SmartTeach vs Onboard Buddy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
Onboard Buddy
This platform offers weekly professional development for early childhood educators. It includes live coaching sessions, quizzes, and an AI assistant for practical strategies. Designed for Infant, Toddler, and Pre-K teachers.
- Weekly professional development
- Live 60-minute coaching sessions
- Short quizzes
- AI Teacher Assistant
- Practical strategies for educators
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Onboard Buddy is the weekly professional development platform built for early childhood educators. Join live 60-minute coaching sessions every Wednesday, complete short quizzes, and get instant support from your AI Teacher Assistant — all in one place. Designed for Infant, Toddler, and Pre-K teachers who want practical strategies they can use the very next day. Access requires enrollment — visit onboardbuddy.co to get started.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Onboard Buddy at 100% against SmartTeach's 24%. Onboard Buddy also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.8) and update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). SmartTeach's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (1.2K vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Onboard Buddy sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. SmartTeach asks for nothing beyond the download.
Onboard Buddy 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 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 24% of SmartTeach's written reviews are positive against 100% of Onboard Buddy's.
SmartTeach ships an update monthly, Onboard Buddy fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SmartTeach | Onboard Buddy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (1.2K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 24.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1.2K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 110 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Teaching Strategies, LLC | THE ONBOARD BUDDY LLC |
Customer experience
SmartTeach
Onboard Buddy
Bugs and 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
Onboard Buddy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
SmartTeach
No in-app purchases
Onboard Buddy
- Onboard Buddy Training$199.00
Questions
Is SmartTeach free?
Is Onboard Buddy free?
Which has better reviews, SmartTeach or Onboard Buddy?
Do SmartTeach or Onboard Buddy have ads?
Which is updated more often, SmartTeach or Onboard Buddy?
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