Almanack

Almanack is a curriculum-planning workspace for educators who need to reshape lessons for different learners while keeping instruction tied to shared standards. It is best suited to teachers and schools managing complete units, assessments, and classroom distribution rather than producing isolated worksheets. Its strongest value is the way adaptation, differentiation, and assessment sit in one planning flow, though the most advanced capabilities are reserved for paid tiers.

Overview

Almanack lets teachers alter a lesson’s reading level, topic, content, and pacing without dismantling the unit structure. That makes it a practical choice when an existing curriculum needs adjustment for a particular class, language need, or learning profile. It is less suitable if your only requirement is occasional resource generation with no ongoing curriculum sequence.

Assessment creation is built into the same workflow. Almanack produces standards-aligned assessments mapped to letter grades and curriculum units, including artifacts ready for a gradebook. The result is a planning tool that connects instruction and evaluation instead of treating each as a separate task.

Key features

Adaptation and differentiation

The platform generates below-grade, above-grade, ELL, and IEP versions aligned to the same standards. In practice, that gives a class multiple access points while preserving a common instructional target. Differentiation begins on Pro, so Free users can plan and create resources but cannot use Almanack’s defining learner-version workflow.

Planning, resources, and assessment

Free includes standards-aligned lesson planning, curriculum and long-range planning, a lesson and unit planner, slides, basic worksheets and activities, quizzes, assessments, educational games, and custom video recommendations. Pro adds unlimited resource generation and adaptation, custom report-card comments, tool integrations, and exports to Google Slides, PowerPoint, and PDF. Assessment generation and standards alignment make it particularly useful for teachers responsible for a whole sequence of lessons.

Classroom connections and security

Google Classroom can import courses, publish lessons as assignments, and display classwork within Almanack course pages. The service also lists Google Forms, Kahoot, GimKit, Blooket, Wayground, Quizlet, Google Slides, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Word, and PDF among its integrations. School users can sign in through Google, Microsoft Entra ID, Clever, or ClassLink when configured by their district.

Data is encrypted with TLS 1.2 or later in transit and AES-256 at rest, with least-privilege access controls. Almanack states alignment with FERPA, PIPEDA, applicable GDPR principles, NIST CSF, CIS Top 20, and SDPC NDPA Standard 1.0; student data is stored in the United States or approved territories including Canada, the EU, UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

Pricing

Free — free. This tier covers core planning and basic classroom resource creation, making it appropriate for individual educators evaluating the workflow. It does not include differentiation, unlimited generation, exports, or collaboration.

Pro — custom pricing. Pro supplies unlimited generation and adaptation, differentiation, Google Slides, PowerPoint, and PDF export, custom report-card comments, integrations, limited collaborators, and a 2-week free trial. Choose it when differentiated materials or portable deliverables matter more than the free tier’s basic tools.

Small Teams — custom pricing. It includes all Pro features, unlimited collaborators, shared curriculum-adaptation libraries, and team-planning tools. This is the sensible step for departments coordinating materials rather than working alone.

Schools/Districts — custom pricing. The top tier adds SSO and rostering, a curriculum-coverage dashboard, priority support, and LMS integration. It is aimed at institution-wide administration; individual teachers are unlikely to need its governance features.

Platforms

Almanack runs on the web and offers an API for some services, currently Almanack. Its integrations extend into common classroom, document, presentation, quiz, and learning-management workflows.

Who it's for

Teachers across subjects, grade levels, and languages will find the strongest fit when they adapt shared curriculum for mixed-ability classes and need aligned assessments. Small teams benefit from shared libraries and planning tools, while schools and districts gain value from rostering, SSO, dashboards, and LMS connections. It is a weaker choice for users seeking only a low-cost, standalone worksheet maker.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Lesson changes preserve unit structure, reducing the work of adapting an existing sequence.
• Below-grade, above-grade, ELL, and IEP versions stay tied to common standards.
• Assessments connect to letter grades and units and produce gradebook-ready artifacts.
• Google Classroom publishing and broad export and integration coverage support classroom distribution.
• Documented encryption, access controls, and stated privacy-framework alignment address school procurement concerns.

Cons

• Differentiation is locked to Pro, limiting the free plan’s usefulness for its signature task.
• Free lacks exports, unlimited generation, and collaboration, so active classroom workflows may require an upgrade.
• Pro, Small Teams, and Schools/Districts use custom pricing, making costs harder to compare in advance.

Alternatives

For a wider starting point, browse AI Lesson Plan Generators. Make My Lesson is a freemium Android, iOS, and web option with a Forever Free plan limited to five generations and a $9.99-per-month plan offering 30 generations. RockettAI suits web users who want 10 successful generations each day free, with selected planning and classroom tools.

GradeAid offers five resources a week free, PDF and Word export, and a $8.99-per-month Pro plan with 200 resources monthly. GradeWithAI is the better direction when automated submission grading and AI detection are the priority; its Pro plan is $20.00 per month.

SparkSchool AI provides 90-plus AI content tools and seven curriculum frameworks on its free extension and web plan, with PDF and Google Docs export. TeacherMatic is a web alternative with a free daily-generation allowance and broad document export. TeachTools targets lightweight use with three free generations a month and print-ready PDFs. Aila is a free web option with fair-use and request limits.

Verdict

Choose Almanack when curriculum adaptation, differentiated versions, and standards-linked assessment belong in the same planning process. Its free tier is a credible entry point for core planning, while Pro and the team and school tiers add the capabilities that make it practical at scale. Look elsewhere if you need transparent paid pricing, generous differentiation at no cost, or a tool focused solely on quick one-off resources.