SafeExamBrowser vs Examplify
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SafeExamBrowser
This app creates a secure browser environment for online exams, preventing students from accessing other apps or websites. It locks down devices into an assessment kiosk mode, ensuring exam integrity on both personal and institutional iOS devices.
- Secure kiosk browser environment
- Prevents app switching and website access
- Assessment kiosk mode
- Supports unmanaged and managed iOS devices
- Configurable via API, files, links, and QR codes
- Integrates with LMS and exam systems
- Optional Dock and slider menu for commands
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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).
Examplify
Securely deliver and take exams on your iPad without internet access. This app prevents access to other applications and the internet during tests, supporting accessibility requirements and offering various testing tools.
- Offline exam delivery
- Restricted access to other apps
- Activity tracking
- Zoom in/out on multimedia
- Answer choice elimination
- Customizable mid-exam alarms
- Question filtering and flagging
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Examplify is the world’s only secure, offline testing application for iPad. With Examplify from ExamSoft, assessments can be delivered to students securely via iPad, without the concern of exam takers accessing other apps or the Internet during the exam. More than 1,200 educational programs worldwide use Examplify as an easy-to-use exam platform that supports the American Disability Act’s testing requirements and offers a robust lineup of testing-environment features and options including: ● Offline exam delivery, eliminating connectivity issues during the exam ● Restricted access to other applications ● Activity tracking throughout the exam ● Zoom in/out on attached multimedia ● Answer choice elimination ● Customizable mid-exam alarms ● Question filtering and flagging ● Basic and scientific calculator options This application is free to download. Students who attend schools/universities who have licensed the use of ExamSoft, with iPad accessibility enabled, may use the application.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Examplify at 638 against SafeExamBrowser's 46. SafeExamBrowser's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.6). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 1.6 for SafeExamBrowser against 1.6 for Examplify. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Examplify has 638 ratings behind it against 46, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 7% of SafeExamBrowser's written reviews are positive against 9% of Examplify's.
SafeExamBrowser ships an update every 3 months, Examplify every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SafeExamBrowser | Examplify |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.6 (46 ratings) — better | 1.6 (638 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 7.1% of reviews | 9.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 46 | 638 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 60 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ETH Zurich | ExamSoft Worldwide, Inc. |
Customer experience
SafeExamBrowser
Examplify
User reviews
SafeExamBrowser
From 46 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🔒 Prevents cheating
- 👍 Facilitates secure exams
- 👍 Good for exam integrity
- 👍 Works when used correctly
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 🐛 Freezes and becomes unresponsive
- 🐛 Prevents exiting kiosk mode
- 🐛 Blank page errors
- 🐛 Slow performance
Examplify
From 638 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🤔 Well-designed app
- 💻 Works well on iPad
- 📝 Exam history and score tracking
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 🤯 Frustrating user interface
- 🤖 Unreliable software updates
- 🕰️ Slow and unresponsive
- 🔒 Security and privacy concerns
Bugs and requests
SafeExamBrowser
Reported bugs
24 issues- App crashes
- Freezes and becomes unresponsive
- Cannot exit kiosk mode
- Blank page errors
- Slow performance
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- 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
Examplify
Reported bugs
4 issues- Exam upload failures
- Capitalization issues when editing text
- Inability to log in on certain devices
- Exam questions not displaying properly
Requested features
4 requests- Allow clearing of completed exams list
- Add highlighting and annotation features
- Integrate exam scores directly into the app
- Improve calculator functionality
In-app purchases
SafeExamBrowser
No in-app purchases
Examplify
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SafeExamBrowser free?
Is Examplify free?
Which has better reviews, SafeExamBrowser or Examplify?
Do SafeExamBrowser or Examplify have ads?
Which is updated more often, SafeExamBrowser or Examplify?
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