Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed, fact-checked and edited by hand before publishing - see our AI transparency page for how we use AI across the app.
In August 2026 the Educational App Store - a team of qualified teachers and parents who review apps against a 32-point rubric covering pedagogy, usability, accessibility and privacy - tested Spelling.Live and gave it their top rating.
5.0 / 5 - "Educational App Store Certified."
Their reviewer, Spencer Riley, wrote:
"Spelling.Live goes well beyond traditional spelling apps ... [it] already stands out as one of the most complete spelling practice solutions available for UK primary learners."
That's not something we can say about ourselves and have it mean much. A third party looking closely, with no reason to be kind, is worth a great deal more - which is exactly why we wanted a proper write-up rather than just a badge on the features page.
What the review actually said
The review is unusually thorough, which is the point of a 32-point rubric rather than a star rating with no working shown. It walks through multi-modal practice (writing, typing, speaking, picking, tracing and paper input), the AI-driven personalisation, the parent reporting, and the privacy and safeguarding position - and lands on the verdict above. You can read the full review, and the rest of the rubric, on the Educational App Store's own page for Spelling.Live.
It wasn't uncritical, and we'd rather show you the criticism than bury it. Two things were noted: the content is UK-focused, which is by design - British spelling, British audio, the National Curriculum - and won't suit every international family looking for a general phonics app; and that some younger children might initially need a grown-up to get them started.
That second point is the one we could actually do something about, so we did.
The one thing the review asked us to fix
Since August, the child-facing side of the app has been simplified down to one thing at a time: a single "today's practice" card, one activity to do next, and every grown-up control - settings, the weekly plan editor, credits, reports - kept out of a child's way entirely. A five-year-old shouldn't need to understand what any of that machinery does to start practising; they should just see the next word. That's a direct answer to the review's own note, not a coincidence.
Everything else we've shipped since the review
The review is a snapshot from early August. We haven't stood still since - here's what's changed, roughly in the order it shipped.
A weekly Learning plan, built for you. Instead of leaving the weekly routine entirely up to you, every child now starts from a sensible default template - short daily practice plus a Friday test, or a different activity each day, or a paper-first week - that you can then edit down to the individual activity. Read the full round-up.
Fairer, kinder handwriting marking. Genuine UK continuous-cursive tracing using Google's Playwrite England fonts, a cleaner writing pad with an eraser that actually edits what gets read (not just what's on screen), and a two-stage recognition pipeline that's instant for neat writing and more forgiving of messy writing than it used to be. How the handwriting pipeline works.
The Aid Ladder. A wrong answer no longer just reveals the correct spelling. Help now arrives one step at a time - a flash of the word or a coaching tip from Tongo, then just the tricky letters, then more - with a fresh attempt at the same word after every step, and a way out that never leaves a child stuck. How the Aid Ladder works.
Word Parts. Long words stop being one intimidating block of letters. "Disappointment" becomes three pieces a child already half-knows, built up on screen and checked at the one place the spelling actually changes. Every split is hand-checked, and it's the one activity where getting it right actually counts toward the progress report. Why word parts work.
Word Meanings. A child who doesn't know what a word means has nothing to hang its spelling on - so this activity asks them to match each word on this week's list to its meaning, then drop it into its own sentence, with the wrong answers drawn from their own list. What Word Meanings is for.
Naming the pattern behind a mistake. The progress report used to list tricky words one at a time. It now groups them under the actual spelling rule behind them - so three separate "wrong" words turn out to be one rule not yet secure, which is a much more useful thing for a parent to know. How we built the lexicon behind it.
A real answer to "is this mastered?" A single test score tells you what happened on one morning, not whether a rule has stuck. The National Curriculum mastery path now tracks each child from Started through Nearly there to Secure - and Secure only ever means unaided writing from memory, not a lucky multiple-choice run. What "Secure" actually means.
A bulk paper test for schools and tuition centres. Print personalised QR-coded sheets, dictate the test as normal, scan the whole pile, and let the app mark it - a teacher only checks the handful it wasn't confident about. Now out of beta. The print-dictate-scan walkthrough.
Android, on Google Play. Spelling.Live was iOS and web only when the review was written. It's now a free native app on the Apple App Store, a free native app on Google Play, and the same account in any browser - all three sharing one sign-in, one word list, one progress history. Get it on your device.
Try it for yourself
A star rating and a good quote are a starting point, not a substitute for trying the thing. Load a spelling list and start practising - it's free to start, and the same account works on iPhone, Android and the web.