Differ By Kind vs Osmo Words Explorers
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Differ By Kind
This educational game helps children aged 2.5 and up develop visual differentiation and cognitive skills through fun, simple activities. It focuses on categorization, matching, and sorting, making learning engaging.
- Develops visual differentiation skills
- Enhances cognitive and perception skills
- Teaches categorization, matching, and sorting
- Progress tracking for teachers and therapists
- Accessibility features for users with disabilities
- Safe for children with no ads or external links
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- Full version. - No in-app purchases. - No ads. - Safe for kids. Welcome to “Differ By Kind”. This educational app is designed for children aged 2.5 and above. Here children can learn to differentiate among items according to visual characteristics. It is fun, and it helps them develop visual differentiation skills, visual perception skills, and cognitive skills. STEP BY STEP is a professional EdTech studio that focuses on developing educational apps for children aged 1 to 5 years old. During these critical years, children enter a new learning stage every few months. Our apps support and strengthen the development of crucial skills for each learning stage. This way we guide your children, step by step, throughout this entire age range. Our key values are perfection and simplicity. We believe that small details make a big difference, so we give great attention to every detail — both in content and design. Most importantly, we keep our apps simple — simple to understand and simple to use. While playing our games, children will engage in simple activities, such as matching, pairing, ordering, grouping, and sorting. This allows them to practice essential skills, such as: categorization, conceptualization, generalization, abstraction, memory, language, math, visual perception, fine motor, accuracy, attention, and focus. They will learn about shapes, colors, animals, fruit, vegetables, clothing, tools, vehicles, furniture, professions, toys, etc., — all while playing. The levels are generally arranged by difficulty. The first levels are usually quite simple — their main objective is to teach players critical thinking and problem solving. However, the exercises become increasingly challenging as the child advances within the game. Our applications avoid distractions such as popups, unnecessary animation, and noisy feedback. We keep our applications safe for children — no advertisements, no unsafe links to external content, no popups, etc. Furthermore, our experience indicates that our apps can be very helpful for children with special-needs¹, and that they can function as useful tools in both speech-language therapy² and in occupational therapy³. In addition, our apps have been found useful for adults with disabilities or dementia⁴. For this reason, we added two important features: the first one was designed for teachers, therapists, and speech pathologists, which allows them to track the progress of their students; the second feature makes our apps also accessible for users with disabilities, and on this matter we would like to thank the Technology Consulting Center at “Beit Issie Shapiro”⁵ for their professional guidance and consultation regarding accessibility. ________ ¹ Special needs - Learning difficulties due to learning disabilities, communication disabilities, emotional or behavioural disorders, physical disabilities and/or developmental disabilities, which may be caused by Autism (Autistic Spectrum Disorders), Down Syndrome, Dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, etc. ² Speech-language therapy - Treatment of communication disorders by speech-language pathologists (SLP). ³ Occupational therapy (OT) - Treatment meant to develop, recover, or maintain daily living and work skills for people with a physical, mental or developmental condition. ⁴ Dementia - A condition caused by brain injury (BI), brain damage or brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Lewy bodies (DLB), Vascular dementia, etc. ⁵ "Beit Issie Shapiro" is a leading non-profit organization that develops therapies for people with disabilities, and also acts as a ‘Special Consultant’ to the United Nations.
Osmo Words Explorers
This educational game immerses children in an ancient temple adventure where they build words to battle monsters and save historical artifacts. It's designed to teach literacy skills like spelling, word recognition, and vocabulary to young learners.
- Word recognition
- Spelling practice
- Vocabulary building
- Critical thinking
- Historical facts
- Monster battles
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Osmo Words Explorers & The Tunnel of Treasures Build words, battle monsters, and save the ancient treasures! In Words Explorers, kids go on a temple adventure. To progress, they must master increasingly more challenging word constructions. Along the way they’ll confront monsters, battle the boss, have a blast and -- if their skills are sharp -- save real artifacts! Osmo Words Explorers is a word-building and spelling adventure designed to teach literacy skills for kids in grades 1-3. Using your existing Osmo Base for iPad and Words tiles, this digital-only extension is a great add-on to your Osmo system. Includes: - Word recognition - Spelling practice - Word patterns - Vocabulary building - Sight words - Critical thinking - Creative problem-solving - History & social studies EXPLORE AN ANCIENT TEMPLE Two adventurous Agoutis need your help to save ancient artifacts! Tunnel through a crumbling temple, using words skills to pass through barriers and battle monsters. With each level completed, save a real Mesoamerican artifact! BUILD LITERACY SKILLS Get creative with Osmo Words tiles by replacing one letter at a time to form new words! Every time you spell a word correctly, the blocks fall and you get closer to battling the boss and saving an artifact. This word pattern, spelling and vocabulary game is perfect for kids ages 6-9. Challenges get harder as kids progress. LEARN HISTORICAL FACTS With every level completed, you save an ancient Aztec artifact! Learn about the double-headed serpent, Moctezuma’s Headdress, the Stone of Tizoc, and more. THINK FAST, GET CREATIVE The final step to recovering each artifact is to battle a new monster with the power of words. In this challenge, you’ll need to get creative to make new words out of just a few letter tiles. Think fast to get to the artifact before the monster can! *Play your favourite Osmo Words Explorers on both iPhone and iPad! Use your iPhone with the Osmo Base for iPad and Words tiles - each can be found at playosmo.com. * Please see our device compatibility list here: https://support.playosmo.com/hc/articles/115010156067 * Compatible iPhones: iPhone 12, 12 Pro, 12 Pro Max iPhone 13, 13 Pro, 13 Pro Max iPhone 14, 14 Plus * Not compatible: iPhone 14 Pro, 14 Pro Max iPhone 12 Mini,13 Mini iPhone SE (1-3) iPhone 11 Series and older *Requires use of Osmo iPad Base and Words tiles. Visit www.playosmo.com to learn more. Features: - Easy-to-use interface for children - Simple verbal instructions - Warm, colorful character animations About Osmo: Osmo is using the screen to create a new healthy, hands-on learning experience that promotes creativity, problem solving and social interaction.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Differ By Kind at 100% against Osmo Words Explorers's 17%. Differ By Kind also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 2). Osmo Words Explorers's advantage is ratings volume (59 vs 3) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence and ads 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. Osmo Words Explorers sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Differ By Kind asks for nothing beyond the download.
Differ By Kind holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Osmo Words Explorers has 59 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Differ By Kind's written reviews are positive against 17% of Osmo Words Explorers's.
Differ By Kind ships an update every 6 weeks, Osmo Words Explorers every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Differ By Kind | Osmo Words Explorers |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 3.3 (59 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 17.4% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 59 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 76 MB | 263 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | STEP BY STEP | Tangible Play |
Customer experience
Differ By Kind
Osmo Words Explorers
In-app purchases
Differ By Kind
No in-app purchases
Osmo Words Explorers
- 3-day trial of Words ExplorerFree
- Unlock Words Explorers$9.99
Questions
Is Differ By Kind free?
Is Osmo Words Explorers free?
Which has better reviews, Differ By Kind or Osmo Words Explorers?
Do Differ By Kind or Osmo Words Explorers have ads?
Which is updated more often, Differ By Kind or Osmo Words Explorers?
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