Comparison

SafeExamBrowser vs The Square App

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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).

About

The Square App

This app simplifies calculating the hypotenuse of a right triangle for construction projects. Input length and width to get precise measurements in feet and inches, eliminating complex math and conversions. Save up to three project calculations for later review.

Highlights
  • Hypotenuse calculation
  • Input length and width
  • Output in feet and inches
  • Eliminates complex math
  • Stores up to 3 project calculations
Read full description

Whether you are building a deck, picture frame, foundation, floor system, or anything requiring a right triangle, The Square App will take the complexity out of making sure your project is exactly square. The Square App is an application that allows you to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle. By entering in the two dimensions of your length and width, The Square App will calculate the exact dimension in Feet and Inches of the hypotenuse the right triangle. This eliminates the need for the multiple steps required in using the Pythagorean Theorem, and the conversions from inches and decimals. By using the simply illustrated example on the home page of the app and inserting your specific project dimensions, you can easily calculate your square dimension. The Square App allows you to store up to 3 different Project Calculations to be reviewed at a later time if needed.

Screenshots

SafeExamBrowser4 screens
The Square App4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: The Square App at 50% against SafeExamBrowser's 7%. The Square App also leads on rating (4.3 vs 1.6) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 12.0). SafeExamBrowser's advantage is ratings volume (46 vs 4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

The Square App holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SafeExamBrowser has 46 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 7% of SafeExamBrowser's written reviews are positive against 50% of The Square App's.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
SafeExamBrowser versus The Square App: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSafeExamBrowserThe Square App
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.6 (46 ratings)4.3 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews7.1% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings46 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB15 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperETH ZurichNEXT PRACTICE PARTNERS LLC.

Customer experience

SafeExamBrowser

All ratings46 ratings
Positive15.2%
Neutral0.0%
Negative84.8%
Written reviews411 reviews
Positive7.1%
Neutral1.2%
Negative91.7%

The Square App

All ratings4 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

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 more
  • 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

The Square App

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SafeExamBrowser

No in-app purchases

None

The Square App

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SafeExamBrowser free?
SafeExamBrowser is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The Square App free?
The Square App is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SafeExamBrowser or The Square App?
The Square App is rated higher. SafeExamBrowser averages 1.6 out of 5 from 46 ratings, while The Square App averages 4.3 from 4 ratings.
Do SafeExamBrowser or The Square App have ads?
Neither SafeExamBrowser nor The Square App shows ads.

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