Comparison

Writing Wizard vs Paint Shapes

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Writing Wizard

This app helps children learn to trace letters, numbers, and words with a fun, motivating system. It offers customizable tracing practice, interactive games, and progress reports for parents and educators.

Highlights
  • Trace letters, numbers, and words
  • Customizable tracing practice
  • Interactive games and animated stickers
  • Create custom word lists with audio
  • Progress reports for tracking
  • Printable PDF worksheets
Features
Read full description

"Fantastic, customizable tracing practice with fun rewards." 5 Stars - Common Sense Media 500,000+ units sold (including 300,000+ to schools) ! Writing Wizard is designed to help every child learn how to trace letters, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to maintain motivation. • Show and enforce how to trace letters correctly • Letter names and phonics (customizable) • 16 Fonts available (including 3 most popular in the US) • Fun tracing using 50+ animated stickers, sound effects and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers, and words • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Check progress thanks to reports that display what the child has traced • Shapes tracing activity for toddlers • Create PDF Worksheets and print them to help your child to write on paper • Use Apple pencil to write at a very small size All the shapes, the first 7 letters, numbers, and words are free. The remaining letters and the ability to add your own words can be unlocked with a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription. _______ ACCOLADES • "Writing Wizard is the most complete and intelligent letter tracing app we’ve seen"" AppoLearning.com • "This brand-new app should be the go-to for every parent, teacher and therapist to work on handwriting" - TOP PICKS - 5 stars - SmartAppsForKids.com • "Writing Wizard by L’Escapadou is everything a parent wants in a handwriting app, and more." 5/5 - kids-app-reviews.com • "L’Escapadou has made handwriting fun." AppyMall.com 5/5 • Listed in "20 best educational iPhone and iPad apps for kids of 2013" - appsplayground.com • Editor's Choice Award for Excellence in Design - Children's Technology Review _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 4 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud Drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular fonts in the US (ZB, DN & HWT) and 13 international fonts (UK, Scandinavia, Australia, Germany and France) • Upper and lower case letters, numbers (and word lists) • Letter names and letter sounds (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • External Links : Before accessing a parent section, an operation must be solved so that young kids cannot access it. Terms of use : https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Paint Shapes

Unleash your creativity by painting with geometric shapes. Learn to identify shapes in the world around you and translate them into art. Challenge friends and develop your artistic thinking.

Highlights
  • Paint with geometric shapes
  • Identify shapes in the environment
  • Develop artistic thinking
  • Challenge friends
  • Shape deletion tool
  • Customizable color selection
Features
Read full description

Improve your creativity and artistic skills. Have fun painting only with geometric shapes. Everything around us is a geometric figure, just find their shapes and draw them here. You will be surprise how your brains start thinking different to trying to paint what is in your mind. Surprise your friends and challenge them. How to use the app: 1- How to paint: Select from the right tool bar one of the shapes (filled or just stroke). Then put your finger in the screen and move the finger without lifting it. 2 - How to delete a shape: You can delete only shape by shape pressing the trash can at the top right corner. 3 - How to change colors: Touch the colorful little square at the top toolbar, select the color at the vertical bar and then how dark or light you want that color in the big square. Once you have the color you need just touch outside the dialog and the color will be selected and added to the Recent colors bar. Visit us on Facebook at: FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/paintshapes/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/paintshapes/ #paint #painting #shapes #drawing #creativity #geometry #kids #art #design

Screenshots

Writing Wizard4 screens
Paint Shapes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Paint Shapes at none against Writing Wizard's 4. Paint Shapes also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.4) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 4 months). Writing Wizard's advantage is ratings volume (5.2K vs 13). On price, ads, device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Writing Wizard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Paint Shapes asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Paint Shapes holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Writing Wizard has 5.2K ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of Writing Wizard's written reviews are positive against 100% of Paint Shapes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, Paint Shapes every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Writing Wizard versus Paint Shapes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWriting WizardPaint Shapes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (5.2K ratings)4.8 (13 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.2K — better13
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.6 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPierre AbelBenny Jon

Customer experience

Writing Wizard

All ratings5,184 ratings
Positive84.3%
Neutral6.0%
Negative9.7%
Written reviews208 reviews
Positive73.6%
Neutral6.7%
Negative19.7%

Paint Shapes

All ratings13 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Writing Wizard

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when trying to access locked features
  • Purchased content not unlocking properly
  • Inconsistent letter formation guidance

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more letters, numbers, and shapes
  • Allow recording of custom voice instructions
  • Improve compatibility with stylus/digital pens
  • Provide more customization options

Paint Shapes

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Writing Wizard

Subscriptions1
  • Full Access - Monthly$2.491 Month
One-time3
  • All Letters and Numbers$5.99
  • Add Your Words and Word Lists$5.99
  • Lifetime Full Access$9.99
None

Paint Shapes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Paint Shapes free?
Paint Shapes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Writing Wizard or Paint Shapes?
Paint Shapes is rated higher. Writing Wizard averages 4.4 out of 5 from 5.2K ratings, while Paint Shapes averages 4.8 from 13 ratings.
Do Writing Wizard or Paint Shapes have ads?
Neither Writing Wizard nor Paint Shapes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Writing Wizard or Paint Shapes?
Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, and Paint Shapes every 3 days. Most recently, Writing Wizard was updated on October 24, 2026 and Paint Shapes on October 24, 2026.

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