Scholarly vs BigFuture: College Board's free search or an app that applies?

Last updated October 2026 · By the Scholarly team

Short answer

BigFuture is the College Board's free scholarship search, with more than 43,000 listings and no-essay $40,000 drawings for high schoolers; you apply on each provider's site. Scholarly costs $59.99 a year on the web and fills out and submits applications for you after you approve each one. For finding scholarships, BigFuture is excellent and free. Scholarly is for the applying.

We make Scholarly, so weigh our take accordingly. Every fact about another company on this page links to its source at the bottom, checked in October 2026. Prices and features change; confirm on their site before you pay.

Side by side

Scholarly compared with BigFuture
Feature	Scholarly	BigFuture
Price	Free to set up. Swiping and auto-apply need a subscription: $59.99 a year or $19.99 a month on the web. On iPhone it's billed through the App Store.	Free
How you find scholarships	Swipe through scholarships matched to your profile. Anything you don't qualify for is hidden. Roughly 700 are open at a time.	Filterable search by location, GPA, grade level, field of study, and more. 43,513 results on Oct 19, 2026.
Applies for you?	Yes Fills in and submits each application after you review and approve it.	No Links out to each provider.
Essay help	Stores one personal statement and reuses it. You edit it when you want; it isn't rewritten behind your back.	College planning content. Each listing says whether an essay is required.
Platforms	iPhone app (4.7 stars, 4,100+ ratings) and a web app that runs in any browser, Android included.	Website.
Business model	Subscriptions. No ads, no sponsored listings in the swipe feed.	Run by the College Board, a nonprofit. Free to students.
Data sharing	Never sold. Your details go only to the providers you swipe right on.	Student Search Service is opt-in. If you opt in, your details go to nonprofit colleges, scholarship programs, and government agencies.

The real difference

If we had to recommend one free scholarship search to a student with no money, it would probably be BigFuture. It's big, it's run by a nonprofit, the filters are good, and every listing tells you up front whether an essay is required and whether it's merit or need based. The $40,000 no-essay drawings are a nice bonus for sophomores through seniors.

What BigFuture doesn't do is the applying. A 43,000-result list is a to-do list, and the hours go into the to-do list. Scholarly takes your profile and personal statement and does those forms for the scholarships it can submit, with you approving each one.

Pick BigFuture if…

You want the best free search with strong filters
You're in the class of 2027, 2028, or 2029 and want the no-essay drawings
You're already using BigFuture for college planning

Pick Scholarly if…

Your problem is time, not finding scholarships
You're in college or grad school and BigFuture's drawings don't apply to you
You want one profile reused across providers' forms
You want a phone app that tracks every application

Can you use both?

Yes, and if you're a high schooler you probably should. Do the BigFuture dashboard steps to earn drawing entries, use the search to spot big local awards, and let Scholarly handle the applications it can submit. When something on BigFuture isn't in Scholarly's feed, apply directly.

Questions people ask

Is BigFuture Scholarship Search free?

Yes. BigFuture is run by the College Board, the nonprofit behind the SAT, and its scholarship search is free to use. It showed 43,513 results on October 19, 2026.

What are BigFuture Scholarships?

A separate College Board program: no-essay drawings for $40,000 and $500 scholarships open to students in the classes of 2027, 2028, and 2029. You earn entries by completing planning steps on your BigFuture dashboard, and the College Board says students whose families earn under $60,000 a year can improve their chances.

Does BigFuture share my information with colleges?

Only if you opt in to Student Search Service. If you do, the College Board shares details such as your name, contact information, expected graduation year, and score ranges with nonprofit colleges, scholarship programs, and government education agencies. You can opt out at any time.

Does BigFuture apply to scholarships for me?

No. Each result links to the provider, and you apply there.

Why would I pay for Scholarly when BigFuture is free?

You shouldn't, if you have the time to apply on each provider's site yourself. Scholarly is for students who already know where scholarships are and keep running out of hours to fill in forms.