Smarty Spell vs Spelliful
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Smarty Spell
This comprehensive literacy platform offers three engaging game modes to improve spelling and reading skills. It features extensive customization options for word lists and audio, along with detailed progress tracking for educators and parents.
- Three distinct game modes
- Over 300 built-in words
- Grade-level and thematic word lists
- Custom word lists with photos
- Real human and TTS audio
- Professional-grade data tracking
- Adjustable font sizes and hints
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Smarty Spell: The Ultimate 3-in-1 Literacy Platform Developed by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist, Smarty Spell has evolved into a comprehensive educational platform designed to take your student’s spelling and reading abilities to the next level. With a highly engaging new interface, friendly animal mascots, and superior data tracking, Smarty Spell is the perfect tool for educators, therapists, and parents alike. While it comes loaded with over 300 built-in words, the true power of Smarty Spell lies in its incredible flexibility. Students can tackle words based on their grade level (Kindergarten to 6th Grade), explore thematic categories, or master completely custom word lists created by their teacher. Three Ways to Play: Smarty Spell now features three distinct, interactive game modes to keep students engaged while targeting different literacy skills: Spelling Game: Drag and drop letters to spell the target word with full visual and auditory scaffolding. Reading Game: Build sight-word recognition by matching the spoken word and image to the correct text. Missing Letter Game: A fun, tactile experience where students fill in the blanks on a beautiful wooden tray to complete the word. Unmatched Customization & Accessibility: Smarty Spell adapts to every learner. Reinforce specific vocabulary by adding your own words and photos! The app seamlessly blends real, recorded human audio with a newly integrated, high-quality, kid-friendly Text-to-Speech engine, ensuring every word—even your custom ones—is pronounced perfectly. You can also adjust font sizes, toggle visual hints, and switch between uppercase and lowercase letters to meet each student's exact needs. Professional-Grade Data Tracking: Tracking progress is a breeze with our completely overhauled "Report Card" suite. Teachers and parents can monitor overall accuracy over time via intuitive line graphs, or drill down into specific word lists. Because the app tracks data by game type, you will know exactly if a student has mastered "Animals" in Reading, but still needs practice with "Animals" in Spelling! Enjoy the benefits of a clean, modern interface, engaging gameplay, and robust tracking. Key Features Include: The Content: 3 Distinct Game Modes: Spelling, Reading, and Missing Letter. Over 300 Built-In Words: Ready to play immediately. Grade-Level Lists: Organized sequentially from Kindergarten to 6th Grade. Thematic Lists: Animals, Numbers, Colors & Shapes, Classroom, Body Parts, Common Nouns, Clothes, Fruits, and Vegetables. Total Customization: Create custom lists, add new words, and even upload your own photos and audio recordings. The Gameplay: Premium Audio: High-quality, kid-friendly Text-to-Speech alongside real human audio recordings. Audio Spell Letters: Option to have each letter spoken aloud as the student drags it. Visual Hints: Toggle picture clues on or off to increase or decrease difficulty. Word Reading: Turn target word dictation on or off. Capitalization Control: Choose between all capitals, all lowercase, or standard capitalization. Adjustable UI: 3 different font size options for accessibility. Automatic Transition: Move immediately to the next word, or manually transition to control the pace. The Data: Multi-Student Support: Manage profiles and avatars for an entire classroom or caseload. Advanced Report Cards: View line graphs of session-by-session accuracy. Skill Isolation: Data is tracked independently for Reading, Spelling, and Missing Letter games so you know exactly where a student excels. Word-Level Mastery: See exactly which specific words a student got correct or needs to practice. Easy Exporting: Generate beautiful, multi-page PDF reports to email or print directly from the app via AirPrint.
Spelliful
This app helps users learn and test spelling words through repetitive activities, practice sessions, and timed tests. Users can input their own word lists, record audio, and even add images or videos for enhanced learning. It offers a free version with limitations and paid upgrades for unlimited access and advanced sharing features.
- Customizable word lists
- Recordable audio for words
- Repetitive learning activities
- Timed spelling tests
- Practice modes
- Importable word lists
- Image/video support for hearing impaired
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Spelliful will be you or your child’s weekly spelling buddy. This app is designed to help you or your child learn their words and test better. The process to achieve this is by doing a repetitive activity (or Spellitivity), to get familiarity of the word, then do a practice with no pressure and finally do a real timed test. You will input your list and record an audio of you saying the word. If you don't want to record your own voice you can turn on the system voiceover to cover that for you. For added challenges you can record the word's definition instead of just word. With the layout of having all your list on the left with your selected list in the middle you can easily choose a list then choose what to do with it, Spellitivity, Test, Edit or Share. *This app makes it really easy for a teacher to create a list and share it with the students/parents. *For the Hearing Impaired, you can add an image or video to each word with the audio or no audio. This is very helpful with video clips for Sign Language. *Spelliful is free to use but is limited. Free users are allowed to have 3 of their own list at a time with 5 words per list, but can import in as many ready made list they would like from Teacher Mode users. You can always combine list to one just to send to the activities. An In-App purchase is in available for .99 cents to Unlimited the app. TEACHERMODE for Sharing List Another In-App purchase is available for $2.99 for Teachermode. This feature lets any user share any list they created with audios only. When using Teachermode just setup a share link in the app. When you share the app will provide you with a share code, that you distribute. This is NOT social media and you are NOT posting to a public platform. Here’s how it works: ADDING WORDS 1st. Add data by tapping the New List button in top right corner. Create a list name or use todays date. Then type your word, tap the record button to record you saying the word, then tap Add Word button. 2nd. Repeat the process for each word. 3rd. When list is done, tap “Save” to save and exit. You can also import in a list with audios by users of the Teacher Mode. This is not affected by the apps limits in free version. You can import as many as you like. LEARNING Choose your list. The list name is stated above the current list of words. Choose between Activity, Practice Test or Test. SPELLITIVITY – The Activity is unscrambling the word and is done in 3 levels. First level, the word is shown and the speaker icon will play that current word you recorded. Drag the letters to form the word. Second level, the word will disappear after 2 seconds. Tap speaker to hear and show word briefly. Third level, no word will be shown. Drag the letters to form word. If incorrect you must try again. Third level data will be recorded and shown in the Progress page, time completed and number of missed attempts. PRACTICE TEST – When you are ready you can take a practice test. Tap to start. Your recorded word will play and you must spell it correctly. After typing word hit Go on the keyboard. You will be notified if right or wrong. There will be no time limit per word and you advance when you get the word right. Practice does not show in Progress Report TEST – Testing is similar to Practice Test, except you are timed. The moment the word is played the clock counts down (duration can be adjusted in Settings). If time expires the next word is in play. After you complete a word it will auto advance to next word, until Test is complete. This Test will show in Progress Report page.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Spelliful at 67% against Smarty Spell's 0%. Spelliful also leads on price (Free vs $14.99) and rating (5.0 vs 4.0). Smarty Spell's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 6). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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
Spelliful is free to download; Smarty Spell costs $14.99 up front. Spelliful sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Smarty Spell asks for nothing beyond the download.
Spelliful holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 7 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Smarty Spell's written reviews are positive against 67% of Spelliful's.
Smarty Spell ships an update every 9 months, Spelliful every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on June 4, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smarty Spell | Spelliful |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 66.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 97 MB | 76 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smarty Ears | Adam Morrone |
Customer experience
Smarty Spell
Spelliful
In-app purchases
Smarty Spell
No in-app purchases
Spelliful
- Teacher's Desk Monthly$0.991 Month
- Teacher's Desk Plus Monthly$1.991 Month
- Teacher's Desk$9.991 Year
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- Teacher's Desk Plus Yearly$19.991 Year
- Unlimited Word ListFree
- Teacher Mode$24.99
Questions
Is Smarty Spell free?
Is Spelliful free?
Which has better reviews, Smarty Spell or Spelliful?
Do Smarty Spell or Spelliful have ads?
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