There are more 11+ prep apps than there used to be. The market has grown fast, mostly because parents have realised that practice books and once-a-week tutors don't cut it on their own. But the apps vary wildly in question quality, subject coverage, and - frankly - price.
I built one of these apps, so I have a bias. I've tried to be fair anyway. Here's what the main options actually offer.
| App | Price | Question volume | Subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| PipPrep (us) | £19/mo or £149/yr | 100,000+ questions | VR, NVR, Maths, English |
| Atom Learning | £60/mo | 100,000+ questions | VR, NVR, Maths, English |
| Bond Online | £5.99/mo | Limited (mirrors books) | VR, NVR, Maths, English |
| Explore Learning | £120+/mo (centres) | N/A (in-person) | Maths, English |
| EdPlace | £15/mo | Large (school curriculum focus) | Broad, less 11+ specific |
Atom is the biggest name in 11+ apps. The question bank is genuinely enormous, the adaptive algorithm is good, and the parent dashboard is polished. It's a well-built product.
The main issue is price. £60 a month is £720 a year. Most families start prep in Year 4 or 5, which means 12-24 months of subscriptions. That's a significant spend on top of any tutoring you're already doing.
The other thing worth knowing: Atom's model is built around a very large question bank, so breadth is the strength. If you want depth on specific question types - exhaustive rotation practice, say - you might find yourself hunting for the relevant content.
Bond is the brand everyone's parents used. The books are still excellent. The online version is cheaper but feels like a digitised workbook - it mirrors the paper books closely and doesn't do much that you couldn't do with a pencil. Fine for supplementary practice, less good as a primary prep tool.
Not really an app - it's a tutoring centre franchise. I'm including it because parents often compare it to app-based prep. At £120+ a month for two sessions, it's the most expensive option on this list. Useful for maths and English curriculum support, less 11+-focused than dedicated apps.
A solid general learning platform that covers the school curriculum well. Less purpose-built for the 11+ than Atom or PipPrep - the 11+ content is there, but it sits alongside Key Stage content and doesn't map closely to exam board question types.
I built this because my son was sitting the 11+ and the only affordable options felt like they'd been designed for a different era. The app has 100,000+ questions across all four 11+ subjects, mapped to GL Assessment, CSSE, SET, ISEB, and bespoke school formats. Every answer, right or wrong, gets an explanation - not just the correct letter. There's a parent dashboard so you can see exactly where your child is struggling.
It costs £19 a month or £149 for the year. That's under a third of Atom's monthly price, and the annual subscription works out to around £12.42 a month.
One genuine difference: PipPrep has a guest mode with 20 free practice questions a day, no credit card required. So you can actually try the questions before you decide anything.
Honestly? It depends what you need. If budget isn't a concern and you want a polished adaptive platform, Atom is a strong choice - though on question volume we're comparable, at less than half the monthly price. If you want to try something before committing, use our free guest mode and see whether the question style suits your child.
The main thing is to use something consistently. 20 minutes a day beats occasional marathon sessions regardless of which platform you're on.
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