Showbie vs DoodleConnect
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Showbie
This app facilitates paperless learning by allowing teachers to personalize assignments and provide detailed feedback on student work. It supports various feedback methods, including digital ink, text, and voice annotations, and enables the creation of digital portfolios for students. Parents can also be invited to view student progress.
- Personalize assignments and feedback
- Digital ink, text, and voice annotations
- Create digital student portfolios
- Share work from compatible apps
- Real-time class assessment
- Private student chat
- Parental access to student work
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Used by over 3 million teachers and students worldwide, Showbie is the easiest and most effective digital learning app to personalise assignments and feedback on iPad. DNA of Learning: Your Foundation for Student Success Showbie supports the improvement of everyday teaching and learning by elevating four essential strands of effective classroom practice - direct instruction, independent practice, personalised feedback and real-time assessment - all in one platform. Find out how easy it is to assign, collect and review student work from thousands of compatible iPad apps, or have your students complete assignments with Showbie’s built in tools. Provide rich feedback using digital ink, text and voice annotations right on images and PDFs, and then add your students’ best work to personalized digital portfolios that can be securely shared with parents. WHAT EDUCATORS ARE SAYING “Showbie is my number one can't live without app! It makes the iPad workflow process a breeze! I especially love how it works seamlessly with so many other apps.” — Kristen Paino, Lead Technology Integrator at Avenues: The World School “I don't need to convince my colleagues that they need to use this app — it sells itself. I like that it gives me the flexibility in how I choose to grade my student's work, especially with the voice notes feature. There is no single third party app that I would rather champion.” — Suzanne Lustenhouwer, Teacher and iPad Coordinator, Apple Distinguished Educator “I love that Showbie is so versatile that the youngest of students can use it independently, yet it is appropriate for older grades as well. The ease of use makes it a great workflow solution for classes with iPads.” — Kristi Meeuwse, Kindergarten Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator KEY FEATURES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS • Share work from thousands of compatible iPad apps in a few taps • Use the pen tool and pin text notes directly on any PDF or image • Gauge class understanding in real-time with minute-by-minute assessment • Instantly differentiate assignments and materials to specific students • Quickly distribute instructions and materials to your whole class • Chat privately with individual students to provide timely feedback • Record voice notes for verbal feedback or language exercises • Quickly review and assess batches of student work and provide rich, valuable feedback • Add student work to individual digital portfolios, or enable students to curate their own portfolios • Invite parents to view their student’s work and keep them informed of classroom activity • Can be used with any classroom subject • Available in 18 languages ENHANCED SHOWBIE PRO FEATURES • Record and track grades as numeric scores or letter grades, along with qualitative feedback • Provide richer feedback with more pen colours and line thicknesses, by typing on the page, or by pinning voice notes directly to student work • Record longer voice notes and videos and upload larger files • Lock assignments to control student access to documents and feedback • Give parents complete access to assignments in the classes you choose
DoodleConnect
Monitor your child's educational development across multiple learning applications. Stay informed about their achievements, progress through the curriculum, and receive real-time updates on their learning journey.
- Instant progress notifications
- View latest achievements
- Track stars earned
- Follow curriculum progress
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Track your child's progress across all four Doodle apps with DoodleConnect! With the help of DoodleConnect, you can get involved with your child's learning journey like never before. ▶ Key features • Receive instant notifications about their progress • View their latest achievements and see how many stars they've earned • Follow their progress through the curriculum DoodleConnect is free for all Doodle users, whether you have a home or school subscription.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: DoodleConnect at 4.7 against Showbie's 3.7. DoodleConnect also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (56% vs 37%). Showbie's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (237 vs 56). 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
Both are free to download. Showbie sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. DoodleConnect asks for nothing beyond the download.
DoodleConnect holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 237 and 56 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 37% of Showbie's written reviews are positive against 56% of DoodleConnect's.
Showbie ships an update fortnightly, DoodleConnect every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Showbie | DoodleConnect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (237 ratings) | 4.7 (56 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.7% of reviews | 56.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 237 — better | 56 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 294 MB | 37 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Showbie Inc. | Discovery Education Inc. |
Customer experience
Showbie
DoodleConnect
User reviews
Showbie
From 237 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Efficient workflow
- 📚 Helpful for learning
- 🤝 Good for collaboration
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
- 💾 Unreliable file saving and syncing
- 🕰️ Slow performance and lag
- 🔍 Confusing navigation and UI
DoodleConnect
From 56 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for tracking progress
- 👍 Makes learning fun
- 👍 Interactive and engaging
- 👍 Good for home education
- 👍 Provides insightful data
Room to improve
- 🐛 Glitches and bugs
- 🐛 App crashes/switches off
- 🐛 Syncing issues between devices
- 🐛 Not synching with Doodle Connect
- 🐛 Latest update ruined app
Bugs and requests
Showbie
Reported bugs
4 issues- Text boxes disappearing or moving unexpectedly
- Notifications not working correctly
- Assignments not uploading or disappearing
- Compatibility issues on older devices
Requested features
4 requests- Calendar view for assignments
- More annotation tools and customization
- Offline mode for accessing content
- Better integration with other apps
DoodleConnect
Reported bugs
33 issues- Losing streak
- No synching between apps on different devices
- Not synching with Doodle Connect app
- Latest update ruined the app
- Can't understand children's results anymore
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- Lots of annoying little glitches
- Doesn't work on most devices
- App keeps switching off
- Update is not working
- Can't see message and screen freeze on tapping message icon
- Can't go back to view another sibling's account
- Lack accuracy
- Difficult to collate the information needed
- App won't work
- Doesn't really work
- Can only see one or none of children's progress
- Says child is on 0 day streak when they are not
- Too many glitches in system
- Doesn't record all points when signing in across different devices
- Parent app no longer works
- Last version defective
- Parent dashboard cannot log on
- Misleading info, doesn't relate to child's DM app
- Doodle Stars on DM different to parent area and parent app
- Cannot delete and reinstall because info is stored in the cloud
- Delay between parent app and DoodleMaths app
- Today's or yesterday's stars not showing in metrics
- Missing lots of data
- No longer works since update
- Latest version crap, glitchy
- Have to enter credentials regularly
- Live View never shows anything
- App is full of fundamental design flaws
Requested features
35 requests- Bring back old version
- More comprehensive initial test
- More challenging levels
- Option to add extra material for all students
- Better graphing options
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- See everything that is on the website within the app
- Add more data feed options
- Improve user experience
- Improve design
- Option to create graphs of all students
- Option to select metrics for graphing
- Improve Live View functionality
- Real-time syncing between apps and devices
- Fix streak issues
- Fix synching issues with Doodle Connect
- Allow multiple accounts under one login
- Make app more engaging after all questions are done
- Improve accuracy of reports
- Simplify setup process
- Offer combined order discounts
- Improve customer service responsiveness and helpfulness
- Fix login issues
- Improve accuracy of streaks and progress tracking
- Improve message viewing and replying
- Allow switching between sibling accounts easily
- Make app more user-friendly
- Bring back old app features
- Make app more interactive
- Improve data visualization
- Add dark mode
- Improve reporting accuracy
- Fix app freezing issues
- Improve parent app functionality
- Make app more intuitive
- Improve accuracy of Doodle Age
In-app purchases
Showbie
- Showbie Pro$239.99
DoodleConnect
No in-app purchases









