Firefly for Students vs SIMS Student
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Firefly for Students
Access your school timetable, view announcements, and track homework assignments. Receive feedback on graded tasks and manage your personal to-do list with custom reminders. Submit homework directly from your device, including files and media.
- View school timetable
- Check homework assignments
- See grades and feedback
- Manage personal to-do list
- Submit homework with files
- Receive homework notifications
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The Firefly for Students app is your place to go to see your timetable, read school announcements, check on your homework, and see your grades and feedback. Simply log in using the code provided by your teacher to see your complete timetable and any homework your teachers have set you, along with feedback for any tasks that have been marked. You can add your own tasks and reminders, and link them to a specific class to create a personal to-do list. Firefly for Students lets you: - See your timetable, anywhere - Stay on top of your homework - Manage your own to-do list - Send in homework, with files, photos, video and audio straight from your phone - Know when new homework has been set for you - Work the way you want, moving seamlessly between the app and desktop Log in once and you’re ready to go. Note: The Firefly for Students app requires your school to have an active Firefly licence.
SIMS Student
Access your school life details with this application. You must be invited by your school to use its features.
- Access school life details
- School-specific access
- Student portal
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SIMS Student gives students access to the details of their school life. Please note that you need to have been invited by your school in order to use this app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Firefly for Students at 3.9 against SIMS Student's 1.6. Firefly for Students also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (25% vs 12%). SIMS Student's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Firefly for Students holds the better App Store score, 3.9 against 1.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41 and 9 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of Firefly for Students's written reviews are positive against 12% of SIMS Student's.
Firefly for Students ships an update fortnightly, SIMS Student every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Firefly for Students | SIMS Student |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.9 (41 ratings) — better | 1.6 (9 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 24.7% of reviews — better | 12.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 41 — better | 9 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 67 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Firefly Learning Limited | Education Software Solutions Ltd |
Customer experience
Firefly for Students
SIMS Student
User reviews
Firefly for Students
From 41 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 📱 Convenient mobile access to homework and tasks
- 📅 Helpful for organizing school schedule and deadlines
- ⚡ Quick task notifications when assignments are set
- 👍 Useful for tracking homework completion
- 🎯 Clear visibility of upcoming deadlines
Room to improve
- 🐢 Extremely slow loading times
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezes
- ❌ Tasks don't sync between app and website
- 🔄 Marked tasks reappear as incomplete
- ⚠️ Tasks fail to load or display properly
SIMS Student
From 9 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Works well for some users
- 💡 Useful for timetables and homework
- 🚀 Loads quickly for some
- 👍 Easy to submit work and receive feedback
- 👍 Informs about attendance
Room to improve
- 🐛 Constantly logs out users
- 🐛 Fails to load or is very slow
- 🐛 Login issues (incorrect details, unauthorized access)
- 🐛 Password reset emails not sent
- 🐛 Homework not showing or disappearing
Bugs and requests
Firefly for Students
Reported bugs
15 issues- App stuck on 'Connecting to school' loading screen
- White blank screen on app launch
- Tasks not syncing between mobile app and website
- Completed tasks reappearing as overdue
- Timetable not loading or displaying correctly
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- Task descriptions showing as blank
- App crashing when opening tasks or attachments
- Hyperlinks unresponsive when clicked
- PDF files unable to open or display
- Notifications showing incorrect task counts
- Tasks disappearing or not appearing until due date
- App resetting or reloading unexpectedly
- Slow navigation between app sections
- File upload names changing to random codes
- Messages showing unread count but displaying none
Requested features
10 requests- Dark mode option
- Landscape orientation support for tablets
- Bulk mark tasks as done functionality
- Better file attachment handling with readable names
- Improved notification management
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- Faster app performance and responsiveness
- Sync completion status across all devices instantly
- Clickable hyperlinks in task descriptions
- Resource access within the app
- Offline functionality improvements
SIMS Student
Reported bugs
18 issues- App logs users out randomly
- App gets stuck on loading screen
- Timetables not showing with poor internet
- Cannot log in even with correct details
- Password reset emails are not sent
Show 13 moreShow fewer
- Homework tab never works
- App never loads
- Unable to access account
- App shows white screen on opening
- Unauthorized access error
- App not working on mobile data, only Wi-Fi
- Homework doesn't disappear after due date
- App crashes frequently
- Login authentication problems
- Parent app not linking accounts
- App not working on school Wi-Fi
- App not working after reinstalling
- Failed to load user profile
Requested features
9 requests- Allow offline timetable access
- Improve login process for non-English speakers
- Add option to delete old homework
- Auto-delete messages after a certain period
- Ability to manually delete messages
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Update for newer iPhone screen sizes
- More features beyond email functionality
- Option to mark homework as done before due date
- Show previous days on timetable
In-app purchases
Firefly for Students
No in-app purchases
SIMS Student
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Firefly for Students free?
Is SIMS Student free?
Which has better reviews, Firefly for Students or SIMS Student?
Do Firefly for Students or SIMS Student have ads?
Which is updated more often, Firefly for Students or SIMS Student?
Other comparisons
