Comparison

Writing Wizard vs Astralis

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

Astralis

Features
Read full description

Astralis turns your phone into a window on the night sky. Point your phone up and Look Up instantly reveals whatever bright object you're facing — planet, star, or the Moon — rendered as a real, lit 3D sphere with NASA-derived textures, at its true current phase. Save any of them as a full-screen wallpaper. TONIGHT A sunset-to-sunrise timeline of everything happening in the sky where you are: moonrise and moonset, planet rise/set times, a stargazing score based on real cloud cover and light pollution, upcoming rocket launches, and visible ISS passes computed with a real orbital propagator — not a canned schedule. COMPASS An AR-style compass that points you straight at any visible planet, star, or the ISS, live. SOLAR SYSTEM An animated 3D orrery — all eight planets, real relative orbital speeds, real NASA-derived surface textures, starting from today's actual planetary configuration. Tap any planet for its facts. Pinch to zoom, drag to orbit. EXPLORE A deep-sky catalog of 30 galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters — real astrophotography for every object, live altitude and rise/set times for your location. Built with real astronomy: positions are computed locally from NASA JPL orbital elements, not fetched from a third-party ephemeris service. No account required. No ads. No tracking.

Screenshots

Writing Wizard4 screens
Astralis4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Writing Wizard at Free against Astralis's $0.99. Writing Wizard also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). Astralis's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 4) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). On 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Writing Wizard is free to download; Astralis costs $0.99 up front. Writing Wizard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Astralis asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, Astralis monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Writing Wizard versus Astralis: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWriting WizardAstralis
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.4 (5.2K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews73.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings5.2K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPierre AbelNitesh Tak

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

Astralis

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

Astralis

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Astralis free?
Astralis costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Writing Wizard or Astralis have ads?
Neither Writing Wizard nor Astralis shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Writing Wizard or Astralis?
Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, and Astralis monthly. Most recently, Writing Wizard was updated on November 11, 2026 and Astralis on October 31, 2026.

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