If you’re looking for an alternative to myHomework, you already know what you want: somewhere to keep classes, homework and exams that doesn’t charge you for the basics and doesn’t fall over when your timetable isn’t the same every week.
This is a straight comparison of MyStudyLife and myHomework, including the places where the other one might suit you better.
Quick answer
– Both apps track homework by class. The differences are rotating timetables, price and reach.
– MyStudyLife is free on every platform and handles week A/B and day cycles.
– Moving across takes about twenty minutes: classes, exams, current work, reminders.
What both apps do
Both are student planners in the same tradition: add your classes, add homework and assignments against them, get reminded before things are due, and check them on a phone or a laptop.
If all you need is a to-do list with a course label attached, either works, and so does a notebook.
The differences show up in three places: how they handle timetables that rotate, what costs money, and how much of the app assumes a US school calendar.
The comparison
| MyStudyLife | myHomework | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free tier, with a paid upgrade |
| Rotating timetables | Week A/B, day cycles, odd weeks | More limited |
| Classes with rooms and teachers | Yes | Yes |
| Homework and assignments | Yes, per class | Yes, per class |
| Exams as a separate type | Yes, with times and rooms | Limited |
| Reminders | Yes, across devices | Yes |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android, desktop |
| Offline use | Yes | Partial |
| Ads | None in the planner | Removed on the paid tier |
Both apps are actively used by millions of students. This isn’t a case of one being abandoned — it’s a case of them making different choices.
Why students move across
Rotating timetables are the reason most people switch: week A and week B, six-day cycles and alternating labs are normal in the UK, Ireland and Australia. If you’re setting up at the start of a term, our syllabus to semester plan guide gets every deadline in at once, and the assignment tracker page shows how work sits against a class.
Rotating timetables. This is the most common reason by a distance. Week A and week B, six-day cycles, alternating labs, sixth-form free periods — these are normal in the UK, Australia, Ireland and much of Europe, and common enough in the US. A planner that assumes every Monday is identical stops being useful in week two.
Everything free. MyStudyLife’s whole feature set is free on every platform. Nothing about tracking your homework sits behind an upgrade.
Exams treated properly. An exam is not a piece of homework. It has a date, a start time, a room, and a revision run-up, and having them separate makes the last month of term legible.
It isn’t US-only. Terms, semesters and trimesters, school and university, 197 countries. If you move countries or study abroad, the app doesn’t stop making sense.
Where myHomework might suit you better
If your timetable is simple and you’re happy, stay. If it rotates, or you’ve hit a paywall on something basic, switch.
Being fair about this matters more than winning an argument:
- It has a desktop app, if you prefer something outside a browser.
- If your timetable is identical every week and you like its interface, there’s no reason to switch.
- Its paid tier bundles some extras that certain students like.
The honest summary: if your timetable is simple and you’re happy, stay. If it rotates, or you’ve hit a paywall on something basic, MyStudyLife will feel like an upgrade.
Moving across
There’s no direct import, and for most students that’s twenty minutes of work:
- Add your classes first — subject, teacher, room, and the days they run, including the rotation if you have one.
- Add exam dates from your school’s exam timetable.
- Add current homework, and don’t bother migrating anything already finished.
- Add recurring work — weekly problem sets, readings — as repeating tasks.
- Turn reminders on, and pick a lead time you’ll actually respond to.
If you’re doing this at the start of a term, our syllabus to semester plan guide covers getting the whole term’s deadlines in while you still have the documents open.
What to look for in any planner
Judge it on whether it handles your actual week — rotating timetables, exams as their own thing, reminders early enough to act on. Then judge it on what goes inside: Cornell’s Learning Strategies Center on scheduling study time, and the evidence on practice testing and spacing on what to do once a block starts. Our study techniques guide is the short version.
If you’re comparing more widely than these two, judge on six things:
- Does it understand timetables, or only calendars? Classes rotate and skip weeks.
- Is work attached to a class? Otherwise it’s a to-do list with subject names typed in.
- Are exams their own type of thing? With a room, a time and a countdown.
- Do reminders arrive early enough to act on?
- Does it work on every device you use, offline?
- What costs money after the free tier?
A week of using it properly
The setup isn’t the hard part; the habit is. What works for most students is two checks a day and one review a week.
Morning: open it, see what’s due today. Evening: add anything set in class, tick off what’s done. Sunday: ten minutes on the week ahead, moving what slipped and breaking any large assignment into its next stage.
That’s about five minutes a day, and it is the difference between a planner you set up in September and a planner that’s still accurate in November.
Other alternatives people consider
Google Calendar. Excellent at events, poor at work. It has no concept of an assignment that belongs to a course, so everything becomes a timed block you have to maintain by hand.
Notion. Endlessly flexible, which is the problem: you build the planner before you use it, and maintaining the build competes with the schoolwork.
Paper diaries. Still good. They don’t remind you, they don’t sync, and they get left at school, but the friction of writing something down has real value.
Your school’s LMS. Shows work set through the platform and nothing else — not the task a teacher announced verbally, and not your revision.
The advantage of a purpose-built planner is simply that it arrives knowing what classes, assignments and exams are, so there’s nothing to construct.
Frequently asked before switching
Students hesitating over a switch usually have the same three worries.
Will I lose my history? You’ll lose completed tasks, which is no real loss. What matters is upcoming work and your timetable, and both are quick to re-enter.
Will I remember to use a new app? For about a week it takes deliberate effort, then it doesn’t. The trick is to add work in the room where it’s set, rather than at home from memory.
What if I don’t like it? Both apps are free to try, and nothing stops you running both for a fortnight before deciding. Most people know within five days.
In short
If your week repeats identically and you like what you have, there’s no reason to move. If it rotates, or the basics sit behind an upgrade, twenty minutes gets you across.
FAQ
Is MyStudyLife free?
Yes, on web, iOS and Android, with no paid tier for the planner features.
Can I import my data from myHomework?
There’s no direct import. Classes and upcoming work take about twenty minutes to re-enter, and completed work isn’t worth moving.
Which is better for college students?
Both work. MyStudyLife handles rotating and non-US academic calendars better; myHomework has a desktop app. Try both for a week.
Does MyStudyLife work offline?
Yes, and it syncs when you’re back online.
What about Google Calendar or Notion?
Both are fine general tools, and both need building yourself. A planner arrives already knowing what a class, an assignment and an exam are.
Does it handle rotating timetables?
Yes — week A/B, day cycles and alternating weeks, which is the main reason students move across.
