Popsicle Sticks vs Planbook Mobile
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Popsicle Sticks
This app offers a digital solution for educators to randomly select students, form groups, and manage classroom activities. It includes features for grading, math games, and tournament creation, aiming to enhance engagement and streamline administrative tasks.
- Random student selection
- Student grouping and swapping
- Random list generation
- Grade calculation
- Mental math games
- Tournament builder
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Popsicle Sticks: Teacher Picks replaces your mug of popsicle sticks. Use it to randomly select and group students, to pick random numbers and simulate dice rolls, to score responses during discussions, to create classroom tournaments, and to energize your daily roll call! Its features include: RANDOM SELECT Select students randomly one student at a time. Use the "Random Bar" slider to precisely set the "randomness" of the next selection; from "uncalled students only" to "completely random" (and everywhere in-between). And although your students may not always love being selected, they will love listening to Siri say their name! (But rest assured, there is a "Mute" button for text-only selections.) RANDOM GROUPS Put students into random groups with just a couple taps. If the groups need a little tweaking, you can "swap" students with the Swap button. Easily view the "jigsaw" version of any random grouping, or create "round-robin pairings" for multi-day partner activities. Utilize the Share button to export a grouping (onto a white board, for example). RANDOM LIST Random List displays your class list in random order. Need a better system for picking the next student to take down the attendance, or to choose a birthday donut? Random List is the answer. Create, save, and export random lists for just about anything. GRADE CALCULATOR Utilize Grade Calculator to quickly determine final grades for test, quizzes, and other assignments. Calculate percentages and determine letter grades for a traditional grading system, or point averages and average performance levels for a rubric-based system. You can customize the output to include halves and/or thirds as well as extra credit points. MENTL Play Mentl with your students to improve their mental math skills. Utilizing a set of randomly generated digits, students build math equations equal to numbers on a Bingo board. Brain Bingo! DIGITAL DABBLE For each round of Digital Dabble, Popsicle Sticks generates a random set of digits (from a dice roll) and a target number. The challenge for your students is to use the digits to make an equation equal to the Target Number. Think digital! RAD ROLL CALL Invigorate your daily attendance with Rad Roll Call! Start each day by choosing one of over 200 Rad Roll Call questions. Students confirm they are present by responding to the question. Their answers (as well as the day's attendance) are saved and used for the Roll Call Recall game, where students earn points for remembering their classmates' responses. TOURNAMENT BUILDER With just a few taps, create a class tournament for almost any game (educational or otherwise). You can set it up for students to compete individually or in teams. You control the composition of the teams and the number of games. Choose from round-robin, single-elimination, or "quick-tournament." Record game results with a single tap. Popsicle Sticks will keep track of the standings, and, if you'd like, automatically slot the best players (or teams) into an end-of-tournament playoff! May the best student win! SCORED DISCUSSION Use Scored Discussion to track student responses during discussions. Just tap on a score as students give answers. Popsicle Sticks will display a running total for each student and automatically save the scores for future discussions. You can select students randomly (of course) or manually (by just tapping on a name). Save multiple discussions for various subjects, and easily export the scores to Excel or another application. With this free version of Popsicle Sticks: Teacher Picks, you can input one class, randomly select up to 500 students, create 10 random lists, 5 random groupings, 5 scored discussions, 5 tournaments, and 5 Rad Roll Calls. If you find it helpful, you can upgrade to the full version, Popsicle Sticks Unlimited. With Popsicle Sticks Unlimited you'll get unlimited access to all the features. Use Popsicle Sticks: Teacher Picks as a student picker, grouper, scorer, and gamer!
Planbook Mobile
This is a comprehensive online lesson planning tool designed for educators. It offers a wide array of features, meticulous student learning standards, and excellent support. A free trial is available to experience its capabilities.
- Comprehensive lesson planning
- Meticulous student learning standards
- Extensive features for educators
- Outstanding support and tutorials
- Continuous improvement based on feedback
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Welcome to Planbook! With over one million teachers and one billion lessons, Planbook is the established leader in online lesson planning! Why is Planbook preferred by educators? * We offer the most features for teachers and schools * At $20 per year, we offer the best value on the market * Outstanding support plus knowledge base and tutorials * Our student learning standards are meticulous * Our product is always improving thanks to educator feedback Download and take advantage of our 90 day free trial!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Popsicle Sticks at free with in-app purchases against Planbook Mobile's subscription. Popsicle Sticks also leads on review sentiment (59% vs 51%). Planbook Mobile's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and ratings volume (7.2K vs 1.3K). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Popsicle Sticks sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Planbook Mobile sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Planbook Mobile holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Planbook Mobile has 7.2K ratings behind it against 1.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 59% of Popsicle Sticks's written reviews are positive against 51% of Planbook Mobile's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Popsicle Sticks ships an update every 5 weeks, Planbook Mobile every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Popsicle Sticks | Planbook Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (1.3K ratings) | 4.8 (7.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 59.2% of reviews — better | 50.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.3K | 7.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 57 MB | 83 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Neil Daly | Planbook Inc. |
Customer experience
Popsicle Sticks
Planbook Mobile
User reviews
Popsicle Sticks
From 1.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for elementary music teachers
- 🤩 Randomized grouping tool
- 🚀 Useful and fun app
- 🚀 Intuitive to set up and easy to learn
- 🚀 Awesome tool creates awesome student engagement
Room to improve
- 💰 Hidden cost
- 💰 Expensive
- 💰 Deceptive about costs
- 🐛 Crashes when picking a student
- 🐛 Import glitches
Planbook Mobile
From 7.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Time-saving program
- 👍 Helpful for both homeschool and school teachers
- 👍 Allows for easy sharing and organization of lessons
- 👍 Useful for adapting to changes like snow days
Room to improve
- 🐛 Events/features not working in app
- 🐛 Google sign-in not working on app
- 🐛 Buggy and unreliable, crashes frequently
- 🐛 Copy/paste feature not working as expected
- 🐛 Inability to access Google Drive files in app
Bugs and requests
Popsicle Sticks
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when picking a student
- Import glitches
- Deleting students/classes not intuitive
- Asks for reviews too often
Requested features
7 requests- Ability to edit voice/pronunciation of names
- Ability to mark students absent so they're not randomly selected
- Ability to rotate iPad to landscape mode
- Support for Slide Over and/or Side-by-Side apps
- Ability to remove students on a tournament-by-tournament basis
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- Ability to mix groups by gender
- Ability to set custom group colors
Planbook Mobile
Reported bugs
4 issues- Unable to add school year dates
- Login page issues (keyboard blocking screen)
- Inability to use Gmail account for sign-up
- Lesson plans deleted without explanation
Requested features
3 requests- Add copy and paste feature
- Improve mobile app experience (e.g., biometric login, portrait mode)
- Enhance integration with other platforms (e.g., Canvas)
In-app purchases
Popsicle Sticks
- Christmas Skin$0.99
- Halloween Skin$0.99
- Popsicle Sticks Unlimited$1.99
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- Random Picks Unlimited$4.99
- Popsicle Sticks Unlimited2 variants$9.99
Planbook Mobile
- 1-Year Planbook Subscription$20.00
- 2-Year Planbook Subscription$36.00
- 3-Year Planbook Subscription$48.00
Questions
Is Popsicle Sticks free?
Is Planbook Mobile free?
Which has better reviews, Popsicle Sticks or Planbook Mobile?
Do Popsicle Sticks or Planbook Mobile have ads?
Which is updated more often, Popsicle Sticks or Planbook Mobile?
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