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Education · head to head

GoGuardian vs Linewize

GoGuardian logo

GoGuardian

Education

Web filtering, classroom screen monitoring and self-harm alerting for school-issued devices

From
On request
Rated
-
Linewize logo

Linewize

Education

School web filtering, classroom control and student wellbeing alerting from the Qoria group

From
On request
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: GoGuardian beacon generates alerts that a human must act on, often outside school hours, and districts that buy it without agreeing who responds at 11pm have created a liability rather than resolved one.; Linewize automated wellbeing flagging produces false positives on ordinary adolescent language, and each false positive is a recorded concern about a named child that the school must then handle and retain.
  • They diverge on capability: GoGuardian covers Admin, Linewize covers Filtering on and off network.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which GoGuardian and Linewize actually diverge.

Attributes where GoGuardian and Linewize differ
AttributeGoGuardianLinewize
PlatformsChrome OS, Windows, macOS, iOS, WebWeb, ChromeOS, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Education).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in GoGuardian

  • Admin
  • Teacher
  • Beacon
  • Beacon 24/7
  • Scenes and sessions
  • Smart Alerts
  • Off-campus filtering
  • Reporting

Only in Linewize

  • Filtering on and off network
  • Classwize
  • Wellbeing alerting
  • Pulse reporting
  • School to home
  • Multi-platform agents

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

GoGuardian

  • A US district that must demonstrate CIPA-compliant filtering on federally subsidised broadband and wants the activity logs to survive an audit.not Linewize
  • A one-to-one Chromebook programme where devices go home and the district needs the filtering policy to travel with the device rather than stop at the school gate.not Linewize
  • A school with a documented safeguarding concern about self-harm that needs flagged language escalated to a named counsellor with a timestamped record.not Linewize
  • A teacher running an online assessment who needs pupil browsers locked to a single site for the duration without provisioning a separate lockdown browser.not Linewize

Linewize

  • A United Kingdom school evidencing Keeping Children Safe in Education monitoring expectations at inspectionnot GoGuardian
  • Districts with take home devices that need policy applied off the school networknot GoGuardian
  • Schools that want teachers to control lesson browsing without raising a ticket with the network managernot GoGuardian
  • Safeguarding teams that need a documented trail of flags raised and actions takennot GoGuardian

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

GoGuardian

  • Beacon generates alerts that a human must act on, often outside school hours, and districts that buy it without agreeing who responds at 11pm have created a liability rather than resolved one.
  • Detection is language-pattern based, so it produces false positives on coursework about difficult subjects and misses coded or oblique expressions, meaning it should never be presented to parents as a safety net.
  • Filtering on school-issued devices follows pupils home, which surveils domestic internet use on a household's own connection, and districts have faced public objections when this was not disclosed clearly in advance.
  • No pricing is published, and the multi-year reseller bundles make it hard to compare against a filtering-only competitor without running a full procurement.
  • Coverage is strongest on Chrome OS and thinner on Windows, macOS and iOS, so mixed-device districts get uneven enforcement and end up running a second filtering product for the non-Chromebook estate.

Linewize

  • Automated wellbeing flagging produces false positives on ordinary adolescent language, and each false positive is a recorded concern about a named child that the school must then handle and retain.
  • Buying alerting without staffing it is a liability. If nobody reads the queue, the school has created evidence that it was told and did not act.
  • Off site monitoring of school devices extends school visibility into the home, and unless the school publishes the hours and scope, families discover it after the fact rather than at the point of consent.
  • The group sells both the school monitoring platform and a consumer parental control product to the same families, which is a commercial incentive to widen monitoring that the sales conversation will not surface.
  • Consolidation through acquisition means overlapping products from different codebases inside one group, and schools that bought a now acquired product face migration onto the group platform at renewal.

Pricing, plan by plan

GoGuardian

On request
  • GoGuardian Suite$undefined/year
    • Priced per student or per device, quoted by district
    • Admin, Teacher and Beacon licensed individually or as a bundle
    • Sold heavily through education resellers as three, four and five year terms

Linewize

On request
  • Linewize$undefined/year
    • Quoted per pupil per year
    • Filtering, classroom and wellbeing modules priced separately
    • Multi-year school and district agreements

Which should you pick?

Choose GoGuardian if

  • You need admin.
  • You work on Chrome OS, Windows, macOS, iOS, Web.
  • You also want teacher.

Choose Linewize if

  • You need filtering on and off network.
  • You work on Web, ChromeOS, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
  • You also want classwize.

Questions people ask

Is GoGuardian or Linewize better?
Neither clearly leads. GoGuardian starts at On request and Linewize at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, GoGuardian or Linewize?
GoGuardian starts at On request and Linewize at On request.
Does GoGuardian or Linewize run on more platforms?
GoGuardian runs on Chrome OS, Windows, macOS, iOS, Web. Linewize runs on Web, ChromeOS, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android.
What is GoGuardian best used for?
GoGuardian is most often used for a us district that must demonstrate cipa-compliant filtering on federally subsidised broadband and wants the activity logs to survive an audit., a one-to-one chromebook programme where devices go home and the district needs the filtering policy to travel with the device rather than stop at the school gate., a school with a documented safeguarding concern about self-harm that needs flagged language escalated to a named counsellor with a timestamped record., a teacher running an online assessment who needs pupil browsers locked to a single site for the duration without provisioning a separate lockdown browser.. Of those, a us district that must demonstrate cipa-compliant filtering on federally subsidised broadband and wants the activity logs to survive an audit. and a one-to-one chromebook programme where devices go home and the district needs the filtering policy to travel with the device rather than stop at the school gate. are not what Linewize is typically brought in for.
What can GoGuardian do that Linewize cannot?
GoGuardian covers Admin, Teacher, Beacon, Beacon 24/7. Linewize covers Filtering on and off network, Classwize, Wellbeing alerting, Pulse reporting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

GoGuardian: Is GoGuardian required for CIPA compliance?

No. CIPA requires a filtering policy and technology, not a specific vendor. GoGuardian is one of several products that satisfy it.

Linewize: Is Linewize the same company as Smoothwall and Qustodio?

They are all part of Qoria, the group formerly known as Family Zone Cyber Safety. Product roadmaps and renewals are coordinated at group level.

GoGuardian: Does Beacon monitor pupils at home?

On a school-issued managed device, yes, including outside school hours, unless the district explicitly limits the policy. This should be disclosed to families.

Linewize: Does it monitor pupils outside school hours?

On school managed devices it can, and the school decides the scope. Define the hours and the data retention period in policy and tell families, because the software will not decide proportionality for you.

GoGuardian: Is Beacon included with Admin?

A starter level of Beacon is included with an Admin subscription. The 24/7 human triage service is a separate paid tier.

Linewize: Is it FERPA and COPPA aligned?

For United States deployments it contracts as a school official under FERPA with COPPA consent handled by the district. In the United Kingdom the relevant frameworks are UK GDPR and Keeping Children Safe in Education, which impose different retention and review duties.

GoGuardian: Is Pear Deck part of the same licence?

No. Pear Deck Learning products are sold separately from the Admin, Teacher and Beacon suite even though the same company owns both.

GoGuardian: Can teachers view screens outside lesson time?

That depends on how the district configures sessions. Leaving screen viewing available at all hours is a configuration choice, not a product limitation, and it is the setting most worth reviewing.

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