Canvas vs Google Classroom: An In-depth Comparison for 2025

Canvas or Google Classroom? Chances are you’ve encountered both while navigating the world of digital education.

But which one fits your needs better?

They both offer comprehensive free forever plans that support course creation, grading, feedback, and discussions. But when we started testing them side-by-side, we noticed subtle differences in their approaches that led us to believe they’re designed for completely different audiences.

Canvas is perfect for large educational institutions and school districts looking for a full-fledged EdTech ecosystem with a course marketplace, customizable interface, personalized learning pathways, and institution-wide analytics.

On the other hand, Google Classroom is suitable for educators who need a LMS that can integrate with their existing Google Workspace account and use their Gmail, Google Docs, Slides, Calendar tools to create a unified learning environment.

To understand why, we compared Canvas vs Google Classroom on the following criteria:

• Course Creation
• Course Management
• Grading & Feedback
• Analytics, and
• Integrations

We’ve also given you a quick summary of their pricing in the comparison table below.

Canvas vs Google Classroom: Comparison Summary

What is Canvas?

Canvas LMS was launched in 2011, but the idea for the EdTech ecosystem was born from the brains of Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley in 2009. Today, it caters to over 20 million educational professionals and students globally.

Canvas LMS is more than just an LMS—it’s a complete solution for institutions for higher education, with a course marketplace, customizable interfaces, personalized learning pathways for students, and institution-wide analytics for educators. Its course creation tools let educators create lessons, assignments, and discussions and host them in custom Course Homepages with your institution's branding. 

The Course Homepage is where all announcements, notifications, and reminders are displayed for both students and educators. Students can take quizzes, participate in discussions, and submit assignments in various formats directly from the homepage. Educators can grade, comment, and share feedback on student work using the SpeedGrader tool.

Canvas includes a Gradebook that helps educators manage and organize student grades. It features an analytics tool for tracking participation, weekly activity, reports, and attendance. You can also connect third-party tools through LTI or native integrations to enhance the educational experience. 

Canvas LMS is perfect for universities and school districts looking for a full-fledged EdTech solution that connects every department, program, and educational institution under a single banner.

What is Google Classroom?

Google Classroom was launched in 2014 as part of the Google universe of products. It was designed specifically for educators and students to communicate, collaborate, and stay organized in an online learning environment.

Google Classroom does this by creating virtual classrooms that serve as the central hub for all course creation and management activities. It links to Google Workspace tools like Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides, making it easier to create assignments, quizzes, and other educational materials. Educators can also link to existing online content, like web pages and YouTube videos, to provide students access to different content types and sources.

Once a student joins a course, they get access to the Stream tab where instructors and students post announcements, share important updates, and engage in discussions via comments. They can also communicate via comments and suggestions directly on Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. 

Educators can assess student work from the Grades tab, which displays individual student profiles with their assignments, making it easier to monitor grades, submissions, and general course activity. For an overview of the classroom performance, educators can use the Analytics dashboard to track attendance, assignment submission rates, average grades, and student participation rates.  

Google Classroom is ideal for educators at schools and colleges looking for a simple, cost-effective learning management system that integrates with their existing Google Workspace account.

Canvas hosts all its course creation tools within the Courses page.

Canvas’s Dashboard gives you an overview of courses assigned to an educator. But the real magic happens in the Courses tab — it hosts everything educators need to manage course-related activities, including course creation tools like: 

• Course Syllabus to share course structure, objectives, and expectations.
• Pages to create and host interactive page content, including blogs, videos, and links to other files.
• Outcomes to set measurable goals for individual students or groups in a course.
• Grades (or Gradebook) to manage and organize grades for all students.
• Assignments to create, assign, and grade quizzes, projects, and other submissions. Educators can also link assignments to external tools like Wooclap, letting students complete the assignment there.

NOTE: We’ve only covered the essential course creation tools here. If you want to really dive into Canvas’s course creation features, check out Canvas’s Instructor Guides.

Google Classroom sets up a virtual classroom for your course.

Google Classroom collects some basic information like your name, section, subject, and school name to create a custom “classroom” that reflects the subject’s theme. 

Like Canvas’s Courses, Google Classroom hosts its course creation and management in its Classworks tab. It can link to Google tools like Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms, where educators can create assignments, quizzes, discussion forms, and other supplementary materials. 

Educators can also link to existing content in Google Drive, YouTube, or other websites. Doing this can cut down on the time and effort spent on content creation while suitable content already exists. 

If they want to create custom content but don’t have the time, educators can enlist Google Gemini’s help to generate lesson plans, course content, and quizzes. 

But they’ll first need to purchase Google Workspace for Education, and then the Gemini for Education add-on to bring all the advantages of AI to Google Classroom. Moreover, your institution needs to meet certain standards set by Google to access these tools.

Is there a more affordable way to integrate AI
with Google Classroom?

You have three options to integrate AI tools with your Google Classroom for lesson planning and quiz creation:

Option 1: Use the free Gemini tools with Google Workspace

Since Google Classroom links its Workspace tools, you can use the free version of Gemini to create course content on Google Forms, Docs, Sheets, etc. 

But the AI isn’t designed for Google Classroom, so it will take quite a bit of tinkering and mental gymnastics to get the results you need.

Option 2: Purchase Gemini for Education

If your institution meets Google’s standards, you can purchase the Gemini for Education add-on ($24/user/year). It’s built for schools and integrates directly with Google Workspace tools like Docs, Slides, and Sheets. 

However, it’s only available with paid editions of Google Workspace for Education ($3/user/year), bringing the total price up to $27/user/year. 

That’s still more cost-effective than most AI tools out there, but it can’t build interactive course materials and collaborative discussion frameworks that are known to engage students and improve knowledge retention.

And that’s where the third option comes in…

Option 3: Use Wooclap AI to generate course materials faster

Wooclap is designed for educators, and so is its AI. 

Simply upload a file, paste a link, or suggest a topic, and Wooclap AI will generate relevant multiple-choice, open-ended, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and brainstorming question types in a matter of seconds.

Wooclap AI is available with the Pro plan ($14.99/user/month). 

This means along with generating questions for your Google Classroom course, you can also directly integrate Wooclap question types to your course materials using Wooclap’s Google Slides add-on for more interactive learning sessions.

Sign up and get a 14-day free trial of Wooclap AI and see how Wooclap AI and Google Slides add-on work hand-in-hand to improve student engagement!

Your security and confidentiality are our priority! We guarantee that your data will not be used to train any AI model. You can learn more about our privacy policy here.   

Before we dive into course management on both platforms, here’s a quick overview of how your Canvas and Google Classroom accounts will work. 

Canvas follows a hierarchical account structure while Google Classroom follows a flat structure.

Canvas’s hierarchical account structure is divided into three main levels:

1. Root Account: For institution-level management 

This is the parent account of your educational institution under which all your departments, classes, courses, and students are nested. Root account admins can assign other root account admins or sub-account admins.

1. Sub-Accounts: For department-level management

These are branches under the root account used to divide your institute into smaller units to make it easier to manage. You can create sub-accounts for colleges, schools, departments, and grade levels under your institution’s banner and customize them with unit-specific rubrics, questions, courses, and outcomes.   

1. Courses & Sections: For course-level management

This is where your courses are hosted. Within a course, you can assign sections (student groups within a course). All sections will have the same course content but can have different instructors, due dates, and enrollment requirements. 

Meanwhile, Google Classroom follows a flat account structure with just one account type — your Google Workspace account. 

What you can do in your classroom is defined by four user profiles: 

• Teachers can create and manage courses, study materials, attachments, grades, and so on. They can also add co-teachers via a link or invite.
• Students can complete coursework, view materials, submit files, participate in discussions, and more.
• Guardians can track student progress and preview courses.   
• Administrators can manage user permissions, courses, submissions, and view interactions within a course.

NOTE: You can create a classroom with a personal account, but there are limitations on the number of classes. Admins can add you to a classroom, but they need a Google Workspace for Education account. 

Now that we have an understanding of the account structure in Canvas and Google Classroom, let’s look at how they both use it to approach course management.

Canvas offers stand-alone tools to streamline course management workflows.

Canvas is a complete LMS solution with a wide array of course management features designed specifically for large educational institutions. To make them easier to use, the platform offers these features as stand-alone tools.

We’ll go through the tools in the order in which a student would interact with them, and talk about how they’ll work for the educator. 

First, we have the Canvas Catalog — the marketplace for your institution’s courses. Students can browse, enroll, and pay for courses directly from the catalog while administrators can manage registrations, create progress reports, and track revenue and enrollment trends.

After students enroll for a course, they get access to the Course Home Page. It hosts all course-related activities and materials, including the Course Activity stream, Course Modules page, Course Assignments, and Course Syllabus.

Both students and instructors can track updates, messages, or notifications on the course activity stream (for specific courses) or the global activity stream (for notifications from all your courses).

Additionally, educators can create personalized learning pathways for students using Canvas Student Pathways. The tool takes into account a student’s academic and co-curricular journeys to ensure students are more invested while educators can offer badges and set milestones to incentivize students to complete the course. It’s also a nice way to foster a healthy sense of competition among students.

Google Classroom keeps things simple with only essential course management capabilities.

The Google Classroom divides its course management features into two tabs: Stream and People.

The Stream tab serves as the class homepage where instructors and students can post announcements (1), share important updates, and answer questions. 

It’s also where students are notified about new assignments (2) and can comment on any aspect of the course. However, the commenting system is pretty basic, without the capabilities to use emojis, attach files/images, and such. 

The People tab lets educators manage both student and co-teacher permissions. They can invite participants using an invite link (1) or via email (2). However, there are restrictions on who can be designated as teachers.

Google Classroom also has a Groups feature to assign coursework and manage classes for multiple students simultaneously, for group assignments. 

But there are some limitations to assignment management using Groups:

• Groups are only available with the premium license. 
• You can only add 100 members per group with a maximum of 75 groups per class.

Both Canvas and Google Classroom offer multiple ways to grade student submissions.

Canvas offers two tools to grade assignments and quizzes:

1. Gradebook lets you view, edit, and track student grades from one location. Grades can be displayed as points, percentages, GPAs, or letter grades. Educators can filter grades by students or by assignment, making it easier to focus on specific submissions in a large classroom.

1. SpeedGrader is primarily for leaving comments (more on this in the next section), but you can also grade assignments, quizzes, and graded discussions. The grades added here are automatically updated in the Gradebook.

Similarly, Google Classroom lets educators grade student submissions from anywhere the assignment can be opened. 

But the two most convenient locations we found are:

1. The Grades tab presents individual student profiles to monitor grades, assignments, and general activity within the course. Educators can also send it for resubmission from here.
2. The Classwork tab displays all coursework related to the course, letting educators select and grade an assignment from the tab.

Google Classroom allows feedback using comments and suggestions. Canvas does the same, but with some limitations.

Google Classroom lets educators leave feedback in the form of comments and suggestions on students’ Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets. It also supports private comments so they can personalize feedback to individual students in a group.

It also has a comment bank feature where educators can save their most-used comments. They can give quick feedback while maintaining a similar feedback style and tone with all their students.

Canvas supports feedback using the SpeedGrader tool, but it's relatively limited compared to Google Classroom. 

Educators can leave comments using the comment box or select one from the Comments Library. But they can’t link their feedback to individual sections or phrases like in Google Classroom, making it difficult to highlight parts that need attention.

To make up for it, Canvas supports video feedback with screen recording and media uploads via its Studio Capture tool, so educators can leave more in-depth feedback.

Can I provide feedback on Canvas or Google Classroom if I’m using third-party tools for submission? 

The honest answer? It depends on the integration.

Yes, you can provide feedback on submissions made via third-party integrations on both Canvas and Google Classroom, but there are some conditions depending on the platform: 

1. Not all integrations let you view student submissions on the LMS. Google Classroom only lets you do it with Google Workspace tools, while Canvas only displays submissions on SpeedGrader for certain integrations. 
2. You can use LTI (in Canvas) or add-ons (in Google Classroom) to create custom connections. But it’s limited to grades in Google Classroom, while setting up submission passback in Canvas needs serious technical expertise.

So, if you lack technical expertise or need a platform that lets you give feedback directly on the submission, we recommend using a third-party integration with great feedback features so you can. 

Let’s take Wooclap for example—feedback on the platform is a two-way street. 

Apart from messaging and commenting using the Wall Feature, educators can provide real-time feedback on student performance, while students can inform educators if they’re following the lesson and have any questions, again in real time.

For example, you can click on the “Correct Answer” button (1) to display the right answers on the student’s screen during a quiz. 

There’s also the “I’m confused” button (2) which allows students to “digitally” raise their hands during a class or discussion without disrupting the classroom with messages, pings, or emojis.

Canvas offers in-depth graphs and tables analyzing the entire course, including student performance and engagement.

Canvas’s New Analytics presents students’ grades, weekly online student activity, reports, and online attendance (for online courses) in a graph or table format. The dashboard compiles this data into individual tabs:

• Course Grade displays student grades by assignment type (discussions, quizzes, essays, etc.) along with the overall grade earned for that course. 
• Weekly Online Activity shows course page views and the number of participants for a specific week.
• Student Analytics displays student activity data like participation, number of page views, on-time submission rate, and more. Educators can also view individual student data by clicking on their names. 
• Reports support course-related reports like missing assignments, late assignments, excused assignments, course student data, and course activity data. 
• Online Attendance Report to track if students have met the online course attendance requirements.

Google Classroom’s analytics feature offers basic insights into class performance.

Google Classroom’s Analytics page is pretty basic compared to Canvas. It displays important insights to understand class performance:

• Overall Insights to highlight significant patterns and trends, like number of students NOT visiting the class page, students missing assignments, and so on
• Assignment Completion shows the number of students who turned in assignments within the specified date range
• Average Grade shows the average grade of all assignments within a specific time period. Grades shown in Classroom analytics don’t include grades stored outside of Classroom, such as an SIS
• Active Students Percentage shows the percentage of all students who interacted with the class in the specified time period

But there are some limitations on both platforms.

Google Classroom and Canvas offer insights to help educators understand student participation. But it has some drawbacks that may impact the quality of insights:

• Analytics data is not updated in real time — it happens every 8 to 40 hours, depending on the report type in Canvas, while Google Classroom updates data every 24 hours. So instructors may make decisions based on outdated participation data.
• Both tools don’t account for students-teacher communication and assignments on third-party tools, underrepresenting actual student engagement.

These drawbacks are worth keeping in mind if you want real-time insights or use third-party tools to bring better learning experiences into the classroom. 

How do I bring real-time insights and third-party data
into Canvas or Google Classroom?

When it comes to real-time insights, it depends on the platform, and since Canvas and Google Classroom don’t offer real-time insights, there’s not much we can do as real users.

On the other hand, there is a solution to data sharing between your LMS (like Google Classroom and Canvas) and third-party learning tools — but again, with some limitations.

1. Import data manually

You can upload grades and feedback manually in both Canvas and Google Classroom. Just download your results in the required format and import them into your LMS. There may be some manual labor involved to match formatting requirements.

2. Use integrations

Canvas integrates with external tools via LTI to share data points like attendance, rosters, and grades. 

For example, you can integrate Wooclap with Canvas using LTI 1.3. Once the integration is set up, educators can import results, attendance, and participation after the Wooclap event. The only manual part is selecting the datapoint (1) you want to include in your Canvas report.

Google Classroom, on the other hand, supports seamless integrations via API and add-ons to connect with third-party tools — more on that in the Integrations section.

Wooclap is now using LTI 1.3 Advantage to make LMS integrations easier and more secure.

Canvas provides three options to integrate external tools with a course.

You can integrate essential tools with Canvas via:

• The Canvas App Center: You can easily integrate teaching tools to your Canvas account or Canvas course with one click.
• The Edu App Center: If you don’t have Canvas App Center, you can check the Edu App Center for the latest list of Canvas-compatible External Apps.
• Vendor integrations: You can also check the vendor’s site for instructions to configure and use their platform with Canvas.

Google Classroom connects with over 70+ external tools via third-party integrations or as add-ons.

Google Classroom integrates directly with 50+ third-party integrations, including School Information System (SIS) systems, LMS systems, collaboration tools, and other Google apps. It can also integrate 20+ add-ons to bring more advanced EdTech functionalities to Google Classroom.

For a custom Google Classroom experience, they can use the Classroom API to build custom connections with Classroom and Google Workspace for Education. 

NOTE: Canvas also has an API, but LTI and Canvas IDs don’t always match and may require technical expertise to configure.

How Wooclap Integrates with Canvas and Google Classroom

Wooclap takes different approaches for each platform:

• Canvas: Wooclap supports direct LTI 1.3 integration that can be used to integrate Wooclap with Canvas. You can check out our LTI integration guide for more information.
• Google Classroom: Through Wooclap’s Google Slides add-on, educators can embed interactive questions directly into their lessons created using Google Slides.

Canvas vs Google Classroom: Pros & Cons

Final Verdict: Canvas vs Google Classroom

If you’ve made it to the end of this comparison, you’ll have noticed one thing: 

Both Canvas and Google Classroom are efficient learning management systems, but their capabilities and variations in features make them ideal for completely different use cases.

Canvas LMS offers an array of learning tools and features that make it ideal for large educational institutions and school districts looking for a solution that can connect every department, program, and institute under a single banner. Meanwhile, Google Classroom is perfect for school teachers and college professors looking for an easy-to-use and accessible learning management system that can work well with their Google Workspace account. 

Use Canvas if:

• You’re an educator at a university or a large school district
• You’re looking for an LMS that can incorporate all your departments and programs under one roof
• You want a completely customizable solution that can reflect school or university colors and branding

Click here to get started with Canvas!

Use Google Classroom if:

• You’re an educator working on a tight budget at a school or college
• You want a cost-effective LMS solution that is easily accessible to all your students
• Your institution primarily uses Google Workspace to host and manage course content and communication

Click here to get started with Google Classroom!