Comparison · MeritPlaybook vs Appily
Scholarship strategy vs college matching
Appily helps you find schools. MeritPlaybook tells you how to pay for them.
Appily, formerly Cappex, is a free college matching and scholarship search platform owned by EAB, an enrollment management company. Students create a profile with their GPA, test scores, and preferences, and Appily surfaces college matches alongside scholarship listings. For early-stage college discovery, it is a solid starting point at no cost. MeritPlaybook is not a matching tool. It delivers a $249 strategy document that takes your student’s finalized school list and analyzes how specific scholarships interact with institutional aid at each school. Appily can tell a student with a 3.9 GPA and 1450 SAT that they match well with SMU, Tulane, and Loyola Chicago. MeritPlaybook can tell that same family that SMU’s outside scholarship policy displaces institutional merit above a threshold, while Loyola Chicago stacks more favorably. If your student still needs to build a school list, Appily is the right tool. If the list is set and the question is which scholarships to pursue and where the money lands, MeritPlaybook picks up where matching leaves off.
What Appily does
Appily started as Cappex, a college search and scholarship matching platform that rebranded in 2023 under EAB’s ownership. EAB is one of the largest enrollment management firms in higher education, working with over 2,500 institutions. That context matters because it shapes Appily’s business model: the platform is free for students because the real customer is the college.
Students get college matching based on stats, scholarship search tools, and campus discovery features. The matching algorithm considers GPA, test scores, location preferences, and intended major. Scholarship listings appear alongside college profiles, making it easy to browse awards while researching schools.
Where the two products diverge
Appily is a discovery tool. It answers the question “which colleges and scholarships am I a good fit for?” That is a useful question in the spring of junior year when a family is building a 10-school list from a universe of 4,000 options.
MeritPlaybook is a strategy tool. It answers the question “given my student’s profile and these specific target schools, which scholarships should we pursue, and what will the aid package actually look like?” A student matched to 15 scholarships on Appily still doesn’t know which of those awards will reduce institutional aid at Wake Forest or add to it at Arizona State. That analysis is what the $249 buys.
The revenue model difference also shapes the product. Appily’s lead generation model means the platform is optimized to collect student profiles and connect them with partner institutions. MeritPlaybook has one revenue event per customer: the $249 purchase. There is no lead generation, no profile data sold to colleges, and no upsell.
Side-by-side comparison
When Appily is the better fit
Choose Appily when:
Your student is in the early stages of the college search and needs to narrow down a list of target schools. Appily is strong at initial discovery, matching students to schools based on academic profile, geography, and intended major. If you do not yet have a working school list, a matching platform is the right starting point.
Appily is also the right choice when budget is the deciding factor. It is free, and for families who just need a scholarship search engine without school-specific strategy, that may be enough. The question to ask is whether you need a list of scholarships or a plan for how those scholarships interact with aid at each school. If the answer is just the list, Appily covers that.
Frequently asked questions
Is Appily the same as Cappex?
Yes. Cappex rebranded to Appily in 2023 after being acquired by EAB, a higher education enrollment management company. The core product remains a free college matching and scholarship search tool, now with expanded college discovery features under the Appily name.
Why is Appily free if EAB is an enrollment management company?
Appily generates revenue through lead generation. When students create profiles and express interest in colleges, that data helps EAB's enrollment management clients recruit students. The scholarship search and college matching tools are the mechanism that attracts student profiles. The student is not the customer. The college is.
Does Appily analyze how scholarships interact with my financial aid?
No. Appily helps you search for scholarships alongside college matches, but it does not analyze how outside awards affect institutional aid at specific schools. If a student wins a $5,000 external scholarship, Appily will not tell you whether that award reduces your merit aid at Fordham or stacks at TCU. MeritPlaybook provides that stacking analysis for every school on your list.
Should I use Appily or MeritPlaybook first?
Start with Appily if you are still building your college list. Its matching tools help narrow down schools based on stats, location, and fit. Once your school list is set and you need to know which scholarships to pursue and how they interact with institutional aid at each school, that is where MeritPlaybook picks up.
Want to see what a strategy document looks like? View a sample playbook, read the merit aid stacking guide, or start your student’s playbook.