Comparison

Hololab AR vs Sandbox AR

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

Head to head
About

Hololab AR

Explore science through immersive 3D labs and augmented reality experiences. Learn about animals, space, electricity, and more with interactive models and guided lessons from a robot tutor. Educational games reinforce knowledge and skills.

Highlights
  • Augmented Reality 3D models
  • Interactive exploration of structures
  • Voice-guided lessons from robot tutor
  • Educational games
  • Topics: Animals, Space, Electricity, Climate Change
Read full description

Hololab is a science adventure in the palm of your hand. Our collection of dozens of fully immersive 3D labs and educational games will inspire you to learn about the world like never before! With Hololab, you can learn the way you were meant to – in the real world. * View 3D structures with Augmented Reality. Move around and take them apart just as if they're real models. * Get step-by-step voice-guided teaching from our friendly robot tutor, Scout. * Solidify your knowledge and skills with our educational games. * Visualize concepts on with our cutting-edge Augmented Reality. You can learn about a variety of topics like: * Animals & Ecology * Aerodynamics * Space Exploration * Electricity & Magnetism * Alternative Energy * Climate Change

About

Sandbox AR

Create, build, and explore immersive virtual worlds using augmented reality. This app allows users to scale creations to life-size and share them with others. It's designed to bring interactive technology into educational settings.

Highlights
  • Create, build, and explore in AR
  • Life-size scale exploration
  • Share creations via QR code
  • Capture snapshots and videos
  • Teacher audio descriptions (DE:X subscribers)
  • Link to curated resources (DE:X subscribers)
Read full description

--- Multi award-winning augmented reality maker app --- - BETT Awards 2023 Best AR/VR ! - GESS Awards 2023 Best Digital XR / VR / AI Product - spaces4learning New Product Award 2022 ! -- What is Sandbox? -- Experience, build, and explore in AR with Discovery Education Sandbox. Designed as a companion to the award-winning Discovery Education Experience learning platform, bring immersive technology and content into the classroom. Choose from hundreds of models and create a virtual world to experience and share with fellow students and teachers. Use life size mode to scale up and walk inside your own creation! -- Features -- • Create, build and explore in augmented reality. • Explore creations in life-size scale! • Share your sandboxes with other users with a simple QR code. • Capture snapshots and videos of your sandbox. -- Enhanced features for DE:X subscribers -- As a Discovery Education Experience or Espresso subscriber, access additional features to add teacher audio descriptions to sandboxes and add links to your own curated resources on Experience or Espresso. Integrate with studio boards and access future additional model packs.

Screenshots

Hololab AR4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sandbox AR at 100% against Hololab AR's 33%. Sandbox AR also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.1). Hololab AR's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Sandbox AR holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 46 and 16 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Hololab AR's written reviews are positive against 100% of Sandbox AR's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hololab AR ships an update every 2 weeks, Sandbox AR every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Hololab AR versus Sandbox AR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHololab ARSandbox AR
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (46 ratings)4.8 (16 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings46 — better16
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size224 MB1.6 GB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLightUpDiscovery Education Inc.

Customer experience

Hololab AR

All ratings46 ratings
Positive73.9%
Neutral6.5%
Negative19.6%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

Sandbox AR

All ratings11 ratings
Positive90.9%
Neutral9.1%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Hololab AR

No in-app purchases

None

Sandbox AR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hololab AR free?
Hololab AR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sandbox AR free?
Sandbox AR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hololab AR or Sandbox AR?
Sandbox AR is rated higher. Hololab AR averages 4.1 out of 5 from 46 ratings, while Sandbox AR averages 4.8 from 16 ratings.
Do Hololab AR or Sandbox AR have ads?
Neither Hololab AR nor Sandbox AR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hololab AR or Sandbox AR?
Hololab AR ships an update every 2 weeks, and Sandbox AR every 2 months. Most recently, Hololab AR was updated on October 29, 2026 and Sandbox AR on October 24, 2026.

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