Compare · Checked September 1, 2026
Scope for Canvas vs BetterCampus (formerly Better Canvas)
These two do different jobs and, as far as we know, do not conflict: BetterCampus changes how Canvas looks and adds a to-do list and GPA tools; Scope for Canvas indexes every course on your device so you can search it and ask cited questions. If you want one, pick by the job; most students can run both.
Scope for Canvas is a free, local-first Chrome extension that searches everything in your Canvas and Brightspace courses and answers questions with citations to your own course materials. BetterCampus is a customization and planning extension for Canvas and other school platforms: dark mode, themes, a to-do list, a planner, and grade tools, with a free plan and a Pro plan.
| Scope for Canvas | BetterCampus | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Search across every course, cited answers from your own materials, a planner, and a grade calculator — opened with a keyboard shortcut from any Canvas or Brightspace page. It does not change how Canvas looks. | A restyling and planning layer for Canvas: dark mode, a library of community themes, custom course cards, a to-do panel on the dashboard, a Planner, grade tools, and study tools, with a study pet on the side. |
| Price | Free. No account required, no paid tier. | Free plan, plus Pro at $19 a month or $119 a year with a 7-day trial, per its help center on September 1, 2026. Themes, dark mode, the to-do list, the Planner, and basic grade tracking are free; calendar sync, time-slot planning, per-assignment what-if grades, unlimited theme creation, and unlimited file chats are Pro. |
| Users and rating | About 104 people, counted by hand on August 27, 2026 (how we count). The Chrome Web Store shows 94 users and 5.0 stars from 6 ratings as of September 1, 2026. | 2,000,000 users and 4.7 stars from about 4,300 ratings on the Chrome Web Store, as of September 1, 2026. |
| Canvas customization | None. No dark mode, no themes, no dashboard changes. | Yes — the core feature. Dark mode, a library of community-made themes, a theme creator, custom fonts and cursors, stickers, and course-card customization on the dashboard. |
| Cross-course search | Yes — files, pages, assignments, announcements, and media across every course, from one search box. | No. It gathers assignments and grades from every class, but it does not search course content. |
| PDF and scanned-PDF search | Yes. Scope reads PDF text and searches scanned pages, so a phrase inside a reading is findable. | No course-file search. It can read a transcript PDF you upload to work out cumulative GPA, and answer questions about a file you open in its study tools. |
| To-do / planner | To-dos live in Scope's own panel and come from the planner, which reads deadlines across courses, drafts study blocks, and can add approved blocks to Google Calendar. | Yes. A to-do panel on the Canvas dashboard that works without an account, plus a Planner with every assignment from every class, drag-and-drop scheduling, and day, week, and month views. Time-slot planning and calendar sync are Pro. |
| Grade calculator | A what-if calculator: where you stand and what the final needs to be, computed on your device. | The deeper toolkit: grade trends, grade goals, a GPA calculator, cumulative GPA from past terms, and what-if grades. Per-class goals and per-assignment what-if are Pro. |
| AI answers with citations | Yes. Answers come from what your instructors posted, with the source linked. AI answers try Chrome's on-device model first; when it is unavailable, an optional, clearly marked cloud fallback is used. | Its study tools answer questions about a note or file you have open, turn lectures into notes, and make flashcards, quizzes, and games; 10 file chats a month are free. We found no mention of source citations on its help pages. |
| Brightspace support | Yes. Canvas and Brightspace. | Yes, per its help center on September 1, 2026, along with Google Classroom, Blackboard, and Moodle. Its Chrome Web Store listing still describes it as an extension for Canvas. |
| Where your data goes | Search and indexing run entirely on your device. AI answers try Chrome's on-device model first; when it is unavailable, an optional, clearly marked cloud fallback is used. | It reads your classes, assignments, and grades from your school platform. Themes and the basic to-do list work with no account; the Planner, grade tracking, study tools, and calendar sync need a free BetterCampus account, where your notes and study sets are stored. Its Chrome Web Store listing declares that it collects user-activity data. |
| Send to iPad | Yes. Send a PDF from Canvas to your iPad in one tap with the Scope extension; finished files can come back into supported upload flows. | No. Nothing like it is listed. |
| Last updated | Version 11.0.5, updated August 30, 2026, per its Chrome Web Store listing on September 1, 2026. | Version 9.8.6, updated August 27, 2026, per its Chrome Web Store listing on September 1, 2026. Started in 2020 as Better Canvas. |
Where BetterCampus wins
- Customization. Dark mode, community themes, custom course cards, fonts, cursors, and stickers. Scope changes nothing about how Canvas looks.
- Maturity. Six years of releases since 2020, on Chrome with an older Firefox build, across five school platforms. Scope reached the Chrome Web Store in 2026.
- Install base and review depth. Two million users and a 4.7-star rating from about 4,300 ratings, as of September 1, 2026. Scope has about a hundred users and six ratings.
- Breadth. Google Classroom, Blackboard, and Moodle on top of Canvas and Brightspace; lecture recording that turns into notes; flashcards, quizzes, and games; a cumulative GPA calculator. Scope does none of these.
Where Scope wins
- Search across every course — files, pages, assignments, announcements, media — and inside PDFs, including scanned ones. BetterCampus does not search course content.
- Answers to “when is the midterm” or “what is the late policy” from your own course materials, with the source linked.
- Everything is free, with no account, no Pro tier, and an index that is built and searched on your device.
- A one-tap send of any course PDF to your iPad in Lectra Notes, and the finished file back into supported upload flows.
The short version
Which one should you install?
If Canvas looks wrong to you — too bright, too cluttered, cards in the wrong order — install BetterCampus. That is its job, and nothing on this page competes with it.
If your problem is finding things — a slide you half remember, the late policy buried in a syllabus, a phrase inside a scanned reading — install Scope. That is the job it was built for, and BetterCampus does not do it.
If both sound familiar, run both. Neither one needs the other to be gone.
Questions
Scope vs BetterCampus, answered.
Is BetterCampus the same as Better Canvas?
Yes. It is the same extension under a new name, and its Chrome Web Store listing is still titled “BetterCampus (prev. BetterCanvas)” as of September 1, 2026. Its own story page says it started in 2020 as one student’s dark mode for Canvas, carried the Better Canvas name for its first four years, and was renamed once it also worked with Google Classroom, Brightspace, Blackboard, and Moodle. We could not find a published date for the rename.
Is BetterCampus free?
There is a free plan and a Pro plan. As of September 1, 2026, its help center lists Pro at $19 a month or $119 a year with a 7-day trial. Dark mode, community themes, the to-do list, the Planner, and basic grade tracking are free; calendar sync, time-slot planning, per-assignment what-if grades, unlimited theme creation, and unlimited file chats are Pro. Scope for Canvas is free with no paid tier and no account.
Can I use Scope and BetterCampus at the same time?
They do different jobs, and we know of no conflict between them: BetterCampus restyles Canvas pages and adds its own panels to the dashboard, while Scope opens from a keyboard shortcut into its own panel and does not change how Canvas looks. We have not tested every BetterCampus theme and every Canvas layout with both installed, so if you see the two overlap, tell us and we will look into it.
What is a good Better Canvas alternative?
It depends on what you were using it for. For restyling Canvas — dark mode, themes, custom course cards — we do not know of a better-known option, and its free plan covers all of that. If what you actually want is to find things across your courses and ask questions with the source linked, that is a different job, and it is the one Scope for Canvas does. Many students will end up with both.
Does Scope take quizzes or do assignments?
No. Scope answers questions from the materials your instructors posted and links every answer to its source. It does not take quizzes, write submissions, or interact with Canvas quiz logs.
Keep your dark mode. Add search.
Add Scope to Chrome — free — and if you want Canvas to look different, install BetterCampus alongside it.