SpotWise vs Locrating
Locrating has been the reference school map for UK parents since 2010: catchment areas, league tables, Ofsted reports and admissions data for tens of thousands of schools. It answers "what is near me and what are the numbers?". SpotWise answers a different question: "given this child and what matters to our family, how do these three to eight schools actually compare?"
Plenty of families will use both. SpotWise also has searchable school and nursery maps; Locrating offers broader historic admissions mapping. Once you have a shortlist and a decision to justify, SpotWise turns the same published data into a weighted scorecard.
The short answer
- Choose Locrating to find schools, see catchment history and browse national records on a map.
- Choose SpotWise to rank a shortlist against one child, understand why the order came out that way, and take a written report to visits and appeals.
- Use both if you are moving area: map first, score second.
Feature by feature
| Feature | SpotWise | Locrating |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage and data | ||
| National coverage of school records | All open schools in England, plus 27,000+ nurseries | |
| Catchment and last-distance-offered maps | Official boundaries and distance rings where councils publish them | |
| Named feeder primary schools, with the admissions wording quoted | Growing, council by council | |
| Pupils per teacher | ||
| Teacher retention at the same school | Not independently verified | |
| Map-first school and nursery browsing | ||
| Property portal plugin | ||
| Source and vintage shown for every figure | Sources cited, vintage varies | |
| Independent and state schools | Yes, with ISI and Ofsted inspection links | |
| Decision support | ||
| Ranks a shortlist against your child's profile | ||
| Weightings you set yourself, normalised to 100 | ||
| Transparent per-criterion scores with the figures behind them | Raw figures shown, not scored | |
| Explains when a criterion is dropped for missing data | ||
| Cohort-size caution on small year groups | ||
| Ofsted trajectory across inspections, not just the latest grade | Reports listed | |
| Written rationale report for your shortlist | ||
| Questions to ask on a school visit | ||
| Output and privacy | ||
| PDF export to take to visits | Printable pages | |
| Side-by-side comparison matrix | ||
| Stores no child-identifying data | No child profile to store | |
| Free-text notes scrubbed for personal detail | ||
| Free tier | Ranked scorecard, top match in full | Extensive free data |
Based on publicly described features at the time of writing. Locrating is a trademark of Locrating Ltd and is not affiliated with SpotWise.
What SpotWise does differently
- Your child, not the average child. Attainment, stretch, diversity, individual attention, attendance culture and values are each scored, then weighted by what you say matters.
- Nothing hidden in the maths. Every criterion shows the published figures behind it, and where data is missing the weight is redistributed and the reason stated.
- A written rationale. A plain-English report that cites the numbers, flags volatility, and ends with questions to ask on a visit.
- Privacy by design. No name, date of birth, gender, photo or current school; postcodes are stored as the outward code only.
Where Locrating is stronger
National breadth and historic catchment mapping. If you are moving house and need to know which streets fell inside last year's admissions distance, that is the tool for it. SpotWise covers every open school in England, independent schools and Ofsted-registered nurseries, and shows official catchment boundaries and last-distance-offered rings where councils publish them. Locrating has wider admissions coverage and pairs with property portals, which matters if a house move and a school move are the same decision.
Pricing compared
Locrating gives a generous free layer of maps and records with paid reports on top. SpotWise is free for one ranked comparison with the top match's evidence shown in full; £7.99 a month or £59 a year unlocks every school's evidence, your own weightings, the written rationale and PDF export, with extra children at 20% of the base plan. School choice is seasonal, so the monthly plan is genuinely cancel-any-time.
Common questions
- Is SpotWise an alternative to Locrating?
- They solve different halves of the problem. Locrating is a map and data browser covering catchment areas and school records nationally. SpotWise takes a shortlist and ranks it against your child's profile and your priorities, then explains the ranking in writing.
- Does SpotWise show school catchment areas?
- SpotWise uses your outward postcode and published admissions information to build a shortlist, and flags admissions policy and distance as scored criteria. Where a council publishes them, SpotWise shows official catchment boundaries and last year's furthest-offer distance as a ring on the map, with a multi-year history chart and a link to each source document. Coverage is growing council by council, so check the coverage summary on your scorecard.
- Where does the data come from?
- Published UK open government data: Get Information About Schools, performance tables, absence statistics, the school census and Ofsted, each with its vintage recorded on the page.
- Is Locrating free?
- Locrating offers extensive free data with a paid tier for deeper reports. SpotWise is free for one ranked comparison with the top match shown in full, then £7.99 a month or £59 a year to unlock every school's evidence, custom weightings, the written rationale and PDF export.
- Can I use SpotWise and Locrating together?
- Yes, and most families should. Browse the area on a map tool to build a shortlist of three to eight schools, then run that shortlist through SpotWise to see how they rank against your child and your priorities.
- How is a SpotWise score calculated?
- Each criterion is scored 0 to 100 from published figures against national benchmarks, then multiplied by the weight you set. When a school is missing a figure, that criterion is dropped and its weight is redistributed across the remaining criteria, with the reason shown on the scorecard.
- Does SpotWise store information about my child?
- No identifying data. There is no name, date of birth, gender, photo or current school, free-text notes are scrubbed for personal details, and postcodes are stored as the outward code only.