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Perusall Review

Depends

Should I use Perusall?

The interactive social learning platform where every student is prepared for every class. - perusall.com

· 3 weeks ago

Buy if you teach reading-heavy higher-ed courses and want students arriving prepared. Pass if you're outside structured teaching — corporate trainers and self-learners get nothing here.

Confidence

Medium. Based on 14 public sources; mostly vendor and institutional content, thin independent reviews.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence in sources
  • Security postureOnly vendor claims, no independent evidence

Pricing

Free

Instructor

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly fees~477K
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • Reading-heavy higher-ed courses
  • Instructors enforcing before-class preparation
  • Writing courses using structured peer review
  • Departments wanting reading engagement analytics

Not for

  • Corporate L&D and compliance training — it's courseware
  • Self-learners without an instructor structuring the work
  • Buyers needing audited security, not vendor claims
  • Casual annotation use — setup is disproportionate

Gotchas - check before you buy

medium

Guess: 'free for instructors' often shifts cost to students via content licenses — confirm who pays

medium

Review found no security page at expected URL; request FERPA/SOC 2 documentation before institution-wide rollout

low

Guess: annotation grading adds setup and grading workload in the first term

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Free for instructors; first assignment in minutes
  • Turns passive reading into active, annotated discussion
  • Structured peer review with in-text comments and emoji
  • Reports adoption across 6,000 institutions worldwide
  • Faculty testimonial: student comments reveal which topics need re-teaching

Cons

  • Pricing not shown on reviewed page; student costs unclear
  • No independent security evidence; only vendor claims
  • Faculty forums still debate how well it drives critical reading
  • Evidence is mostly vendor content; independent reviews are thin

Sources & method

- 8 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x2review x4security x1news x1

Key stats

  • Value for money: 4/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 8

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 4/5. Free for instructors; student costs unclear
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Vendor claims setup in minutes
  • Feature depth: 4/5. Annotation, peer review, analytics in one tool
  • Support quality. No evidence in sources
  • Security posture. Only vendor claims, no independent evidence
  • 6,000+ Institutions using it per vendor tagline
  • Free Instructor price first assignment in minutes
  • ~477K Monthly site visitors third-party traffic estimate

Pricing

Instructor

Free

  • Create first assignment in minutes
  • Social annotation and analytics included

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

Faculty testimonials praise engagement gains, but independent user reviews are scarce in sources.

“Perusall has completely transformed my teaching experience. Based on student comments, I can see which topics they…”
Faculty testimonial, Gary King (Harvard)
“transforms what can be a very passive learning experience (reading a text) to an active one”
NYU FAS Ed Tech blog

Companies that use it

  • New York University²
  • South Dakota School of Mines & Technology⁴
Full analysis

Based on 14 public sources; mostly vendor and institutional content, thin independent reviews.

Free for instructors, used in 6,000+ institutions for reading-heavy courses — overkill outside structured teaching.

Methodology

Based on 14 public sources; mostly vendor and institutional content, thin independent reviews.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. Perusall homepageperusall.com
    official
  2. Getting Students to Engage with Course Materials: Perusall (NYU)wp.nyu.edu
    review
  3. Perusall testimonial — Gary King, Harvardgking.harvard.edu
    review
  4. SDSMT Faculty and Staff Software KBsupport.sdsmt.edu
    official
  5. Perusall traffic estimatewebsites.milonic.com
    news
  6. Faculty discussion thread on Perusallfacebook.com
    review
  7. Perusall security page lookupperusall.com
    security
  8. Top 40 Generative AI Tools for Educationeklavvya.com
    review

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