SchoolPing vs SMARTY
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SchoolPing
This app facilitates seamless live communication between schools and parents. It allows parents to receive instant updates, documents, and news, while also enabling them to book parent-teacher meetings, complete forms, and make payments. Schools benefit from reduced administrative tasks and improved parental engagement.
- Live school news notifications
- Child activity updates from teachers
- Document, video, and image sharing
- Parent's evening booking
- Automated permission slips
- In-app payments
- School staff communication
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Description Live communication from schools to parents made simple Improve the relationship between your school and parents with our live communication app. Parents can receive instant updates on their child’s activity, receive documents, videos, photos, book parents evening, complete permission slips, make payments and be kept up-to-date with the latest school news all in one place. Designed to support schools in achieving outstanding parental engagement, SchoolPing can be used on laptops, tablets and mobiles and syncs seamlessly across all devices in real-time. * Key features for parents - Receive live school news notifications - Receive live updates on a child's activity directly from their teacher - View documents, videos, images, music and even podcasts - Keep up-to-date & organised by using the SchoolPing calendar - Book your parent's evening slot instantly with our live parents' evening booking system - Automate permission slips with our forms feature - Make payments directly from the app - Security lockout passcode keeps your account protected Key features for schools - Save money, time and trees! No more printing letters and paying for text messaging services or counting money. - The app can be personalised for each school with the ability to add logo, name, motto and colours - All school staff can receive unlimited free support from our friendly team - See which staff and parents have read and received messages with our analytics - Keep teachers informed too with the additional ability to use SchoolPing for communication between staff - Send payment requests with message and allow parents to pay directly from their Inbox** - Messages can be sent directly from the SchoolPing app to parents or colleagues Registration Schools must be subscribed to SchoolPing for teachers and parents to use the app. Login details will be supplied to all users. If a user has lost their details they can be retrieved from the school. * Network charges may apply (Please check with your network provider)
SMARTY
Manage your mobile account with ease. Track data usage, renew plans, and purchase add-ons. Access support and refer friends for rewards.
- Check data usage
- Renew plan
- Purchase add-ons
- Access web chat
- Refer friends for rewards
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Exciting things have been happening at SMARTY HQ and our new app is now available, packed full of great features that will make managing your account easier. - Check your data usage - Renew your plan - Purchase add-ons - Easy access to web chat, help and support - Refer your friends to SMARTY and you'll both get a reward
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: SMARTY at fortnightly against SchoolPing's every 3 months. SMARTY also leads on review sentiment (20% vs 3%). SchoolPing's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SchoolPing ships an update every 3 months, SMARTY fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SchoolPing | SMARTY |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 3.4 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 3.3% of reviews | 19.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 8 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 21 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | New Era Education Ltd | Hutchison 3G UK Ltd |
Customer experience
SchoolPing
SMARTY
Bugs and requests
SchoolPing
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
SMARTY
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login page issues after recent app update
- App crashing when trying to make payments
- Account information not displaying correctly
Requested features
4 requests- Face ID or fingerprint login support
- Data usage tracking widget
- Ability to stay logged in on the app
- Improved network coverage and reliability
In-app purchases
SchoolPing
No in-app purchases
SMARTY
No in-app purchases
