ASSIST vs The Commons
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ASSIST
This app automates the grading of various student assessments, including bubble sheets captured by camera. It allows educators to log and review individual student results, manage collaborative learning activities, and aggregate data by student, class, or standard.
- Automated assessment grading
- Bubble sheet scanning
- Student result logging
- Collaborative activity scoring
- Immediate result review
- Data aggregation
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● Administer and collect student results from common, summative, formative and rubrics-based assessments ● Automatically grades bubble sheets captured by camera by identifying encoded student ID and comparing to teacher-defined key. ● Log individual student results to any assessment type ● Manage and score collaborative learning activities ● Immediately review the results of any assessment in ASSIST ● Results from ASSIST can be uploaded and aggregated by student, class, campus, assessment and standard
The Commons
This app helps students stay focused during school hours by pausing access to distracting apps like social media and games. It automatically activates at school and deactivates when the day ends, ensuring essential academic and communication apps remain accessible. It prioritizes privacy with no tracking or data collection.
- Automatic focus activation at school
- Blocks distracting apps during school hours
- Keeps essential academic apps accessible
- Privacy-first with no tracking
- Builds stronger tech habits
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The Commons™ – Airplane Mode For Schools Let’s be real phones are amazing. But at School? They can be a total distraction. The Commons helps students stay focused during the school day without giving up their phones. No pouches. No locks. Just fewer distractions. Built with privacy first, The Commons automatically pauses access to distracting apps like social media, games, and other non-academic content during school hours while keeping school-approved, medical, and essential communication apps available. The result? More focus. Better learning. Stronger habits. Features • Automatically activates when you arrive at school • Restricts distracting apps during school hours • Keeps approved educational and essential apps available per your school's phone policy • Automatically turns off when the school day ends Privacy First Your privacy matters. The Commons never accesses your messages, browsing history, photos, social media content, or location history. Learn more about our privacy commitment: the-commons.app/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: ASSIST at 2.0 against The Commons's 1.3. The Commons's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (327 vs 4). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
ASSIST holds the better App Store score, 2.0 against 1.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Commons has 327 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 5% of ASSIST's written reviews are positive against 13% of The Commons's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
ASSIST ships an update every 4 months, The Commons every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ASSIST | The Commons |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.0 (4 ratings) — better | 1.3 (327 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 4.8% of reviews | 12.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 327 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 22 MB | 55 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | ALL In Learning | The Commons, Inc. |
Customer experience
ASSIST
The Commons
Bugs and requests
ASSIST
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
The Commons
Reported bugs
2 issues- VPN doesn't work properly when traveling
- Slows down messaging and other apps
Requested features
3 requests- Allow access to certain apps during school hours
- Improve VPN functionality when traveling
- Provide more transparency on data collection and usage
In-app purchases
ASSIST
No in-app purchases
The Commons
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is ASSIST free?
Is The Commons free?
Which has better reviews, ASSIST or The Commons?
Do ASSIST or The Commons have ads?
Which is updated more often, ASSIST or The Commons?
Other comparisons
