The market is full of £4.99-a-month apps promising lesson plans, tutor chat and Local Authority reports all in one. Here's how to tell the real tools from the landing pages — and where Homeducate fits.
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Before you pay, it helps to know which kind of product you're actually looking at.
Banks of worksheets, plans and activities. Useful for material — but they don't keep a record of what your child has done or evidence it for anyone.
Slick sites promising tutor chat, AI and LA reports for a few pounds. Some have no working accounts, payments or database behind the marketing — yet.
Tools that capture what was studied, for how long, with proof — and turn it into a report. This is the job Homeducate is built for.
Four quick tests that separate a working platform from a feature list.
A real platform lets you sign up, log in and see a dashboard. If the only thing you can do is join a waitlist or send a contact form, the "platform" isn't live yet. With Homeducate you can start a full free trial and be logging work in minutes.
Log a study session, close the tab, come back tomorrow. If it's still there, there's a real database behind it. Homeducate stores every subject, timetable, work-log entry and photo securely against your family account.
"LA-ready reports" on a feature list mean nothing until you can generate one. Homeducate produces a narrative Educational Provision Report and PDF portfolio — written for an LA officer, framed against the Section 7 standard — from your real data.
Pre-loaded AQA, Edexcel and OCR topic structures, a mock-grade tracker and a revision planner are hard to fake. Homeducate has all three, with coverage tracked topic by topic against your exam dates.
Based on what these apps commonly advertise versus what they actually deliver.
| What you need | Homeducate | Typical £4.99 "all-in-one" app |
|---|---|---|
| A working account you can log in to | ✓ | Often waitlist / contact form only |
| Secure database storing your records | ✓ | Frequently none behind the marketing |
| Pre-loaded GCSE specs (AQA / Edexcel / OCR) | ✓ | Advertised, rarely real |
| Topic coverage & study-hour tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Mock-grade tracking vs target grades | ✓ | ✗ |
| Evidence photos attached to work | ✓ | ✗ |
| One-click Local Authority report & PDF portfolio | ✓ | Promised, not generated |
| Up to 5 children, separate student logins | ✓ | Varies |
| Vetted tutor directory & progress sharing | ✓ | "24/7 tutor chat" — often a chatbot |
| Lesson plans & curriculum content | No — use any resources you like | Their main selling point |
| Export your data (CSV / XLSX / PDF) | ✓ | ✗ |
| UK company, real working product today | ✓ | Often pre-launch |
| Price | £6.99/mo whole family | ~£4.99/mo |
An honest note
We don't sell lesson plans. Homeducate is the planning, tracking and evidence layer that sits over whatever you teach with: your own materials, a tutor, online courses or a content library. If you want a bank of worksheets, pair us with one. If you want to prove the education is happening, that's where we're unbeatable.
Comparing options before you commit?
Still using a spreadsheet? Read Homeducate vs spreadsheets.
A library gives you content to teach. It doesn't record what your child actually did, track coverage against a specification, or produce evidence for a Local Authority. Homeducate is a records and evidence platform — many families use a content library for material and Homeducate to keep the record.
Some are genuinely useful content libraries. But several heavily-marketed "all-in-one platforms" promising tutor chat, AI and LA reports for a few pounds are early-stage landing pages where those features don't work yet. Before paying, check you can create an account, log real data and export a report.
It's a working multi-user platform — secure accounts, a real database, pre-loaded GCSE specs, evidence storage and LA report generation — not a list of lesson plans. £6.99 a month covers a whole family of up to five children, with a 14-day free trial.
No, deliberately. It's the planning, tracking and evidence layer over whatever resources you choose. That means you're never locked into one provider's lessons, and your records stay yours.
No waitlist, no "coming soon". Create an account and start logging today.
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