Honorlock vs Proctorio vs Respondus Monitor: What Each One Sees

How Each One Runs on Your Machine

The extension-based tools install quickly and uninstall afterwards. Respondus requires a full application install, which is why it more often causes technical problems on managed or older machines.

Honorlock: The Most Active Approach

Honorlock differs from the other two in that it is partly proactive rather than purely observational. Its most distinctive feature is searching the public web for your institution's exam questions, so that leaked content on question-sharing sites can be identified and issued with takedown requests.

It also attempts phone detection by listening for audio patterns associated with a second device, and it offers live proctors who join a session only when automated flags warrant it, rather than watching throughout.

For students, the practical effect is that Honorlock exams feel less continuously observed but are more likely to catch use of shared question banks.

Proctorio: Fully Automated

Proctorio is entirely algorithmic. No human watches live. It records webcam, screen, audio and browser activity, then scores the session against configurable behavioural thresholds and hands the instructor a report ranked by suspicion level.

Instructors choose which modules to enable, so the experience varies widely between courses at the same institution. One Proctorio exam may only record video while another locks the browser, disables copy-paste and tracks eye movement.

Proctorio has attracted the most public criticism of the three, particularly around facial detection accuracy across skin tones and the volume of false positives generated by ordinary behaviour.

Respondus Monitor: Paired With LockDown

Respondus Monitor is almost always deployed alongside LockDown Browser rather than independently. The browser prevents the behaviour; Monitor records the room. It is the most established of the three and the most commonly encountered in nursing and health science programmes.

Its review interface presents a flagged timeline that instructors can skim, which in practice means flagged moments get watched and unflagged footage usually does not. Full details are in our LockDown Browser guide.

What Actually Triggers a Flag

All three use broadly similar heuristics, and all three produce false positives at rates that surprise students:

• Face leaving the camera frame, even briefly
• A second face appearing, including someone walking behind you
• Sustained looking away from the screen
• Speaking or background conversation
• Significant lighting changes
• Leaving the exam window or attempting to switch applications
• Unusual typing rhythm or long inactivity
• Multiple monitors detected

Ordinary behaviour triggers most of these. Thinking with your eyes averted, a housemate passing the door, or a cloud moving across a window will all register. A flag is a prompt for human review, not a finding.

How to Prepare Regardless of Which Tool

• Test the software days early, never on exam day
• Sit facing a light source rather than with a window behind you
• Clear the desk to only what is permitted
• Tell housemates you cannot be interrupted
• Use a wired connection where possible
• Have student ID ready
• Disconnect additional monitors
• Keep your face in frame even while thinking

If you have a disability, medical condition or environment that will inevitably generate flags, contact disability services before the exam rather than explaining afterwards.

Data Retention and Privacy, Compared

All three collect biometric-adjacent data, and US students have more rights here than they typically exercise.

Illinois, Texas and Washington have biometric privacy statutes that have been applied to proctoring, and several US universities have faced litigation over room scans. If you have a specific objection, raise it with the registrar before the exam.

How to Handle Each Tool Well

Small practical differences change what a good exam looks like.

• Honorlock: keep phones out of the room entirely; audio detection is its distinctive capability
• Proctorio: stay centred in frame and avoid long glances away, since scoring is purely algorithmic with no human context
• Respondus Monitor: complete the ID and room scan carefully, because a rushed scan is itself commonly flagged
• All three: read the exam rules for permitted materials, then have only those on the desk

The single most common avoidable flag across all three is looking away for extended periods, usually because the student is working on paper. If scratch paper is permitted, say so aloud at the start; the audio is recorded and provides context.

Whether Proctoring Actually Works

It is worth knowing that the evidence base is mixed. Research on remote proctoring has found meaningful reductions in some forms of misconduct alongside significant increases in student anxiety and measurable false-positive rates that fall unevenly across demographic groups.

A number of US institutions have scaled back automated proctoring in response, moving instead toward assessment design that is harder to game: open-book application questions, oral defences, staged project work and personalised data sets.

For students, the practical implication is that proctored multiple-choice exams are slowly becoming less common, while assessment that requires demonstrating reasoning is becoming more common.

Frequently Asked Questions