Comparison

Desmos Test Mode vs SpacesEDU

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

Head to head
About

Desmos Test Mode

This app provides restricted versions of graphing and scientific calculators designed to meet exam requirements. It allows users to practice for specific state or national assessments by selecting the appropriate test mode. Full, unrestricted calculator features are available in separate applications.

Highlights
  • Exam-compliant calculator modes
  • Graphing capabilities
  • Scientific calculator functions
  • Data tables and statistics
  • Interactive sliders
  • Points of interest on graphs
Read full description

** These are restricted versions of the Desmos Calculators that comply with exam requirements. To prepare for specific state or national assessments, select the corresponding test from the menu in the app. Find out whether Desmos is used for your test at www.desmos.com/testing. If you’d like to use full, unrestricted versions of the calculators, download the Scientific or Graphing Calculator apps or visit www.desmos.com. ** At Desmos, we imagine a world of universal math literacy where math is accessible and enjoyable for all students. To that end, we’ve built simple yet powerful calculators. They’re intuitive, beautiful, and completely free. - - - Graphing Calculator Features: Graphing: Plot polar, Cartesian, and parametric graphs. There’s no limit to how many expressions you can graph at one time—and you don’t even need to enter expressions in y= form! Sliders: Adjust values interactively to build intuition, or animate any parameter to visualize its effect on the graph. Tables: Input and plot data, or create an input-output table for any function. Statistics: Use regressions to find the lines (or other curves!) that best fit your data. Zooming: Scale the axes independently or at the same time with the pinch of two fingers, or edit the window size manually to get the perfect view of your graph. Points of Interest: Touch a curve to show its maximum and minimum values, intercepts, and points of intersection with other curves. Tap any of these points of interest to see their coordinates. Hold and drag along a curve to see the coordinates change under your finger as you trace. - - - Scientific Calculator Features: Variables: Assign values to variables that you can use in other expressions. Since all of your work is held in the expressions list, you can compute a value once and use it in many places simultaneously. Take advantage of the “ans” key, which always stores the value of the previous expression. Arithmetic: Beyond the four basic operations, the scientific calculator also supports exponentiation, radicals, absolute value, logarithms, rounding, and percentages. Trigonometry: Evaluate the fundamental trigonometric functions and their inverses using either radians or degrees for angle measure. Statistics: Compute the mean and standard deviation (sample or population) of a list of data. Combinatorics: Count combinations and permutations and calculate factorials. - - - Four-Function Calculator Features: Simple and Beautiful: Just the basics done right. Add, subtract, multiply, divide, and take square roots. Multiple Expressions: Unlike many four-function calculators, all of your previous work remains visible on the screen. The special “ans” key always holds the value of the previous computation (and updates automatically!), so you never have to remember or copy a result.

About

SpacesEDU

This app facilitates portfolio-based assessment for educators and students. It allows for the creation and collection of student work in various formats, assessment of learning against standards, and communication of progress through visual reports. Students can engage in feedback and sharing within a dedicated digital space.

Highlights
  • Portfolio-based assessment tools
  • Assign and collect student work
  • Assess mastery of standards
  • Create visual report cards
  • Real-time feedback and messaging
  • Support for various media types
  • Group collaboration spaces
Features
Read full description

SpacesEDU makes it easy for teachers and students to capture, communicate, and celebrate the growth that’s happening in and out of the classroom. Based on feedback from 15+ years of educator insight, SpacesEDU Portfolio-Based Assessment (PBA) tools allow teachers to assign activities, collect evidence of learning in multiple formats, assess student mastery of standards and competencies, and create visual report cards. With SpacesEDU, student assessment progress becomes a two-way conversation. Students can ask questions, receive teacher feedback, peer review, and share work in an authentic and flexible way - all without leaving the SpacesEDU app. Provide real-time feedback on student work through commenting and messaging without leaving the app. Bring SpacesEDU into your classroom today and give your students their own space to learn, grow, and tell the stories behind their grades. Key Features • Activities: Easily create, track, and review activities to engage students in the learning process and provide a space for self-reflection • 1:1 Spaces: Create a safe one-on-one (teacher to student) space for your students to showcase their work in a portfolio, on topics, units, or self-reflections. Create 1:1 Spaces to better organize all of the work happening within your classroom and tie them to your own course objectives • Group Spaces: Spark collaboration with spaces for students to work on group projects, peer reviews, and more. Create your own groups or have them created for you • Space to grow: Add unlimited files to student or teacher accounts • Support for a wide variety of media types: Upload files (20 file types), capture content directly from your camera or microphone, add links from websites, or import from Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. You can add up to ten media attachments to a post • Reporting Spaces: Think of it as a visual report card or summative portfolio. Teachers can easily bookmark exemplary artifacts of student learning throughout the year and add it to a Reporting Space. With Reporting Spaces, share student growth with family and/or students at the end of the year or at various progress points. Available only to schools and districts licensing SpacesEDU Pro Reporting Add-On • Proficiency Scales: A Standards-Based Assessment feature that makes it easy for educators to assess and report on student progress on learning outcomes and competencies using a 4 point scale (customize the scale with SpacesEDU Pro!) • Class Engagement and Read Receipts: Teachers can quickly view whether students or family have accessed the classroom or read specific messages • Technical support for teachers and students: We offer an unparalleled support experience, including live chat support for all users & personalized onboarding and support for schools and districts • Direct Messages: Have direct, real-time conversations with students, teachers, family members with messages (SpacesEDU Pro) • Drafts: Not ready to publish your post? Save posts as a draft so you can come back to them once you’re ready • Channels: With channels, you can send class announcements and communicate with all students, all family members, or both. You decide when and if to allow replies. (SpacesEDU Pro) • Family accounts: Family members can create accounts to view, comment, and celebrate their student’s work, engage with posts, and message with the teacher. (SpacesEDU Pro) • Advanced settings and notifications, including options to enable private or collaboration-focused workspaces • FERPA, COPPA, and PIPEDA compliant privacy standards: Protecting student privacy is foundational in the design of this product • Clever SSO: Users are able to signup and login using Clever • QR Codes - Allow students to use QR Codes to log into the SpacesEDU platform - making it even easier to get started. Teachers can access, share or print QR Codes for their students directly within their Classes. Available only to schools and districts licensing SpacesEDU Pro.

Screenshots

Desmos Test Mode4 screens
SpacesEDU4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: SpacesEDU at every 2 weeks against Desmos Test Mode's every 4 months. SpacesEDU also leads on rating (2.0 vs 1.6). Desmos Test Mode's advantage is monetization model (free vs freemium) and ratings volume (368 vs 21). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

SpacesEDU holds the better App Store score, 2.0 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Desmos Test Mode has 368 ratings behind it against 21, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 17% of Desmos Test Mode's written reviews are positive against 7% of SpacesEDU's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Desmos Test Mode ships an update every 4 months, SpacesEDU every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Desmos Test Mode versus SpacesEDU: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDesmos Test ModeSpacesEDU
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.6 (368 ratings)2.0 (21 ratings) — better
Positive reviews16.5% of reviews — better6.9% of reviews
Number of ratings368 — better21
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB149 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDesmosDoublethink Inc.

Customer experience

Desmos Test Mode

All ratings368 ratings
Positive14.4%
Neutral2.4%
Negative83.2%
Written reviews139 reviews
Positive16.5%
Neutral5.0%
Negative78.4%

SpacesEDU

All ratings21 ratings
Positive23.8%
Neutral4.8%
Negative71.4%
Written reviews539 reviews
Positive6.9%
Neutral0.7%
Negative92.4%

User reviews

Desmos Test Mode

From 368 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Useful app for tests
  • 🔒 Secure calculator mode
  • 👍 Free alternative to expensive calculators

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and unstable
  • 🔒 Overly restrictive app lock
  • 👎 Poor user interface and usability

SpacesEDU

From 21 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for student portfolios and communication
  • 🚀 Efficient for tracking assignments and reflections

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and performance issues
  • 🤯 Confusing navigation and user experience
  • 😩 Adds unnecessary stress and workload for students
  • 🔌 Missing basic features like dark mode

Bugs and requests

Desmos Test Mode

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes and freezes during use
  • Unexpected phone behavior and lockouts
  • Compatibility issues across different devices and OS versions

Requested features

3 requests
  • Add customization options for the calculator interface
  • Improve compatibility with older devices
  • Provide more flexible calculator modes during tests

SpacesEDU

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login issues and inability to access accounts
  • Inconsistent performance and unexpected crashes

Requested features

3 requests
  • Improve app stability and responsiveness
  • Enhance user-friendly navigation and interface
  • Integrate more useful features for students and teachers

In-app purchases

None

Desmos Test Mode

No in-app purchases

None

SpacesEDU

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Desmos Test Mode free?
Desmos Test Mode is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SpacesEDU free?
SpacesEDU is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Desmos Test Mode or SpacesEDU?
SpacesEDU is rated higher. Desmos Test Mode averages 1.6 out of 5 from 368 ratings, while SpacesEDU averages 2.0 from 21 ratings.
Do Desmos Test Mode or SpacesEDU have ads?
Neither Desmos Test Mode nor SpacesEDU shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Desmos Test Mode or SpacesEDU?
Desmos Test Mode ships an update every 4 months, and SpacesEDU every 2 weeks. Most recently, Desmos Test Mode was updated on September 10, 2026 and SpacesEDU on September 27, 2026.

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