Canvas Teacher vs SmartTeach
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Canvas Teacher
This app allows educators to grade assignments, provide feedback, and manage their classes remotely. It offers tools for annotating work, communicating with students, and updating course content directly from a mobile device.
- Grade assignments with annotations
- Provide audio/video feedback
- Post class announcements
- Reply in discussions
- Send messages
- Update assignment content
- Manage Inbox
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Save time. Teach on the go. Canvas Teacher helps educators, instructors, and teachers grade, give feedback, and manage their classes from anywhere. What you can do • Grade or mark work: Use mobile friendly SpeedGrader to annotate assignments, apply rubrics and give written, audio, or video feedback • Communicate: Post class announcements, reply in discussions, and send messages right from your device • Update content: Adjust due dates, publish/unpublish assignments, or fix typos in seconds • Stay connected: Manage your Inbox, reply to student questions, and keep class communication flowing on the move Canvas Teacher is designed for educators—making mobile grading and class management faster and easier.
SmartTeach
This app helps early childhood educators streamline daily classroom tasks. It simplifies documentation, classroom management, and family communication with easy-to-use tools for online and offline use.
- Create documentation and share insights
- View and teach from daily schedule
- Communicate with families
- Save and share photos/videos
- Assess from curriculum resources
- Track attendance and care routines
- Conduct health screenings
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The SmartTeach® app by Teaching Strategies offers early childhood educators an easy and efficient way to quickly complete essential daily tasks on the fly, online, or offline. The SmartTeach app simplifies teaching, documentation, classroom management, and family engagement throughout the day, enabling teachers to make the most of every moment with easy-to-use tools right at their fingertips. The SmartTeach app is accessible to Teachers and Administrators using Teaching Strategies products such as GOLD®, The Creative Curriculum® Cloud, Kickstart LiteracyTM, and Tadpoles®. Download SmartTeach by Teaching Strategies to access our new and improved features & functionality. SmartTeach offers early childhood educators a single app to support all essential classroom tasks, including: Create documentation and share insights with families View and teach directly from your daily schedule, curriculum, activities, and care routines Communicate with families Save & share photos, videos, and other media across devices View & assess from resources like Intentional Teaching Experiences, Skill Development Cards, and Mighty Minutes®* Identify Infant and Toddler children’s developmental level with the Entry Screener to dynamically populate individualized support for each child* Take attendance, move children or staff, and complete name-to-face checks* Track care routines and share Daily Reports with families* Conduct health screenings for children and/or staff* *Feature availability is dependent on which Teaching Strategies products your classroom licenses.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Canvas Teacher at 96K against SmartTeach's 1.2K. SmartTeach's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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.
SmartTeach holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Canvas Teacher has 96K ratings behind it against 1.2K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 26% of Canvas Teacher's written reviews are positive against 24% of SmartTeach's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. Both last shipped on September 26, 2026.
| Parameter | Canvas Teacher | SmartTeach |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (96K ratings) | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 26.3% of reviews — better | 24.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 96K — better | 1.2K |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 176 MB | 105 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Instructure Inc. | Teaching Strategies, LLC |
Customer experience
Canvas Teacher
SmartTeach
User reviews
Canvas Teacher
From 96K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to navigate
- 🚀 Convenient for grading on the go
- 🚀 Helpful for contacting students
- 👍 Good look and feel
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy and unreliable
- 🐛 Missing key features from desktop version
- 🐛 Slow and glitchy performance
- 🐛 Inconsistent behavior across devices
- 🐛 Loses annotations and comments
SmartTeach
From 1.2K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy and awesome app to track notes and submit to Teaching Strategies Gold
- 👍 Brings together curriculum and assessment
- 👍 Convenient and easy to use
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent technical glitches and bugs
- 🐛 Performance issues
- 🐛 Login issues
- 🐛 Messaging and communication problems
- 🐛 Delayed or failed uploads
Bugs and requests
Canvas Teacher
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashes frequently
- Inability to save grades and annotations
- Inconsistent behavior when rotating device
- Issues with loading student submissions
- Problems with syncing data between app and web version
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to access and edit modules
- Improve grading tools and functionality
- Allow customization of notification settings
- Enhance integration with other platforms
- Improve stability and reliability
SmartTeach
Reported bugs
4 issues- Screener not working when clicking plus sign
- Inability to log in through app, but able to log in on website
- Delayed or failed message delivery
- Uploaded documentation still showing in app, causing confusion
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to select and apply objectives to multiple pieces of documentation at once
- Add ability to select and delete multiple photos/videos at once
- Add ability to change date on add documentation page
- Add landscape mode support for easier typing
- Improve translation and communication features for ESL families
In-app purchases
Canvas Teacher
No in-app purchases
SmartTeach
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Canvas Teacher free?
Is SmartTeach free?
Which has better reviews, Canvas Teacher or SmartTeach?
Do Canvas Teacher or SmartTeach have ads?
Which is updated more often, Canvas Teacher or SmartTeach?
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