Howay vs Olex: one teacher's marking pile, or a whole trust?
The short answer: if you are a school or trust leader standardising writing assessment across many classes — perhaps across primary and secondary — Olex is a credible, award-winning platform and may well be the right choice. If you are one primary teacher who wants curriculum-aligned feedback on this week's books, at a price you could pay yourself, that is the job Howay was built for.
Last updated: · facts checked against olex.ai
How this comparison was made
This page is written by the team behind Howay, so we have an obvious interest. Every factual claim about Olex was checked against olex.ai in July 2026, and where we could not verify something we say “on request” or leave it out. Olex is a serious, well-regarded product, and this page says so. If we have got a detail wrong, tell us and we will fix it.
At a glance
| Howay | Olex | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Individual primary teachers (schools welcome too) | Schools and multi-academy trusts |
| Age range | Primary only (KS1–KS2) | KS1–KS4, primary and secondary |
| Curriculum alignment | UK writing frameworks (KS1–KS2) | DfE Writing Framework (primary); GCSE mark schemes (secondary) |
| Handwriting | Yes — photograph the book | Yes — photo or bulk scan |
| Teacher review | Every output editable before a child sees it | Feedback held until the teacher clicks send |
| Emphasis | Feedback-led: strengths and next steps, no numeric grade | Assessment at scale: consistent data across classes and trusts |
| How you buy | Sign up directly; free tier | Book a demo; procurement-led |
| Pricing | Free tier; £4.99/month billed annually | On request |
Olex details from olex.ai, July 2026. Always confirm current terms with the vendor before buying.
When is Olex the right choice?
Olex is the scale option, and it has earned that position. By its own count it is used across 120 trusts, and it has a genuinely strong awards record — including Bett Awards wins in 2025 and 2026, ERA Awards wins and a BESA 2025 award in AI-in-education categories. It is a fair sign of a product that procurement teams and judges have looked at closely and rated. Olex is likely the better fit if:
- You are a MAT or school leader standardising writing assessment across many schools, and want consistent data at class, year-group and trust level.
- You need one tool spanning KS1 to KS4 — DfE Writing Framework aligned at primary, GCSE mark schemes at secondary — so primary and secondary phases share a platform.
- You want bulk scanning of full class sets of workbooks, and multilingual feedback for EAL learners.
- A demo-and-procurement buying process suits you — Olex does not publish pricing, and its site is built around booking a demo with its team.
When is Howay the better fit?
Howay starts from the other end: not the trust dashboard, but the single teacher with thirty books on a Tuesday night. Howay is likely the better fit if:
- You are an individual primary teacher and want to start today — no demo, no procurement, no case to make to SLT first. Sign up, photograph a book, judge the output yourself.
- You want published, teacher-payable pricing: a free tier, then £4.99/month billed annually (£6.99 monthly).
- You want the output centred on formative feedback — a child-friendly summary of strengths and next steps plus a criteria-level breakdown, rather than a score. Howay is deliberately feedback-led rather than grade-led: it surfaces the curriculum standards evident in the writing instead of producing a numeric grade.
- You want to edit everything before a child or parent sees it — every summary and report is yours to change, in your voice. More on the workflow on the teachers page.
Where Howay fits — and where it honestly doesn't
Being straight about our own limits: Howay is a newer product than Olex, and it is primary-only — if you need KS3 or KS4 marking against GCSE mark schemes, Howay does not do that job. Nor is it a trust-wide analytics platform; school and MAT pricing exists on request, but the product's centre of gravity is the individual teacher's marking and feedback, not cross-school data standardisation.
What both tools get right, in our view, is keeping the teacher in charge: Olex holds feedback until the teacher clicks send, and Howay makes every output editable before it reaches a child. If you are weighing several tools at once, our wider round-up of the best AI writing feedback tools for UK primary schools covers the full field.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Howay and Olex?
Both read handwritten writing and return curriculum-aligned feedback with the teacher reviewing before anything reaches a child. The main differences are scope and entry point. Olex spans KS1 to KS4 — DfE Writing Framework aligned at primary, GCSE mark schemes at secondary — and is sold to schools and trusts through demos, with pricing on request. Howay is primary-only (KS1–KS2), feedback-led rather than grade-led, and built so an individual teacher can sign up directly with a free tier and a published price of £4.99/month billed annually.
Is Howay an Olex alternative?
For an individual primary teacher, yes: Howay does the same core job — feedback on photographed handwritten writing — without needing school-level procurement, and you can start free today. For a multi-academy trust standardising writing assessment across primary and secondary phases, Olex is the tool shaped for that job, and Howay is not trying to be.
Does Olex publish its pricing?
Not at the time of writing. Olex's site is demo-led — the call to action is to request a demo, and pricing is discussed with its team. Howay publishes its pricing openly: a free tier, then £4.99/month billed annually or £6.99/month billed monthly, with school and MAT pricing on request.
Do both Howay and Olex read children's handwriting?
Yes. Olex accepts handwritten or digital work, including bulk scanning of a full class set of workbooks. Howay works from a photograph of the child's book taken on a phone or tablet — no scanner or specialist hardware needed. In both cases a teacher reviews the output before it reaches a child.
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