Read Live vs Pearson TELL
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Read Live
This app provides a structured, audio-supported system to improve reading fluency, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension for learners of all ages. It offers access to four distinct curriculum options, including support for Spanish readers, and tracks student progress across devices. A Read Live account is required to use the program.
- Four curriculum options
- Audio-supported system
- Develops reading fluency
- Improves comprehension
- Tracks student progress
- Spanish reading support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Read Live delivers measurable results for struggling and developing readers of all ages. With this app, your students can access their Read Live student stories and exercises in an experience designed to take advantage of the iPad’s capabilities. Improve fluency and phonics skills while supporting vocabulary and comprehension development with Read Naturally Live. Build mastery and automaticity in phonics and decoding with systematic phonics instruction with Word Warm-ups Live. Enable structured, engaging, and independent reading practice with One Minute Reader Live. Help native Spanish speakers or others to learn to read Spanish text fluently with Read Naturally Live–Español. Visit our website to learn more about Read Live: readnaturally.com/go-read-live *** A Read Live account and internet connection are required to use this app. Don’t have an account yet? Don't worry: you can create a free account and start using the program within 1 business day! Read Live was designed by teachers for use in schools. Here's what some teachers are saying: “A great program. Kids enjoy using it. They see their progress in fluency and comprehension skills.” – Special Education Teacher, VT “Love, Love, Love this program to help build our students' fluency. All of the stories are engaging for the students. The technology is easy for both students and teachers to use.” – First-Grade Teacher, WI “This program has dramatically increased the fluency, comprehension and writing abilities of my ELL students. Their MAP scores have risen as much as 15 points in a trimester. It provides great individualization.” – ELL/ESL Teacher, IL KEY FEATURES • Full access to all four curriculum options: Read Naturally Live, Word Warm-ups Live, One Minute Reader Live, and Read Naturally Live–Español. • Structured, audio-supported system keeps students motivated and holds them accountable for their own success. • Develops reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and phonics. • Excellent for Response to Intervention (RTI) or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). • Student progress syncs across computer and iPad. • Free iPad app for Read Live account holders. ________________________________________ Need support? We’re here to help. Email us at support@readnaturally.com *** IMPORTANT!! You must have a Read Live account to use this app.
Pearson TELL
This app offers a self-administered online language proficiency assessment for K-12 students. It includes various tests to monitor progress and provide schools with insights into students' language skills, informing instructional decisions. Results are available quickly thanks to innovative speech and writing evaluation technology.
- K-12 language proficiency assessment
- Screener, diagnostic, and progress monitoring tests
- Measures listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills
- Innovative speech and writing evaluation technology
- Fast, reliable scored results
- Detailed reporting for schools and districts
Read full descriptionHide full description
Pearson’s TELL is a self-delivered online language proficiency assessment for students in grades K-12. TELL consists of a single screener, two diagnostic, and eight progress monitoring assessments that are administered throughout the course of an academic school year. The results from TELL provide schools and districts with a complete understanding of their students’ current language proficiency and allows them to measure their progression. This robust reporting that also helps inform instructional decisions. With minimal set-up time, students can begin testing. During test administration, students watch video clips and interact with pictures and words on a tablet, then answer questions out loud. They listen, write, read, and speak—all with no mark-ups or grading by teachers. Short, effective testing allows users to monitor student progress on the development of core English language skills necessary for learning academic content. TELL’s unique items types allow for measuring multiple skills in a single item. TELL’s innovative speech recognition and writing evaluation technology yields highly reliable scored but also means that results are available in minutes! TELL scores are provided at the Overall level, for the four foundational skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking), and for the following sub-skills : pronunciation, fluency, grammar, vocabulary, reading comprehension, reading rate, expressiveness, and pre-literacy.
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pearson TELL at 100% against Read Live's 29%. Pearson TELL also leads on ratings volume (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.3). Read Live's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). 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.
Read Live holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 29% of Read Live's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pearson TELL's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Read Live ships an update every 4 months, Pearson TELL every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Read Live | Pearson TELL |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.7 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 28.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 3 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.3 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Read Naturally, Inc. | Pearson Education, Inc. |
Customer experience
Read Live
Pearson TELL
In-app purchases
Read Live
No in-app purchases
Pearson TELL
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Read Live free?
Is Pearson TELL free?
Which has better reviews, Read Live or Pearson TELL?
Do Read Live or Pearson TELL have ads?
Which is updated more often, Read Live or Pearson TELL?
Other comparisons















