Quire
Quire and Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a light class-management tool for schools and universities that already run on Google Workspace for Education, and it is free for qualifying institutions.
Last checked 1 October 2026. Quire is pre-release.
Who should pick which
Pick Google Classroom if
- Your school or university qualifies for Education Fundamentals, which Google offers at no cost, and you want basic classes, assignments and grading without a new system.
- Your staff and students already use Docs, Drive, Meet and Gmail every day, so Classroom adds almost nothing to learn.
- You do not need a deep quiz engine, certificates, programmes or several separate organisations on one platform.
- You want Gemini tools for teachers, which Google says are free to educators with Workspace for Education accounts.
Pick Quire if
- You are not a qualifying school, for example a corporate training or tutoring provider. Google lists corporate training centres, tutoring programmes, for-profit education companies and MOOCs as not eligible for Workspace for Education.
- You need several organisations on one platform, each with its own domain, branding, sign-in and data boundary, enforced by row-level security in the database.
- You need a self-hosted option, a tamper-evident audit log, or a documented REST API with webhooks and an MCP server on every plan.
- You need assessment and gradebook depth beyond Forms quizzes and Classroom's two grading methods. Quire is pre-release, so check the open items in the ledger first.
Side by side
| Capability | Google Classroom | Quire |
|---|---|---|
| Cost and eligibility | Education Fundamentals has no cost for qualifying institutions. Education Plus is listed at 6 USD per user per year. Organisations that are not schools, such as corporate training centres, do not qualify.Source: Google for Education: Compare editions | Flat plans by organisation size, not per seat. Starter is 99 USD a month for up to 250 users. A self-hosted licence costs ten times the monthly price of the matching tier. Quire is pre-release. |
| Assessment depth | Quizzes are built in Google Forms and graded in Classroom. Locked mode needs a Workspace for Education account and a school-managed Chromebook for each student.Source: Google Docs Editors Help: Use locked mode for quizzes | A quiz engine with five behaviours and eighteen question types, per-attempt review options and a question statistics report. Question bank import for GIFT, Moodle XML, Aiken and QTI. Tested in code, not yet walked through in a real browser matrix. |
| Gradebook | Grading is by total points or weighted by category, with CSV and Google Sheets export on the computer version. Grading scales (numeric to letter) are not available in the Classroom API.Source: Classroom API: Grades | Categories, natural, mean, weighted, median, min, max and mode aggregation, drop lowest, extra credit, calculated items, scales, outcomes and letter grades. Import from CSV, XML or paste. Export to XLSX, ODS, CSV or XML. |
| Several organisations on one platform | Each school is its own Workspace organisation. Users can join classes in another domain only if the class settings in both organisations allow it, and some account type pairings are not allowed.Source: Classroom Help: Control user access to Classroom | Many organisations on one installation. Each has its own domain, branding, sign-in methods, email sender and data boundary, enforced by row-level security in PostgreSQL. Courses can be shared between organisations. Shared courses are copies the consumer owns, and some sharing cases are not built yet. |
| Hosting and data residency | Hosted by Google only. Data regions (US or Europe) are available for Education Standard and Education Plus. They are not available for Education Fundamentals.Source: Google Workspace Admin Help: Compare data region features | Hosted by Quire, or self-hosted with one Docker Compose file. Each organisation has a data region. A full end-to-end EU residency drill across database, storage, video, scanning and email providers has not been run yet. |
| API, add-ons and LTI | A Classroom API exists for courses, rosters and grades. Add-ons that attach third-party content need a Teaching and Learning Upgrade or Education Plus licence. A third-party developer guide states that Classroom does not support LTI 1.3 or LTI Advantage. Google offers separate LTI tools for use inside other LMSs.Source: Edlink: Does Google Classroom support LTI 1.3 (third party, 4 December 2025) | REST with OpenAPI 3.1, signed webhooks and an MCP server, on every hosted plan. LTI 1.3 Advantage as platform and as tool. 1EdTech LTI certification has not been done, and several REST routes are not offered yet. |
| Audit | Education Plus adds Gmail and Classroom log analysis in BigQuery in the Admin console.Source: Google for Education: Compare editions | Hash-chained audit entries with signed checkpoints and a verification tool, in three streams: administration, learning activity and page views. Checking the chain with the production key is still an external step. |
| AI | Gemini in Classroom is available to educators with Workspace for Education accounts at no charge, per Google's June 2025 announcement.Source: Google: Gemini in Classroom, no-cost AI tools | AI assistance is built in and set up per organisation, on every hosted plan. You choose the provider and bring its key. Live checks against each provider are still open. |
Last checked 1 October 2026. Each claim about Google Classroom links to the page it came from.
Moving from Google Classroom
Classroom lets teachers download grades as CSV or to Google Sheets, on the computer version only (Classroom Help). Quire has no importer built for Classroom. What the repo does support is user import by CSV, SCIM, OneRoster and the API, gradebook import by CSV, XML or paste, question import in GIFT, Moodle XML, Aiken and QTI, and Common Cartridge import. Expect to rebuild courses and move rosters and grades through those files. Test on a trial organisation first.
Join the waitlist
Quire is pre-release. Early supporters get 50% off the first 12 months of any hosted plan.