store.scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | "Any scanner", in a scanning system the vendor describes as self-serve, central, or both. akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | The guide covers scanning exams and uploading the scans, and separately lets students submit from the Gradescope mobile app. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | The teacher's phone camera, held up to the room: the scanner identifies all the cards at once. help.plickers.com, Scan your students' answers · read 24 August 2026 |
| Shuffled versions | Shuffling at four levels (choices, questions, exercises, sections), with a unique paper per participant. Papeez features | Multiple key versions on both tiers. The pages read describe answer keys, not generated question papers. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pricing page. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pages read sell hardware, forms and services, and do not describe exam authoring. scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated in the Get Started guide. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Not applicable: one question is shown to the whole room at a time and answered by turning a card, so there is no paper to shuffle. help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026 |
| Anonymity and barcodes | Nominative or anonymous grids, and a unique barcode on every printed copy. Papeez features | The 50 and 100-question forms carry a student ID section, of five and nine digits respectively; the 20-question form has none. zipgrade.com/forms · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pricing page. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the store lists form references without describing what identifies a candidate on them. store.scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | The guide has a step for uploading scans and associating them with students; how the association is made is not described on the pages read. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Each card carries its own barcode pattern, which is what attributes an answer to a student. There are sixty-three patterns, so a class is capped at sixty-three. help.plickers.com, Cards Overview · read 24 August 2026 |
| Question import | AI import · Excel, TXT, XML template import Papeez pricing grid | Not stated for questions. The paid tier imports a class roster from CSV, which is a list of students, not a list of questions. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated for questions. The pricing page describes roster syncing from Classlink, Clever or SFTP. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the guide covers creating assignments in the product, not importing a question bank. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026 |
| Export formats | Grade export · Paper export · Grade mail merge Papeez pricing grid | CSV export and item analysis, on the paid tier only. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Grade transfer "to most online gradebooks", plus integration with Canvas, Schoology and Google Classroom. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pages read list scanners, software names and services without naming an output format. scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | LMS integration is listed as included in every annual licence; no file format is named on the pages read. akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated in the Get Started guide, which covers reviewing and publishing grades inside the product. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026 |
| Hosting and GDPR | Hosting in France · GDPR compliance Security and GDPR at Papeez | Not stated: the pages read name no hosting region. The company gives a United States postal address. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pricing page. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pages read do not say where a hosted deployment would run. scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. gradescope.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. plickers.com · read 24 August 2026 |
| Price model | Subscription per examiner, from €4/month billed yearly, with a graded-paper quota per plan. The pricing page is the authority. Papeez pricing grid | Free up to one hundred papers a month; $6.99 for one year of unlimited grading, sold as a non-recurring subscription that prompts rather than renews. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | $3.50 per student, packages starting at $2,800 a year plus a one-time onboarding charge whose amount is not published. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | The readers carry no price in the store; the consumables do. The 882-E 100-question answer sheet is listed at $18.00 for a pack of fifty. store.scantron.com, 882-E answer sheet · read 14 August 2026 | An annual licence priced on "the total number of individual student tests graded through Akindi, regardless of the number of instructors signed up". No figure is published. akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Two plans: a free Basic plan, and an Institutional plan whose price is not published and reached through a contact form. gradescope.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Free: the vendor describes it as "the free card activity your students will love", with printable cards always offered free to teachers. help.plickers.com, Get Plickers Cards · read 24 August 2026 |
| Buying route | Self-serve: sign up online with a free 14 days trial, no credit card. Papeez pricing grid | Self-serve: download the app, then buy through in-app purchase or the account screen. School bulk purchasing is offered separately. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Sales-led for schools and districts: the pricing page ends on a demo request. A free trial for teachers is offered from the site header. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Forms are bought from the online store; the readers are not, and the site invites you to "talk with an expert" instead. store.scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Sales-led: the pricing page offers a thirty-day free pilot and a demo request, with no checkout. akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Both: the Basic plan starts for free without sales, and the Institutional plan runs through a contact form after a one-term trial. gradescope.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Self-serve: the home page offers a free sign-up and nothing else. plickers.com · read 24 August 2026 |
| Offline capability | No: the exam is on paper, but the scans are uploaded to an online service to be graded. Papeez features | Yes: "No Internet Required" is listed as available on both the free and the paid tier. zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pricing page. gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated: the pages read cover both on-site machines and hosted software without saying which needs a connection. scantron.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated on the pages read. akindi.com · read 24 August 2026 | Not stated in the Get Started guide. gradescope.com/get_started · read 24 August 2026 | Yes: the vendor states that "sessions can even be taken offline if no internet connection is available". help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026 |
"Not stated" means the vendor's public pages, read on 24 August 2026, do not answer the question. It does not mean the feature is missing: it means it cannot be verified without going through a salesperson or opening an account. We do not invent the answer and we do not guess it. A vendor who wants a row corrected or completed can write to us: the row changes, and its reading date with it.
A comparison that wins every row is not a comparison. Here are the cases where another tool answers better than ours, and they come out of the same checks as the table above.
That is Auto Multiple Choice: free software under GPLv2+, installed on your own machine, papers written in LaTeX or AMC-TXT, questions and choices shuffled, marking by optical mark recognition without a single copy leaving your computer. Papeez does none of that for free and does not work without a connection. If your constraint is budget or keeping the papers on your own disk, look at AMC first.
Papeez grades multiple-choice exams on paper, scanned after the test. It does not run online exams, does not proctor anyone remotely and locks no workstation down. The same company builds Evalmee, an online assessment platform for higher education; digital intent belongs there, paper intent stays here.
Plickers answers a different question: one prompt on the board, the whole room holding up a card, an instant read of who followed. There is no paper to collect, no exam to grade afterwards, and it is free. Papeez is for the pile of papers on the desk after a graded exam, not for a formative check in the middle of a class.
An essay, a proof, a handwritten mathematics paper cannot be read by optical mark recognition. Papeez reads ticked boxes. For written work, look at the tools that pre-grade text, or at Evalmee for the same thing online.
Who publishes what, and on which page we read it. A tool enters this table only if it grades multiple-choice work on paper and an English-speaking teacher is likely to meet it.
A phone-first grading app from ZipGrade LLC: free printable forms of 20, 50 or 100 questions, a custom answer sheet wizard, and marking done with the device camera. Free up to one hundred papers a month, and a year of unlimited grading for the price of two coffees.
zipgrade.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026Now sold as Gradient: a digital and paper assessment product for United States schools and districts, built around standards reporting, roster syncing and gradebook transfer, and priced per enrolled student with a package floor.
gradecam.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026The incumbent, and the reason "a Scantron" became a generic word for a bubble sheet. It sells high-speed OMR readers, custom-printed forms and managed data-capture services; the machines are quoted, the forms are on the shelf.
scantron.com · read 24 August 2026A test-scoring platform for higher education that runs on plain paper and ordinary scanners, sold as an annual licence priced on the number of student tests graded, with LMS integration and training included.
akindi.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026A Turnitin product for higher education, best known for grading handwritten and written work with rubrics and answer grouping. Bubble sheets are one assignment type among several, and the institutional plan is quoted rather than published.
gradescope.com/pricing · read 24 August 2026A free classroom card system: each student holds up a printed card whose barcode encodes both their identity and, by its orientation, their answer, and the teacher's phone reads the whole room at once. It is a live formative tool, not an exam grader, which is why several of its cells read as not applicable rather than unfavourable.
help.plickers.com, What is Plickers · read 24 August 2026The best test of a comparison is your own exam. Print, scan, compare the grades.
Start free trial