Comparison

Lesson Ideas vs SmartTeach

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

Head to head
About

Lesson Ideas

This app offers a collection of teaching starters, plenaries, and other tips for educators. It features contributions from a school's teaching and learning group and other members of the teaching profession.

Highlights
  • Teaching starters
  • Plenaries
  • Top tips for educators
  • Professionally submitted ideas
  • Collaborative content creation
Features
Read full description

Starters, Plenaries and Other Top Tips, created by the Teaching and Learning group of Graveney School, London, in collaboration with MadeByEduactors. Further ideas provided submitted by members of the teaching profession and shared for the love of the job!

About

SmartTeach

This app helps early childhood educators streamline daily classroom tasks. It simplifies documentation, classroom management, and family communication with easy-to-use tools for online and offline use.

Highlights
  • Create documentation and share insights
  • View and teach from daily schedule
  • Communicate with families
  • Save and share photos/videos
  • Assess from curriculum resources
  • Track attendance and care routines
  • Conduct health screenings
Read full description

The SmartTeach® app by Teaching Strategies offers early childhood educators an easy and efficient way to quickly complete essential daily tasks on the fly, online, or offline. The SmartTeach app simplifies teaching, documentation, classroom management, and family engagement throughout the day, enabling teachers to make the most of every moment with easy-to-use tools right at their fingertips. The SmartTeach app is accessible to Teachers and Administrators using Teaching Strategies products such as GOLD®, The Creative Curriculum® Cloud, Kickstart LiteracyTM, and Tadpoles®. Download SmartTeach by Teaching Strategies to access our new and improved features & functionality. SmartTeach offers early childhood educators a single app to support all essential classroom tasks, including: Create documentation and share insights with families View and teach directly from your daily schedule, curriculum, activities, and care routines Communicate with families Save & share photos, videos, and other media across devices View & assess from resources like Intentional Teaching Experiences, Skill Development Cards, and Mighty Minutes®* Identify Infant and Toddler children’s developmental level with the Entry Screener to dynamically populate individualized support for each child* Take attendance, move children or staff, and complete name-to-face checks* Track care routines and share Daily Reports with families* Conduct health screenings for children and/or staff* *Feature availability is dependent on which Teaching Strategies products your classroom licenses.

Screenshots

Lesson Ideas4 screens
SmartTeach4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lesson Ideas at 78% against SmartTeach's 24%. Lesson Ideas also leads on iOS requirement (6.0 vs 15.0). SmartTeach's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 3.0) and update cadence (monthly vs every 53 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SmartTeach holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SmartTeach has 1.2K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 78% of Lesson Ideas's written reviews are positive against 24% of SmartTeach's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lesson Ideas ships an update every 53 months, SmartTeach monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and October 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Lesson Ideas versus SmartTeach: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLesson IdeasSmartTeach
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (2 ratings)4.8 (1.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.8% of reviews — better24.0% of reviews
Number of ratings21.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 53 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS6.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB103 MB
Age rating4+4+
DevelopermadebyeducatorsTeaching Strategies, LLC

Customer experience

Lesson Ideas

All ratings2 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive77.8%
Neutral22.2%
Negative0.0%

SmartTeach

All ratings1,190 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral1.6%
Negative3.1%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive24.0%
Neutral12.0%
Negative64.0%

Bugs and requests

Lesson Ideas

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

SmartTeach

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Screener not working when clicking plus sign
  • Inability to log in through app, but able to log in on website
  • Delayed or failed message delivery
  • Uploaded documentation still showing in app, causing confusion

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to select and apply objectives to multiple pieces of documentation at once
  • Add ability to select and delete multiple photos/videos at once
  • Add ability to change date on add documentation page
  • Add landscape mode support for easier typing
  • Improve translation and communication features for ESL families

In-app purchases

None

Lesson Ideas

No in-app purchases

None

SmartTeach

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lesson Ideas free?
Lesson Ideas is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SmartTeach free?
SmartTeach is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Lesson Ideas or SmartTeach?
SmartTeach is rated higher. Lesson Ideas averages 3.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while SmartTeach averages 4.8 from 1.2K ratings.
Do Lesson Ideas or SmartTeach have ads?
Neither Lesson Ideas nor SmartTeach shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lesson Ideas or SmartTeach?
Lesson Ideas ships an update every 53 months, and SmartTeach monthly. Most recently, Lesson Ideas was updated on September 13, 2026 and SmartTeach on October 12, 2026.

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