OpenBoard Interactive vs Scratch

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted learning & courses options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureOpenBoard InteractiveScratch
CategoryLearning & CoursesLearning & Courses
LicenseGPL-3.0BSD-3-Clause
LanguageC++JavaScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM512 MB50 MB
Deploymentbinary, sourcebare-metal
GitHub stars★ 3,020★ 4,811
First released20182023
ReplacesSMART Notebook, Promethean

Why pick each one

Choose OpenBoard Interactive if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in C++
OpenBoard Interactive details

Choose Scratch if…

  • Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Active community (4.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
Scratch details

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenBoard Interactive or Scratch better?

Neither is universally better. Scratch has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are OpenBoard Interactive and Scratch free and open-source?

Yes. OpenBoard Interactive is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Scratch under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run OpenBoard Interactive and Scratch with Docker?

OpenBoard Interactive: check the project docs for container support. Scratch: check the project docs for container support.

Related comparisons