Rugs alive vs SmartTeach
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rugs alive
This augmented reality app brings alphabet rugs to life, allowing children to explore 3D animals and learn letters and habitats. Kids can interact with animals, take photos, and enjoy an educational music video.
- Augmented reality animal interaction
- 3D animal exploration
- Learn letters and habitats
- Interactive music video
- Photo opportunities with animals
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This is the accompanying app that will make our Classroom Rugs come alive and become interactive with the magic of augmented reality (3D without glasses). Match one of our seven habitat cards (pdf) with the correct animal on the rug and watch that animal come alive! Your device's camera then acts like a magic window allowing kids to walk around and explore the animal from all sides. Kids can also pose with and take pictures of their friends with the animals! This mind-boggling app helps create highly-engaging and magical learning experiences. Kids can learn about upper and lowercase letters as well as animal habitats from around the world. Great for early readers and STEM programs in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms. As a bonus, you can watch our Zoo Crew Alphabet Music Video by scanning the logo in the center of your Classroom Rug. This 5-minute, entertaining and educational song introduces each of the 26 animals one-by-one as well as the alphabet letters in upper and lowercase. Rugs alive™ requires the purchase of one of our Classroom Rugs, which can be purchased at www.RugsAlive.com.
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 update cadence: SmartTeach at monthly against Rugs alive's every 10 months. SmartTeach also leads on ratings volume (1.2K vs 2). Rugs alive's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and iOS requirement (8.1 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.
Rugs alive holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SmartTeach has 1.2K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Rugs alive ships an update every 10 months, SmartTeach monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rugs alive | SmartTeach |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 24.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 1.2K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 168 MB | 103 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alive Studios, LLC | Teaching Strategies, LLC |
Customer experience
Rugs alive
SmartTeach
Bugs and requests
Rugs alive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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
Rugs alive
No in-app purchases
SmartTeach
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Rugs alive free?
Is SmartTeach free?
Which has better reviews, Rugs alive or SmartTeach?
Do Rugs alive or SmartTeach have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rugs alive or SmartTeach?
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