Square Panda vs Osmo ABCs
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Square Panda
This app offers a multi-sensory, game-based learning experience for children aged 2 and up to develop reading skills. It adapts to a child's progress, covering phonics, phonological awareness, spelling, word reading, and reading comprehension through interactive games and stories.
- Phonics games for letter sounds
- Phonological awareness activities
- Letter tracing and spelling challenges
- CVC word reading practice
- Interactive storybooks with SwipePhonics™
- Parent and teacher progress portal
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*FROM THE CREATORS OF THE AWARD-WINNING SQUARE PANDA PHONICS PLAYSET* For early readers ages 2 and up, the award-winning Square Panda app features a multi-sensory, fun learning experience to help children learn to read. Featuring personalized gaming and learning that adapts to where children are in developing reading skills. Feeling ready for an adventure? Explore the island of Square Panda - engaging and fun learning for kids. Phonics Area - Pop bubbles, do a fun dance, and play hide-and-seek in an assortment of mini-games to learn letters and their sounds. Phonological Awareness Area - Go coconuts for learning sounds! Explore rhyming, initial and ending sounds of spoken words, blending, and more. Spelling and Writing Area - Zip! Zap! Learn how to trace uppercase and lowercase letters, complete spelling challenges, and manipulate letters to create new CVC words! Word Reading Area - Ready to hop on the word train? Practice blending and reading words at the CVC level with a fun set of mini-games. Lagoon Area - Let’s go to the Lagoon! Explore letter-sound correspondences and spell any word up to 8 letters long! Supports vocabulary development by revealing pictures for many common words. SquareTales Area - SquareTales stories with our patent-pending SwipePhonics™ technology bridges the gap between sounding out individual letters and blending them into words. Carefully crafted text in each story enables emergent readers to start connecting words and sentences to read fun stories. With 40+ eBooks and new content being released on an ongoing basis, these stories help your child learn how to read so they can say, “I read a book all by myself!” The Square Panda Literacy System is designed to keep children engaged and having fun when developing important reading skills: - Provides simple, highly controlled text to support beginning readers - Builds knowledge of word families and common spelling patterns - Introduces CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and sight words - Supports ELA state standards in foundational reading skills - Supports reading fluency through guided practice and repeated readings of text And much more! Square Panda's learning games have had more than 400,000 words spelled and more than 2 million letters played! PARENT & TEACHER PORTAL - With the Square Panda cloud-based parent and teacher portals, parents can follow their child’s progress as they learn letters and words and teachers can manage student profiles, monitor progress, and identify instructional opportunities. “This is the first time that I've seen him able to actually make that connection and put those sounds together to make words. I am so excited and he is so excited as well to be reading.” “This is making a huge impact on my students and their reading ability. To me, that’s amazing!” "Seeing my daughter advance in her class with letters definitely made me feel good and confident that I'm helping pick products and choices that are making her advance in reading and writing.” Follow us on social! Facebook: @playsquarepanda Instagram: @squarepanda Twitter: @squarepanda Twitter (Education): @squarepandaedu *The Square Panda Phonics Playset is compatible for some learning games to extend the learning and fun! Playset sold separately. Privacy Policy: https://squarepanda.com/pages/application-privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://squarepanda.com/pages/terms-conditions
Osmo ABCs
Engage young learners in a hands-on adventure to build pre-reading skills. Through interactive play with a friendly monster, children develop confidence in letter recognition, phonics, and vocabulary. This app requires physical Osmo pieces and a compatible iPhone or iPad.
- Letter recognition
- Phonics learning
- Vocabulary building
- Over 300 words
- Hands-on play
- Interactive adventure
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More than 300 words! Through this playful hands-on adventure with Mo the Monster, kids become confident about letter recognition, phonics, and vocabulary. *Play your favourite Osmo ABCs on both iPhone and iPad! Use your iPhone with the Osmo Base for iPad and Silicone Sticks & Rings pieces - each can be found at playosmo.com. *Requires the Osmo Base for iPad and Silicone Sticks & Rings pieces. Learn more by visiting www.playosmo.com. *Please see our device compatibility list here: https://support.playosmo.com/hc/articles/115010156067 ABOUT OSMO -- 21ST CENTURY PLAY AND LEARNING Osmo uses the screen to create a new healthy, hands-on learning experience that promotes creativity, problem-solving and social interaction. We do this with our reflective artificial intelligence technology.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Osmo ABCs at 3.7 against Square Panda's 2.9. Osmo ABCs also leads on ratings volume (264 vs 30). Square Panda's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). On price, review sentiment, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Osmo ABCs holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Osmo ABCs has 264 ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 15% of Square Panda's written reviews are positive against 19% of Osmo ABCs's.
Square Panda ships an update every 6 weeks, Osmo ABCs every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 13, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Square Panda | Osmo ABCs |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.9 (30 ratings) | 3.7 (264 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 14.5% of reviews | 18.9% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 30 | 264 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 420 MB | 843 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Square Panda Inc. | Tangible Play |
Customer experience
Square Panda
Osmo ABCs
Bugs and requests
Square Panda
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Osmo ABCs
Reported bugs
11 issues- Not compatible with iPad Pro
- Not receiving verification code
- Faulty readings (wrong tile detection)
- Camera orientation issues on newer iPads
- App won't open for some users
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- Reflector not recognizing letters/pieces
- No sound
- Audio keeps dropping
- App crashes on opening
- ABC app not opening
- Connectivity issues with ABC game redirection
Requested features
3 requests- Update app for newer iPads
- Fix ABC game redirection to App Store
- Fix audio issues
In-app purchases
Square Panda
No in-app purchases
Osmo ABCs
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Square Panda free?
Is Osmo ABCs free?
Which has better reviews, Square Panda or Osmo ABCs?
Do Square Panda or Osmo ABCs have ads?
Which is updated more often, Square Panda or Osmo ABCs?
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