Lessona vs Chalkie: AI lesson planning vs AI presentations
Chalkie is the AU-origin AI presentations leader. Lessona is the NZ-origin AI lesson planner. Both ship in five English- speaking markets; both have real teacher fans. Here's the honest comparison, they solve overlapping but different problems, and the right answer depends on what your week looks like.
Backed by research. Comparison drawn from Chalkie's public pricing and feature pages, 8 r/Teachers and r/AustralianTeachers mentions in the 713-post scrape (May 2026), and direct product testing.
Quick answer
- Your bottleneck is slide aesthetics + brand consistency: Chalkie. Brand kits, image-style controls, design variety are the product's strength.
- Your bottleneck is the whole planning workflow (plan + materials + differentiation + alignment): Lessona. The bundle coherence and curriculum-first defaults pay off across the full lesson, not just the slides.
- You teach in Australia and want one tool that speaks Australian: Either. Both handle AC v9. Chalkie's AU roots show in brand kit conventions; Lessona has the AC content description codes hard-coded for citation accuracy.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Chalkie | Lessona |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Australia, 2023 | New Zealand, 2026 |
| Primary surface | AI-generated presentations + slide decks | Full lesson bundles (plan + slides + worksheet + exit ticket) |
| Curriculum coverage | AU focus; international support | NZ Te Mātaiaho + AU + UK + US + CA, switched per region |
| Slide aesthetics + brand kits | Strong, primary differentiator | Uniform; on the 2026 H2 roadmap for theme variants |
| AI illustrations | Image style controls, brand-kit variety | Imagen-generated, curriculum-context-aware |
| Monthly price (AU) | Around AU$15/mo (paid tier) | AU$19.99/mo |
| Free trial / tier | Free tier with limited generation | 7-day free trial, no credit card |
| Bundle coherence | Slide-led; lesson plan secondary | One prompt → self-consistent plan + slides + worksheet + exit ticket |
Where Chalkie wins
- Slide design variety. Brand kits + image style controls + design templates give Chalkie's decks more visual polish out of the box.
- Australian roots. AU teachers report Chalkie's defaults match Australian classroom conventions out of the box. Tasmanian, Victorian, NSW terminology, AC framing, image style choices that suit AU schools.
- Free tier. Chalkie's free tier covers real product use (with caps). Lessona's free option is a 7-day full-access trial, then paid.
Where Lessona wins
- Bundle coherence. One prompt produces the plan, the slides, the worksheet, and the exit ticket, all referencing the same learning intention and content descriptions. Chalkie's lesson plan output exists but lives downstream of the slide-led workflow.
- Curriculum reference depth. Lessona's AC v9 content description codes, achievement standards, and strand vocabulary are hard-coded in a typed canonical file. The lesson generator pulls from that rather than relying on the LLM's training-data guesses.
- Differentiation by default. Every Lessona lesson plan includes 3 ability groups built in. Chalkie's planning output supports differentiation but you have to invoke it; Lessona generates it as part of the standard plan.
- Five-country reach. NZ Te Mātaiaho, AU v9, UK National Curriculum (4-nation), US Common Core + state, Canadian provincial. Chalkie is AU-origin with broader international support; Lessona is multi-country from day one.
Where the choice is close
- AI illustration quality. Both products use frontier image models. Chalkie's controls give the user more direct creative input; Lessona's defaults prioritise curriculum-context relevance. Different workflows.
- School subscriptions. Both offer school-wide deals. Chalkie has more mature admin tooling; Lessona's is on the 2026 H2 roadmap.
Try Lessona
Generate a full lesson bundle in 5 minutes.
7-day free trial. No credit card. Run it alongside Chalkie if you want both opinions.
Start your free trialCommon questions
What's the difference between Chalkie and Lessona?
Chalkie is presentation-first: brand kits, image styles, slide-deck generation as the core surface. Lesson-plan output exists but is secondary. Lessona is lesson-first: the lesson plan comes from one prompt, then the slide deck, worksheet, and exit ticket are one-click follow-ons off that plan, all anchored to a curriculum framework. If your bottleneck is slide aesthetics, Chalkie probably wins. If your bottleneck is the planning + materials + alignment, Lessona probably wins.
Is Chalkie better for Australian teachers?
Chalkie originated in Australia and has strong Australian Curriculum awareness. Lessona is also AC v9 aligned (the AU lesson generator pulls from a canonical reference of content descriptions and achievement standards) and covers the other four English-speaking markets too. AU teachers should trial both; many use Chalkie for presentation polish and a curriculum-first planner for the actual lesson structure.
Which one has better AI presentations?
Chalkie's slide aesthetics are the product's main differentiator: brand kits, image style controls, design variety. Lessona's presentations are coherent and curriculum-aligned but visually plainer by default. If your school requires polished, on-brand decks, Chalkie. If your priority is decks that match the lesson plan they sit alongside, Lessona.
Can I use both Chalkie and Lessona?
Yes. The two have different primary surfaces. Several teachers in our early-access cohort use Chalkie when they need a presentation-led lesson and Lessona for the rest of their planning. The choice is not binary if your budget allows it.
Which one is cheaper?
Chalkie's pricing starts around AU$15/month for the paid tier with a free tier covering limited generation. Lessona is AU$19.99/month in Australia (NZ$19.99, £9.50, US$13.99, CA$17.99 in other markets) with a 7-day free trial. Per-month costs are similar; the difference is what you get for it.
Does Lessona generate AI illustrations like Chalkie does?
Yes. Lessona uses Google's Imagen for slide illustrations. The styling is more uniform (less visual variety per generation than Chalkie's brand-kit approach) but the illustrations are curriculum-context-aware, they reference the specific lesson topic, not generic education stock.