Birdathon vs Abacus Lesson
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Birdathon
This app helps birdwatchers create and organize detailed checklists of their observations. It automatically records time and location, allowing for easy editing and customization. Users can visualize their sightings on maps, add field notes, and export data for sharing or further analysis.
- Observation-centric checklists
- Automatic time and location recording
- Customizable maps with boundary overlays
- Field notes for additional observations
- Multiple checklist sorting options
- Data export to CSV and other formats
- Create checklist templates
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Birdathon is an observation-centric tool for creating birding checklists. It helps you organize your checklists and share them with others. Use Birdathon in the field to quickly record whether and where a bird is seen or heard and the number observed. The time and location of each observation is automatically recorded. You can adjust the location, time entries and the count of birds observed at any time to ensure your records are accurate. You can add breeding codes to your observations. Checklist maps display the locations of your observations. You can overlay county boundaries for every US state. You can add a range circle such as a 5MR (5-mile Radius) to your maps. You can import and overlay custom kml/kmz files onto your maps. An Overview feature lets you see your combined observations for any time period, and displays a map showing any boundaries you have selected, so you can utilize the map feature even when you are not actively checklisting. You can export Overview data into a csv text file or create a new checklist template from the Overview. Your checklists can be viewed in taxonomic order, alphabetically, by rarity or as a timeline of species. You can enrich your checklist with field notes and add observations such as mammals, butterflies, wildflowers, etc., to make it a more complete record of your experience. You can organize your checklists into categories such as Day List, Year List, County List, Life List, etc., and assign color themes to your lists. Bird species may be added and deleted from your lists at any time. You can create new checklist templates from your previous lists or import templates created by others. You can change which template is being used. You can import text files into Birdathon, making them into templates or new checklists. Different export options for your checklists allow you to import into eBird or another copy of Birdathon. The bird species source data and other resources used in this app come from the following sources: AviList, a unified global checklist of birds, is the core data set used for Birdathon. https://www.avilist.org. Some data has been integrated from the following sources: The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world (https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/), the American Ornithological Society's (AOS) Checklist of North and Middle American Birds (https://checklist.americanornithology.org), and the American Birding Association's (ABA) checklist of North American Birds (https://www.aba.org/listing-taxonomy/) Alpha codes come from The Institute for Bird Populations’ Standardized 4- and 6-letter Bird Species Codes. https://www.birdpop.org/pages/birdSpeciesCodes.php. County boundary data is from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) TIGER/Line 2019 Shapefiles found on the United States Census Bureau's website at https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.2019.html. Boundaries should be used as general guidelines and not be considered precise. Note especially where county boundaries follow creeks, rivers, ridge lines and other natural features, and so are of much finer resolution than can be shown on Birdathon’s maps. California breeding bird atlas blocks come from the California Bird Atlas, https://www.californiabirdatlas.org. California Bird Atlas logo and breeding code descriptions used with permission.
Abacus Lesson
Learn multiplication using a virtual abacus. This app teaches a simple and fast method for calculating multiplication, emphasizing the mental calculation benefits of the abacus over digital calculators.
- Virtual abacus for multiplication
- Simple and fast calculation methods
- Focus on mental calculation skills
- Step-by-step multiplication lessons
- Suitable for beginners
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An abacus is named "Soroban" in Japan. Do you know what an abacus is? The abacus is very simple calculator used in China, Japan, Korea and so on. Some people may say "Isn't it an unnecessary tool if you have a calculator such as a smartphone?". Answer would be "No". The biggest difference between electric calculators and the abacus is whether you need to hold it in your hand when calculating. Because of its simplicity, you will be able to easily use the abacus in your mind. In the app, we will explain simple and fast method of the multiplication using the abacus. To learn multiplication, it is essential to be able to add with an abacus. If you are new to addition and subtraction, we recommend that You first learn with the following app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/abacus-lesson-add-sub/id1526785916 This app will give you the skill of calculation of multiplication.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Birdathon at none against Abacus Lesson's shown. Birdathon also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Abacus Lesson's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 4 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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. Birdathon sells 4 one-off in-app purchases and Abacus Lesson sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Abacus Lesson holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 15 and 14 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Birdathon ships an update every 4 months, Abacus Lesson every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Birdathon | Abacus Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (15 ratings) | 5.0 (14 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | 14 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.1 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 192 MB | 138 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Barry Langdon-Lassagne | Hirokazu Komatsu |
Customer experience
Birdathon
Abacus Lesson
In-app purchases
Birdathon
- Good Tip$0.99
- Great Tip$1.99
- Amazing Tip$2.99
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- Incredible Tip$4.99
Abacus Lesson
- Donation Lv1 for hiding Ad$1.99
- Donation Lv2 for hiding Ad$3.99
- Donation Lv3 for hiding Ad$8.99







