LinoClass vs Seesaw, which to choose in Quebec?
Comparing LinoClass and Seesaw for back-to-school 2026? Here is a factual comparison, based on both products' public documentation and on what Law 25 actually requires of a Quebec organization.
Updated September 30, 2026
| LinoClass | Seesaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Position under Law 25 | Built for Law 25: portfolio and database hosted in Quebec; your school service centre must still complete a PIA before adopting it (Access Act, s. 63.5) | For your organization to assess; a PIA is required before any transfer outside Quebec |
| Data hosting | Canada (Quebec) | AWS in the United States, the UK and Australia, per its subprocessor list. No Canadian option described in its current documentation |
| Student portfolio | Included, designed for ages 5 to 8 | Included |
| Pricing model | Free up to 35 students, then CA$79 per year, per teacher. School and school board plan on quote | Licences for schools and school boards only, no paid teacher licence. Quote-based, from the publisher |
| Company | Lino Ti Inc. (Quebec, Canada) | Seesaw Learning, Inc. (San Francisco, CA, USA) |
What Law 25 requires when data leaves Quebec
Law 25 does not prohibit tools hosted outside Quebec, and it maintains no list of approved or forbidden products. It requires that a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) be completed before any transfer of personal information outside Quebec, and that the receiving jurisdiction provide adequate protection. That obligation rests with the organization, meaning your school service centre or private school board, not with the individual teacher.
So the useful question is not “is this tool legal?” but “has my organization completed the assessment this tool requires?” Our Law 25 guide for teachers and our article on how Law 25 applies in an elementary school set out the process and the questions to put to your principal.
What Seesaw's public documentation says
Seesaw stores information with Amazon Web Services. Its international privacy policy names Law 25 explicitly and states that the personal information it collects is transferred to the United States. Its subprocessor list places storage with Amazon in the United States, the UK and Australia, and its current documentation describes no Canadian storage option.
An out-of-Quebec transfer is therefore in play, which triggers the PIA obligation described above (section 70.1 of the Access Act, A-2.1, for a school service centre). We set out these passages with their original citations in our analysis Seesaw, ClassDojo, Google Classroom: what does Law 25 say?
Our read for Quebec elementary classrooms
What Seesaw does well
- A larger catalogue of ready-made activities than ours
- A mature ecosystem with significant international adoption
What LinoClass does differently
- Hosted in Quebec: the portfolio and database do not leave Quebec, so the assessment required before releasing information outside Quebec (s. 70.1 of the Access Act, A-2.1) does not apply to that data. Your school service centre must still complete a PIA before adopting the tool (s. 63.5), and email delivery and network protection may be processed outside Quebec (privacy policy, section 3)
- Parents get in through a magic link, with no password to create
- Priced in Canadian dollars, with no conversion or exchange-rate movement
- Interface designed in Canadian French first, with English available
- Portfolio and activities built for ages 5 to 8 rather than the whole K-12 span
Questions to ask before you choose
These apply to any tool, including ours. Put them to the vendor and to your principal, and keep the answers in writing.
- Where is student information stored? Is there a Canadian option, and does it exclude replication elsewhere?
- Has your school service centre completed a PIA for this tool? If not, request one in writing, since the request creates a record.
- Which optional features collect additional information, and are they off by default?
- How quickly is a parent's deletion request processed, and who is allowed to submit one?
- Who is billed: the organization, the teacher, or parents? Is the price in Canadian dollars?
Ready to try LinoClass?
15 minutes to set up your class. Free up to 35 students, no credit card. Built for Law 25, hosted in Quebec.
Start free Read the Law 25 teacher guideMethodology. Information about third-party products comes from their publishers' public documentation and from the passages quoted in our blog articles, reviewed on September 30, 2026. These products change and their policies change with them: confirm current information with the publisher before making a decision. This page states the view of Lino Ti Inc. and is not legal advice. Assessing a tool against Law 25 is the responsibility of your organization and its privacy officer.
Seesaw is a trademark of Seesaw Learning, Inc. LinoClass is not affiliated with, nor endorsed by, the owners of these marks. They are named solely to identify the products under comparison.