While Pivot, Logger Pro and Vernier Video Analysis all offer a form of video analysis, Pivot is quite different from the other two.

Vernier Video Analysis and Logger Pro provide a general purpose video analysis tool for frame-by-frame analysis. In these applications the location of an object is tracked, or marked, in each frame, with the user or software locating that object in the plane of the video with a click. Those X,Y locations are recorded in a data table. This is repeated for successive frames in the video, building up a record of the location of the object over time. The data can then be graphed. It’s as if one has a sensor that measures the location of an object on a plane. Derivative calculations provide velocity values based on these positions and frame times.

There are published activities available for Logger Pro and Video Analysis, but these applications themselves do not have the learning management system features of class rosters, assignments, submission, and grading. The applications are tools that can be used with a variet of videos, whether supplied as part of an exercise or captured by the student. These tools are very well suited for independent student projects.

In contrast Pivot is an online collection of interactive videos of real events and phenomena, wrapped in teacher-configurable exercises. There are complete activities that an instructor can assign, receive, and grade for each student in a class. It is a learning management system that has its own selection of video-based activities.

Pivot-style videos are analyzed using tools akin to a meter stick and stopwatch, as opposed to a point-by-point location record. Measurements are made by the student on certain frames, and data manually read off scales and readouts. The Pivot library includes a large number of very high-quality videos of careful experiments. When the experiment requires a key parameter to be adjustable, such as the angle of a ramp or the mass of an object, a video exists corresponding to each possible value of these parameters. As a result a single video topic may be represented by an entire matrix of videos, representing each combination of parameters. In this way a student can choose what experimental parameters to use, and make measurements on that particular experiment.

Other comparisons of the applications are as follows.

• Logger Pro is a locally-installed application for macOS and Windows; Pivot and Vernier Video Analysis run in a browser.
• Logger Pro is sold as a perpetual site license; Pivot is sold on a flexible subscription that depends on the number of users, and Vernier Video Analysis is sold on a subscription basis priced on a small school/large school basis.
• Pivot has user accounts for both students and instructors. Even though Vernier Video Analysis runs in a browser, no student or instructor accounts are used. Logger Pro has no accounts.