Hit the Button Maths vs Topmarks
We get found under searches for both names, so here's a straight answer instead of a sales pitch.
The honest starting point
Topmarks Online Ltd created the original "Hit the Button" game, and their version at topmarks.co.uk has been a staple UK primary resource for a long time — it has genuine native apps on iOS, Android and Windows, one-click Google Classroom sharing, and every granular practice mode selectable on a single page without a reload. If you're looking for the most established, most feature-complete version of this exact game, that's a fair thing to know before you choose where to play.
This site, Hit the Button Maths, is a separate, independent build — not affiliated with Topmarks, not a reskin of their code, built from scratch with its own game engine. We're smaller and newer, and we're upfront about that rather than pretending otherwise.
Where Topmarks has the edge
- Native apps. Genuine iOS, Android and Windows apps with real reviews, which this site doesn't have (yet) — everything here runs in the browser.
- Google Classroom integration. A one-tap way for teachers to assign the game directly, which is a real workflow advantage for classroom use.
- Track record. It's the original, with years of accumulated trust, school adoption, and word of mouth behind it.
- Every mode on one screen. Topmarks lets you flick between very granular sub-modes (specific bond ranges, specific halving ranges) without leaving the page.
Where this version does something different
- A dedicated Multiplication Tables Check practice mode — 25 questions, a genuine 6-second-per-question timer (not a running clock), built specifically to mirror the statutory Year 4 check format. See our MTC practice page and the parent's guide to what the real check involves.
- Adaptive "practise my mistakes" mode, based on retrieval-practice research — the game tracks which specific facts get missed on this device and resurfaces them more often, rather than treating every question as equally random.
- A real full screen mode that works on iPhone, built as a CSS-based fallback rather than relying on the native browser API, which has patchy support on iOS Safari.
- Keyboard play — number keys answer questions without a mouse, useful on a classroom display or for a child who finds a keyboard easier than a trackpad.
- Installable as an app from the browser (Add to Home Screen) via a proper web app manifest, without needing an app store.
How to choose
If you want the single most established, most fully-featured version with native apps and Classroom integration, Topmarks' own page is the right choice, and we'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. If the Multiplication Tables Check format, adaptive weak-facts practice, or a version that plays properly full-screen on an iPad or iPhone matters more to you, that's what this site is specifically built around. Plenty of teachers and parents reasonably use both — there's no real downside to trying each and keeping whichever fits a particular child or classroom better.