Comparison

Scholarships.com vs Scholarly

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

Head to head
About

Scholarships.com

Discover and apply for scholarships and grants quickly. This platform connects students and families with billions in financial aid opportunities, offering a free and trusted resource for college funding.

Highlights
  • Scholarship and grant search
  • Apply in minutes
  • No essay scholarships
  • Local scholarships by state
  • Merit-based scholarships
  • Scholarships for diverse students
Features
Read full description

Find and apply for scholarships and grants fast. Scholarships.com is the most trusted scholarship search platform, connecting over 26 million students and families with more than $19 billion in financial aid opportunities, completely free. Scholarships for High School Students Junior or senior, start your college scholarship search today. Browse scholarships for high school juniors, seniors, and first-generation students all in one place. No Essay Scholarships Apply in minutes, no essays required. Local Scholarships by State Search scholarships by state to find local awards near you. Nearly 50% of our database is location-based, giving you better odds of winning. Merit-Based Scholarships Earn scholarships for academic achievement, GPA, and talent, regardless of financial need. Scholarships for Every Student Hispanic scholarships, scholarships for Black students, first-generation college scholarships, and more. Over 3.7 million scholarships and grants available, all free. From unusual scholarships to full-tuition college scholarships, start your search today

About

Scholarly

Discover scholarships tailored to your profile with personalized matching. This app assists in drafting essays and tracks all your applications, deadlines, and statuses in one organized dashboard. Spend less time searching and more time applying to opportunities you qualify for.

Highlights
  • Personalized scholarship matching
  • AI-assisted essay drafting
  • Application deadline tracking
  • Swipe interface for browsing
  • Smart profile for data reuse
  • Secure data handling
Features
Read full description

Find scholarships you're actually eligible for. Scholarly matches you to real scholarships based on your profile, then helps you draft essays and track every application in one place. Stop Wasting Time on Scholarships You Can't Win Every year, students waste hours scrolling generic scholarship databases and filling out applications they never had a shot at. Match to scholarships based on your GPA, state, major, and background Draft essays in minutes instead of hours Track every deadline and status in one dashboard Built for students, not fundraising companies Scholarly helps you spend less time searching and more time winning. Onboarding takes two minutes — then you start swiping through scholarships picked for you. PERSONALIZED MATCHING Tell Scholarly about your school, GPA, field of study, citizenship, and background. Our matching engine filters out scholarships you don't qualify for so you only see opportunities worth your time. No more sorting through thousands of irrelevant listings. SWIPE TO APPLY Browse scholarships in a clean, fast swipe interface. Every card shows the award amount, deadline, and eligibility at a glance. Swipe right to save it to your applications. Swipe left to skip. AI ESSAY ASSISTANCE Provide a writing sample or a few notes about yourself, and Scholarly generates a personalized first draft for any scholarship essay prompt. Drafts are a starting point — fully editable, clearly labeled, and written in your voice, not a generic template. APPLICATION TRACKING Every scholarship you save lands in your Applications dashboard with its deadline, amount, and status. Never miss a due date. Never lose track of where you are in the process. SMART PROFILE Enter your information once. Scholarly reuses it across every application so you're not retyping your GPA, address, and school for the fiftieth time. BUILT FOR EVERY STUDENT High school seniors planning for college. Current undergrads covering tuition. Graduate students. First-generation applicants. Non-traditional students returning to school. Scholarly surfaces opportunities for all of them. WHY SCHOLARLY? Personalized matching — only see scholarships you qualify for AI-assisted essay drafting in your own voice Clean swipe interface built for speed Deadline and application tracking in one place Secure data handling — your information is never sold Built by students, for students Scholarly isn't another endless scholarship database. It's the tool that finds the ones that actually fit you, helps you apply faster, and keeps you organized from first swipe to final submission. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS Scholarly is an auto-renewing subscription service. A subscription is required to use the app. Plans start at $9.99/week or $59.99/year or $19.99/month. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions auto-renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store Account Settings. Scholarly uses Apple's Standard EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://tryscholarly.app/privacy.html

Screenshots

Scholarships.com4 screens
Scholarly4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Scholarships.com at 100% against Scholarly's 26%. Scholarships.com also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Scholarly's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 5 weeks) and ratings volume (3.7K vs 5). On price and ads 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

Both are free to download. Scholarly sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Scholarships.com asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Scholarships.com holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Scholarly has 3.7K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Scholarships.com's written reviews are positive against 26% of Scholarly's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Scholarships.com ships an update every 5 weeks, Scholarly every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Scholarships.com versus Scholarly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterScholarships.comScholarly
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (5 ratings) — better4.7 (3.7K ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better25.6% of reviews
Number of ratings53.7K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
Best chart rank#174 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size43 MB59 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperScholarships.com, LLCNeedThat Studio LLC

Customer experience

Scholarships.com

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Scholarly

All ratings3,744 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral1.1%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews86 reviews
Positive25.6%
Neutral1.2%
Negative73.3%

In-app purchases

None

Scholarships.com

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

Scholarly

Subscriptions10
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro Mega Sale$6.991 Month
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro$9.991 Month
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro$14.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro$19.991 Month
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro Mega Sale$19.991 Year
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro3 Days trial$19.991 Month
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro$29.991 Year
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro Sale$39.991 Year
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro$59.991 Year
  • Unlock Scholarly Pro3 Days trial$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Scholarships.com free?
Scholarships.com is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Scholarly free?
Scholarly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Scholarships.com or Scholarly?
Scholarships.com is rated higher. Scholarships.com averages 5.0 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Scholarly averages 4.7 from 3.7K ratings.
Do Scholarships.com or Scholarly have ads?
Neither Scholarships.com nor Scholarly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Scholarships.com or Scholarly?
Scholarships.com ships an update every 5 weeks, and Scholarly every 3 days. Most recently, Scholarships.com was updated on September 10, 2026 and Scholarly on September 24, 2026.

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