Comparison

Piazza vs CourseMonkey

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

Head to head
About

Piazza

This platform facilitates communication and learning for higher education. Students can ask and answer questions, while instructors can monitor student engagement. It provides real-time updates and a centralized space for class interactions.

Highlights
  • Ask and answer questions
  • Real-time updates
  • Centralized class communication
  • Student engagement monitoring
  • Mobile access for students and instructors
Read full description

Piazza is the leading social learning platform for higher education, used by hundreds of thousands of students and more than 15 thousand professors for centralized class communications and polling. If you're a student, the Piazza app lets you ask and answer questions in all your Piazza classes from your mobile device, and updates you in real time when your peers are engaged. If you're an instructor, the app gives you a simple way to check in on your students during those spare moments between meetings. Stay connected to your class with Piazza!

About

CourseMonkey

Engage with campus life by swiping to answer student-generated polls on courses, campus life, and more. Discover real grade distributions and create your own polls to share with friends or your entire campus.

Highlights
  • Swipe to answer polls
  • View poll results and creators
  • Create custom polls
  • See real grade distributions
  • Organize friends into circles
  • Unlock customization options
Features
Read full description

CourseMonkey: your campus, one swipe at a time. Every card is a question. Swipe to answer, then flip it to see how everyone else swiped. Some cards are about courses and profs. Some are about whether you should bring your funky dog to campus. All of them are made by students like you. SWIPE, DON'T SCROLL Two decks: Following, for cards from people and courses you care about, and Explore, for what your campus is talking about right now. Every card takes two seconds to answer - and then come the results. FLIP FOR THE RESULTS Once you swipe, tap to flip the card: see the split, the vote count, and who made it. It's a poll, a meme, and a conversation in one. MAKE YOUR OWN CARDS Got a hot take, a GIF that sums up midterm season, or a genuine question? Make a card in seconds, pick who sees it: your whole campus, your friends, or people who took the same course, and watch the votes roll in. REAL GRADE DISTRIBUTIONS Before you register, see how a course actually grades: averages, medians, and the full grade breakdown, alongside what students said about it. YOUR CIRCLES Bring your people into circles and see how the people you actually trust swiped. BUILD YOUR COLLECTION Unlock name colors, styles, and badges as you contribute. Mix and match to make it yours. Courses, campus, and groupchat vibes - all in one deck. Come swipe.

Screenshots

Piazza3 screens
CourseMonkey4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Piazza at 2.1 against CourseMonkey's 1.0. Piazza also leads on ratings volume (282 vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Piazza holds the better App Store score, 2.1 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Piazza has 282 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Piazza ships an update every 11 days, CourseMonkey every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Piazza versus CourseMonkey: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPiazzaCourseMonkey
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.1 (282 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews14.2% of reviews—
Number of ratings282 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 11 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB59 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPiazza Technologies, Inc.4Utopia, Inc.

Customer experience

Piazza

All ratings279 ratings
Positive20.8%
Neutral10.0%
Negative69.2%
Written reviews113 reviews
Positive14.2%
Neutral11.5%
Negative74.3%

CourseMonkey

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Piazza

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inability to post or reply
  • Randomly logs out users
  • Fails to load posts and resources
  • Incompatible with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Ability to access course materials
  • Improved formatting and editing tools
  • Better organization of posts and discussions
  • Seamless integration with web version

CourseMonkey

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Piazza

No in-app purchases

None

CourseMonkey

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Piazza free?
Piazza is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CourseMonkey free?
CourseMonkey is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Piazza or CourseMonkey?
Piazza is rated higher. Piazza averages 2.1 out of 5 from 282 ratings, while CourseMonkey averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Piazza or CourseMonkey have ads?
Neither Piazza nor CourseMonkey shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Piazza or CourseMonkey?
Piazza ships an update every 11 days, and CourseMonkey every 2 weeks. Most recently, Piazza was updated on October 24, 2026 and CourseMonkey on October 24, 2026.

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