Spelling Bee Prep Apps and Websites Compared for 2026

Your child won the classroom bee, then the school bee, and now there is a regional date on the calendar and a study list that runs to thousands of words. Somewhere between the excitement and the panic, you start searching for the right app. You soon discover that spelling bee preparation has its own small industry: free official apps, paid word-list services, coaching, dictionaries, and a great many word games that look relevant and are not.

This guide compares the main tools spelling bee families use, on what each one is, who it suits, what it costs as of October 2026, where it runs, and where it falls short. Prices come from each provider's own site or app store listing, checked in late September and early October 2026.

We make one of the tools below. It is a general spelling practice app rather than a bee-specific service, and its entry says what that means for a competitor.

What bee preparation actually requires

Spelling bees ask for something different from school spelling. Words are spelled aloud, letter by letter, with no chance to see them written. Spellers may ask for a word's definition, part of speech, language of origin, an example sentence and alternate pronunciations, and the strongest spellers use those answers to reason their way to words they have never studied. National-level competitions also ask about word meaning.

So a good preparation mix covers four things. The first is the official study lists, and the second is a large stock of harder words beyond them. The third is the roots and language patterns that let a speller work out unfamiliar words. The fourth is plenty of practice spelling aloud under something like competition conditions.

Research on bee champions points clearly at one of these above the others. In a 2011 study of National Spelling Bee finalists, Angela Duckworth, K. Anders Ericsson and colleagues found that deliberate practice, meaning solitary, effortful study of words, predicted how far spellers advanced better than being quizzed by others or reading for pleasure. The spellers also rated it the least enjoyable activity. Tools that make solitary study efficient matter more than tools that make it fun.

The short version

Start here: Word Club and the official lists

Word Club is the official app of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and it should be the first download for any school-level speller. It is free on iPhone, iPad and Android. It covers the season's School Spelling Bee Study List and Words of the Champions, the bee's recommended study resource for classroom, school, regional qualifier and regional bees, which runs to 4,000 words. It offers five spelling play modes and three vocabulary modes, and tracks progress through the lists.

Its limit is scope. Word Club covers the official lists, and at the higher regional and national levels, spellers face words well beyond them. Some of its modes are also about recognizing a correct spelling rather than producing it, so steer toward the modes where the speller has to spell the word.

The dictionary: Merriam-Webster Unabridged

Scripps notes that all the words in Words of the Champions can be found in Merriam-Webster Unabridged, the bee's official dictionary. The online subscription costs $4.95 a month or $49.50 a year, with a free trial. It gives pronunciations, etymologies and definitions in full, which is exactly the information spellers ask for on stage.

For a speller at the school level, the free Merriam-Webster.com site, with audio for each entry, is enough. For a speller heading to regionals and beyond, the unabridged dictionary becomes the reference of record, especially for checking etymology and alternate pronunciations.

For serious competitors: SpellPundit and Hexco

SpellPundit organizes enormous numbers of competition words into modules and sets, with learning and testing modes, a module of about 2,000 prefixes, suffixes and roots, a homonyms module of about 4,000 words, vocabulary lists, and the option to upload your own words for an extra fee. Pricing is by module: each current-year list costs $50 a year, discounted packages start at $220 a year, and everything costs $750 a year. Subscriptions do not renew automatically, and siblings get 50 percent off. The 2026 Scripps champion, Shrey Parikh, is quoted on its site describing it as instrumental to his win; the 2023 champion, Dev Shah, is quoted too.

Hexco Academic has published contest preparation materials for more than 35 years and says that 38 National Spelling Bee champions have used its materials. It sells study guides and coaching for the national bee alongside materials for other academic contests. Families who prefer printed lists and structured guides often start here.

Both are built for families aiming high. For a child in their first school bee, they are more than you need.

Practice tools: Vocabulary.com, Anki and our entry

Vocabulary.com has a Spelling Bee activity for its word lists: it shows each word's definition and plays the word, and the speller types it. It is useful practice with meanings attached, though typing is a different skill from spelling aloud on stage. A free account allows 10 trainer questions a day.

Anki is free, open-source flashcard software with excellent spaced repetition. Its value for spellers is the personal miss list: every word a speller gets wrong, from any source, goes into Anki with its audio, definition and origin, and comes back on a schedule until it is secure. That turns scattered study into a system. The iPhone app costs $24.99 once; everything else is free.

Ours is general spelling practice, not bee preparation, and it is worth being clear about the difference. A recorded American voice says a word, the speller types it, and the app shows exactly which letters went wrong and why, with the meaning and an example sentence, then schedules the word for review with spaced repetition. There are ten levels, the highest made of competition words, and almost 14,000 words with audio. It helps a younger speller build a broad base and the habit of daily practice. But it is typed rather than oral, it gives no language of origin, and it is not built around the Scripps lists, so it is a supplement for bee families, not the core.

What not to count as preparation

The New York Times Spelling Bee is a lovely daily word game, but it is not spelling practice. You build words from seven letters, so you are finding words rather than spelling words you have heard. Enjoy it. Do not count it as study time.

The same goes for most spelling games. Anything where the speller taps letters from a small set, or picks the right spelling from options, trains recognition. Bees test production, aloud, from sound alone.

Before you pay for anything

Bee preparation can become expensive quickly, and much of the spending happens in a rush after a surprise win. A few checks first will save money.

Find out which list your next bee uses. Most school, classroom and regional bees in the Scripps program draw on the official study lists, which Word Club already covers at no cost. If your child's school is not enrolled in the Scripps program, ask the teacher or organizer which words the bee will use. Some local and community bees run their own lists.

Be honest about the level. A child who has just won a classroom bee needs the official list, a parent who reads words aloud, and a habit of daily study. A child who has reached regionals more than once needs depth beyond the list, and that is when paid word lists start to pay for themselves.

Ask about discounts. SpellPundit offers siblings 50 percent off, and many paid products have school or group pricing.

And keep the joy in view. Most spellers will not reach the national finals, and the ones who stay with the bee longest tend to be the ones who enjoy words. A family that spends more on tools than the child wants to use has bought pressure, not progress.

How to choose

For a first school bee, Word Club and a parent reading words aloud are enough. Add the free Merriam-Webster site for definitions and origins.

For a regional bee, add a system for misses, such as Anki, and start learning roots and language patterns. Our guide to how champions spell words they have never seen explains how that reasoning works.

For a speller with national ambitions, a word-list service such as SpellPundit or Hexco materials, plus the unabridged dictionary, becomes worth the cost. At that level, many families also look for coaching.

A method that works with any of them

Whatever tools you use, the method matters more. Our six-month bee plan sets out a full schedule; here is the core.

Study alone most days, in short focused blocks, as the Duckworth study suggests. Work from the official list first, then beyond it. Every miss goes on a personal list with its definition and origin, and that list gets reviewed on a spaced schedule: tomorrow, then in a few days, then a week, then a month. Nicholas Cepeda and colleagues, reviewing hundreds of experiments in 2006, found that spacing practice out like this beats massed study for long-term memory.

Several times a week, practice aloud. A parent reads the word, the speller asks the questions they would ask on stage, says the word, spells it letter by letter, and says it again. Our guide to oral spelling drills covers how to run those sessions so they feel like the real thing.

What to do next

Download Word Club today and work through the first set of the official list with your speller. Start a personal miss list on the first day, and review it tomorrow. If your child is still building a broad base of everyday and harder words, you can try five words from Spelling.School on the home page with no sign-up.

Questions people ask

What is the best app for spelling bee practice?

For school-level bees, the free Word Club app from the Scripps National Spelling Bee is the best starting point, because it covers the official study lists. Competitive spellers aiming at regional and national bees often add a word-list service such as SpellPundit, the Merriam-Webster Unabridged dictionary, and a spaced-repetition tool such as Anki for their personal list of missed words.

Is the Scripps Word Club app free?

Yes. Word Club is free on iPhone, iPad and Android. It covers the season's School Spelling Bee Study List and Words of the Champions, with five spelling play modes and three vocabulary modes, and it tracks a speller's progress through the lists.

What dictionary does the Scripps National Spelling Bee use?

The Scripps National Spelling Bee uses Merriam-Webster Unabridged as its official dictionary, and all the words in its Words of the Champions study list can be found there. The online subscription costs $4.95 a month or $49.50 a year, with a free trial. The free Merriam-Webster.com site is enough for most school-level spellers.

How much does SpellPundit cost?

SpellPundit is priced by module on an annual basis. Each current-year spelling bee list costs $50 a year, discounted packages start at $220 a year, and access to every module costs $750 a year. Subscriptions do not renew automatically, and SpellPundit offers siblings a 50 percent discount.

How many hours a day do spelling bee champions study?

There is no fixed number, and it varies widely by age and level. Research on National Spelling Bee finalists found that what predicted success was the amount of deliberate practice, meaning focused solitary study of words, rather than being quizzed by others or reading for pleasure. For most young spellers, short daily study sessions with regular review of missed words matter more than long weekend sessions.

Does playing the New York Times Spelling Bee help with spelling bees?

Not much. The New York Times Spelling Bee is a word-finding game in which you build words from seven given letters, so it trains vocabulary and pattern-spotting rather than spelling a word you have only heard. Competition bees test producing a spelling aloud from sound, which needs different practice.

Fix the words you actually get wrong

A few minutes a day, spaced repetition, built only for spelling. Try five words without signing up.