Overview

PebblePad is a higher-education platform for learning records, guided activities and assessment, built for institutions and the educators and learners within them. It suits universities that want evidence of learning tied to programme outcomes and assessment workflows. Its institutional focus is a strength, but access and purchasing are organized around the institution rather than individual accounts.

Key features

Learners can plan and reflect on learning experiences, then collect, curate, share and showcase evidence in ePortfolios. That gives students a place to connect work across a learning journey; institutions can use the same evidence for assessment rather than treating portfolios as a separate showcase.

Educators can create workbooks and templates to guide activities, projects and placements. Built-in tools support engagement monitoring, formative feedback and summative assessment. Skills tracking maps competencies and capabilities against programme outcomes or professional frameworks, while progress dashboards let institutions define completion and identify learners ready for assessment. The combination is most useful where assessment needs to span a programme; teams seeking only an individual portfolio tool may not need that institutional layer.

PebblePocket lets learners capture reflections, photos, videos and other evidence on mobile, including offline, then sync when reconnected. This is practical for placements and other learning away from reliable connectivity, though the platform remains institution-issued rather than a self-serve personal account.

Integrations cover LMS single sign-on, enrolment synchronisation, direct resource links and grade synchronisation. LTI integrations are listed for Blackboard, Brightspace, Canvas and Moodle. The platform also connects with student management systems, identity providers, cloud storage, plagiarism detection and content services; supported embeds include YouTube, Kaltura, Credly, Badgr, OneDrive, Google Docs and Turnitin. Its API synchronises data between student management systems. These connections make it a better fit for an established campus stack than for teams looking for a standalone, lightly integrated portfolio.

PebblePad says it is hosted on AWS and backs availability with a 99.9% uptime SLA. Its security credentials include ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, Cyber Essentials Plus and TX-RAMP; it also describes annual external penetration testing and continuous internal vulnerability scanning. Institution-tailored onboarding, training, customer success support and a role-based Help Hub support adoption across different campus roles.

Pricing

PebblePad is paid, with custom pricing for the institutional product; contact PebblePad for details. Accounts are issued by an institution, and each institution has its own installation, so this is not a conventional per-user self-serve purchase. Institutions should establish the scope and commercial terms directly before planning a rollout. There is no individual free plan to evaluate or adopt independently.

Platforms

PebblePad supports web, Android and iOS, with API access. The PebblePocket app adds offline evidence capture on mobile, while the API supports data synchronisation with student management systems.

Who it's for

PebblePad is aimed at higher-education institutions that need to guide learning, gather evidence and assess capabilities across programmes. It is particularly suited to universities coordinating workbooks, placements, feedback and outcome-aligned skills assessment within existing LMS and student-management systems. It is a weaker fit for individuals seeking an independently issued account, or buyers who need a published price and a free tier before committing.

Pros and cons

Programme-level assessment: Workbooks, feedback, assessment, skills mapping and progress dashboards connect learner evidence to outcomes and readiness for assessment.
Useful field capture: PebblePocket supports offline reflections and media capture, then syncs later, which helps learners record evidence away from campus.
Campus-stack integration: LMS sign-on, enrolment and grade synchronisation, plus student-system API connections, reduce the separation between portfolio work and institutional systems.
Institution-dependent access: Accounts come from an institution, with a separate installation for each one, making it unsuitable as a self-serve personal portfolio.
Custom pricing: Institutions must contact PebblePad for terms, and there is no free individual plan for a low-commitment start.

Alternatives

For a broader category comparison, browse Eportfolio Software.

Choose Mahara if open-source licensing, a free option or self-hosting matters more than PebblePad's institution-oriented assessment suite. Mahara can be copied, used and modified under conditions that include sharing source code with copies and retaining the same license.

Watermark Course Evaluations & Surveys is a paid, web- and API-supported alternative with pricing available by contacting Watermark for a demo.

bulb is worth considering for a free starting point: its Individual plan includes one page, 2GB storage, resume sharing and templates, while its Educators plan offers unlimited pages and content storage.

SpacesEDU offers a free Core plan for PK-12 learning environments, making it the more relevant option for that audience.

MyProgress ePortfolio is a paid alternative available on Android, iOS and web.

Portflow is another paid institutional product, with demo and contact options for buyers assessing fit.

ACE Portfolios is a paid web alternative whose listed additional-unit price is 2.00 GBP per once, including VAT, for access to unit criteria, evidence linking and unit-level progress.

Verdict

PebblePad is a strong choice for higher-education institutions that need learner evidence, guided activities and outcome-aligned assessment to work together across programmes. Its mobile capture, LMS connections and assessment tools make a coherent institutional package. Choose another product if you need an independently accessible portfolio, a free starting tier or pricing you can compare without a sales conversation.

	Folio by Sunesis	PebblePad
Free plan	No	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	—	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	Web	Android, api, iOS, Web
Evidence collection	Yes	Yes
Assessment tools	Yes	Yes
Feedback workflows	—	Yes
Mobile access	—	both
Single sign-on	—	Yes

Folio by Sunesis vs PebblePad

Folio by Sunesis

PebblePad