Workshopy vs a shared Google Doc
The real incumbent is not another product — it is a Google Doc, a Zoom link and asking "is everyone with me?" every ten minutes. That setup is free, familiar and genuinely works for small groups. What it cannot do is tell you where each person has got to: you find out someone was stuck twenty minutes ago when they finally say so. Workshopy keeps the same plain-text authoring model but adds the one thing the doc cannot give you — a live, per-participant view of progress and blockers.
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Two different products
a shared Google Doc
A document everyone reads at once, plus a call. Zero setup, zero cost, and complete flexibility.
Workshopy
The same document, authored in Markdown, turned into a paced session with per-participant state, a help queue and a report.
Side by side
| Workshopy | a shared Google Doc | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup cost | Paste your Markdown, start a session, share a 6-character code | None — you already have it |
| Knowing who is stuck | Live per-person status, stuck participants sorted to the top | Only when someone speaks up |
| Knowing who has finished | Live per-step completion grid | Ask the room and count the silence |
| Keeping the room together | Host can advance everyone, jump the room to a step, or let people roam | Scroll position is per-person and invisible to you |
| Questions during the session | Chat, raise hand, help queue, and notes anchored to the exact paragraph | Comments — which pile up and lose their context |
| Quizzes | Graded quiz steps authored in the same file | A separate Google Form and a manual detour |
| Accidental edits | Participants read; only the host edits | Anyone with the link can wreck the doc mid-session |
| Running it again | Start a new session from the same template; each run gets its own report | Duplicate the doc and hope you cleaned the last cohort's notes out |
| Content ownership | Plain Markdown in, plain Markdown out | Google's format, exportable |
Compiled from each product’s public documentation. Deliberately no price comparison — published prices change without notice and a stale number here would be worse than none. Check both pricing pages.
Which one to use
Choose Workshopy when
- You run the same workshop more than once and want each cohort's run recorded.
- You have more than a handful of participants and can no longer read the room.
- People regularly get stuck quietly and you only find out at the end.
- You want quizzes and polls without leaving the material.
Choose a shared Google Doc when
- It is a one-off session with three or four people in the room with you.
- The session is collaborative writing — everyone editing the same document is the point.
- You need real-time co-authoring, which Workshopy does not do.
- Adding any tool at all is more friction than the problem is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Can I move my existing workshop doc over?
If it is already Markdown, yes — paste or import the .md file and every top-level # heading becomes a step. From a Google Doc, export to Markdown first (File → Download → Markdown), then paste. Headings become step boundaries, so the structure usually survives intact.
Do participants edit the content?
No. Participants read the steps, mark their status, answer quizzes, chat and attach inline notes to passages — but the content itself is host-only. That is the main thing a shared doc gets wrong during a live session.
What if I need to fix a typo mid-session?
Edit it live. The host can change a step's title or body, insert a new step, hide one, or delete one while the session is running, and the change propagates to everyone without a restart.
Other comparisons
Workshopy vs Slido
Slido adds polls to a talk you are already giving. Workshopy runs the workshop itself and tracks each participant's progress.
Workshopy vs Mentimeter
Mentimeter makes presentations interactive. Workshopy runs the workshop itself, with per-participant progress. What each is for.
Workshopy vs Poll Everywhere
Poll Everywhere asks the room questions. Workshopy hands each participant the workshop and shows you who is stuck. A fair comparison.
Workshopy vs Kahoot!
Kahoot! is a quiz game. Workshopy runs the hands-on hour around it, tracking every participant's progress. When to use which.
Run your next workshop with the room visible.
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