Chirp.QR vs SafeExamBrowser
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Chirp.QR
Easily record audio and generate QR codes linking directly to your recordings. Share your sound clips with anyone, anywhere, with built-in privacy compliance and European data storage.
- One-click audio recording
- QR code generation for recordings
- Direct sharing to contacts
- GDPR compliant
- European data storage
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Chirp.QR lets you record audio and instantly create a QR code that anyone can scan to listen — no app needed for listeners. How it works 1. Record your audio 2. Get a QR code 3. Share it — print it, stick it, send it Anyone with a phone camera can scan and listen. No downloads required. Use it for anything - Classrooms — reading exercises, language practice, storytelling, interactive worksheets - Greeting cards — add a personal audio message - Product packaging — audio instructions or brand stories - Accessibility — add audio to printed materials - Museums, exhibits, and tours - Real estate listings and events - Anywhere you want to connect a physical surface to audio Schools and organisations Schools can activate Chirp.QR Premium across all their devices with a single school code. No Apple IDs required. Works with shared devices and MDM. Visit chirpqr.com/schools for details. Premium The free version has no feature limits, no ads, and no limits on recordings. Premium keeps your recordings stored permanently (free recordings expire after 30 days). Privacy and security - GDPR compliant - Data stored on European (EU) servers - No tracking, no ads, no data selling - Safe for schools and children Privacy Policy: https://chirpqr.com/privacyPolicy.html Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
SafeExamBrowser
This secure browser creates a locked-down kiosk environment for online assessments, preventing students from accessing other apps or websites during exams. It supports various exam systems and can be configured via files, links, or QR codes for flexible deployment.
- Secure kiosk mode
- Prevents app switching
- Blocks unauthorized websites
- Supports various exam systems
- Configurable via files/links/QR codes
- Optional dock and slider menu
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SafeExamBrowser (SEB) is a secure kiosk web browser environment used to carry out e-assessments that run on exam servers. SEB opens a web browser without an address and search bar, loads a pre-configured webpage and locks an iPad (or iPhone or iPod Touch) into an assessment kiosk mode. This mode prevents students from switching to other apps (unless additional permitted apps are configured), accessing websites and communicating with other students during an exam. SEB enables secure exams on unmanaged iOS devices like students' own iPads as well as on iOS devices owned and managed by an institution. SEB doesn't use a centralized server or cloud service; it can be configured with an API, configuration files, links and QR codes. It can be used with most web-based quiz and e-assessment systems. For improved security and usability, some exam systems provide additional built-in support for SEB. Currently, SEB integrates especially well with learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle, OpenOlat, ILIAS and with several non-commercial and commercial exam systems, such as Inspera Assessment, Dugga, Exam.net, EvaExam and Ans. SEB uses one of the single app modes provided by iOS. After an exam is submitted, SEB can automatically end the app self-lock assessment mode (an exam invigilator could also use a quit password to end the SEB exam session and unlock the device if necessary). SEB features an optional Dock displaying buttons for various commands. Instead or in addition, a left slider menu shows a list of open browser tabs and commands which can be used to (if enabled in settings) quit an exam session, jump back to the start page of an exam, reload a web page, and navigate back/forward in the browsing history. SEB for iOS uses the same format for encrypted .seb configuration files as the SEB versions for other platforms. Those config files allow to individually configure SEB to display the start page of an exam system or an exam portal page with a list of links to current exams. If SEB for iOS is installed using a mobile device management (MDM) system, its initial configuration can easily be deployed using the "MDM Managed Configuration" feature. You can also directly start an exam with an individual configuration in SEB for iOS using a special config hyperlink. This link can be opened by examinees from Safari, Mail or a messenger app. In addition, you can use QR codes containing SEB links or even full, individual configurations. An exam can directly be started in SEB by using the iOS Camera app or the built-in QR code scanner. SEB also works together with Apple Classroom, teachers can start individually configured exams on all student devices. See https://safeexambrowser.org/ios for more information. SafeExamBrowser for iOS was developed by Daniel R. Schneider, ETH Zurich, IT Services, based on the original idea of Safe Exam Browser by Stefan Schneider, University of Giessen Project concept: Thomas Piendl, Daniel R. Schneider, Damian Büchel, Andreas Hefti, Nadim Ritter, Dirk Bauer, Michael Kern, Kai Reuter, Tobias Halbherr, Karsten Burger, Marco Lehre, Brigitte Schmucki, Oliver Rahs. Safe Exam Browser is released as freeware. The code is subject to the Mozilla Public License Version 1.1 (the "License"); you may only use these files in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/ . Important parts of this project have been carried out as part of the program "AAA/SWITCH – e-Infrastructure for e-Science" led by SWITCH, the Swiss National Research and Education Network and the cooperative project "Learning Infrastructure" (part of the CRUS program "Information scientifique: accès, traitement et sauvegarde") coordinated by SWITCH, and was supported by funds from the ETH Board and the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Chirp.QR at 71% against SafeExamBrowser's 7%. Chirp.QR also leads on rating (3.5 vs 1.6). SafeExamBrowser's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 10 months). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Chirp.QR sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. SafeExamBrowser asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chirp.QR holds the better App Store score, 3.5 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SafeExamBrowser has 50 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Chirp.QR's written reviews are positive against 7% of SafeExamBrowser's.
Chirp.QR ships an update every 10 months, SafeExamBrowser every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Chirp.QR | SafeExamBrowser |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (6 ratings) — better | 1.6 (50 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews — better | 7.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 50 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sammy Palsson | ETH Zurich |
Customer experience
Chirp.QR
SafeExamBrowser
Bugs and requests
Chirp.QR
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
SafeExamBrowser
Reported bugs
24 issues- App crashes
- Freezes and becomes unresponsive
- Cannot exit kiosk mode
- Blank page errors
- Slow performance
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- High battery consumption
- Device locking issues
- Setup difficulties
- Poor instructions
- Errors during exams
- Unreliable behavior
- Difficulty uninstalling/quitting
- Device issues (black screen, viruses)
- Inconsistent camera support
- Cheating still possible (reported by some users)
- Data privacy concerns raised
- Unintuitive interface
- Incompatibility with older/newer OS versions
- Configuration issues
- Leads to exam failure
- Developer unresponsiveness
- Not working with iOS 18
- Camera access issues
- Kiosk mode not activating properly on iOS 17
Requested features
4 requests- Better instructions/homepage
- Support for Thai language
- Update for iOS 18
- More user-friendly setup
In-app purchases
Chirp.QR
- Chirp Premium$1.991 Month
SafeExamBrowser
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Chirp.QR free?
Is SafeExamBrowser free?
Which has better reviews, Chirp.QR or SafeExamBrowser?
Do Chirp.QR or SafeExamBrowser have ads?
Which is updated more often, Chirp.QR or SafeExamBrowser?
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