Showbie vs SwiftGrade
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
SwiftGrade
Automate the grading of paper and online assessments using AI. This tool scans student papers, grades various question types including essays, and provides insightful statistics to save educators time and improve work-life balance.
- Auto-scan student papers
- Rapid grading of 20 papers in under 40 seconds
- AI grading for essays and complex math
- Supports rubric and part-mark grading
- Auto-groups similar answers for feedback
- Generates meaningful assessment statistics
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SwiftGrade saves you hours grading paper assessments. --- FULL AI GRADING AT GOSWIFTGRADE.COM: Upload scanned handwritten assessments and get detailed feedback for every student, on every question — in minutes. • Tests, quizzes & assignments — every question graded with personalized feedback • Essays, projects & lab reports — graded against your rubric, with feedback on every criterion • Grades a wide range of handwritten work, including math, graphs, diagrams, tables, code, and responses in virtually any language --- TWO WAYS TO GRADE: 1. Upload Assessments (website — goswiftgrade.com): • Upload scanned student work as a PDF • Upload your answer key / rubric and our AI grades with personalized feedback 2. Answer Sheet Scanning (this app): • Create multiple-choice answer keys and print bubble sheets on regular paper • Scan completed sheets with your phone for instant grading • Or skip paper — students can fill out answer sheets online Note: Our app scans SwiftGrade answer sheets only. To grade any other assessment, upload it at goswiftgrade.com on your computer. --- POWERFUL REVIEW AND EDIT TOOLS: • Bulk Editing: Edit feedback and marks for multiple students at once • Images of student responses shown side by side with AI feedback • View responses by question (e.g., all responses to Q#1) • Analytics showing where your class struggled --- SHARE RESULTS WITH STUDENTS: • Choose which results, feedback, and marks students can see • Release results to students in a few clicks --- TRUSTED BY TEACHERS: • Featured on Dragons' Den (Canada's Shark Tank) • District Administration Top Ed-Tech Award winner • AWS EdStart Member
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SwiftGrade at 100% against Showbie's 36%. SwiftGrade also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.7) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). Showbie's advantage is update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (238 vs 11). 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. SwiftGrade asks for nothing beyond the download.
SwiftGrade holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Showbie has 238 ratings behind it against 11, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 36% of Showbie's written reviews are positive against 100% of SwiftGrade's.
Showbie ships an update every 8 days, SwiftGrade every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Showbie | SwiftGrade |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (238 ratings) | 4.9 (11 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.1% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 238 — better | 11 |
| Update frequency | Every 8 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 297 MB | 85 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Showbie Inc. | Educora Inc. |
Customer experience
Showbie
SwiftGrade
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
SwiftGrade
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Showbie
- Showbie Pro$239.99
SwiftGrade
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Showbie free?
Is SwiftGrade free?
Which has better reviews, Showbie or SwiftGrade?
Do Showbie or SwiftGrade have ads?
Which is updated more often, Showbie or SwiftGrade?
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