Times Alive vs Blending Stack
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Times Alive
This app makes learning multiplication tables engaging through story videos and songs. It offers quizzes and games covering all tables from 0-9, and tracks student progress. It's particularly beneficial for students with learning differences.
- Story videos and songs for memorization
- Quizzes and games for all times tables (0-9)
- Progress tracking (completed lessons, scores, time)
- Pretest and post-test for progress monitoring
- Supports students with learning differences
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Times Alive is designed to make memorization easy and fun so students are eager to learn. Award winning Times Alive teaches multiplication with story videos and songs — includes quizzes and games to teach ALL the times tables 0s-9s. Shown helpful for students with dyslexia, adhd, dyscalculia, autism, and other learning differences. Times Alive keeps track of the student's progress showing completed lessons, test scores with time elapsed. Easily clear progress to re-take a test or to start a new student. Multiplication pretest and post-test included to monitor progress and facts learned. Studies show our Times Tables the Fun Way(™) picture, story, and songs program outperforms most methods for effectiveness and retention of the multiplication facts. Once the facts are committed to memory students find math class a breeze and are able to move on to ratios, division, and algebra.Times Alive is based on the widely used and award winning book, Times Tables the Fun Way. Provided by City Creek Press, established in 1992. Check out our youtube channel @timestablesthefunway. Try Online Times Alive for multiple student tracking, free trial found at CityCreek.com.
Blending Stack
This app helps educators and parents support students with learning differences, like dyslexia, by creating customizable blending stacks. It aids in building decoding skills step-by-step through a structured phoneme progression, suitable for one-on-one or small group instruction.
- Customizable blending stacks
- Supports CVC to multisyllabic words
- Structured phoneme progression
- Step-by-step decoding skill building
- Ideal for one-on-one instruction
- Suitable for small group lessons
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The Blending Stack App is an essential tool for educators and parents supporting dyslexic learners or students with other learning differences. With this app, you can create fully customizable blending stacks tailored to each learner’s needs, whether working on simple CVC words or advancing to multisyllabic decoding. Designed around a structured phoneme progression, Blending Stack empowers students to build decoding skills step by step. Its flexible format makes it ideal for one-on-one instruction and small group lessons.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Blending Stack at $3.99 against Times Alive's $14.99. Blending Stack also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 85%). Times Alive's advantage is ratings volume (153 vs 2) and chart position (#193 vs unranked). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Times Alive costs $14.99 and Blending Stack $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Blending Stack holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Times Alive has 153 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Times Alive's written reviews are positive against 100% of Blending Stack's.
Times Alive ships an update every 13 months, Blending Stack every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Times Alive | Blending Stack |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 | $3.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.6 (153 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 153 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 13 months — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #193 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 17.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 156 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | City Creek | Kids n Books |
Customer experience
Times Alive
Blending Stack
In-app purchases
Times Alive
No in-app purchases
Blending Stack
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Times Alive free?
Is Blending Stack free?
Which has better reviews, Times Alive or Blending Stack?
Do Times Alive or Blending Stack have ads?
Which is updated more often, Times Alive or Blending Stack?
Other comparisons
