About PermitReady

Who builds PermitReady

PermitReady is built by Joshua Gilmour, an independent software developer, and published under TechSmog.

The app started in 2026 for an ordinary reason: his teenager was going through the permit process. Looking for something to study with, he kept running into the same problems. Apps wanted an account before showing a single question. Some wanted a subscription. Others needed a live internet connection, which is not much use in a parking lot outside the RMV or in the back of a car with no signal. And once the permit test was passed, the studying app had nothing to say about the fifty-odd supervised hours that came next — that part went onto a folded sheet of paper that lived in the glovebox.

PermitReady was written to be the app he could not find: simple, offline, no account, and covering both halves of the process — the test and the hours afterward.

What the app is

PermitReady is a free iOS app with two jobs.

• Permit test practice. State-specific practice questions for all 50 U.S. states plus Washington, DC, with an untimed practice quiz that explains every answer, timed test simulations that match your state's question count and time limit where one is published, study by category, and progress tracking.
• Supervised driving hours log. Record each drive — date, duration, conditions (highway, night, rain, city streets, parking, heavy traffic) and optional notes — with a running total, and share a copy with the parent or guardian who was in the passenger seat.

No account. No sign-in. Works offline. There are no servers behind PermitReady, so there is nothing to log into and nothing for us to see. The question banks ship inside the app, and your driving log stays on your device unless you choose to send it to someone.

The app is free with ads. A one-time $4.99 purchase removes the ads — and removes the Google AdMob SDK from the app entirely, along with the cross-app tracking that comes with it. There is no subscription. See the privacy policy for the full detail on what the ad SDK collects and what it does not.

PermitReady runs on iPhone and iPad. There is no Android version, and no web version.

Independence: we are not a DMV, and no DMV has approved us

We think that is worth saying plainly rather than burying at the bottom of a page. Some driving-log apps are named in official state materials; PermitReady is not one of them. What the app gives you is an accurate, timestamped record of the drives you logged, which you can print, export, or copy onto whatever form your state hands you. Where a state requires a specific affidavit or signed form, that form still comes from the state.

Practice questions are educational. Using them does not guarantee passing the official exam, and question formats and content may differ from your actual state test.

PermitReady is not The Next Street's "PermitReady"

Two unrelated products share this name, and people do mix them up.

If you signed up for a driver's education course, paid tuition, or are looking for classroom or behind-the-wheel instruction in Connecticut or Massachusetts, you are looking for The Next Street, and you should contact them directly — we have no access to their accounts, schedules, records, or payments and cannot help with them.

If you downloaded a free iPhone app for permit practice questions and a driving hours log, that is us, and [email protected] reaches a human.

Where the questions come from

Every question in PermitReady is written from the content of the official driver's handbook published by the relevant state licensing agency — the DMV, RMV, DPS, BMV, MVD, MVA, MVC, DDS, DOL, SOS, PennDOT, DHSMV, or whichever agency runs licensing in that state. Those handbooks are publicly available government documents, and they are the same source the real knowledge test is drawn from.

• Questions are original constructions. They are written for this app based on handbook content. They are not reproduced, scraped, or copied from another app, website, or test-prep service.
• They are not the real exam. No one outside a licensing agency has the actual test bank. What PermitReady does is cover the same material — road signs, right of way, traffic laws, safe driving, parking, fines and limits, and state-specific rules — in the same multiple-choice format.
• State formats are matched where published. Where a state publishes its question count, passing score, and time limit, the timed Practice Test mirrors them. Where it does not, the app uses a sensible default and says so.
• Content is reviewed against the 2026 handbook editions. States revise handbooks and rules; when they do, we update. If you spot something that no longer matches your state's handbook, email us and we will fix it.

Always verify current requirements — hours, ages, holding periods, restrictions — with your state's official agency before you test. Handbooks change more often than app stores do.

How we make money

Two ways, both visible: ads in the free version, and a one-time $4.99 purchase to remove them. There is no subscription, no data sold to third parties, no upsell to a driving school, and no affiliate arrangement with any test-prep or insurance company. TechSmog is not funded by, partnered with, or paid by any state agency or driving school.

Contact

Questions, corrections, a question that looks wrong for your state, or a feature you wish the app had:

Email: [email protected]
Developer: Joshua Gilmour, TechSmog
App Store: PermitReady — DMV Practice

Corrections to question content are the fastest thing to get fixed — include your state and the question wording if you can.