PBS KIDS ScratchJr vs Scratch Tutorial
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PBS KIDS ScratchJr
This app allows children ages 5-8 to create their own interactive stories and games using simple programming blocks. Kids can make characters move, jump, and sing, while learning foundational coding concepts and problem-solving skills. It features beloved PBS KIDS characters and offers creative tools like painting and voice recording.
- Create interactive stories and games
- Learn basic coding concepts
- Use colorful programming blocks
- Incorporate PBS KIDS characters
- Paint and edit characters/backgrounds
- Record voice for projects
- Utilize story starters for inspiration
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With PBS KIDS ScratchJr, kids can create their own interactive stories and games through programming activities and lessons. Learn the basics of coding through fun games and activities featuring characters from Wild Kratts, Lyla in the Loops, Odd Squad, Work it Out Wombats, and more! The storytelling possibilities are endless with this creative coding app for children ages 5-8. Children can express their creativity and make characters move, jump, dance and sing by snapping together colorful programming blocks. This app helps kids learn the foundation of programming and coding concepts in a way that’s fun and easy to learn. As kids play, they’ll learn to solve problems, design projects and express themselves creatively. With PBS KIDS ScratchJr, young kids can play and practice early school concepts at home. Download this fun educational app to get started! PBS KIDS ScratchJr Features: Programming Games - Colorful Programming Blocks teach basic coding concepts - Play and learn by snapping together the color-coded motion, sound, look, trigger and control blocks - Use programming concepts to create sequences that cause characters to animate - Program characters to interact in fun and exciting ways - Learn problem solving techniques PBS KIDS Characters and Backgrounds - 150+ PBS KIDS characters to mix and match - Children can create projects based on their favorite shows, including: - Wild Kratts - Lyla in the Loop - Work It Out, Wombats - Molly of Denali - Odd Squad - Arthur - Nature Cat - Peg +Cat - Ready Jet Go - And more! Paint Editing - Create characters and backgrounds - Painting made simple on illustration grids - Paint characters from PBS KIDS shows - Express creativity by painting Voice Recording - Use the recording tool to add sounds and your voice to projects - Voice characters from PBS KIDS shows Story Starters - Looking for inspiration? Eight Story Starters in the app are a great place to start - Each Story Starter features a different set of characters from PBS KIDS shows - Kids can create the stories they want with Story Starters - Encourage children to edit and complete the story however they’d like Introduce children to the basics of coding while having fun with PBS KIDS characters. Start learning, programming, painting, drawing and creating interactive stories. Download PBS KIDS ScratchJr today! PBS KIDS ScratchJr is only available for iPad. ---------------------- For more PBS KIDS apps, visit http://www.pbskids.org/apps For more on ScratchJr, visit http://www.scratchjr.org Privacy Across all media platforms, PBS KIDS is committed to creating a safe and secure environment for children and families and being transparent about what information is collected from users. To learn more about PBS KIDS' privacy policy, visit pbskids.org/privacy PBS KIDS ScratchJr is a collaboration between PBS, Scratch Foundation and the DevTech Research Group at Boston College. The PBS KIDS logo & PBS KIDS® PBS. Used with permission. ScratchJr logo is used with permission. PBS is not affiliated with Scratch Foundation and Boston College.
Scratch Tutorial
This app offers an innovative, step-by-step programming course designed for children aged 4-14. It uses engaging content to foster a love for coding and allows kids to create their own games while learning fundamental programming concepts.
- Step-by-step programming guidance
- Interactive learning system
- Create own programming games
- Courses designed by experts
- Gradual concept mastery
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The latest scratch course - easy to use, let children fall in love with programming. ----Innovative design intelligent system guides children to learn step by step. 4-14-year-old children can easy to accept, and they will learn as soon as they learn. ----Interesting programming courses stimulate children's interest in learning and let them design their own programming games while learning and playing. Love programming, learn to program. ----Senior program designer and educator cooperate to design the course, and gradually master the programming concept from shallow to deep. New intelligent programming course, open the road of children's programming enlightenment!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: PBS KIDS ScratchJr at none against Scratch Tutorial's 1. PBS KIDS ScratchJr also leads on review sentiment (62% vs 35%). Scratch Tutorial's advantage is update cadence (every 4 weeks vs every 12 months) and ratings volume (4.6K vs 289). On price, ads and iOS requirement 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
Both are free to download. Scratch Tutorial sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. PBS KIDS ScratchJr asks for nothing beyond the download.
Scratch Tutorial holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Scratch Tutorial has 4.6K ratings behind it against 289, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of PBS KIDS ScratchJr's written reviews are positive against 35% of Scratch Tutorial's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PBS KIDS ScratchJr ships an update every 12 months, Scratch Tutorial every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PBS KIDS ScratchJr | Scratch Tutorial |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (289 ratings) | 4.2 (4.6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 62.0% of reviews — better | 34.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 289 | 4.6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 12 months | Every 4 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 138 MB | 254 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PBS KIDS | 海涛 赵 |
Customer experience
PBS KIDS ScratchJr
Scratch Tutorial
User reviews
PBS KIDS ScratchJr
From 289 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👨👧👦 Great for teaching kids to code
- 🎨 Fun creative storytelling and animation features
- 🎭 PBS Kids characters and themed content
- 💰 Free app with no paywall
- 📚 Educational value for young learners
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
- ❌ Limited coding blocks compared to original ScratchJr
- 🎭 Character roster hasn't been updated in years
- ⚠️ Drawing/text tools produce poor quality output
- 🔊 Sound and voice recording features broken or missing
Scratch Tutorial
From 4.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Helpful tutorials
- 🤗 Good for learning to code
- 😊 Fun and engaging
Room to improve
- 💰 Paywall for advanced content
- 🤔 Outdated or incompatible blocks
- 😕 Repetitive and restrictive
- 🙄 Poor graphics and UI
Bugs and requests
PBS KIDS ScratchJr
Reported bugs
13 issues- Home button causes character to revert to previous position
- Projects fail to load when creating or opening
- Voice recording feature not working or missing
- How-to tutorial videos don't play
- Drawing tool corrupts custom characters
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- Timer block doesn't function correctly
- Drag-and-drop programming blocks unresponsive
- App crashes when using certain blocks
- Dot character won't disappear from new slides
- Performance slowdown during projects
- Paint editor labels incorrectly aligned with icons
- Microphone feature doesn't show up or work
- Text rendering issues with fonts and handwriting
Requested features
13 requests- Add more PBS Kids shows (Let's Go Luna, Dinosaur Train, Elinor Wonders Why, Hero Elementary, Wordgirl, Rosie's Rules, Alma's Way)
- Unlimited pages/slides instead of 4-slide limit
- More coding blocks from original Scratch (text-to-speech, etc.)
- Custom character creation on blank canvas
- Level maker and world maker features
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- 2D and 3D options
- Editable PBS backgrounds
- Search bar for projects
- More sound effects (crashing, slipping, sliding)
- Page titles/naming system
- More characters for existing shows
- Offline functionality
- Bring back Kart Kingdom game
Scratch Tutorial
Reported bugs
2 issues- Lessons get stuck or freeze
- Inability to edit or correct mistakes
Requested features
3 requests- Allow more free-form coding
- Improve compatibility with latest Scratch version
- Add more game-making options
In-app purchases
PBS KIDS ScratchJr
No in-app purchases
Scratch Tutorial
- Scratch lessons$4.99
Questions
Is PBS KIDS ScratchJr free?
Is Scratch Tutorial free?
Which has better reviews, PBS KIDS ScratchJr or Scratch Tutorial?
Do PBS KIDS ScratchJr or Scratch Tutorial have ads?
Which is updated more often, PBS KIDS ScratchJr or Scratch Tutorial?
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