Comparison

Sandbox AR vs FTW Fly

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

Head to head
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.

About

FTW Fly

This app makes STEM learning accessible and engaging for students through cutting-edge technology and educational resources. It introduces flight theory, mechanical design, and coding basics using drone and sensor technology, making robotics and engineering fun and hands-on.

Highlights
  • Accessible STEM learning
  • Coding, robotics, and engineering
  • Drone and sensor technology
  • Flight theory introduction
  • Mechanical design basics
  • Hands-on learning opportunities
Features
Read full description

Take your classroom’s curiosity to new heights. Through cutting-edge technology and comprehensive educational resources, Hopper makes STEM learning accessible and engaging for students of all abilities. We are dedicated to helping educators revolutionize STEM education by providing the tools to make diving into coding, robotics, and engineering fun and accessible. Hopper takes Build | Fly | Code to the next level. Introduce your students to flight theory, mechanical design, and the basics of coding with the latest drone and sensor technology. And, because Hopper’s hardware is robust and reusable, and its software, getting smarter constantly, educators can create more opportunities, and expand hands-on STEM learning to underserved communities and students of all abilities.

Screenshots

FTW Fly1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Sandbox AR at 4.7 against FTW Fly's 4.2. FTW Fly's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, 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

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, 4.7 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 11 and 5 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Sandbox AR ships an update every 2 months, FTW Fly every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Sandbox AR versus FTW Fly: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSandbox ARFTW Fly
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (11 ratings) — better4.2 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings11 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.6 GB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDiscovery Education Inc.FTW ROBOTICS LLC

Customer experience

Sandbox AR

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

FTW Fly

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

None

Sandbox AR

No in-app purchases

None

FTW Fly

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Sandbox AR free?
Sandbox AR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is FTW Fly free?
FTW Fly is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Sandbox AR or FTW Fly?
Sandbox AR is rated higher. Sandbox AR averages 4.7 out of 5 from 11 ratings, while FTW Fly averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do Sandbox AR or FTW Fly have ads?
Neither Sandbox AR nor FTW Fly shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Sandbox AR or FTW Fly?
Sandbox AR ships an update every 2 months, and FTW Fly every 3 months. Most recently, Sandbox AR was updated on October 8, 2026 and FTW Fly on October 6, 2026.

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