Synap

What it is

Synap is an online exam platform from Synap Learning Limited, based in Leeds in the UK. It is built for organizations that set exams rather than for the people who take them: awarding and professional bodies, universities and colleges, companies running certification or recruitment tests, and training and exam prep providers. The home page sums up the scope as authoring, delivering, proctoring, marking and analyzing exams in one system, "with an audit trail to back every result." The site says Synap has delivered more than 10 million exams and is ISO 27001:2022 certified and UK GDPR compliant.

Synap is clear that it is not a learning management system. Its FAQ says an LMS runs courses, content, enrollment and progress, "usually with basic quizzes," while Synap is "built for the exam itself." Every plan can still deliver courses with videos and presentations, deadlines and branded certificates, so a training provider can run simple courses beside its exams.

Authoring exams

Questions live in reusable banks, tagged by topic, skill and difficulty. The home page says there are 15+ question types, and the FAQ names multiple choice (MCQ), extended matching (EMQ), single best answer, short answer, essay, image hotspot, spreadsheet and coding; the product demo on the home page also shows cloze and audio questions. Exams can be assembled to a blueprint or randomized so every candidate gets a unique paper. Items carry media, option-level feedback and statistics such as p-value and discrimination, and can be imported in bulk through CSV or the API. Scoring can be weighted, partial or negative.

Specialist formats get extra attention. The site describes OSCEs with examiner rubrics, "a real spreadsheet inside a proctored exam" for financial assessments, coding questions with syntax highlighting, and language assessments with audio and video responses. Assignments and coursework are marked with rubrics and moderation, and exam prep providers can use spaced learning and mock exams.

Delivery and proctoring

Exams can be timed, untimed or in practice mode, split into sections, and set up with retakes. Sittings run remotely or in a supervised venue, on any modern device, and the FAQ mentions low-bandwidth and challenging environments. Organizers can schedule fixed sittings across regions and time zones, with access arrangements such as extra time, larger text or a dyslexia-friendly typeface applied to each candidate automatically. The home page claims high-concurrency sittings "with 10,000+ candidates starting at once" on a 99.9% uptime SLA.

Proctoring comes from Synoptic, Synap's own tool rather than a third-party add-on. It runs in a browser, as a Chrome extension or as a Windows and macOS desktop app, and has three levels: lockdown, which restricts what the candidate can do on the device; record-and-review, which captures periodic webcam and screen images for checking afterward; and live invigilation. Incidents such as leaving fullscreen or opening a new tab are timestamped against the question the candidate was on. The platform menu also lists identity verification. Other security controls on the pricing page include blocking copy and paste and exam passcodes on every plan, multi-factor authentication from Pro, and enforced MFA and IP restrictions on Business.

Marking and analytics

Objective items mark instantly, and written work goes to examiners with rubrics. Every plan includes automatic and manual grading, rubric criteria and marker assignment. Pro adds section grading, blind grading and double grading roles; Business adds advanced grading roles and processes. The home page demo shows provisional markers marking blind, with scores outside the agreement threshold escalated to a moderating marker. Analytics report pass rates, item discrimination and KR-20 reliability per exam and per question, along with candidate performance reports, user group reports and CSV and PDF results export.

Integrations and data

The FAQ says Synap connects to Moodle, Canvas and Blackboard through certified LTI 1.3, so learners take the course in their LMS and sit the exam in Synap. Single sign-on works with Auth0, Microsoft ADFS or SAML, alongside webhooks, Zapier and a REST API. The pricing page also lists Segment and data warehousing or BI integration. The API follows the OpenAPI v3 and JSON:API v1.1 standards and uses personal access tokens. Synap runs on AWS with EU and US data regions, data can be exported at any time, and the pricing FAQ says uploaded content remains the customer's intellectual property. The candidate area conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, and the pricing page lists Section 508 as well.

Plans and prices

The pricing page lists three annual plans under pay per assessment, with prices excluding VAT:

• Standard, £1,200 per year, "ideal for small teams," with the platform and the first 500 credits, 3 admin accounts, chat support, standard question types, anti-cheat features, analytics, CSV import and export, and branded certificates.
• Pro, £3,500 per year and marked most popular, with 500 credits, advanced question types, essential APIs, Zapier, white-labeling and a custom domain, double and blind grading, unlimited admin and manager accounts, priority chat and Zoom support, and SCORM / TinCan for courses.
• Business, £8,000 per year, with 1,000 credits, SSO, advanced APIs, white-labeled sub-portals, advanced marking workflows, LTI, regional data hosting and a customer success manager.
• Enterprise, quoted by sales, adds custom features and reports, AI plus human question generation, AI-based grading, white-labeled mobile apps, a staging environment, audit logs and a dedicated account manager.

A credit is used each time someone starts an exam or course: 1 for an unproctored exam or course, and for Synoptic exams 2 credits in lockdown mode, 3 for record-and-review with screen recreation, and 5 for video and audio recording. Synoptic proctoring is an add-on on every plan. The alternative model charges per Monthly Active User, someone who uses the platform in a 30-day period and can take unlimited exams and courses in it. The home FAQ says there are no set-up fees and billing can be monthly or annual. Every plan includes onboarding, 20+ languages, unlimited data retention and the 99.9% uptime SLA. A 14-day free trial follows a short demo, and the FAQ says subscriptions can be canceled at any time.

Migration and customers

Moving from another exam platform is something the FAQ says Synap has "run many times": the team imports question banks, rebuilds exam settings and rules, and runs a parallel pilot before going live, with onboarding included rather than quoted separately. Timelines are "usually weeks, not terms." The headline customer story is Iceland's Project Management Association (VSF), which moved its certification exams to Synap four days before a scheduled sitting. Other customer stories cover a custom exam simulator for aspiring medical students, recruitment exams launched in 16 days, and a move from physical testing centers to global online exams.

Testimonials on the home page come from FreeNow, the University of the Free State and CSA. Henda S, a program director at the University of the Free State, writes: "I am never going back to writing a paper-based exam and I will not use another examination provider." The site displays a 4.8/5 rating from 32 reviews on Capterra.

Who it suits

Synap fits awarding and professional bodies running certification, universities delivering admissions tests, OSCEs and formative work, companies certifying customers or screening job candidates, and exam prep providers building mock exams. The site names its best fit as exams whose results may be challenged by appeals, regulator audits or accreditation reviews, formats beyond multiple choice, and sittings where thousands of candidates start at once.

The site is candid about where it fits less well: teams that only need "lightweight, informal quizzing with no proctoring or audit requirement," where it says "a simpler quiz tool will be cheaper and faster to set up," and organizations that only want standalone proctoring because delivery and marking already run elsewhere. Smaller teams should also note that SSO and LTI sit on the Business plan.