Comparison

Groups vs Seating Plan (companion app)

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

Head to head
About

Groups

This app helps educators create balanced and effective student teams using an advanced algorithm. It offers features like gender balancing, exclusion of incompatible students, and random student selection to promote participation. Easily import student data and export group compositions for classroom use.

Highlights
  • Advanced team-building algorithm
  • Gender balancing for groups
  • Exclude incompatible student pairs
  • Random student picker
  • Export and print group compositions
  • Bulk import students
  • Cross-device sync via iCloud
Features
Read full description

Effortlessly organize your students into effective teams with Groups, promoting meaningful collaboration and building teamwork skills in the classroom. ADVANCED TEAM BUILDING Have certain students who don’t work well together? Simply list these pairs in the app and Groups will handle the rest, with its advanced team-building algorithm. BALANCE GENDERS Ensure each group has an even distribution of genders with the ”Balance Genders” option, promoting diversity and encouraging collaboration. EDIT GROUPS Need to fine tune the generated groups? Easily rearrange the result to achieve a perfect team composition. RANDOM STUDENT PICKER Encourage equal participation in the classroom with Groups’ random student picker. This makes sure everyone gets a chance to provide input, ensuring all voices are heard. EXPORT AND PRINT Easily create printable handouts, posters, or a PDF to share using five beautiful themes. BULK IMPORT Add students from Microsoft Excel workbooks, CSV files, or plain text lists. UNLIMITED CLASSES Enter all your students once, and then create as many groups as you need. You can even add an icon and color to each class to easily tell them apart. CROSS DEVICE SYNC Add your classes once, and use them across all your Apple devices with iCloud sync. ——————————————— Groups has helped tens of thousands of teachers sort their students into groups, fostering more positive learning environments for students worldwide. Privacy Policy: https://wttech.com.au/docs/groups/privacy-policy Terms & Conditions: https://wttech.com.au/docs/groups/eula

About

Seating Plan (companion app)

Features
Read full description

The companion app for Seating Plan, featuring four side features: * Name Learning Tool: Apply the science of low-stakes quizzing to the annual challenge of learning dozens (or hundreds) of new student names, making name learning quick, easy and fun. * Homework: Record homework completion in a few taps, then view your records on the Seating Plan website. * Attendance (Silver only): Record student attendance in a few taps, then view attendance history on the Seating Plan website. * Wheel of Names: Tap to spin and pick a student at random. Requires an active subscription to Seating Plan. Note: This app does not provide access to your seating plans. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Groups4 screens
Seating Plan (companion app)4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Groups at every 3 months against Seating Plan (companion app)'s every 7 months. Seating Plan (companion app)'s advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.4). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Groups sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Seating Plan (companion app) sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Groups ships an update every 3 months, Seating Plan (companion app) every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 17, 2026 and September 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Groups versus Seating Plan (companion app): the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGroupsSeating Plan (companion app)
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (146 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings146 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemium—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperWilliam TaylorMega Seating Plan

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Groups

Subscriptions2
  • Groups Pro Monthly$2.991 Month
  • Groups Pro Yearly7 Days trial$14.991 Year
One-time2
  • Color Themes$0.99
  • Groups Pro$39.99
2 purchases

Seating Plan (companion app)

Subscriptions2
  • Mega Seating Plan Silver$2.991 Month
  • Mega Seating Plan Silver$24.991 Year

Questions

Is Groups free?
Groups is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Seating Plan (companion app) free?
Seating Plan (companion app) is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Groups or Seating Plan (companion app) have ads?
Neither Groups nor Seating Plan (companion app) shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Groups or Seating Plan (companion app)?
Groups ships an update every 3 months, and Seating Plan (companion app) every 7 months. Most recently, Groups was updated on September 17, 2026 and Seating Plan (companion app) on September 20, 2026.

Other comparisons