Comparison

Literably vs Pearson TELL

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

Head to head
About

Literably

This app provides a quick and precise method for evaluating reading skills in K-8 students. It includes a comprehensive running record to track fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.

Highlights
  • Reading fluency assessment
  • Reading accuracy assessment
  • Reading comprehension assessment
  • Full running record
  • K-8 student focus
Read full description

A fast and accurate way to assess reading fluency, accuracy, and comprehension for K-8 students, including a full running record. The iOS app is for student use only; classes must be set up elsewhere.

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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 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 call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Pearson TELL at 100% against Literably's 43%. Pearson TELL also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.8) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.6). Literably's advantage is ratings volume (39 vs 3). 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

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

Pearson TELL holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Literably has 39 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of Literably's written reviews are positive against 100% of Pearson TELL's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Literably versus Pearson TELL: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLiterablyPearson TELL
PriceFreeFree
Rating2.8 (39 ratings)4.7 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews42.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings39 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS15.611.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLiterably, Inc.Pearson Education, Inc.

Customer experience

Literably

All ratings39 ratings
Positive38.5%
Neutral12.8%
Negative48.7%
Written reviews7 reviews
Positive42.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative57.1%

Pearson TELL

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Literably

No in-app purchases

None

Pearson TELL

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Literably free?
Literably is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pearson TELL free?
Pearson TELL is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Literably or Pearson TELL?
Pearson TELL is rated higher. Literably averages 2.8 out of 5 from 39 ratings, while Pearson TELL averages 4.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Literably or Pearson TELL have ads?
Neither Literably nor Pearson TELL shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Literably or Pearson TELL?
Literably ships an update every 3 months, and Pearson TELL every 3 months. Most recently, Literably was updated on October 6, 2026 and Pearson TELL on October 29, 2026.

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