Teachers comparing plan books usually ask "which has more features?" The more useful question is "where do my plans — and my students' names — live?" Planbook.com and Plan Book Plus give opposite answers, and most of the differences follow from that.
Planbook is a website. Your plans live in your account on their servers, which is what makes them reachable from any device and shareable with a substitute. Plan Book Plus is a file. Your whole book — plans and students — is one document on your computer that no server ever sees.
Side by side
| Plan Book Plus | Planbook.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Planning free for good; Plus (students) $39 once | $20/year (less on multi-year plans) |
| Trial | Plus free for 30 days from your first student | 90-day free trial |
| Where plans live | A file on your computer | Their servers, your account |
| Where student names live | The same file — they never leave the machine | Their servers, if you use the student features |
| Account | None | Required |
| Offline | Always — there is nothing to be online for | Depends on connection |
| Standards | Import packs; NY Next Gen ELA+Math K–5 bundled | Certified standards libraries, standards reporting |
| Beyond planning | Rosters, groups, conferences, gradebook, progress monitoring | Student view, grades, lesson sharing with students and subs |
| Platform | Chrome or Microsoft Edge | Any browser, mobile apps |
Planbook.com details verified from planbook.com as of September 26, 2026. If something above has changed, write to hello@alfred-digital.com and we will correct it. (Plan Book Plus is an Alfred Digital product at planbookplus.app; it is unrelated to the separate "Planbook Plus" product at planbookplus.com.)
Where Planbook is the right answer
Honest is honest: if you want your plans on your phone, shared with a substitute by link, or edited from three different computers without carrying a file, a server is how you get that, and Planbook does it well for a modest subscription. Plan Book Plus requires Chrome or Edge and a computer you can keep a file on; Planbook runs anywhere.
Where Plan Book Plus is the right answer
If your plan book holds student names — rosters, groups, conference notes, grades — then where it lives stops being a convenience question. Plan Book Plus is built so that data never leaves your machine: no account, no server, a passcode-sealed file, and a test on every release that fails if any network code appears. And the planning book costs nothing, for good — the $39, once, is only for the student book.
The short version: choose by where you want your students' names to live. Everything else follows.