Explain Everything
Explain Everything is a multi-platform interactive digital whiteboard built for K-12 and higher education, offering lesson creation, video recording, and real-time collaboration. Now a Promethean-owned brand, it serves millions of teachers and students globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersRidgefield, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Explain Everything does
Explain Everything is an interactive digital whiteboard platform purpose-built for K-12 and higher education. The product is delivered as a multi-platform application across web browsers, iOS, Android, and Chrome OS, with cloud-based real-time collaboration and offline access via local caching. Core capabilities include an interactive canvas for creating visual lessons, built-in video recording and screencasting for asynchronous instruction, real-time multi-user collaboration, LMS integration, and compatibility with education hardware such as Logitech Crayon, Wacom tablets, and Apple Pencil. The platform is offered in tiered editions including Explain Everything Basics (free iOS), Explain Everything Advanced (paid subscription), and Explain Everything Class (institutional/classroom management), complemented by a templates library and educator certification programs.
The company operates a freemium, product-led growth model with self-serve individual sign-up (no credit card required) layered with a direct enterprise sales motion targeting school districts and universities. Revenue is generated through subscription plans and app store purchases, with additional distribution via channel partners such as Showbie (Complete package), Knotion (LATAM), and Jamf (MDM-enabled deployments). Headquartered in Wrocław, Poland with a US regional office in Alpharetta, Georgia, the company employs 51-100 people and reports 24+ million app downloads globally, with named deployments including the University of Alabama, University of Oregon, University of Southampton, University of Amsterdam, Østfold University College, District 196, and Eanes ISD.
Explain Everything was founded around 2013 and is a wholly-owned brand and platform within Promethean, the educational technology strategic acquirer that completed the acquisition in 2023. The platform carries an extensive compliance posture covering SOC1/2/3, ISO 27001/27017/27018, GDPR, CCPA, FERPA, COPPA, and PCI DSS Level 1, alongside a Qualys SSL Labs A+ rating, positioning it for institutional procurement in regulated education environments.
Explain Everything firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Explain Everything
- Legal name
- Promethean Inc.
- Website
- https://explaineverything.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Explain Everything is a multi-platform interactive digital whiteboard built for K-12 and higher education, offering lesson creation, video recording, and real-time collaboration. Now a Promethean-owned brand, it serves millions of teachers and students globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Explain Everything industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Educational Technology Software
- NAICS
- Educational Services (611)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Whiteboards, Annotation & Collaborative Canvas Tools (EDAFAGAD)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Interactive Whiteboards, Digital Annotation & Screen Sharing Tools (EDAFABAE)
Keywords
Where Explain Everything is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Ridgefield
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Explain Everything business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription Plans: Annual and monthly subscription plans for individual teachers and school/institutional accounts. Tiered pricing based on features and seat count. Core revenue driver for the business.
- App Store Distribution: Revenue generated through iOS App Store and Google Play Store purchases and subscriptions. App distribution through consumer and education marketplaces.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free individual plan for personal/educator use |
| Subscription | Annual | School and district plans for institutional deployment |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels6 records
Explain Everything product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Explain Everything is a cloud-based digital whiteboard platform for teachers and students that enables creation of interactive presentations and lesson content, built-in recording of whiteboard videos and tutorials, and real-time multi-user collaboration across web, iOS, Android, and Chrome devices. It is distributed through a freemium SaaS model for individual educators and subscription plans for schools and districts, with deep integrations into LMS, MDM, and cloud storage platforms.
Product overview
Explain Everything operates as a unified online whiteboard platform for teaching, consisting of multiple tiers and versions. The core offering is Explain Everything (web-based), complemented by Explain Everything Basics (free iOS app), Explain Everything Advanced (paid tier), and Explain Everything Class (institutional tier). The company also offers One.Promethean as a separate product under the Promethean parent brand, indicating a portfolio approach serving individual educators, students, and institutional customers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Explain Everything Basics: A separate mobile app for iOS with limited privacy policy - does not send personal data or created content anywhere, all data stays on device
Products and services
- Explain Everything (Online Whiteboard Platform) Web-based interactive whiteboard that lets teachers and students create lessons, run real-time collaborative sessions, and record whiteboard videos across browsers and mobile devices.
- Explain Everything Basics Free iOS mobile whiteboard app that provides basic interactive whiteboard functionality for individual teachers and learners, keeping all created content on device unless the user upgrades.
- Explain Everything Advanced Paid subscription version of the Explain Everything whiteboard providing advanced features and capabilities beyond the free Basics tier for individual educators and power users.
- Explain Everything Class Classroom-focused tier of the Explain Everything platform designed for schools and districts, providing class management capabilities for organizing students, assignments, and collaborative sessions.
Quantifiable outcome
- 24+ million app downloads demonstrating widespread adoption
Companies that use Explain Everything
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Explain Everything technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration14 records
Feature5 records
Explain Everything partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- GooglecoreGoogle Education Partner with app available on Google Play Store. Integration with Google Workspace for Education ecosystem.
- LogitechcoreOfficial compatibility with Logitech Crayon stylus and Zone Learn Headsets for classroom use.
- ShowbiecoreIncluded as part of Showbie Complete package - Showbie resells and distributes Explain Everything to their education customer base.
- KnotionminorLATAM (Latin America) learning experience partner for regional distribution and adoption in Latin American markets.
- WacomcoreTablet device compatibility partner - Explain Everything works with Wacom pen tablets and pen displays.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Explain Everything competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Miro: Miro is a leading online collaborative whiteboard platform widely used in education and enterprise. It is a direct competitor to Explain Everything's collaborative canvas offering, with substantially greater funding and broader market reach.
- Mural: Mural provides a digital whiteboard for visual collaboration, targeting both enterprise teams and educators. It directly competes with Explain Everything in the interactive canvas category, particularly in hybrid teaching and collaborative learning use cases.
- Conceptboard: Conceptboard is a collaborative online whiteboard designed for visual collaboration with a strong presence in education. It offers comparable real-time collaboration and annotation features to Explain Everything and is frequently benchmarked against it.
Broad incumbents
- SMART Technologies (SMART Notebook): SMART Technologies is an established education technology incumbent offering SMART Notebook interactive learning software alongside its interactive displays. It serves the same K-12 market as Explain Everything with a broader hardware-anchored portfolio and deeper district relationships.
- Promethean (ActivInspire & ClassFlow): Promethean is the parent company of Explain Everything and offers ActivInspire lesson delivery software and ClassFlow classroom orchestration. It is an internal incumbent whose strategies directly influence Explain Everything's positioning within the same K-12 market.
- Jamboard (Google): Google Jamboard is a digital whiteboard app integrated with Google Workspace for Education. As a free bundled offering from Google, it represents both a direct competitor and a distribution channel risk for Explain Everything's Google Education Partner positioning.
Emerging players
- Nearpod: Nearpod is an interactive lesson delivery and formative assessment platform widely used in K-12. It overlaps with Explain Everything in interactive classroom engagement but focuses more on content delivery and assessment workflows than open canvas collaboration.
- Pear Deck: Pear Deck provides interactive presentation and student engagement tools for K-12 educators, now part of GoGuardian. It competes with Explain Everything for teacher mindshare in interactive instruction but with a narrower presentation-centric feature set.
- FigJam (Figma): FigJam is Figma's collaborative whiteboard offering, primarily targeting design teams but increasingly adopted in education for visual collaboration. It overlaps with Explain Everything on real-time canvas collaboration, though with a different primary audience.
- Kami: Kami is a document annotation and collaboration platform widely used in K-12 and higher education. It overlaps with Explain Everything's annotation and interactive content use cases, particularly for PDF-based lesson workflows, though with a narrower collaborative scope.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Explain Everything social profiles
Digital presenceExplain Everything compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance11 records
Explain Everything financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Explain Everything leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles4 records
Explain Everything funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Explain Everything M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Explain Everything
What does Explain Everything do?
Explain Everything is a cloud-based digital whiteboard platform for teachers and students that enables creation of interactive presentations and lesson content, built-in recording of whiteboard videos and tutorials, and real-time multi-user collaboration across web, iOS, Android, and Chrome devices. It is distributed through a freemium SaaS model for individual educators and subscription plans for schools and districts, with deep integrations into LMS, MDM, and cloud storage platforms.
Is Explain Everything a public or private company?
Explain Everything is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Explain Everything founded?
Explain Everything was founded in 2013. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Explain Everything based?
Explain Everything is headquartered in Ridgefield, United States, in the North America region.
How does Explain Everything make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Subscription Plans are the primary driver. The others are app Store Distribution.
Who are Explain Everything's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Miro, Mural and Conceptboard. Broad incumbents are SMART Technologies (SMART Notebook), Promethean (ActivInspire & ClassFlow) and Jamboard (Google). Emerging players are Nearpod, Pear Deck, FigJam (Figma) and Kami.
Does Explain Everything have an API?
No public API is recorded for Explain Everything.
What industry is Explain Everything in?
Explain Everything's product category is Educational Technology Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAFAGAD, Digital Whiteboards, Annotation & Collaborative Canvas Tools, with a secondary code of EDAFABAE, Interactive Whiteboards, Digital Annotation & Screen Sharing Tools. Its NAICS code is 611 and its SIC code is 7372.