Pencil Spaces is a solid tutoring-specific whiteboard, and plenty of tutors are happy with it. The most common reason people look for an alternative isn’t the product — it’s the pricing model. Every current Pencil Spaces plan meters by the hour: Mini at $6/month for 25 included hours, up to Advanced at $149/month for 600, each with a per-hour overage rate on top. If your teaching hours grow, so does the bill, every month, without you changing anything else.
Verified from pencilspaces.com/pricing in July 2026. Pencil Spaces has also listed a $9/month seat-based “Pro” plan with unlimited hours as “coming soon” — single-seat only — check their page for its current status before assuming it’s live.
Here are the two most common alternatives, and where each actually differs.
Lessonspace
Lessonspace is the closest like-for-like alternative — a tutoring-built whiteboard with video, recording, and API access. It also meters by the hour: Basic is $9/month for 10 included hours, Starter is $29/month for 30 hours with $1.80 per additional hour, and sessions cap at 6 participants before per-participant fees apply. Switching from Pencil Spaces to Lessonspace changes the specific numbers but not the underlying model — you’re still paying more as you teach more.
Verified from thelessonspace.com/pricing in July 2026.
A Zoom + Miro setup
Some tutors piece together their own stack: Zoom for video, Miro for the whiteboard. Both are excellent at what they’re individually built for, and Miro’s free plan (3 editable boards) or Zoom’s free tier can work for a very light caseload. The tradeoff is that neither tool knows about tutoring specifically — there’s no persistent room per student, no session recording tied to a lesson, and no shared record of what was covered. You’re also paying for and logging into two separate products instead of one.
LumenBoard
LumenBoard is built the way Pencil Spaces and Lessonspace are — whiteboard, video, and recording in one room — but priced flat instead of metered. Tutor is $15/month for unlimited sessions and hours, with 30-day recording retention. Tutor Pro is $29/month and adds AI lesson notes, automatic parent recaps, an ask-the-recording chatbot for students, small groups up to six, and a full year of retention. Neither Pencil Spaces nor Lessonspace currently advertise an equivalent AI notes or parent-recap feature.
- No per-hour overage on any plan — the price is the price.
- A permanent room per student: the same link, every session attached to it, indefinitely.
- A free tier (2 rooms, capped hours) to try it with real students before paying anything.
Which is actually right for you
If you teach an unpredictable, low number of hours some months and a lot in others, hour-metering can genuinely cost less in the light months — that’s a real tradeoff, not a trick. If you teach a steady roster every week, a flat price stops being a “maybe” and starts being the cheaper, more predictable option every single month. Do the arithmetic on your actual hours before switching either way.