Comparison

Spelling Teacher SE vs Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

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

Head to head
About

Spelling Teacher SE

This app helps students improve their spelling skills with pre-made lists for K-6 grades or custom word lists. It offers interactive learning activities, practice tests, and progress tracking, making it a valuable tool for teachers and parents.

Highlights
  • 210 teacher-defined spelling lists (K-6)
  • Custom word and sentence lists
  • Hear words in sentences
  • Smart practice based on missed words
  • Interactive learning activities
  • Printable/emailable test results
  • Multiuser support
Features
Read full description

Thank You for all the amazing feedback!!! This is a great app for spelling. You can use the predetermined list of words or make up your own list. I really like the feature where you can hear the word in a sentence. This will be great for my classroom and the best part it saves time on checking papers. Highly recommended for teachers and parents. Team up with the entire Pop the Penguin gang to advance your students’ spelling skills. Spelling Teacher School Edition was developed to help your student/child become an accomplished speller while meeting language arts common core spelling standards for K-6th grades. Included with the app are 30 weekly spelling lists per K-6 grade, 210 different spelling lists in all. The word lists were developed by teachers using word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, and other meaningful combinations to assist in the learning. Including lists for grades K-6 in one app allows students to advance based upon their ability no matter what grade they are in. This allows teachers to create individualized spelling programs based upon each student’s skills. The app also provides a simple process for creating custom weekly lists so that students can practice words and take practice tests on words assigned by their primary school teachers. Schools that use this product can eliminate the purchase of paper spelling workbooks saving thousands of dollars over the years. The Spelling Teacher School edition app includes Julia, your child's private spelling teacher who interacts with your student while playing fun learning activities. Teacher Julia also reads words and sentences during spelling practice and while taking weekly spelling tests. Of course, if desired a student can make their own recordings of assigned words and sentences, expanding their learning and having even more fun. Spelling Teacher School edition includes 5 fun spelling activities which helps students master their weekly words list. Spelling Teacher also provides suggestions for homework assignments, a word list practice function, smart practice function which provides students only the words that they missed from the last practice session they completed, and a testing function that parents/teachers can use for administering a weekly spelling test. Spelling Teacher corrects tests and practice tests for parents and teachers and provides the ability to print or e-mail the child's results. With multiuser support, Spelling Teacher School Edition is the most capable and advanced spelling app on the App store. Whether you are a parent looking to advance your child’s spelling ability or a teacher looking for a fun and efficient way to help students meet language arts common core standards, this app is for you. Spelling Teacher School Edition product fun features: • 210 teacher-defined spelling word lists for grades K-6 • Completely customize lists with your own words and sentences • Smart Practice based off missed words from a previous practice session or test • Teacher Julia can automatically read each of your words and sentences to you or you can record your own voice for words and sentences • 5 fun spelling activities to help students master their weekly words list • Multi-user functionality for households and schools without 1 to 1 iPads • Print or e-mail practice session, homework and test results • Fun space atmosphere to learn with the entire Pop the Penguin gang

About

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

This app enhances English spelling and reading skills through phonics lessons, word patterns, and a unique reverse phonics approach. It scientifically helps students improve their spelling, covering over 750 high-frequency words and 52 instructional lists.

Highlights
  • Phonics lessons and word patterns
  • Reverse phonics approach
  • 750+ high-frequency words
  • 52 instructional lessons
  • Contextual spelling rule hints
  • Progress tracking for 40 users
  • Exportable progress reports
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Simplex Spelling is one of the best ways to improve English spelling and reading skills. Using a powerful combination of phonics lessons, spelling/word patterns, syllabication, our unique “reverse phonics” (phonics encoding) approach and contextually relevant spelling rules. Scientifically validated as a highly effective approach to improving spelling skills, a published study revealed that students demonstrated an average spelling improvement of 1.9 grades among children in a classroom setting who regularly used Simplex Spelling over a 18 week period. The largest student improvement observed over the same time period was 4.4 grade levels as assessed by administering the Schonell Spelling Test. 

Teaching over a year of spelling curriculum with more than 750 high frequency words divided into 52 lists that are organized by spelling patterns and difficulty levels. Each of the 52 lists comes with a lesson that teaches one of the basic building blocks of spelling in the English language. Students learn a new concept for each lesson building on the skills learned from previous lessons and those covered in Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 & 2. Simplex Spelling Phonics Advanced Phonograms guides the student and acts as a personal spelling coach with every word, while teaching students "how to spell" English words. Every word is broken down into its syllables both visually and auditorily to help students build phonological awareness skills. Our “reverse phonics” hint feature breaks each word down further into individual phonemes to improve phonemic awareness, a critical skill in achieving literacy. Simplex Spelling Advanced Phonograms focuses on some of the more difficult phonograms in the English language in addition to lessons covering contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. Recommended age 9+
 
Note: You can not create your own spelling lists.

 Features: 
 - Over 750 high frequency spelling words to help build literacy. - Words are spoken and used in a sentence to establish context and improve vocabulary. 
 - Introductory spelling list seamlessly leads a student through all of the application’s features.
 - 52 instructional lessons teach phonics, phonograms, spelling rules, contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. 
- A full “reverse phonics” approach that builds phonemic awareness. - Contextually relevant spelling rule hints that help explain “how to spell” English words.
 - Letter by letter feedback system provides feedback while the student is in the process of spelling each word. 
 - Support for 40 user accounts. 
 - Remembers each user’s progress in every list.
 - User stats screen track progress with every word. - Export and email progress reports. - Ability to set the number of times a word must be spelled correctly to become mastered. 
 - Supports upper and lower case letters.
 - Supports alphabetic and QWERTY keyboard layouts. 
- Supports US, UK and Canadian English spelling of words.

 Please check the word lists provided on www.pyxwise.com to ensure that the word lists provided in Simplex Spelling meet your educational needs. - Advanced Phonograms has previously been featured by Apple as New & Noteworthy in 20 countries. - "Best Educational App of 2014" - Balefire Labs. -iTeach: Apps For The Classroom - "I was immediately in awe of the design and educational thought that has gone into this product." -Teachers With Apps - Certified Developer - Academics' Choice Award. Privacy Disclosure: 
- Does not contain 3rd party ads 
 - Does not share any data 
 - Does not contain In-App purchases 
 - Contains child protected links in app to developer's website for additional information, support and teaching tips. - Contains child protected link to developer email support. 

COPPA Compliant 
https://pyxwise.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Spelling Teacher SE4 screens
Simplex Spelling Phonics 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 at 4.2 against Spelling Teacher SE's 1.7. Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 also leads on chart position (#187 vs unranked) and review sentiment (92% vs 83%). Spelling Teacher SE's advantage is update cadence (every 6 months vs every 13 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On price, ratings volume, 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

Spelling Teacher SE costs $4.99 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 1.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 5 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Spelling Teacher SE's written reviews are positive against 92% of Simplex Spelling Phonics 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Spelling Teacher SE ships an update every 6 months, Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on June 9, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Spelling Teacher SE versus Simplex Spelling Phonics 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSpelling Teacher SESimplex Spelling Phonics 3
Price$4.99$4.99
Rating1.7 (3 ratings)4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews92.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings35 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 13 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#187 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFormSoft Group, Ltd.Pyxwise Software Inc.

Customer experience

Spelling Teacher SE

All ratings3 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative10.0%

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive92.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Spelling Teacher SE

No in-app purchases

None

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Spelling Teacher SE free?
Spelling Teacher SE costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 free?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Spelling Teacher SE or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 is rated higher. Spelling Teacher SE averages 1.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do Spelling Teacher SE or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 have ads?
Neither Spelling Teacher SE nor Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Spelling Teacher SE or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Spelling Teacher SE ships an update every 6 months, and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. Most recently, Spelling Teacher SE was updated on June 9, 2026 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 on September 13, 2026.

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