By Mark Rikhter June 4, 2026 - 4:24am

My daughter is 11 and hates math. Not "groans about homework" hates it — more like shuts down completely when fractions come up. We tried a tutor in person for a while, but the scheduling was a nightmare between my shifts and her after-school activities. So I went looking for an app.

The first two I downloaded felt like games with a math skin. Bright colors, reward coins, cartoon characters — and zero progress after three weeks. She was tapping through screens without thinking. The third had decent content but matched her with a tutor who talked too fast and couldn't adjust when she got stuck on a problem. No option to switch. No way to flag the issue. I canceled within a week.

What finally worked was an app that did something simple: it let her pick a tutor from a short list, watch a 30-second intro video from each one, and try a free 10-minute session before committing. She picked someone she liked. That tutor remembered where they left off every session. There was a parent dashboard — nothing fancy, just a summary of what they covered and where she struggled.

That's it. No gamification gimmicks. Just a tutor who showed up, an app that didn't crash, and a scheduling system that sent reminders to both of us.

I got curious about why so few apps get this right and started reading about what goes into tutor app software development from a technical side. Turns out the matching logic, real-time video, progress tracking and parent-side reporting are each their own engineering challenge. Most teams underestimate the scope — and it shows in the product.

If you're a mom looking for a tutoring app, my advice: ignore the flashy ones. Look for one that lets your kid choose their tutor and lets you see what's actually happening in the sessions. Everything else is decoration.