Hape Junior Inventor vs Ridwell
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hape Junior Inventor
This app guides children aged four and up in building various STEAM-focused toys. It provides detailed instructions and a sample display to help young inventors create diggers, mechanical arms, and more, fostering logical thinking and creativity.
- Builds STEAM toys
- Detailed instructions
- Sample experiment display
- Develops logical thinking
- Encourages creativity
- In-app sharing gallery
Read full descriptionHide full description
To be a scientist is the ambition many children embrace while they are young. With sophisticated research and design, our Junior Inventor series of toys are capable of giving children as young as four the chance to interact with physical world. With well-crafted components, your little inventor will create a digger, a mechanical arm, a gravity vehicle, a crane, a rotating light, and much more. All tools and parts are designed for children's hands and skill levels and it’s great for developing children’s logical thinking and an understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) principles. The completed experiments offer children great fun to operate and interact with friends – wave “hands” to say “hello”, drag a frog crossing between tables, or watch a moving picture through the zoetrope. How about inventing a never-tried gadget using your imagination? To help you start, Hape releases this "Know-how" APP with a finished sample display and detailed instructions teaching you how to build the experiments. Once your junior inventor become “senior”, they can always get full use of the components and tools to create wonders like a real inventor. Use the in-App sharing functions to upload your masterpieces in the GALLERY or post on social media. For safety reasons this product is not recommended for children under the age of three as it contains small components.
Ridwell
Easily dispose of hard-to-recycle items with convenient doorstep pickups. Schedule collections, track your impact, and feel good knowing your items are being reused or recycled by trusted partners.
- Schedule doorstep pickups
- Collect hard-to-recycle items
- Receive real-time notifications
- Track community impact
- Transparent item destinations
Read full descriptionHide full description
Get rid of your stuff the right way with Ridwell. Seamlessly schedule your upcoming pickups, receive real-time notifications, and see the impact you’re making with the Ridwell community! Collect hard-to-recycle items in your Ridwell bags. We give you bags to store your plastic film, threads, and other hard-to-recycle things that might otherwise go to waste. Easy pickups from your front door. We come to your front door to pick up your stuff every two weeks. Just let us know when you have stuff to pick up! Feel great about where your stuff goes. You’ll always know where your stuff is going to be reused or recycled with one of our partners. Together, Ridwell members save tons from the landfill every year to support our community, keep our oceans clean, and build a brighter future. If you're in need of any support, please contact us at app@ridwell.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Hape Junior Inventor at none against Ridwell's shown. Hape Junior Inventor also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). Ridwell's advantage is ratings volume (9K vs 5) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). On price, rating, in-app purchases and device support 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Hape Junior Inventor against 4.9 for Ridwell. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ridwell has 9K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Hape Junior Inventor ships an update every 4 months, Ridwell every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hape Junior Inventor | Ridwell |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better | 4.9 (9K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 73.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 9K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 23 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Hape | Ridwell, Inc. |
Customer experience
Hape Junior Inventor
Ridwell
Bugs and requests
Hape Junior Inventor
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Ridwell
Reported bugs
2 issues- Incorrect pickup status notifications
- Drivers unable to access buildings
Requested features
3 requests- Advance scheduling for pickups
- More recycling categories
- Proactive notifications for missed pickups
In-app purchases
Hape Junior Inventor
No in-app purchases
Ridwell
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Hape Junior Inventor free?
Is Ridwell free?
Which has better reviews, Hape Junior Inventor or Ridwell?
Do Hape Junior Inventor or Ridwell have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hape Junior Inventor or Ridwell?
Other comparisons















