Comparison

The Elements by Theodore Gray vs U.S. Army STARS Elements

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

Head to head
About

The Elements by Theodore Gray

Explore the building blocks of the universe with this interactive guide to the periodic table. Discover beautifully photographed elements, fascinating stories, and detailed 3D models of over 500 objects, all presented in multiple languages.

Highlights
  • Living periodic table interface
  • Rotating 3D element samples
  • Detailed 3D object models
  • Pinch-zoom and 3D stereo viewing
  • Multilingual support
  • Fascinating stories and facts
Features
Read full description

From Theodore Gray comes a beautifully produced app introducing and educating users on the elements of the periodic table and how they combine to form the world around us. The Elements is a rich and engaging love story, told in words and pictures - allowing you to experience the beauty and fascination of the building blocks of our universe in a way you've never seen before. Start off on a living periodic table where every element is shown with a smoothly rotating sample. To read about gold, tap the gold nugget. Immediately you see the sample filling the screen, photographed to razor sharpness and rotating around a complete circle in front of your eyes. Enjoy the extensive array of facts and figures. Next find a fascinating story about the element, surrounded by carefully photographed objects representing it. Every one of these objects, well over 500 in total, is a freely rotatable, live object that you can examine from all sides and pinch zoom to see in unprecedented detail. Touch the element name at the top of the page and you can see that element’s name in over a dozen different languages. Choose one and you’ll find that the entire book, stories, captions and all, switches to that language: The Elements includes both the full English original text and over a dozen full translations. Pinch-zoom or tap any object to bring it up full screen, where you can split into a pair of stereo 3D images, allowing you to see all 500 objects pop off the screen in 3D, and you can spin the objects, in 3D, with the touch of a finger. This book will show everyone there’s a lot more to the periodic table than a bunch of numbers and letters. Features include: • Beautifully composed pages for every Element in the periodic table • Fun stories and fascinating facts • All objects pinch-zoom with amazing detail and rotate in 3D • Engaging introduction explaining the structure of the periodic table • Engaging introduction explaining the structure of the periodic table • Fully translated into English, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish ------------ Reviews: “The iPad’s splendor and power may be best shown by The Elements... it’s not like any ebook you’ve seen. The periodic table of elements comes to life.” – USA Today

About

U.S. Army STARS Elements

Explore the world of chemistry with interactive tools to build atoms, learn chemical bonds, and discover elements. Test your knowledge with engaging challenges designed for students, teachers, and enthusiasts.

Highlights
  • Atom Builder
  • SmashBond game
  • Interactive Periodic Table
  • STARS Challenge quiz
  • 3D atom construction
  • Bohr's model visualization
Features
Read full description

U.S. Army STARS Elements is a fun and exciting way to learn chemistry. Build your own atom, play a game to help you learn about chemical bonds, explore the periodic table, and test your chemistry knowledge. Elements is great for students, teachers, and anyone interested in chemistry. U.S. Army STARS Elements includes... Atom Builder - A simple, powerful tool that let’s you construct and discover atoms. Add and subtract protons, neutrons, and electrons and see, in 3D, what you can create. SmashBond - Use the octet rule to bond elements and score points in SmashBond. Swap elements to make 2, 3, or 4 element bonds, and grab bonuses to get a SMASHBOND. It’s a really fun way to help you become familiar with the octet rule and learn common chemical bonds by their type, symbol, name and Lewis dot diagram. Periodic Table - Use the table to view trends and detailed information about each of the 118 elements. See an interactive Bohr’s model and learn interesting facts about the elements. It’s like a regular periodic table, but interactive and fun. STARS Challenge - When you’re ready to test your knowledge, take the STARS Challenge. You’ll be presented with questions in 3 areas (elements, bonding, and atomic configuration). Can you master them all? No matter what your level of experience with chemistry, U.S. Army STARS Elements makes learning fun. Easy to use lesson plans and teacher guides are available at http://usarmystars.com/lessons to help integrate Elements into the classroom.

Screenshots

The Elements by Theodore Gray4 screens
U.S. Army STARS Elements4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: U.S. Army STARS Elements at Free against The Elements by Theodore Gray's $9.99. U.S. Army STARS Elements also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 73%) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). The Elements by Theodore Gray's advantage is update cadence (every 3 months vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (123 vs 18). On rating, 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

U.S. Army STARS Elements is free to download; The Elements by Theodore Gray costs $9.99 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 — 4.6 for The Elements by Theodore Gray against 4.7 for U.S. Army STARS Elements. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: The Elements by Theodore Gray has 123 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of The Elements by Theodore Gray's written reviews are positive against 100% of U.S. Army STARS Elements's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

The Elements by Theodore Gray ships an update every 3 months, U.S. Army STARS Elements every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
The Elements by Theodore Gray versus U.S. Army STARS Elements: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThe Elements by Theodore GrayU.S. Army STARS Elements
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating4.6 (123 ratings)4.7 (18 ratings) — better
Positive reviews73.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings123 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 8 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.011.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.5 GB213 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperNatureGuides Ltd.Army Game Studio

Customer experience

The Elements by Theodore Gray

All ratings122 ratings
Positive89.3%
Neutral3.3%
Negative7.4%
Written reviews479 reviews
Positive73.1%
Neutral9.6%
Negative17.3%

U.S. Army STARS Elements

All ratings18 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral5.6%
Negative5.6%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

The Elements by Theodore Gray

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Element descriptions cut off on iPhone 6 Plus
  • Crashes when switching landscape orientations
  • Unable to download app after initial purchase

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add option to disable animations
  • Improve periodic table navigation
  • Include more detailed scientific information
  • Support multiple languages and spellings

U.S. Army STARS Elements

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

The Elements by Theodore Gray

No in-app purchases

None

U.S. Army STARS Elements

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is The Elements by Theodore Gray free?
The Elements by Theodore Gray costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is U.S. Army STARS Elements free?
U.S. Army STARS Elements is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, The Elements by Theodore Gray or U.S. Army STARS Elements?
U.S. Army STARS Elements is rated higher. The Elements by Theodore Gray averages 4.6 out of 5 from 123 ratings, while U.S. Army STARS Elements averages 4.7 from 18 ratings.
Do The Elements by Theodore Gray or U.S. Army STARS Elements have ads?
Neither The Elements by Theodore Gray nor U.S. Army STARS Elements shows ads.
Which is updated more often, The Elements by Theodore Gray or U.S. Army STARS Elements?
The Elements by Theodore Gray ships an update every 3 months, and U.S. Army STARS Elements every 8 months. Most recently, The Elements by Theodore Gray was updated on October 22, 2026 and U.S. Army STARS Elements on October 11, 2026.

Other comparisons