Comparison

Engram vs Softbook LMS

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

Head to head
About

Engram

Features
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You study something, you know it, and a week later it's gone. Sound familiar? Forgetting isn't a willpower problem. Most of the time it comes down to two things: how you encode information, and when you review it. Engram is a flashcard app built around exactly those two things. โ–  Review right before you forget FSRS, a modern spaced repetition algorithm, predicts when each card is about to slip away and brings it back just in time. You don't re-read everything every day. Fewer reviews, longer-lasting memory. โ–  Practice how you remember Five encoding strategies from memory research, practiced on your actual cards: - Rephrase: put it in your own words - Self-reference: connect it to your own life - Teach: organize it as if explaining to someone - Story: link ideas into a narrative - Visualize: picture it in your head On-device AI comments on what you write. In Teach mode it becomes a short dialogue that helps you find the fuzzy spots in your understanding. โ–  Memory Palace Place the things you want to remember along a familiar route, then walk it in your head. A classic mnemonic technique, practiced inside the app. โ–  Brain Check Short mini-games measure traits like working memory and plot them on a radar chart. Note: the mini-games are for measuring and tracking your own memory traits. They are not claimed to improve memory overall. โ–  Quick capture Make cards from photos, audio, or text. You can also sketch things by hand to remember them. โ–  Private by design Your study data and all AI processing stay on your iPhone. Nothing is sent to a server, and no account is required. โ–  Engram Pro Unlimited decks, memory palaces, and AI, plus iCloud sync. ยฅ600/month or ยฅ4,000/year, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan. Good for exam prep, language vocabulary, technical terms, names, and anything else you want to keep for the long run. Note on effectiveness: Engram does not claim to improve general memory or intelligence on its own. What it provides is practice with encoding strategies, review scheduling based on spaced repetition, and measurement of your own memory traits. โ€•โ€•โ€• Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://gokigen.space/engram/privacy Subscriptions renew automatically unless turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the period. Your account is charged through the App Store, and you can manage or cancel renewal anytime in your account settings after purchase.

About

Softbook LMS

Features
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Run your online school from your phone, and give your students the app they learn in. The same data as the browser, updated in real time. You need an account at a school that runs on Softbook. Without one, the app won't open. YOUR SCHOOL, RUN FROM A PHONE Students. A searchable list, and a card with courses, progress, access and payments. From that card you grant or revoke access to a course or a single lesson, assign a plan, or block a student. Money and sales. Revenue, sales trends, top products, learning metrics, filtered orders and unpaid invoices. An order opens with its contents, status and actions. Amounts are split by currency and the charts are built for a phone screen. You see how things are going without opening a laptop. CRM. Deals by stage, contacts, tasks. Overdue items are highlighted, a task with a deadline reminds you ahead of time, and a contact becomes a student in one move. Homework review. Filters, attachments, a grade, a comment, files in reply, accepted or rejected. Reviewing no longer waits for the evening at a desk. WHAT YOUR STUDENTS GET Courses and lessons open with everything you put in the builder: video, audio, images, PDFs, files, text, interactive tasks. Video plays at the quality and speed the student picks. Sequence rules and access limits work exactly as they do on the web, so the program doesn't drift between devices. Screen recording doesn't capture video in the app, so a paid course is harder to pass around. Tests run in every format the platform supports. The server handles both the grading and the clock: the score is the same everywhere, the countdown keeps going if the app moves to the background or the student switches to a computer, and an attempt started on a phone can be finished in the browser. On iPhone the time left shows on the lock screen and in the Dynamic Island. Fewer dropped attempts, and fewer arguments that begin with "the app crashed on me." Homework comes in as text, a file, or a voice recording made right in the app: speaking practice a computer never gave you, and a whole assignment format for language schools. Certificates open in the app and the serial number copies out. Your graduate shows the result on their own, without coming back to ask you for it. Push arrives when work has been reviewed, a teacher has replied, or a scheduled session is about to start. Students stop missing things, because they aren't waiting on email. They choose which notifications they get, so it never turns into noise. TALKING INSIDE THE SCHOOL The school messenger: direct and group chats, files and photos, quoted replies, reactions, pinned messages, read receipts. What you read on a computer doesn't come back to your phone. Support requests to the school open in the same place, and one screen works for a student and for staff. A school feed with posts and comments, and lesson discussions with pre-moderation. The school turns this on and configures it. YOUR SCHOOL, IN YOUR COLORS When a student enters your school, the app takes on its brand colors and shows its logo. They are inside your school, not a neutral app. Settings changed on the web apply on the fly, and an action in the app triggers the same workflows as an action on the web. Several schools and several accounts switch with one tap, with no password to re-enter. The interface runs in eight languages. SIGNING IN Login and password, or Apple ID. You turn on Face ID and Touch ID locking yourself: it fires at launch and when the app returns from the background. A QR code replaces the password on a computer: point the camera at the code on the browser screen and the session is authorized. Anyone can report a post, comment or profile, and shut off contact with a particular person. ABOUT SOFTBOOK Schools have earned over $50M on Softbook. Over 1M students. We work in 57 countries. Support 24/7.

Screenshots

Engram4 screens
Softbook LMS4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Softbook LMS at none against Engram's 2. Softbook LMS also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Engram sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Softbook LMS asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Engram ships an update weekly, Softbook LMS every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Engram versus Softbook LMS: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEngramSoftbook LMS
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterEvery 8 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS17.015.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size4 MB38 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHirosuke YonekuboSoftbook

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Engram

Subscriptions2
  • Engram Pro (Monthly)$3.991 Month
  • Engram Pro (Yearly)7 Days trial$24.991 Year
None

Softbook LMS

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Engram free?
Engram is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Softbook LMS free?
Softbook LMS is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Engram or Softbook LMS have ads?
Neither Engram nor Softbook LMS shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Engram or Softbook LMS?
Engram ships an update weekly, and Softbook LMS every 8 days. Most recently, Engram was updated on October 24, 2026 and Softbook LMS on October 8, 2026.

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