Comparison

ORB Participant vs Rex

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Manage Award progress
  • Set up activities
  • Create progress logs
  • Submit Award sections
  • Assessor and Leader approval
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Rex

This app offers an interactive learning experience by explaining concepts aloud and allowing users to manipulate 3D models and live charts. It consolidates notes, PDFs, and web research onto a single canvas and supports collaborative study sessions.

Highlights
  • Voice explanations of questions
  • Interactive 3D scenes and live charts
  • Consolidated study canvas
  • Lecture transcription and note-taking
  • Read-aloud functionality for notes and PDFs
  • Language practice with real scenes
  • Live collaborative study boards
Read full description

Rex is a study companion that teaches out loud. Ask a question and hear it explained on a board you can draw on, pull apart, and keep. Most study apps hand you more text to read. Rex shows you the thing itself: a heart mid-beat, a cell you can fly into, a physics problem you can grab and change while it runs. ASK, AND ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND Type or speak a question and get a clear explanation built onto the board in front of you, not buried in a chat log. Ask about what is already on your board and Rex can see it. ONE BOARD FOR THE WHOLE CLASS Notes, PDFs, drawings, timers, recordings, graphs, checklists and web research sit side by side on one canvas. Stop switching between five apps to study one subject. 3D SCENES AND LIVE CHARTS Explore over 70 interactive charts and 20 explorable 3D scenes across biology, physics, chemistry, earth science and computing. Zoom from a whole body down to a single molecule. Change the inputs and watch what happens. RECORD THE LECTURE, GET THE NOTES Rex transcribes while you record, so your notes write themselves. LISTEN INSTEAD OF READING Any note, PDF or scanned page can be read aloud in a natural voice, each sentence highlighted as it is spoken. Photographed pages work too. SPEAK A NEW LANGUAGE Practise in twenty languages by walking through real scenes and talking with characters who answer back. STUDY TOGETHER Share a board and work on it live with classmates. FREE TO START The whiteboard and the core study tools are free. SUBSCRIPTIONS Pro, $11.99 per month. Pro Annual, $99.99 per year, which is about 36 percent less than paying monthly. Premium AI features, higher daily limits, class memory that persists between sessions, premium voice, study video generation and live board sharing require an auto-renewing Pro subscription. Prices are charged from day one and there is no free trial. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://rexstudyapp.com/privacy.html

Screenshots

ORB Participant4 screens
Rex4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Rex at 5.0 against ORB Participant's 3.1. Rex also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months). ORB Participant's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ratings volume (66 vs 1). On price, ads 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. Rex sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. ORB Participant asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Rex holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ORB Participant has 66 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ORB Participant ships an update every 4 months, Rex weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
ORB Participant versus Rex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterORB ParticipantRex
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.1 (66 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews31.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings66 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB108 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperThe Duke of Edinburgh's International Award FoundationOran Egbuchunam

Customer experience

ORB Participant

All ratings67 ratings
Positive49.3%
Neutral4.5%
Negative46.3%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive31.8%
Neutral16.4%
Negative51.8%

Rex

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
Show 13 more
  • 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
Show 12 more
  • 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

Rex

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

ORB Participant

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Rex

Subscriptions2
  • Pro$12.991 Month
  • Rex Pro Annual$99.991 Year

Questions

Is ORB Participant free?
ORB Participant is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Rex free?
Rex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ORB Participant or Rex?
Rex is rated higher. ORB Participant averages 3.1 out of 5 from 66 ratings, while Rex averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do ORB Participant or Rex have ads?
Neither ORB Participant nor Rex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ORB Participant or Rex?
ORB Participant ships an update every 4 months, and Rex weekly. Most recently, ORB Participant was updated on November 2, 2026 and Rex on October 31, 2026.

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