Comparison

AlphaBaby Play vs Writing Wizard

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

Head to head
About

AlphaBaby Play

This app introduces toddlers to letters and shapes through interactive touch and sound. Users can personalize the experience by recording their own voices and adding custom images and captions, fostering early learning and engagement.

Highlights
  • Interactive letters and shapes
  • Voice recording for customization
  • Add custom images and captions
  • Shrink and grow letter animations
  • Flick and fly animations
Features
Read full description

AlphaBaby Play is the perfect first app for your toddler for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad! Touch the screen to show and hear letters and shapes. Flick them to send them flying across the screen. Press them and the letters shrink and grow. Record your own voice for the letters and shapes. Add your own images from the camera or photo library, and record captions to match. Have your child record their own voice! AlphaBaby Play is a free version of the AlphaBaby app, also available on the App Store. You are limited by how many sounds and pictures you can add to the app. Upgrading removes those limits and gives you more ways to customize AlphaBaby. Give AlphaBaby Play a try and see how much fun it is to have your own voice speak the alphabet. Have your child record their own voice for the alphabet, or take turns recording fun captions for your own photos. The possibilities are endless.

About

Writing Wizard

This app helps children learn to trace letters, numbers, and words with a fun, motivating system. It offers customizable tracing practice, interactive games, and progress reports for parents and educators.

Highlights
  • Trace letters, numbers, and words
  • Customizable tracing practice
  • Interactive games and animated stickers
  • Create custom word lists with audio
  • Progress reports for tracking
  • Printable PDF worksheets
Features
Read full description

"Fantastic, customizable tracing practice with fun rewards." 5 Stars - Common Sense Media 500,000+ units sold (including 300,000+ to schools) ! Writing Wizard is designed to help every child learn how to trace letters, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to maintain motivation. • Show and enforce how to trace letters correctly • Letter names and phonics (customizable) • 16 Fonts available (including 3 most popular in the US) • Fun tracing using 50+ animated stickers, sound effects and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers, and words • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Check progress thanks to reports that display what the child has traced • Shapes tracing activity for toddlers • Create PDF Worksheets and print them to help your child to write on paper • Use Apple pencil to write at a very small size All the shapes, the first 7 letters, numbers, and words are free. The remaining letters and the ability to add your own words can be unlocked with a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription. _______ ACCOLADES • "Writing Wizard is the most complete and intelligent letter tracing app we’ve seen"" AppoLearning.com • "This brand-new app should be the go-to for every parent, teacher and therapist to work on handwriting" - TOP PICKS - 5 stars - SmartAppsForKids.com • "Writing Wizard by L’Escapadou is everything a parent wants in a handwriting app, and more." 5/5 - kids-app-reviews.com • "L’Escapadou has made handwriting fun." AppyMall.com 5/5 • Listed in "20 best educational iPhone and iPad apps for kids of 2013" - appsplayground.com • Editor's Choice Award for Excellence in Design - Children's Technology Review _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 4 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud Drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular fonts in the US (ZB, DN & HWT) and 13 international fonts (UK, Scandinavia, Australia, Germany and France) • Upper and lower case letters, numbers (and word lists) • Letter names and letter sounds (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • External Links : Before accessing a parent section, an operation must be solved so that young kids cannot access it. Terms of use : https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

AlphaBaby Play4 screens
Writing Wizard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Writing Wizard at 5.2K against AlphaBaby Play's 36. Writing Wizard also leads on rating (4.4 vs 4.2). AlphaBaby Play's advantage is review sentiment (89% vs 74%) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.6). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. AlphaBaby Play sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Writing Wizard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Writing Wizard holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Writing Wizard has 5.2K ratings behind it against 36, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 89% of AlphaBaby Play's written reviews are positive against 74% of Writing Wizard's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
AlphaBaby Play versus Writing Wizard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAlphaBaby PlayWriting Wizard
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (36 ratings)4.4 (5.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews89.1% of reviews — better73.6% of reviews
Number of ratings365.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLittle Potato SoftwarePierre Abel

Customer experience

AlphaBaby Play

All ratings36 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral5.6%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews129 reviews
Positive89.1%
Neutral4.7%
Negative6.2%

Writing Wizard

All ratings5,152 ratings
Positive84.3%
Neutral6.1%
Negative9.6%
Written reviews208 reviews
Positive73.6%
Neutral6.7%
Negative19.7%

User reviews

AlphaBaby Play

From 36 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👶 Excellent for babies and toddlers (ages 8 months to 4 years)
  • 🎓 Educational tool teaching letters, numbers, shapes, and colors
  • 🎤 Ability to record custom voice and add personal photos
  • 🆓 Free version available with quality features
  • 🛡️ Child-proof design prevents accidental app store clicks

Room to improve

  • 🔄 Random presentation lacks structured learning approach
  • 📚 Uses letter names instead of phonetic sounds
  • 🔊 Volume control not available
  • 💾 In-app purchases not persisting across device changes
  • 🎙️ Custom sound recording feature unreliable for some users

Writing Wizard

From 5.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 🚀 Engaging animations
  • 💡 Customizable word lists
  • 👍 Helpful for children with special needs
  • 👍 Effective for improving handwriting

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Locked features behind paywall
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 🔒 Paid version not working as expected
  • 💰 Expensive for the limited features

Bugs and requests

AlphaBaby Play

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • In-app purchases lost when changing iOS devices
  • Custom sound recording not working reliably
  • In-app upgrade icon not updating after purchase
  • Same objects appearing consecutively in random mode
  • Settings menu difficult to access and discover
Show 1 more
  • Pictures dominating screen disproportionately when mixed with other content

Requested features

10 requests
  • Phonetic sound options instead of letter names
  • Extended number range (up to 50+)
  • Sound/volume level control
  • Delay option to discourage button mashing
  • Multiple voice recordings per object for multilingual families
Show 5 more
  • Lowercase letter options
  • Colors category as separate learning option
  • Better in-app instructions/tutorial
  • Improved settings menu accessibility
  • More customizable content options

Writing Wizard

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when trying to access locked features
  • Purchased content not unlocking properly
  • Inconsistent letter formation guidance

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more letters, numbers, and shapes
  • Allow recording of custom voice instructions
  • Improve compatibility with stylus/digital pens
  • Provide more customization options

In-app purchases

1 purchases

AlphaBaby Play

One-time1
  • Upgrade to Full AlphaBaby$0.99
4 purchases

Writing Wizard

Subscriptions1
  • Full Access - Monthly$2.491 Month
One-time3
  • All Letters and Numbers$5.99
  • Add Your Words and Word Lists$5.99
  • Lifetime Full Access$9.99

Questions

Is AlphaBaby Play free?
AlphaBaby Play is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, AlphaBaby Play or Writing Wizard?
Writing Wizard is rated higher. AlphaBaby Play averages 4.2 out of 5 from 36 ratings, while Writing Wizard averages 4.4 from 5.2K ratings.
Do AlphaBaby Play or Writing Wizard have ads?
Neither AlphaBaby Play nor Writing Wizard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AlphaBaby Play or Writing Wizard?
AlphaBaby Play ships an update every 4 months, and Writing Wizard every 4 months. Most recently, AlphaBaby Play was updated on October 5, 2026 and Writing Wizard on October 21, 2026.

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