# Firefly for Students vs SIMS Student

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.

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.

## The numbers

| Metric | Firefly for Students | SIMS Student |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[3.9 (41 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/firefly-for-students/id1174832425/reviews)** | [1.6 (9 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sims-student/id1191484989/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **41** | 9 |
| Positive reviews | **24.7% of reviews** | 12.0% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Fortnightly** | Every 2 months |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Size | 67 MB | 36 MB |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | **11.0** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Firefly Learning Limited](https://appshunter.io/developer/554504009) | [Education Software Solutions Ltd](https://appshunter.io/developer/1568267003) |

## What reviewers say

### Firefly for Students

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/firefly-for-students/id1174832425)

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.

**Highlights:** View school timetable, Check homework assignments, See grades and feedback, Manage personal to-do list, Submit homework with files, Receive homework notifications

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 📱 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

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐢 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

**Reported bugs**

- 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

**Requested features**

- Dark mode option
- Landscape orientation support for tablets
- Bulk mark tasks as done functionality
- Better file attachment handling with readable names
- Improved notification management


### SIMS Student

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sims-student/id1191484989)

Access your school life details with this application. You must be invited by your school to use its features.

**Highlights:** Access school life details, School-specific access, Student portal

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 👍 Works well for some users
- 💡 Useful for timetables and homework
- 🚀 Loads quickly for some
- 👍 Easy to submit work and receive feedback
- 👍 Informs about attendance

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 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

**Reported bugs**

- 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

**Requested features**

- 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


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Firefly for Students free?

Firefly for Students is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is SIMS Student free?

SIMS Student is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, Firefly for Students or SIMS Student?

Firefly for Students is rated higher. Firefly for Students averages 3.9 out of 5 from 41 ratings, while SIMS Student averages 1.6 from 9 ratings.

### Do Firefly for Students or SIMS Student have ads?

Neither Firefly for Students nor SIMS Student shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Firefly for Students or SIMS Student?

Firefly for Students ships an update fortnightly, and SIMS Student every 2 months. Most recently, Firefly for Students was updated on October 19, 2026 and SIMS Student on October 21, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*