Microsoft Teams is
built for the office.
Pencil Spaces is built for the classroom.

Use the right tool for the job

When to use Pencil Spaces, and when to use Microsoft Teams

We are not saying never use Microsoft Teams. We are saying use the tool built for the job in front of you — and for a lot of teams, that means both.

Use Pencil Spaces when

You are teaching or training learners of any age

It matters that a learner can join in one click, with no account or download

You want recording and breakout rooms built in

You need whiteboards and learners' work to persist between lessons

You want built-in teaching tools and learning-grade AI

You need distraction and focus signals

You manage many tutors, instructors, or facilitators

You need education-specific privacy and support

You want the lesson to feel like a classroom, not a meeting

You deliver virtual or hybrid classes, courses, or training programs

Use Microsoft Teams when

You are running a business or team meeting

You need company-wide chat, files, and calls in one place

You are co-authoring documents in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint

You are coordinating staff, operations, and administration

The session is a meeting, not a lesson

Already standardized on Microsoft 365? You do not have to choose. Keep Microsoft Teams for meetings and collaboration, and bring your teaching into Pencil Spaces right alongside it.

One room, not a pile of tabs

Open the room, and the lesson is already set up

A lesson is more than a video feed. In Pencil Spaces the whiteboard, the documents, the learning apps, and every learner's own work live together in one persistent room, so you pick up exactly where you left off instead of rebuilding the session each time.

One room, not a pile of tabs

Open the room, and the lesson is already set up

A lesson is more than a video feed. In Pencil Spaces the whiteboard, the documents, the learning apps, and every learner's own work live together in one persistent room, so you pick up exactly where you left off instead of rebuilding the session each time.

Less setting up. More teaching.

Privacy & compliance

Built to an education standard, by default

Schools, universities, and learning organizations carry real obligations around learner data. Pencil Spaces is built to meet them out of the box, so compliance is the starting point of a Space rather than a project you scope before your first lesson.

Pencil Spaces, by default

Built to support COPPA, FERPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR, where you need them

Content and safeguarding designed for K-12 and district use

The same standard on day one as at full scale

No tenant to harden before you can teach safely

General-purpose platforms

Built for broad business use across every department of an organization

Education-grade use typically depends on tenant configuration and admin policies

Many institutions complete a data protection impact assessment before rollout

Powerful when an IT team owns and manages that setup

General platforms can absolutely be configured for education. With Pencil Spaces it is the default, built for learning data from the very first Space.