# MitsuruTech Learning Platform > A classroom platform for schools and colleges. Students write and run real Python, Java, Go, Node, TypeScript, Bash and SQL in the browser, deploy web apps from GitHub to an address of their own with a database, learn AWS through the S3, DynamoDB and SQS APIs with no AWS account, and quizzes mark themselves. Made and run by Mitsuru Technologies Ltd in the United Kingdom. Full product page: https://mitsurutech.co.uk/learning. Prices: https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing.md (Markdown) or https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing. Manual: https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help. Everything else for a model: https://mitsurutech.co.uk/llms.txt. ## Who it is for Schools, colleges and universities that teach programming, computer science and IT: teachers set work, students write and run it in a browser, and marking, quizzes and a record of who did what are built in. It is also used by individuals learning from the free lessons and labs, on a free personal account. **What it costs:** about £6 a student a year, falling to £4.50 for the largest (US$9 falling to US$6.75), with Linux labs, VMs, deploying apps and AI included; the first year is free for up to 50 students and staff are always free. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing.md ## What it does - **Real code, really run.** Python, Java, Go, C, C++, C#, Haskell, OCaml, R, Ruby, PHP, Rust, Kotlin, Prolog, Node, TypeScript, Bash and SQL, written in a browser editor with completions and error checking and run against your tests in a throwaway container, so a program that would crash on a laptop crashes here with the same error. Web pages get a live preview, SQL runs against a real database, a whole Linux machine boots inside the tab, and there is a whiteboard for diagrams. Nothing is installed on the school computer. - **Deploy a real web app from GitHub.** Students deploy Python, Node, Go, Java and static HTML, CSS and JavaScript sites from a public GitHub repository to an address of their own under learntools.dev, invite up to 5 people to see it, give it environment variables and a PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQLite database of their own, and can hand the deployed app in for marking. An app is guaranteed an hour and keeps running while there is room, up to 4 hours, stops after 30 minutes with nobody looking at it, and each account has 8 hours of app time a day. It is for learning and demonstrating, not production hosting: long enough to show a teacher, share with a few people or hand in a link, and deliberately not long enough to run a service on. - **Learn AWS without an AWS account.** Every student gets an object store, a NoSQL table and a message queue implementing the Amazon S3, DynamoDB and SQS APIs, so boto3, the AWS SDKs and the AWS CLI run unchanged against it and the code they write is the code they would write against AWS. A browser console shows what is in them and the terminal is already pointed at them. The stack is saved and restored, up to 25 MB. No AWS account, no card, nothing reachable from outside their own session. It runs on MiniStack and is not an AWS account; MitsuruTech is not affiliated with AWS. - **Quizzes that mark themselves.** Nine question formats, built in our own builder. The answer key never reaches the browser, the clock lives on the server, and how many attempts a quiz allows is its own setting, with the best one counting. - **Watch the class working, live.** Live Classroom shows who is on which task right now and opens anybody’s work, read-only, as they write it. Present to Class is the reverse: your own editor or terminal on every student’s screen as you type, recorded to replay. - **A whole class, one code.** Hand out a join code and the class puts itself on the module, accounts and all. The number of places is fixed, it expires, and it can be turned off without forgetting who used it. - **Tasks in four shapes, and hand-ins of any kind.** A program to write, something to read, a quiz to sit or a diagram to draw, each with a due date. A program can be a whole project in folders with its own pom.xml, requirements.txt or package.json, loaded from a Git repository with hidden tests. A written assignment collects a PDF, a document, images, any file type you allow, or a deployed app. - **Marking, feedback and a way back.** Marking closes a hand-in and sending it back reopens it, with a reason the student actually sees. Comments are one thread per student, not a noticeboard, and a graded task can carry a weight for the module’s leaderboard. - **Every version kept, and a record that stays put.** Every autosave is a version: scrub through how a program came together and see every earlier copy of a hand-in. Every time somebody opens or changes a student’s work it is written down, nothing removes an entry, and the student sees the same list staff do. - **Ask AI: Claude, Gemini and GPT for staff, a tutor for students.** Every member of staff gets a monthly allowance of AI credits, included in the price, to build quizzes and coding tasks, review code and write feedback with Claude, Gemini and GPT models (the family behind ChatGPT) or UK-hosted ones. On tasks where the teacher allows it, a student can ask about the task and their code and is helped to work it out, never given the answer: it only talks about the task, a second model checks every answer, and it runs in the UK. Students’ Ask AI is off until a teacher turns it on. ## Facts people ask - **Does it cost anything?** The first year is free for up to 50 students and staff are always free; see https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing.md. - **Where does the data live?** In the United Kingdom. The only parts of the platform whose processing is not confined to the UK are the optional AI models from Google, OpenAI and Anthropic, which a college may switch off by choosing UK models only, and which are never sent a student's work; https://mitsurutech.co.uk/privacy is the authority. - **Does it show advertising?** No advertising inside the platform, ever; nothing advertising-related loads inside the teaching platform. - **Can a student see a quiz's answers?** No. The answer key is never sent to the browser; quizzes are marked on the server. - **Is it an AWS account?** No. The cloud labs implement the S3, DynamoDB and SQS APIs on an emulator; MitsuruTech is not affiliated with AWS. - **Can a teacher see who looked at a student's work?** Yes, and so can the student: every time somebody opens or changes a student's work it is written to a log nothing deletes. - **Languages the site is written in:** English, French, Japanese, Spanish and German. - **Free lessons:** https://mitsurutech.co.uk/resources/basics (hands-on lessons, free to read whole). ## Frequently asked ### What is a cheaper alternative to Codio for a school? The MitsuruTech Learning Platform. Codio's own pricing page lists its Higher Education plan at "$48 per semester (or $90 per year)" per learner (checked 24 October 2026, https://www.codio.com/pricing) and publishes no K-12 price. Ours is US$9 a student a year in US dollars, falling to US$6.75, or £6 falling to £4.50 in pounds, with code in the browser, tests that mark themselves, Linux labs, Ubuntu VMs, app deployment and AI included, and the first year free for up to 50 students. Staff accounts are always free. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/compare ### Is there a free alternative to GitHub Classroom with autograding? GitHub Classroom was retired on 28 August 2026 (https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/205975). The MitsuruTech Learning Platform is free for a school or college's first 365 days, for up to 50 students, with no card. A teacher sets a coding task with their own tests, students write and run the code in the browser, and the tests mark it; quizzes mark themselves too, and coursework can be loaded from a Git repository with hidden tests. After the free year it is about £6 a student a year, falling to £4.50 for the largest (US$9 falling to US$6.75), staff free. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/setting-python-exercises ### Where can students get a free Linux VM in the browser? At https://mitsurutech.co.uk/vm: a whole Ubuntu machine with a terminal, in the browser tab. With no account it runs for up to 20 minutes and nothing is kept; a free account keeps up to 2 VMs with their disks saved and up to 120 minutes of VM time a day. In a college, students get larger machines (2 CPUs, 2 GB) with no daily limit. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/ubuntu-vms ### Are there free Linux and cyber security labs for students? Yes: 32 labs, 19 of them containers (databases, Git, web security, DevOps, data engineering and AI coding agents) and 13 on Ubuntu VMs (Linux administration, networking, privilege escalation and forensics), each with a free lesson worked in it at https://mitsurutech.co.uk/resources. The Git and Gitea lab and MySQL and phpMyAdmin lab with a sample shop database to practise SQL labs run with no account; the rest need a free account, which has enough free credit each month to follow most lessons. Every lab is listed below and at https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/sample-labs. ### What is an affordable coding platform for schools? The MitsuruTech Learning Platform costs about £6 a student a year, falling to £4.50 for the largest (US$9 falling to US$6.75), with Linux labs, VMs, deploying apps and AI included; the first year is free for up to 50 students and staff are always free. The price is published, with no quote to request: £300 a year covers a school's first 50 students. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing ### Is there a cheaper alternative to Replit or CodeHS for a classroom? Replit and CodeHS publish no per-student price for schools, so no comparison of figures is made here. The MitsuruTech Learning Platform publishes its price: about £6 a student a year, falling to £4.50 for the largest (US$9 falling to US$6.75), with Linux labs, VMs, deploying apps and AI included; the first year is free for up to 50 students and staff are always free. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/pricing ### Does it include an AI assistant? Yes, in the price. Every member of staff has a monthly allowance of AI credits to build quizzes and coding tasks, review code and write feedback with Claude, Gemini and GPT models or UK-hosted ones. Students can ask an AI tutor about a task where the teacher allows it: it helps them work it out and never gives the answer, and it runs in the UK. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/ai-assistance ### Where is the data held? In the United Kingdom. The only processing not confined to the UK is the staff AI assistant when it uses Claude, Gemini or GPT: a college chooses UK models only or all models, and one that never chooses is on all models. Students' questions and marking always stay on UK-hosted models, and no student's work is sent to the others. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/privacy ### Which languages is the site in? English, French, Japanese, Spanish and German, the manual included. https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help ## Labs ### Container labs - [PostgreSQL and PostgREST lab: a database and a REST API in the browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-database-api): A Postgres database and a REST API over every table, each student’s own, with psql and curl in a terminal. Free account needed; the code is on GitHub. - [MySQL and phpMyAdmin lab with a sample shop database to practise SQL](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-mysql-phpmyadmin): A MySQL server with a sample shop database and phpMyAdmin already signed in, in each student’s own copy, with thirteen SQL exercises. Free in the browser. - [Git and Gitea lab: learn clone, commit and push on a Git server of your own](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-git-gitea): Git lab for students: each gets their own Gitea server and a repository to clone, commit and push to from a browser terminal, with no GitHub account. - [OWASP Juice Shop lab: a vulnerable web shop to attack in your own copy](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-juice-shop): Free OWASP Juice Shop lab for students: over a hundred web security challenges across the OWASP Top 10 in a private copy, with nothing to install. - [DVWA lab: practise SQL injection and XSS on the Damn Vulnerable Web Application](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-dvwa): DVWA lab for students: SQL injection, XSS and more at four security levels, in a private copy with its database made. Nothing to install. - [WebGoat lab: guided web security lessons with WebWolf in your own copy](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-webgoat): OWASP WebGoat lab for students: guided lessons on injection, access control, JWT and more, with WebWolf, in a private copy. Nothing to install. - [Web server hardening lab: fix a weak nginx configuration and check it with curl](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-harden-nginx): Fix a deliberately weak nginx server in each student’s private lab copy: headers, folder listing, hidden files. Nothing to install; source on GitHub. - [WrongSecrets lab: find hardcoded secrets and learn where secrets belong](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-wrongsecrets): OWASP WrongSecrets in each student’s private lab copy: fake secrets hidden in code, pages and config to find. Nothing to install; source on GitHub. - [Mutillidae lab: practise SQL injection and XSS on a vulnerable PHP web application](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-mutillidae): OWASP Mutillidae II with its database and directory in each student’s private lab copy: SQL, LDAP and script injection. Nothing to install; code on GitHub. - [Docker basics lab: learn containers, logs and restarts by fixing a broken service](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-docker-basics): Docker basics lab for students: three containers in a private copy, one broken on purpose, to read its log, fix and restart. Nothing to install. - [SQL injection lab: attack a weak shop search, fix the query and prove the fix](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-sqli-fix): Attack a deliberately weak shop search in each student’s private lab copy, fix the query and prove it. Nothing to install; source on GitHub. - [Observability lab: Prometheus and Grafana, with an alerting rule for the student to write](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-observability): Each student gets a private Prometheus and Grafana watching a web server: ask in PromQL, draw a panel, write an alert and make it fire. Source on GitHub. - [Hadoop lab: HDFS and MapReduce, with a file to put in and a word count to read](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-hadoop): Each student gets a private Hadoop cluster: put a file into HDFS, list it, read it back and read a MapReduce word count. Source on GitHub. - [Apache Spark lab: learn DataFrames and Spark SQL on a CSV file, with the Spark UI](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-spark): A private Apache Spark for each student: load a CSV into a DataFrame, filter, group, query in SQL and see the jobs in the Spark UI. Code on GitHub. - [Kafka lab: topics, producers, consumers, partitions and offsets in the browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-kafka): Apache Kafka lab for students: a private broker and Kafka UI to make a topic, produce messages, read them back and see offsets. Code on GitHub. - [Valkey lab: learn a Redis-compatible key-value store with keys, expiry, lists and counters](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-valkey): Valkey lab for students, Redis-compatible: keys, expiry, lists, hashes and counters in a private store and a browser terminal. Code on GitHub. - [AI coding agent lab: use opencode to explain and fix code, and check its work](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-ai-agent): A private copy with opencode, an open-source AI coding agent, and a small program with a bug. Students ask, read each change and test it. Code on GitHub. - [Install an AI coding agent lab: npm, a config file and a model](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-ai-agent-install): A private copy with nothing installed: students install opencode from npm, connect it to a model with its config file, and use it. Code on GitHub. - [JupyterLab data science lab: pandas, Matplotlib and scikit-learn in the browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-jupyter-data): A private JupyterLab for each student, with pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib and scikit-learn, a year of bike hire data and a starter notebook. Code on GitHub. ### Ubuntu VM labs - [Static routing lab: build routes on a small network in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-netlab-static): Static routing lab in the browser: two routers and two hosts in one VM, with FRRouting and vtysh, marked by a script. Free; definition on GitHub. - [OSPF lab: bring up dynamic routing on three routers in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-netlab-ospf): OSPF lab in the browser: three routers and two hosts in one VM with FRRouting, hellos seen with tcpdump, marked by a script. Free; code on GitHub. - [BGP lab: connect two autonomous systems in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-netlab-bgp): A BGP lab: two autonomous systems, AS 65001 and 65002, as routers in one VM with FRRouting, and a script that marks it. Free sample; the code is on GitHub. - [Linux privilege escalation lab: a setuid binary, a sudo rule and a cron job to break](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-linux-privesc): Linux privilege escalation lab: a setuid helper, a sudo rule and a writable cron job on a private Ubuntu VM. Free sample; code on GitHub. - [DHCP and DNS lab: configure dnsmasq for a small network in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-dhcp-dns): A DHCP and DNS lab: students configure dnsmasq so two clients get leases, a fixed address and local names, on a private Ubuntu VM. Free sample. - [Ansible lab: configure a machine with a playbook, in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-ansible-basics): Ansible lab for students: finish a playbook that installs a package, fills a template and writes a unit file, on a private Ubuntu VM marked by a script. - [VLAN lab: VLANs and inter-VLAN routing on one Ubuntu VM in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-vlans): A VLAN lab: students configure a switch, 802.1Q subinterfaces on a router on a stick and a firewall rule inside one Ubuntu VM, marked by a script. - [NAT gateway lab: masquerade and port forwarding with nftables in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-nat-gateway): NAT gateway lab in one VM: students set masquerade and a port forward with nftables between a private host and an outside server. Marked by a script. - [WireGuard lab: build a VPN tunnel between two sites in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-wireguard): A WireGuard lab: students build a VPN tunnel between two sites inside one Ubuntu VM, with keys and routes, marked by a script. Free sample. - [Incident response and forensics lab: investigate a compromised server in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-incident-response): A forensics lab: a hacked server’s SSH and web logs in one Ubuntu VM, find the attacker’s IP and what was left behind, and a script marks it. Free sample. - [Linux administration lab: users, permissions, cron and systemd in your browser](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-linux-admin): A Linux administration lab: users and groups, a shared folder, a cron job and a systemd service on a private Ubuntu VM, marked by a script. Free sample. - [Everyday Linux commands lab: the thirty commands engineers type from memory](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-linux-everyday): Everyday Linux commands lab: files, logs, processes, archives, ssh and scp on a private Ubuntu VM, with five short lessons. Free sample. - [Compilers and computer architecture lab: gcc, flex, bison and RISC-V in one VM](https://mitsurutech.co.uk/help/lab-compilers-arch): A compilers lab on a private Ubuntu VM: gcc stage by stage, flex and bison, RISC-V assembly on qemu and a cache timed. Two short lessons. Free sample.