SpellMe and Spelling.Live are both UK-made spelling apps, and both let a parent or teacher practise their own word list rather than a fixed set. If an AI assistant or a "best spelling apps" list has put both in front of you, this post sets out where they match, where they differ, and which one fits which family.
One note first: every SpellMe detail below comes from SpellMe's own website (spellme.app, its help pages and its plans page), read on 14 November 2026. Apps change, so check each site before you subscribe.
The short answer
- SpellMe is a low-cost, typing-based web app. Its strengths are a free guest mode that needs no sign-up, plans from £12 a year, 300+ curated phonics lists, and an age range up to 16.
- Spelling.Live practises the same kind of list, then adds the parts of spelling that happen off the keyboard: handwriting checked by AI, real paper tests marked from a photo, and the spelling pattern named behind each mistake, tracked against the National Curriculum.
Quick comparison
| Spelling.Live | SpellMe | |
|---|---|---|
| Your own word list | Type, paste or photograph (printed or handwritten), on every plan | Typed into a box; photo import on Premium (£20/yr) |
| Ready-made lists | National Curriculum Year 1-6 lists, phonics lists by sound, a weekly scheme | 300+ curated phonics lists |
| Ways to answer | Choose, type, say aloud, write by hand | Type |
| Handwriting checked by AI | Yes | Not found on its site |
| Paper test marked from a photo | Yes (marked tests and dictation) | Not found on its site |
| Missed words come back more often | Yes, spaced repetition across every mode | Yes, in Mastery Mode (Advanced and Premium) |
| Why a word was wrong | Names the spelling pattern, with a tip | Hints on the letters you miss |
| Help when stuck | Step by step: a look at the word or a tip on the actual mistake, then the tricky letters, with another try after each step | Smart spelling hints on Premium |
| Weekly learning plan | Built from a goal you pick, with lists queued weeks ahead and a check every three weeks | Not found on its site |
| Picture hints (ages 5-7) | An AI picture for each word, shared by every family | Not found on its site |
| National Curriculum tracking | Every attempt tracked against English Appendix 1, Years 1-6 | Not stated on its site |
| Accents | UK, US, Australian, Indian English, chosen per child | UK or US |
| Apps | iPhone, iPad, Android, plus any browser | Web app in any browser |
| Screen-free practice | Printed pack built from the child's own words | Not found on its site |
| Reports for each child | A Progress screen per child: accuracy and trend, tricky words grouped by rule, each curriculum rule's progress, and their handwriting | A Results Dashboard: each word's level and accuracy, mistake history, sessions side by side; an AI summary on Premium |
| Emailed progress report | Weekly or monthly, one per child, free, to you and up to five others (a co-parent, a teacher) | Not found on its site |
| Several children in one family | Yes, each with their own lists, settings and reports | Not stated on its site |
| Games | A dozen games (Balloon Pop, Word Search, Crossword, Boggle, Letter Climb and more), all played with the child's own words, plus Challenge a friend | Practice modes (Regular, Mastery, Story) with the child's lists; a free Daily Challenge on set words |
| Rewards | Points, levels, coins earned by practice to unlock games, an avatar they design, and opt-in Hall of Fame boards | XP and levels; coins mentioned |
| Class reports for teachers | Yes: patterns, a pupil-by-pattern heat map, cold and hot test results | Classroom progress reports marked "coming soon" on its site |
| Free start | 200 credits, no card (about 100 practice words) | Guest: 1 list of 5 words, no sign-up; Basic: 5 lists of 10 words |
| Paid | Credits from £4; Family plan £5.99/mo or £59.99/yr for up to 4 children | Advanced £12/yr, Premium £20/yr |
| Ages | 5-11 (primary) | 5-16 (per its EdTech Impact listing) |
* SpellMe features and prices from spellme.app on 14 November 2026. "Not found" means we could not find the feature on SpellMe's own pages, not that it can never exist.
Where they agree
Both apps are built for short, regular practice of the words a child actually needs. Both let a grown-up add their own list, both read the word aloud before a child spells it, both offer UK pronunciation, and both bring tricky words back more often than words a child has mastered (in SpellMe's case, in Mastery Mode on its paid plans). Both use calm screens and the Lexend font.
If typed practice of a short list is all you need, both will do that job.
Where Spelling.Live goes further
The test is handwritten, so the practice can be too
Most primary school spelling tests are written on paper. Typing a word correctly does not show whether a child can write it, or whether they flip a b and a d. Spelling.Live's Write it pad checks a word written on the screen with AI. Children can also choose the right spelling (Pick it), type it (Type it) or say the letters aloud (Say it), and every way of answering feeds the same progress report. Why mixing the ways of answering helps.
Photograph the list, and the marked test
Spelling.Live reads a photo of the list from the book bag for every family, including a list written by hand. It also reads a marked test, ticks and crosses included, or runs a dictation where the app reads the words, the child writes them on paper and a photo of the page is marked. Those results go straight into the child's practice, so a word they missed on Friday comes back on Monday. How photo lists work.
The reason behind the mistake
When a child writes "possesion", Spelling.Live does not just mark it wrong. It names the pattern behind it (here, the double letters), groups mistakes that share a rule, and tracks each rule against the National Curriculum's spelling rules for their year. Parents and teachers see which rule to work on, not just a list of wrong words. How mistakes are diagnosed.
Help that arrives one step at a time
Every word starts with a clean first try, so a right answer means the child really knew it. When they get it wrong, Spelling.Live does not just show the answer. Help arrives in steps, with another try after each one: first a quick look at the word, or a tip from Tongo the monkey about the actual mistake they made; then the tricky letters picked out; then more of the word filled in. A child who is stuck can skip, so nobody is trapped on a word. A word spelled with help is recorded as "correct with help", so the progress report never makes a child look more secure than they are. Parents choose the style of help and how quickly it arrives, and help is switched off in tests. SpellMe's Premium plan offers smart hints on the letters a child misses; we found nothing like the step-by-step ladder. How the Aid Ladder works.
A learning plan that runs the week
A parent picks a goal (Stretch, Balanced or Confidence-building) and Spelling.Live builds a weekly plan of short daily activities from the child's own list: handwriting one day, typing the next, a paper test, a game. Words due for another go from earlier lists are brought back automatically, the next weeks' lists can be queued in advance so the plan moves on by itself each Monday, and every three weeks a short check asks some practised words and some new words that follow the same rule, to see whether the rule has stuck. The child sees one clear thing to do each day. How the Learning plan works.
A picture for every early-years word
Children aged 5 to 7 get an AI picture for each word, drawn from what the word means and never from its letters, so it cannot give the spelling away. It is shown as a hint during practice and as a reward in games. Once a picture is drawn for a word it is shared by every family, so most common words already have one, and a parent can describe a better picture and ask for a new one. How the picture hints are made.
On paper, without a screen
For families limiting screen time, the printed practice pack turns the child's own words into a week of paper practice: look-cover-write-check, a crossword or word search, and a Friday test with a strip for the grown-up.
Reports for each child, not just a score
Every child in a family has their own Progress screen, built from everything they practised, however they answered:
- How they are doing: accuracy and its trend, and which ways of answering they used.
- Tricky words, grouped by the rule behind them, so "fanciful", "pitiful" and "merciful" read as one rule to work on, not three separate failures.
- The curriculum, rule by rule: each National Curriculum spelling rule for their year shows whether it is started, practised, secure (written correctly without help, on different words and days) or being used in their own writing.
- Their handwriting: the last 100 words they wrote by hand, with the writing itself and what the app read.
- A record you can correct: if an answer was misread, a grown-up can correct or exclude it, and the original is kept.
Each child also gets a progress email every week or month, free, written in plain English from that week's practice. It can go to a co-parent or a teacher as well, and past reports stay on the Progress screen. Games are shown separately and never count towards accuracy, so a mis-tapped balloon never looks like a spelling mistake.
SpellMe's Results Dashboard is good at the word-by-word detail: each word's level and accuracy, the history of attempts at it, and each session side by side with the correct spelling. On its Premium plan an AI summary looks at the last 10 rounds and suggests what to focus on. We could not find emailed reports, separate reports for several children in one family, or curriculum tracking on SpellMe's site, and its classroom progress reports are marked "coming soon". How Spelling.Live's progress reports work.
Games built from their own words
Spelling.Live has a dozen games, including Balloon Pop, Word Search, Crossword, Boggle, Word Builder, Word Lock, Ring, Letter Climb, Letter Maze and Whac-A-Word, and every one is played with the child's own spelling list. In Balloon Pop, for example, the wrong balloons are close misspellings of this week's words, so even the fun part rehearses Friday's test. A child can send a friend or sibling a link to play the same words and try to beat their score, and with a parent's permission their best scores can appear on a Hall of Fame under a nickname.
Games are the reward, not a way round practice: coins come from spelling practice and buy game plays, and a parent sets how much a game costs and how often it can be played. Children also earn points, move up levels and design their own avatar. For a child who finds timers stressful, low-pressure mode removes the clocks, streaks and leaderboards and keeps everything else. More about the games.
SpellMe's practice is built around its modes rather than separate games: Regular and Mastery Mode (typing the word you hear, with coloured hints), Story Mode on Premium (spelling words as they come up in a short story made from your list), and a free Daily Challenge of five set words with a score you can share. Children earn XP and go up levels.
Where SpellMe is a good fit
To be fair to SpellMe: its guest mode lets a child start straight away with no account, which Spelling.Live deliberately does not offer (why we ask for an account). Its paid plans are inexpensive at £12 or £20 a year. Its free Daily Challenge needs no account at all, its Results Dashboard shows every attempt at a word side by side with the correct spelling, and it covers secondary-age learners up to 16. It has a Story Mode that writes a short story using the child's words, and a free Basic account includes over 300 curated phonics lists. For an older child, or a family that wants cheap typed practice of a short list, it is a sensible choice.
What each costs
SpellMe (14 November 2026): free guest account (one list of five words), free Basic account (five lists of ten words, curated phonics lists), Advanced at £12 a year (Mastery Mode, unlimited lists of up to 20 words), Premium at £20 a year (photo import, AI hints, Story Mode, lists of 100+ words). Both paid plans have a 14-day free trial. Teacher plans are on request.
Spelling.Live: free to start with 200 credits and no card. That is about 100 typed, handwritten or spoken practice words, or 1,000 Pick it words, and the credits do not run out on a date while your child keeps practising. After that, credits are £4 for 400 with no subscription, or a plan covers a child's practice: the One-child plan at £4.49 a month, or the Family plan at £5.99 a month (£59.99 a year) for up to four children. Progress reports, the weekly plan and printing are free. Full prices.
The honest summary
- Want cheap, quick typed practice, or a learner over 11? SpellMe is a good fit.
- Want the list from the book bag photographed, practice that matches a handwritten test, paper tests marked from a photo, help that arrives one step at a time, a weekly plan that runs itself, and to know which spelling rule your child keeps missing? That is what Spelling.Live is built for.
For how Spelling.Live compares with Spelling Shed, Squeebles, Sir Linkalot and others, see the longer comparison, or Spelling.Live vs SpellCast.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Spelling.Live and SpellMe? Both are UK spelling apps that let a parent or teacher enter their own word list. SpellMe is a web app where children type their answers, with a free guest mode that needs no sign-up and paid plans from £12 a year. Spelling.Live lets children answer by typing, writing by hand (checked by AI), saying the word aloud or choosing the right spelling, marks a real paper spelling test from a photo, names the spelling pattern behind each mistake and tracks it against the National Curriculum, and has native iPhone, iPad and Android apps as well as working in any browser. Checked against SpellMe's own website on 14 November 2026.
What can Spelling.Live do that SpellMe can't? As of 14 November 2026, we found none of these on SpellMe's website: AI handwriting checking, marking a paper spelling test or dictation from a photo, naming the spelling rule behind each mistake and tracking it against the National Curriculum, step-by-step help when a child is stuck (the Aid Ladder), a weekly learning plan built from a goal the parent picks with a check every three weeks, AI picture hints for children aged 5 to 7, native iPhone and Android apps, and a printed practice pack built from the child's own words, free weekly progress emails for each child, and a dozen games played with the child's own words.
How do Spelling.Live's progress reports compare with SpellMe's? Both show how a child is doing word by word. SpellMe's Results Dashboard shows each word's level, accuracy and history of attempts, and its Premium plan adds an AI summary of the last 10 rounds. Spelling.Live gives each child in a family their own reports: accuracy and trend, tricky words grouped by the spelling rule behind them, progress on each National Curriculum spelling rule, and their handwriting, plus a free weekly or monthly email that can also go to a co-parent or teacher. We could not find emailed reports or separate reports for several children on SpellMe's site as of 14 November 2026.
Does Spelling.Live have more games than SpellMe? Yes. Spelling.Live has a dozen games, including Balloon Pop, Word Search, Crossword, Boggle and Letter Climb, all played with the child's own spelling list, plus Challenge a friend and opt-in Hall of Fame boards. SpellMe's practice is built around modes (Regular, Mastery and Story, the last two on its paid plans) and a free Daily Challenge of five set words. Games on Spelling.Live are unlocked with coins earned by practising, so they reward practice rather than replace it.
Is SpellMe or Spelling.Live cheaper? SpellMe is cheaper if you only need typed practice: its Advanced plan is £12 a year and Premium is £20 a year, with a 14-day free trial, and a free guest account offers one list of five words. Spelling.Live is free to start with 200 credits and no card, which is about 100 typed, handwritten or spoken practice words, then credits from £4 for 400 with no subscription, or the Family plan at £5.99 a month (£59.99 a year) for up to four children. Prices as of 14 November 2026.
Does SpellMe check handwriting? We found no handwriting checking on SpellMe's website as of 14 November 2026; children enter their spellings on screen. Spelling.Live checks handwriting written on a tablet or phone screen with AI, and can also mark a photographed paper test or dictation.
Can both apps use a photo of the school spelling list? Yes, with a difference. SpellMe's image-to-word-list feature is part of its Premium plan (£20 a year). Spelling.Live reads a photographed list for every family, including a handwritten list, and can also read a marked spelling test so the results go into the child's progress report.
Do SpellMe and Spelling.Live work on phones and tablets? SpellMe is a web app that works in a browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android and needs an internet connection. Spelling.Live has native apps on the Apple App Store and Google Play and also works in any browser on Windows, macOS, Linux and ChromeOS. Both need an internet connection; Spelling.Live also prints a screen-free practice pack built from the child's own words.
Which is better for a child in a UK primary school? If you want low-cost typed practice of a short list, SpellMe is a sensible choice. If your child's weekly test is handwritten, if you want the school list photographed rather than typed in, or if you want to know which spelling rule your child keeps missing and how they are doing against the National Curriculum, Spelling.Live is built for that.