Phonic Flashcards vs Learning Labs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Phonic Flashcards
This educational app helps young children build a strong foundation for reading and spelling by teaching phonics. It uses interactive flashcards with professional voiceovers and includes engaging games to reinforce learning.
- Interactive phonics flashcards
- Professional voiceovers for phonemes and words
- Multisensory word-building game
- Picture-word matching activity
- Phonological awareness quiz
- Reward arcade games
- Multiple voice accents
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We've been making educational software for twenty years, and this is by far the best educational app we have ever made. We wish every child could use it before they start school. Why are Phonic Flashcards better than regular flashcards? Because when you learn with Phonic Flashcards, the phonemes (letters and digraphs) are sounded out! The word "fish" becomes "fff" "i" "shhh", with all words and phonemes recorded by a professional voice artist, helping to build a solid phonics foundation for reading (and spelling) success! All our apps are designed to maximize learning outcomes, while also being super easy to use. Parents do not need a degree in order to use Phonic Flashcards to teach their child how to read. Phonic Flashcards makes a great classroom activity for literacy centers, as well as for one-on-one teaching and assessment, and also whole-class instruction when teaching short vowel sounds. Ages 4-7 plus remedial Includes 200+ flashcards, mainly common nouns. Each interactive card features a picture, which you can tap to hear a fun sound effect. Choose whether to have the words voiced, sounded-out, or both! Tap the letters and digraphs to hear each phoneme. Blend them together to sound-out the word. Hide the picture to administer a reading test. Begin with the sounds of the alphabet. Next learn to read CVC words, focusing on each short vowel sound. Then progress on to 4-5 letter words with blends and common digraphs. Choose a phoneme/sound from the "Digraphs Menu" which includes: ck, sh, ch, th, ng, oo, ee, oa, ou, ai, ea, oi, oy, ow, aw, ir, ar, or, and ur. Full details of all of the Word Lists can be found at: www.phonicflashcards.com As well as FLASHCARDS, there are three additional activities: SHADOWS - a multisensory word-building game which is visual and tactile, while also reinforcing phonemes. MATCH UP! - simply involves matching words with pictures. Turn off the sound cues to test word recognition. WHICH WORD? - a game-show style phonological awareness quiz, to test students on initial sounds and rimes. Upon completing each activity, children are rewarded with a simple tap-tap style arcade game of their choice, Frog Hop or Fish Food. Please refer to the PDF Guide (found at www.phonicflashcards.com) for full details of all the activities, and "How to teach your child to read using Phonic Flashcards". The Phonic Flashcards app requires no setting up, apart from choosing your voice accent the very first time you use it. There are USA, UK and Australian speech options. (You may change voice accent at any time in ‘Settings’ via the cog icon on the front screen.) We care about your child's privacy. This app contains: no ads, no in-app purchases, no sharing of data, no tracking of your location, and no links to social media. If you like our apps, please support us by reviewing and/or rating them in the app store! If you have any suggestions to make our apps better, please contact us directly via our website (www.phonicflashcards.com)
Learning Labs
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Sight Words Lab makes learning to read fun and rewarding for kids ages 4-10. With 600 carefully curated sight words across five grade levels, your child will build reading fluency one word at a time. Now available in 6 different languages. (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian & Portuguese) LEARN AT THEIR PACE Kids swipe through flashcards at their own speed, with clear audio pronunciation for every word. Mark words as learned and filter to focus on what still needs practice. 5 GRADE LEVELS From Kindergarten through 4th Grade, each pack contains 120 sight words designed for the right reading level. Start with a free trial to see how it works. TRACK PROGRESS Set a daily practice goal and watch your child build a streak. The progress report shows words learned per grade, overall mastery, and weekly activity. EARN ACHIEVEMENTS Kids stay motivated with 21 collectible badges. Earn rewards for learning milestones, completing daily goals, and mastering entire grade levels. MULTIPLE PROFILES Create separate profiles for each child, each with their own avatar, progress, and achievements. DESIGNED FOR FAMILIES • No ads, ever • No data collection — everything stays on device • No social features or external links • COPPA compliant • One-time purchases, no subscriptions WHAT'S INCLUDED • Free trial with sample words • 5 grade packs available in 6 different languages. • 600 total sight words per language. • Audio pronunciation for every word • Random or alphabetical word order • Filter by learned, not learned, or all words • Daily goal tracking with streaks • 21 achievement badges • Multiple child profiles Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Learning Labs at Free against Phonic Flashcards's $0.99. Learning Labs also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 8 months). Phonic Flashcards's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 26.0). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Learning Labs is free to download; Phonic Flashcards costs $0.99 up front. Learning Labs sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Phonic Flashcards asks for nothing beyond the download.
Phonic Flashcards ships an update every 8 months, Learning Labs every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Phonic Flashcards | Learning Labs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (19 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 87.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 19 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 8 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 73 MB | 10 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Michael Harvey | Bernal Cartin |
In-app purchases
Phonic Flashcards
No in-app purchases
Learning Labs
- Sight Words 2nd Grade Italian$4.99
- Sight Words 3rd Grade Italian$4.99
- Sight Words 4th Grade Italian$4.99
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Sight Words 1st Grade Portuguese$4.99
- Sight Words Kindergarten Portuguese$4.99
- Sight Words 2nd Grade Portuguese$4.99
- Sight Words 3rd Grade Portuguese$4.99
- Sight Words 4th Grade Portuguese$4.99
- All Grades Bundle Italian$19.95
- All Grades Bundle Portuguese$19.95
Questions
Is Phonic Flashcards free?
Is Learning Labs free?
Do Phonic Flashcards or Learning Labs have ads?
Which is updated more often, Phonic Flashcards or Learning Labs?
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