Comparison

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles vs Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

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

Head to head
About

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles

This app helps young children develop cognitive thinking and fine motor skills through interactive puzzles. It features easy-to-move shapes that snap into place, revealing images and professional voice recordings of words spoken by a speech therapist. The app offers a wide variety of puzzles, including animals, letters, numbers, and musical instruments, in a fun and engaging format.

Highlights
  • Interactive shape puzzles
  • Speech therapist voiceovers
  • Develops cognitive thinking
  • Enhances fine motor skills
  • Educational content (animals, letters, numbers)
  • Sound effects
Features
Read full description

From the creators of the hit, award winning, iPad app Drawing Pad! ShapeBuilder educates & entertains your little one with easy to move shapes that snap into place on top of silhouette puzzles. Each puzzle has 5 to 10 pieces & after positioning all of the pieces, the real image is revealed along with a professional voice recording of the word spoken by a licensed speech therapist that specializes in early child development. ShapeBuilder encourages cognitive thinking & fine motor skills plus exposes young minds to new music instruments, animals, produce, objects & the alphabet in a fun & engaging format with LOTS of sound effects! Designed for kids! No menu buttons on the puzzles to get in the way of game play! Highlights: Total of 173 puzzles! 30 Music instruments with sound effects 21 Fruits & Vegetables 45 Animals - awesome sound effects! 26 Letters - speech therapist sounds out each letter in a fun way 20 Numbers - one through twenty! 31 other fun items like Firetruck, Police Officer, Garbage Truck, and Volcano Random play resets after all puzzles are completed. Kids have so much fun trying to guess what the puzzle will be! By Darren Murtha & Chris Lott for kids and toddlers in preschool, kindergarden & firstgrade! App for kids 3 to 6 years old - MANY 2 year olds play this too but you may have to play together at first. (Perfect for toddlers / preschool / kindergarten / first grade / and babysitters) In 2009-2010 previously featured as an Apple Staff Favorite! (July) and iTunes App Store Essential for Toddlers (October) FEATURED IN: MACWORLD "App of the Day" tinyurl.com/app-of-day THE WASHINGTON TIMES tinyurl.com/sb-washingtontimes USATODAY.COM tinyurl.com/sb-usatoday SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE tinyurl.com/sb-sanfran O'REILLY's Book "Best iPhone Apps" http://tinyurl.com/sb-best-iphone-apps BEAT "Wheels on the Bus" on O'Reilly's APP SMACKDOWN tinyurl.com/app-smackdown "ShapeBuilder earns an edu.Mac.nation daddy score of "A" - Immediately my son was able to locate & move the pieces into position. The audio quality is fantastic, the application is stable, & the variety of puzzle types kept my son engaged & entertained. Together we worked on completing the puzzles & saying out loud what the images were." Michael (an elementary school teacher) from www.edumacnation.com "If you’ve got a preschooler then ShapeBuilder is a great app for your iPhone...This app is great on many levels & a terrific combination of learning & fun." The iPhone Mom (www.theiphonemom.com) "A great little jigsaw app for children aged 3 to 5 years." Daniel Donahoo, Geekdad at wired.com

About

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

This app offers seven engaging educational games for preschoolers aged 2-5. Children help a friendly monkey pack a lunchbox by learning about colors, letters, counting, shapes, matching, and identifying differences. It provides unlimited play with positive reinforcement through animated stickers and voice recordings.

Highlights
  • 7 educational games
  • Teaches colors, letters, counting, shapes
  • Matching and difference identification
  • Lovable animated monkey guide
  • Animated sticker rewards
  • Unlimited play
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

The #1 preschool game in the app store. Learn and have fun by helping monkey pack lunch! Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is a collection of seven exciting educational games for your preschooler (ages 2 to 5). *** FEATURES *** -7 different games that teach kids about colors, letters, counting, shapes, sizes, matching, and differences. -Lovable animated monkey helps kids along as they play the games. -Dozens of sounds and voice recordings of colors, letters, fruit names, and more. -Animated Stickers! Kids get sticker rewards to encourage their progress. -Designed for preschoolers -- no confusing menus or navigation. -Unlimited play! Each game flows right into the next. *** INCLUDED GAMES *** 1. COLORS. This picky monkey only likes fruit of a certain color, touch only the color they like to pack the lunchbox. Teaches colors, color names, and grouping. 2. MATCHING. Match pairs of fruit hidden behind the cards to pack lunch for this monkey. 3. COUNTING. Count off the fruit the monkey is looking for to fill up the lunchbox. Teaches numbers and counting. 4. LETTERS. This monkey only wants fruit that starts with a certain letter, pick the fruit that starts with that letter. Teaches letters and letter sounds. 5. PUZZLE. This monkey's fruit broke into pieces! How odd! Put it back together for them. Teaches shapes and pattern recognition. 6. SPOT THE DIFFERENCE. Help the monkey spot the fruit that looks different, or is a different size. Teaches patterns, bigger, and smaller. 7. SHAPES. Help the monkey find the fruit in the shapes. Contact THUP! Have some comments on our apps? We'd love to hear it! Want to find out what we're doing next? Come visit us: Email us: support@thup.com Like us: http://www.facebook.com/THUPgames Follow us: http://twitter.com/THUPGames

Screenshots

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles4 screens
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Monkey Preschool Lunchbox at every 3 months against ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles's every 8 months. Monkey Preschool Lunchbox also leads on chart position (#56 vs unranked) and ratings volume (325 vs 86). ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). On rating, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles costs $2.99 and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.1 for ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles against 4.1 for Monkey Preschool Lunchbox. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 86 and 325 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles's written reviews are positive against 86% of Monkey Preschool Lunchbox's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles ships an update every 8 months, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles versus Monkey Preschool Lunchbox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShapeBuilder Preschool PuzzlesMonkey Preschool Lunchbox
Price$2.99$1.99 — better
Rating4.1 (86 ratings) — better4.1 (325 ratings)
Positive reviews83.2% of reviews85.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings86325 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#56 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size98 MB235 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMurtha Design LLCTHUP Games

Customer experience

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles

All ratings86 ratings
Positive72.1%
Neutral10.5%
Negative17.4%
Written reviews161 reviews
Positive83.2%
Neutral7.5%
Negative9.3%

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

All ratings324 ratings
Positive73.8%
Neutral7.4%
Negative18.8%
Written reviews299 reviews
Positive85.6%
Neutral4.0%
Negative10.4%

User reviews

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles

From 86 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🎓 Educational for young kids
  • ⭐ Engaging and entertaining
  • 🎨 Vibrant graphics and visuals

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and compatibility issues
  • 🔇 Missing sound or audio features
  • 🔁 Repetitive puzzles
  • 🕰️ Puzzles advance too quickly

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

From 325 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and engaging for kids
  • 🎓 Helps with learning colors, shapes, and numbers
  • 💰 Great value for the price
  • 🎉 Keeps kids entertained for long periods

Room to improve

  • 🔁 Repetitive gameplay
  • 🧠 Too easy for older kids
  • 🔇 Annoying monkey sounds
  • 💾 No ability to save progress

Bugs and requests

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes on launch
  • No sound or audio issues
  • Puzzles not displaying correctly

Requested features

4 requests
  • More variety and new puzzles
  • Ability to pause, replay, or navigate puzzles
  • Customization options (e.g. difficulty, categories)
  • Support for multiple languages

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Game freezes after extended playtime
  • Compatibility issues with newer devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Difficulty levels to challenge older kids
  • More variety of mini-games
  • Option to turn off monkey sounds
  • Ability to save sticker collections

In-app purchases

None

ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles

No in-app purchases

None

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles free?
ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Monkey Preschool Lunchbox free?
Monkey Preschool Lunchbox costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles or Monkey Preschool Lunchbox?
ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles is rated higher. ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles averages 4.1 out of 5 from 86 ratings, while Monkey Preschool Lunchbox averages 4.1 from 325 ratings.
Do ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles or Monkey Preschool Lunchbox have ads?
Neither ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles nor Monkey Preschool Lunchbox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles or Monkey Preschool Lunchbox?
ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles ships an update every 8 months, and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox every 3 months. Most recently, ShapeBuilder Preschool Puzzles was updated on October 20, 2026 and Monkey Preschool Lunchbox on October 21, 2026.

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