ORB Participant vs Cognito
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ORB Participant
Track your progress for The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award. Log activities, manage your sections, and submit them to your Assessor and Award Leader for completion, all from your mobile device.
- Manage Award progress
- Set up activities
- Create progress logs
- Submit Award sections
- Assessor and Leader approval
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This application was developed by The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation as a simple and fast tool to assist Award participants in completing their Award, anytime anywhere. The participant is able to manage their Award progress using the App. They can set up activities, create logs for their progress and also send their Award sections to their Assessor and Award Leader for completion. Your Award must be using the latest version of the Online Record Book system (sometimes known as "ORB Next Generation") and have a valid participant login to the system in order to be able to use this App.
Cognito
Create and practice interactive study materials like flashcards and practice tests. This platform offers a fast and affordable way to prepare for exams with unlimited access to content creation and study tools.
- Create flashcards
- Practice tests
- Study guides
- Notes
- Outlines
- Unlimited content creation
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Cognito is the easiest way to study for your exams! Cognito’s mobile app and website are the fastest and most affordable ways to create and practice interactive study material! We leave our competition in the dust when it comes to affordability and efficiency. Our comprehensive content creation and science-backed study tools are 100% FREE. Yes, that’s right. FREE! Many competing platforms are expensive and take forever to create study material on. Cognito was designed to save you time and money! You can create interactive study material on Cognito in a fraction of the time it would take you to create study material on our competitors’ platforms. You can create flashcards, practice tests, notes, study guides, outlines, and much more! You also don’t have worry about any limitations to the features you can access or the amount you can study because our content creation tools, and core study tools are 100% free and unlimited. We are the new kid on the block, and we have so much to offer! We will be rolling out tons of new features and tools over the next 6 months, including: • Content creation tools that will allow you to automatically create comprehensive flashcard sets for your courses with the touch of a button • Analytics tools that will allow you to view practical insights on your learning progress, performance, and study habits • And much more!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Cognito at 4.9 against ORB Participant's 3.1. Cognito also leads on review sentiment (60% vs 31%) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 4 months). ORB Participant's advantage is ratings volume (67 vs 10). 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.
Cognito holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ORB Participant has 67 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 31% of ORB Participant's written reviews are positive against 60% of Cognito's.
ORB Participant ships an update every 4 months, Cognito every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and June 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ORB Participant | Cognito |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (67 ratings) | 4.9 (10 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.1% of reviews | 60.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 67 — better | 10 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 5 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 12.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 43 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation | Kram Technologies, Inc. |
Customer experience
ORB Participant
Cognito
Bugs and requests
ORB Participant
Reported bugs
18 issues- Hours not accumulating correctly - logs multiple hours as single hour
- Progress bar not increasing when adding logs
- Network error messages appearing despite valid connection
- App crashes when entering journey observations
- App crashes when editing and resubmitting assessments
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- Login logout issues preventing re-access
- Payment details field not accepting input during registration
- Award leader change not persisting after switching schools
- Confirmation buttons not scaling properly on mobile screens
- Photo/link attachment not saving on iPhone
- Copy-paste functionality only adding partial text
- Long text input being deleted when submitting
- Cannot delete additional activities even without logs
- Approval emails not being received by assessors
- Assessments getting stuck in 'waiting for approval' state
- App not loading after login despite successful authentication
- Persistent notification bubble that won't disappear
- Inconsistent hour calculations across activities
Requested features
17 requests- Ability to edit activities and submissions after approval
- Resend assessment/approval functionality
- Message/comment system between users and leaders
- View approved evidence and journey details after submission
- Edit activity names if misspelled
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- Support for 5-minute time intervals instead of 15-minute
- Delete authorized awards option
- Change major activity selection
- Upload photos from files instead of gallery only
- Edit overview and plan sections of adventurous journey
- Clearer information about hour reset timing
- Include Duke of Ed information within the app
- Support for sub-submissions in log details
- Resend assessment button on mobile app (exists on website)
- Larger description text box with line break support
- Countdown percentage for remaining award completion
- Remove persistent notification badges
Cognito
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ORB Participant
No in-app purchases
Cognito
No in-app purchases
