The Commons vs CourseSLM
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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
CourseSLM
This AI teaching assistant helps educators create custom chatbots for their courses, grounded in specific lesson materials. Students can use it to review concepts and get help within the context of their studies, offering a focused and responsible learning tool.
- Course-specific AI chat
- Upload instructor materials (PDFs)
- Privacy-preserving design
- Classroom-centered customization
- Contextual learning support
- AI-powered review and clarification
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CourseSLM is a privacy-preserving AI teaching assistant designed for educators, schools, universities, and community learning programs. With CourseSLM, instructors can create a course-specific assistant grounded in their own lesson materials or instructional content (PDF files). Instead of giving students a general-purpose chatbot, CourseSLM helps educators provide a more focused learning tool that responds within the context of the course. CourseSLM can help students review concepts, clarify confusing material, prepare for assignments, and engage with lessons at their own pace. It is not intended to replace teachers. It is built to support educator-defined learning boundaries so students can ask questions while staying connected to instructor materials and give students another way to access help when they need it. CourseSLM is built by AVELA AI to make AI tools more useful, accessible, and responsible in real educational settings. Key features include course-grounded AI chat, support for uploading instructor-provided materials, privacy-focused design, and classroom-centered customization.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: CourseSLM at 100% against The Commons's 13%. CourseSLM also leads on rating (5.0 vs 1.3). The Commons's advantage is ratings volume (327 vs 4) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 26.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
CourseSLM holds the better App Store score, 5.0 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 point the same way: 13% of The Commons's written reviews are positive against 100% of CourseSLM's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Commons | CourseSLM |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.3 (327 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 12.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 327 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | The Commons, Inc. | AVELA - A Vision for Engineering Literacy & Access |
Customer experience
The Commons
CourseSLM
Bugs and 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
CourseSLM
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Commons
No in-app purchases
CourseSLM
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is The Commons free?
Is CourseSLM free?
Which has better reviews, The Commons or CourseSLM?
Do The Commons or CourseSLM have ads?
Which is updated more often, The Commons or CourseSLM?
Other comparisons
