Comparison

BrainPOP vs Hopscotch

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

Head to head
About

BrainPOP

This app offers award-winning animated educational videos, interactive activities, and quizzes designed by educators. It aims to transform passive screen time into active, enriched learning experiences for children in grades 3-8 across all subjects.

Highlights
  • Animated educational movies
  • Interactive activities
  • Quizzes
  • Content for grades 3-8
  • All subjects covered
  • Research-backed learning platform
Read full description

Access BrainPOP’s award-winning animated movies, activities and quizzes made by educators and replace your kids’ passive screen time with active, enriched learning. Start your free trial today to access content for grades 3-8 across all subjects. BrainPOP is a research-backed learning platform created by educators that know how kids learn best, and perfect for age-appropriate, independent learning. Start watching, learning, playing and growing with us! Terms of Use: https://www.brainpop.com/about/terms_of_use/ Privacy Policy: https://www.brainpop.com/about/privacy_policy/ User Agreement: https://www.brainpop.com/about/user_agreement/

About

Hopscotch

This app allows children to create their own games, art, and stories using kid-friendly programming. Users can share their creations with a moderated community, play and remix projects from others, and learn to code through interactive video tutorials.

Highlights
  • Create games, art, and stories
  • Kid-friendly programming interface
  • Share creations with a moderated community
  • Play and remix projects from other users
  • Learn coding through video tutorials
  • Build advanced games and apps
Features
Read full description

“Hopscotch is the best way to express your imagination! Most other "learn to code" apps just make you complete boring levels with 4 "move" blocks, but in hopscotch you have the freedom to create anything, which is amazing.” — BuildASnowman, Hopscotcher “This taught me sooooo much about basics of coding. I have been able to make some cool games I hope to learn more as I advance this app was extremely helpful and easy to learn.” — BestBeginnersCoding, Hopcotcher “I had ZERO background or programming experience. I personally checked all 8 or 10 of these blogs about recommendations. And Hopscotch was the most intuitive and interactive. It’s not like you’re just playing video games. My daughter loves it!” — Mom, S. to daughter, 8 “I am a 4th grade teacher who LOVES your app. Our students have been introduced to coding through it and I am impressed with the creativity they have shown and the skills they are building while creating projects.” — Kelley, 4th grade teacher CREATE Whether games, art, stories or more, you can code whatever you want with kid-friendly programming. Publish your creations to Hopscotch’s fully moderated community, where kids can play and learn from your games. PLAY Explore and learn from millions of projects created by other kids. Open up any project to play, tweak, or remix it. With thousands of games published every week, you’ll never run out of ideas or inspiration! LEARN Our play-along video tutorials teach you to make Crossy Road, PokemonGo, and more. Listen, watch, and code as you go! As you become a better programmer, Hopscotch will challenge you to create increasingly advanced games and apps. These skills will help you in high school, college, and beyond. PRESS + AWARDS ** Parents Magazine: Best Apps for Families ** ** FastCompany: Innovation By Design Finalist ** ** Parent’s Choice Gold Medal: Software ** ** Children’s Technology Review: Best Educational Technology ** Featured in: ** The New York Times ** ** The Wall Street Journal ** ** WIRED ** ** Parents Magazine ** ** FastCompany ** ** Apple App Store Editors ** FOR PARENTS See how much your child will love learning to code with Hopscotch! Join 10 million families coding on Hopscotch. Upgrade to Hopscotch Pro for premium creation tools. Get a week-long free trial, and then subscribe for $9.99/month or $79.99/year. You can cancel anytime, hassle free. FOR EDUCATORS Hopscotch is used on 44% of school iPads in the US. Sign up as an educator when you download Hopscotch, and then start coding in your classroom with free lesson plans and student accounts. Increase student engagement with our library of self-guided video tutorials. Email us at classrooms@gethopscotch.com to get started. SAFETY + PRIVACY Hopscotch values kids’ safety and privacy. Hopscotch does not require or collect Personal Information from children, and is COPPA Certified by iKeep Safe. SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscribe to Hopscotch Pro for premium creation tools. You can choose between two auto-renewing subscription options: - $9.99 per month - $79.99 per year Get a 7-day free trial when you upgrade to Hopscotch Pro. Cancel at any time before the trial period ends, and you won’t be charged until after the trial period. Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. To cancel a subscription, disable auto-renewal in your iTunes settings (General > iTunes Settings > Subscriptions > Manage) and allow the current period to end. Refunds are not available for unused portions of a subscription per iTunes policy. Hopscotch Privacy Policy: https://gethopscotch.com/privacy-policy Hopscotch Terms of Use: https://gethopscotch.com/terms

Screenshots

BrainPOP4 screens
Hopscotch4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: BrainPOP at 93% against Hopscotch's 70%. BrainPOP also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.5). Hopscotch's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). On price, ratings volume, 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. BrainPOP sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Hopscotch sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

BrainPOP holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 34K and 15K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of BrainPOP's written reviews are positive against 70% of Hopscotch's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BrainPOP ships an update every 2 months, Hopscotch every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 26, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
BrainPOP versus Hopscotch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBrainPOPHopscotch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (34K ratings) — better4.5 (15K ratings)
Positive reviews92.6% of reviews — better70.3% of reviews
Number of ratings34K — better15K
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB203 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBrainPOP®Hopscotch Technologies

Customer experience

BrainPOP

All ratings34,241 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral2.9%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews1,056 reviews
Positive92.6%
Neutral2.4%
Negative5.0%

Hopscotch

All ratings14,975 ratings
Positive87.7%
Neutral4.8%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews488 reviews
Positive70.3%
Neutral9.4%
Negative20.3%

User reviews

BrainPOP

From 34K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and educational
  • 🚀 Helpful for learning
  • 👍 Great for kids
  • 👍 Funny and entertaining
  • 👍 Informative videos

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes
  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 💰 Limited free content
  • 🙄 Biased or one-sided content
  • 🙄 Lacks detail in some topics

Hopscotch

From 15K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use for beginners
  • 🚀 Powerful coding tools
  • 💡 Encourages creativity and problem-solving
  • 👍 Supportive community
  • 🚀 Great for learning coding

Room to improve

  • 💰 Subscription model restricts free access
  • 🐛 Glitches and bugs
  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Limited account/login options
  • 🔒 Concerns about child safety and moderation

Bugs and requests

BrainPOP

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login issues
  • Playback problems
  • Syncing issues across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • More topics and content
  • Lower subscription cost
  • Better organization of content
  • More character diversity
  • Support for older devices

Hopscotch

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Projects disappearing or not saving properly
  • Shapes/objects not displaying correctly
  • Crashes and freezes when using certain features
  • Subscription/login issues

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add cloud variables and multiplayer support
  • Allow custom sounds and profile pictures for free
  • Improve the 'Newest' tab to better showcase new projects
  • Restore old features like unlimited free projects
  • Add a 'reset' button for projects
Show 1 more
  • Improve the coding logic and debugging tools

In-app purchases

5 purchases

BrainPOP

Subscriptions5
  • BrainPOP Explorer Subscription$3.991 Month
  • BrainPOP Full Access14 Days trial$15.991 Month
  • BrainPOP Combo Monthly14 Days trial$19.991 Month
Show 2 more
  • BrainPOP Full Access Yearly14 Days trial$129.991 Year
  • BrainPOP Combo Yearly14 Days trial$159.991 Year
9 purchases

Hopscotch

Subscriptions9
  • 1 Month Subscription with free trial7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Hopscotch Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Hopscotch Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$7.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Hopscotch Monthly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Hopscotch Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • 1 Year Subscription with free trial1 Month trial$79.991 Year
  • 1 Year Subscription with free trial7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Hopscotch Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Hopscotch Yearly Subscription1 Month trial$79.991 Year

Questions

Is BrainPOP free?
BrainPOP is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hopscotch free?
Hopscotch is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, BrainPOP or Hopscotch?
BrainPOP is rated higher. BrainPOP averages 4.7 out of 5 from 34K ratings, while Hopscotch averages 4.5 from 15K ratings.
Do BrainPOP or Hopscotch have ads?
Neither BrainPOP nor Hopscotch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BrainPOP or Hopscotch?
BrainPOP ships an update every 2 months, and Hopscotch every 2 weeks. Most recently, BrainPOP was updated on October 26, 2026 and Hopscotch on October 26, 2026.

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