LMS · head to head
Pear Deck vs Sakai
Sakai
LMS
Open source learning management system governed by the Apereo Foundation
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Pear Deck the Teacher Dashboard, draggable and drawing responses and Reflect and Review require Teacher Premium at $149 per year; Sakai the zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
- They diverge on capability: Pear Deck covers Interactive slides, Sakai covers Course sites.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Pear Deck and Sakai actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (LMS).
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 Pear Deck
- Interactive slides
- Real-time responses
- Formative assessment
- Student-paced mode
- Dashboard
- Audio responses
- Drawing
- Vocabulary
Only in Sakai
- Course sites
- Tests and Quizzes
- Gradebook
- Lessons
- Assignments
- Forums and messaging
- LTI support
- Self-hosting
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Pear Deck
- Interactive classroom presentations for teachersnot Sakai
- Student practice and assessment toolsnot Sakai
- Standards-aligned content delivery for schoolsnot Sakai
Sakai
- A university whose data protection policy or national regulation requires student coursework to stay on institution-controlled infrastructure inside a specific jurisdiction.not Pear Deck
- An institution that has been repriced twice by a commercial LMS vendor after ownership changes and wants a platform with no owner to sell it.not Pear Deck
- A university with an existing Java and Tomcat operations team, where the marginal cost of running one more Java application is genuinely low.not Pear Deck
- A consortium of institutions sharing one deployment and one set of local integrations rather than each paying separate per-student licences.not Pear Deck
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Pear Deck
- The Teacher Dashboard, draggable and drawing responses and Reflect and Review require Teacher Premium at $149 per year
- Pear Assessment Premium is a separate $125 per year purchase from Pear Deck Premium
- Standards aligned content, district library and efficacy reports are only in the Schools and Districts plan
- SIS and LMS integration is only in the Schools and Districts plan
- School and district pricing is by quote with no published rate
Sakai
- The zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
- The third-party teaching tool ecosystem builds and tests for Canvas first, so Sakai adopters do their own LTI integration work and occasionally wait for a vendor to certify against a platform it does not prioritise.
- Because governance is a foundation of member institutions rather than a company, a feature only gets built if some institution funds an engineer to build it, so roadmap commitments are weaker than a vendor contract provides.
- The interface, while improved through the version 20 to 25 cycle, still reads as older than Canvas or Brightspace, and academic staff who have used a commercial LMS elsewhere notice it immediately.
- Adoption is concentrated in specific regions and sectors, so the pool of people who have run Sakai in production is small, making it harder to hire an administrator than for Moodle or Canvas.
Pricing, plan by plan
Pear Deck
Free- Pear Start FreeFree
- 40+ AI tools for teachers
- unlimited usage
- Pear Deck FreeFree
- basic interactive presentations
- anonymous responses
- student-paced mode
- Pear Deck Premium$149/year
- Teacher Dashboard with named responses
- drawing/draggable features
- Reflect & Review
- Pear Assessment FreeFree
- basic assessment creation
- autograding
Sakai
Free- SakaiFree
- Educational Community Licence, no licence fee
- Full source on GitHub
- Community support through Apereo lists and Jira
- Commercial hosting and support$undefined/year
- Provided by Apereo affiliates such as Longsight
- Hosting, upgrades, backups and support
- Quoted per institution, commonly by student headcount
Which should you pick?
Choose Pear Deck if
- You need interactive slides.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Chrome Extension.
- You also want real-time responses.
Choose Sakai if
- You need course sites.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
- You also want tests and quizzes.
Questions people ask
- Is Pear Deck or Sakai better?
- Neither clearly leads. Pear Deck starts at Free and Sakai at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Pear Deck or Sakai?
- Pear Deck starts at Free and Sakai at Free.
- Does Pear Deck or Sakai run on more platforms?
- Pear Deck runs on Web, Chrome Extension. Sakai runs on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Pear Deck for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Pear Deck best used for?
- Pear Deck is most often used for interactive classroom presentations for teachers, student practice and assessment tools, standards-aligned content delivery for schools. Of those, interactive classroom presentations for teachers and student practice and assessment tools are not what Sakai is typically brought in for.
- What can Pear Deck do that Sakai cannot?
- Pear Deck covers Interactive slides, Real-time responses, Formative assessment, Student-paced mode. Sakai covers Course sites, Tests and Quizzes, Gradebook, Lessons.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Pear Deck: What is the price for individual teacher subscriptions?
Pear Deck Premium: $149/year; Pear Assessment Premium: $125/year. Pear Practice and Start have custom pricing for paid tiers.
SourceSakai: Is Sakai still actively developed?
Yes. Version 25.0 shipped in 2025, 25.1 followed in November 2025, and further maintenance releases in the 25 line are planned, with commits continuing through 2026.
Pear Deck: Are there free versions available?
Yes, all Pear Deck products offer free teacher plans: Pear Start, Pear Deck, Pear Practice, and Pear Assessment are free for educators.
SourceSakai: Who owns Sakai?
No company does. Governance sits with the Apereo Foundation, a membership organisation of institutions, and the code is under the Educational Community Licence.
Pear Deck: What features require payment in Pear Assessment?
Free version includes basic assessment creation and autograding. Premium ($125/year) adds advanced security, accessibility tools, state test interface mimicry, and rubric scoring.
SourceSakai: What does it actually cost to run?
The software is free. The cost is Java hosting and staff, or a commercial hosting agreement with an Apereo affiliate such as Longsight, typically quoted by student headcount.
Pear Deck: Do schools get discounted pricing?
Yes, schools and districts receive custom pricing with additional features like standards-aligned content, shared libraries, and LMS integration.
SourceSakai: How does it compare to Moodle?
Moodle has a far larger plugin ecosystem and installed base; Sakai has a cleaner assessment and gradebook model and is more common in research-intensive universities. Moodle is easier to hire for.
Sakai: Can we migrate off it later?
Yes, but course content export fidelity through Common Cartridge is imperfect, so budget for manual rebuilding of assessments as you would leaving any LMS.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- Pear Deck vs Nearpod
- Pear Deck vs Canvas
- Pear Deck vs Schoology
- Pear Deck vs Moodle
- Pear Deck vs LinkedIn Learning
- Pear Deck vs ClassDojo
- Pear Deck vs LearnWorlds
- Pear Deck vs Edpuzzle
- Pear Deck vs Quizlet
- Pear Deck vs Sana
- Pear Deck vs Seesaw
- Pear Deck vs Whatfix
- Pear Deck vs Chamilo
- Pear Deck vs Claroline
- Pear Deck vs Cornerstone OnDemand
- Pear Deck vs CYPHER Learning
- Pear Deck vs D2L Brightspace
- Pear Deck vs Totara
- Pear Deck vs LearnUpon
- Pear Deck vs Skilljar
- Pear Deck vs Echo360
- Pear Deck vs Thought Industries
- Pear Deck vs Tovuti LMS
- Pear Deck vs Google Classroom
- Pear Deck vs Degreed
- Pear Deck vs Edmodo
- Pear Deck vs iSpring Learn
- Pear Deck vs LearnDash
- Sakai vs Nearpod
- Sakai vs Canvas
- Sakai vs Schoology
- Sakai vs Moodle
- Sakai vs LinkedIn Learning
- Sakai vs ClassDojo
- Sakai vs LearnWorlds
- Sakai vs Edpuzzle
- Sakai vs Quizlet
- Sakai vs Sana
- Sakai vs Seesaw
- Sakai vs Whatfix
- Sakai vs Chamilo
- Sakai vs Claroline
- Sakai vs Cornerstone OnDemand
- Sakai vs CYPHER Learning
- Sakai vs D2L Brightspace
- Sakai vs Totara
- Sakai vs LearnUpon
- Sakai vs Skilljar
- Sakai vs Echo360
- Sakai vs Thought Industries
- Sakai vs Tovuti LMS
- Sakai vs Google Classroom
- Sakai vs Degreed
- Sakai vs Edmodo
- Sakai vs iSpring Learn
- Sakai vs LearnDash