Comparison

WORD READING MAGIC 2 vs Phonics Flashcards

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

Head to head
About

WORD READING MAGIC 2

This educational app focuses on teaching children the crucial skill of blending sounds to read words with adjacent consonants. It emphasizes a phonics-based approach, differentiating between blends and digraphs for effective early reading instruction.

Highlights
  • Focuses on blending sounds
  • Differentiates blends and digraphs
  • Phonics-based reading instruction
  • Supports early reading success
  • Designed for young learners
Features
Read full description

Word Reading Magic 2 can help your child’s future reading success. It is best to focus on “BLENDING” instead of “blends.” Teaching the blending together of the sounds in a word is the most efficient way to teach the reading of words containing adjacent consonants. BLENDING is helping the child blend together the four distinct sounds of /h/ + /a/ + /n/ + /d/ into the word “hand.” On the other hand, teaching and memorizing lists of adjacent consonants combinations, as many programs do, such as fl, bl, st, is inefficient, confusing, and a disservice to emerging readers. With adjacent consonants, such as the s and t in the word “step,” each letter retains its sound even though they are spoken closely together. No new sounds are made by these types of adjacent consonants. The misinformed theory behind teaching consonant blend lists is that these two adjacent consonants make a different sound when, in reality, no new sound is created. There are situations where two adjacent consonants make a new and different sound. For example, the letters s and h, when combined, make the distinct sound /sh/, as in the word “ship.’” Another example would be the letters c and h, which, when combined, make the distinct sound /ch/ as in “chair.” These, however, are unique types of adjacent consonants called digraphs. The teaching of digraphs is an integral part of proper reading instruction. There is a distinct difference between teaching digraphs and teaching consonant blends. There is a cultural myth that persists in some early childhood literacy methods of teaching adjacent consonants as if they were digraphs. The real key to successfully dealing with adjacent consonants is to teach the skill of blending (not blend lists) and then to teach the approximately 44 digraphs and trigraphs later. Most of the programs that teach consonant blends (excluding the digraphs) have 25 beginning 2-letter blends such as bl, fr, tr, and str. These programs also include 16 ending blends such as st, mp, lp, rand ft. That adds up to 41 non-digraph consonant clusters in all. That is a lot of work devoted to teaching a method that is not clear and specific to emerging readers. The most glaring error with teaching consonant blend lists is that these programs make of using word lists containing advanced phonograms and advanced spelling rules. Using the words “trade,” “triangle,” “trike,” “triple,” “treat,” “tree,” “true,” and “try” to teach the consonant blend “tr” can be very confusing to the child. How is a child supposed to read the words on this list when they are at the beginning stages of learning to read consonant blends? This is a huge leap of faith. This method would be like trying to teach a stomach crawling baby to crawl on their hands and knees by trying to teach the baby to walk. If a child can read the “tr” words on that list, then they are well advanced beyond the reading level of needing to learn the “tr” blend or any consonant blend. Save yourself and your child from wasting time with the confusing practice of teaching consonant blend lists. Adopt the clear and direct path of teaching the skill of blending to your child and watch them soar in their reading competency. This app gives your child lots of clear and direct practice of the skill of blending while ignoring the teaching of so-called blends. In using this app, your child will learn how to recognize word patterns and adjacent consonant spelling rules effectively. Please note, the purpose of this app is to provide many opportunities for practicing the reading of CCVC & CVCC words. On account of this, there are words used in this app that are not in the everyday vocabulary of the young learners using this app. Use this as an opportunity to build vocabulary. The images, when tapped, will always say what they are. There is never any picture guessing required. Please give us your feedback and suggestions.

About

Phonics Flashcards

This app offers over 100 customizable flashcards for learning phonemes, suitable for any grade level. It includes interactive phonics games to reinforce learning, making it ideal for both classroom and home education.

Highlights
  • Over 100 customizable flashcards
  • Introductory and advanced phonemes
  • Phonics games
  • Read aloud option
  • Classroom or home use
  • Supports all grade levels
Features
Read full description

A simple to use and completely customizable deck of over 100 flashcards covering both introductory and advanced phonemes. Also includes fun phonics games. Designed for classroom or home use. FEATURES • Appropriate for Students of Any Grade or Fluency Level • Over 100 Flashcards Covering the Basics and Advanced Concepts • Choose Deck Categories or Customize Your Deck for Your Lessons • Read Aloud Option • Help a cute robot sort the vowels in the Phonics Factory game! VOWELS • Short and Long Vowels • R Controlled Vowels • Schwa • Differences of ü and ū • Silent e • Digraphs • Diphthongs CONSONANTS • Blends • Digraphs • Double Letter Digraphs OTHER • The Sounds of y

Screenshots

WORD READING MAGIC 24 screens
Phonics Flashcards4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: WORD READING MAGIC 2 at 4.7 against Phonics Flashcards's 3.7. WORD READING MAGIC 2 also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (62 vs 3). Phonics Flashcards's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 6 months). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. WORD READING MAGIC 2 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Phonics Flashcards sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

WORD READING MAGIC 2 holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: WORD READING MAGIC 2 has 62 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

WORD READING MAGIC 2 ships an update every 6 months, Phonics Flashcards monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
WORD READING MAGIC 2 versus Phonics Flashcards: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWORD READING MAGIC 2Phonics Flashcards
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (62 ratings) — better3.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings62 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS10.0 — better11.0
Further details — not scored
Size238 MB193 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPRESCHOOL UNIVERSITYEggroll Games LLC

Customer experience

WORD READING MAGIC 2

All ratings62 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral4.8%
Negative1.6%

Phonics Flashcards

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

WORD READING MAGIC 2

One-time1
  • 25 More Lesson Groups$2.99
2 purchases

Phonics Flashcards

One-time2
  • All Phonics Flashcards & More$1.99
  • All Phonics Flashcards$2.99

Questions

Is WORD READING MAGIC 2 free?
WORD READING MAGIC 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Phonics Flashcards free?
Phonics Flashcards is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, WORD READING MAGIC 2 or Phonics Flashcards?
WORD READING MAGIC 2 is rated higher. WORD READING MAGIC 2 averages 4.7 out of 5 from 62 ratings, while Phonics Flashcards averages 3.7 from 3 ratings.
Do WORD READING MAGIC 2 or Phonics Flashcards have ads?
Neither WORD READING MAGIC 2 nor Phonics Flashcards shows ads.
Which is updated more often, WORD READING MAGIC 2 or Phonics Flashcards?
WORD READING MAGIC 2 ships an update every 6 months, and Phonics Flashcards monthly. Most recently, WORD READING MAGIC 2 was updated on October 7, 2026 and Phonics Flashcards on October 15, 2026.

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