Comparison

Itsy Bitsy Spider vs Highlights™ Shapes

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

Head to head
About

Itsy Bitsy Spider

An interactive and educational retelling of a classic nursery rhyme for young children. Features include hidden surprises, sing-along recording, and mini-games that teach counting and nature.

Highlights
  • Interactive illustrations with hidden surprises
  • Record your own voice singing
  • Learn about nature with Cloe the fly
  • Counting activities with a squirrel
  • Play peek-a-boo with a frog
  • Watch a caterpillar transform
Read full description

An award-winning original tribute to a childhood classic, Itsy Bitsy Spider offers children a fun, interactive and educational experience. AGES: 2-5. OVERVIEW - 100% interactive illustrations with hidden surprises on every page - Easy navigation – just poke the spider to move to the next scene - Use the record feature to sing along CATEGORY: Nursery Rhyme ACTIVITIES - FOLLOW the spider on an adventure – up, down and all around - LEARN about the environment and nature from Cloe the fly - COUNT with a squirrel as he builds his house - PLAY peek-a-boo with a frog - SING along and record your own voice - LISTEN to classical music performed on a violin and cello - WATCH a caterpillar become a beautiful butterfly
 - COLLECT colorful eggs on the spider web AWARDS - Parents’ Choice Gold Award - Parents’ Choice Foundation - Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award for Excellence in Design ABOUT DUCK DUCK MOOSE (A subsidiary of Khan Academy) Duck Duck Moose, an award-winning creator of educational mobile apps for families, is a passionate team of engineers, artists, designers, and educators. Founded in 2008, the company has created 21 top-selling titles and has received 21 Parents’ Choice Awards, 18 Children’s Technology Review Awards, 12 Tech with Kids’ Best Pick App Awards, and a KAPi award for “Best Children’s App” at the International Consumer Electronics Show. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with a mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Duck Duck Moose is now part of the Khan Academy family. Like all Khan Academy offerings, all Duck Duck Moose apps are now 100% free, without ads or subscriptions. For kids ages 2-7, don't miss Khan Academy Kids, our new early learning app to help young children with reading, writing, math and social-emotional development! We’d love to hear from you! Visit us at www.duckduckmoose.com or drop us a line at support@duckduckmoose.com.

About

Highlights™ Shapes

This app helps young children learn and practice matching, sorting, and categorizing shapes and colors through engaging, story-driven puzzles. It features imaginative worlds and gradually increasing challenges to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Highlights
  • Shape and color matching
  • Sorting and categorizing activities
  • Color mixing lessons
  • Progressive challenge levels
  • Exploration of imaginative worlds
  • Ad-free environment
  • Multiple language options
Features
Read full description

Accompanied by a friendly fox - and other animal buddies along the way - young children will learn and practice matching, sorting, mixing and categorizing shapes and colors through imaginative activity-filled worlds. Visit an ancient jungle, the magical deep sea, mysterious outer space — even a wild savanna safari! The puzzle games are woven into engaging stories, and the games increase in challenge as your preschool-aged child plays. Kids will benefit from: • Development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills • Curiosity as they explore new worlds of shapes, colors, and color mixing • Learning to make predictions and understanding outcomes by discovering how primary colors mix together to form secondary colors • Confidence as they make decisions and advance to new levels • Learning key preschool and math skills like matching, sorting and classifying by shapes and colors • Identifying and naming 11 shapes from circles to octagons, 11 primary and secondary colors and color mixing • Development of fine motor skills • Security of an ad-free environment Features: • 6 progressing levels of challenge: o FREE Ancient Jungle Puzzle Pack – 4 shapes + 8 colors o Magical Underwater Puzzle Pack – 8 shapes + 11 colors o Mysterious Space Puzzle Pack – 11 shapes + 11 colors o NEW Jurassic Journey Puzzle Pack –Introduce color mixing! o NEW Savanna Safari Puzzle Pack – Expand on color mixing with even more colors! o FREE Sweet Arctic Puzzle Pack – 8 shapes + 11 colors •Hilarious surprises and delights to engage preschool children along the way •Track progress, skip and replay functions •3 language options (US English, UK English, Spanish) •A secure, ad-free experience (CARU COPPA Safe Harbor Certified) This app is fun, creative, confidence building and developmentally appropriate - brought to you by the early childhood experts at Highlights and Italian creative studio Colto. Highlights Shapes is an ideal first app for kids 3+, and easy for young children to play on their own. It’s playable in English (US + UK) and Spanish. PREPARES CHILDREN FOR SCHOOL As children progress through Highlights Shapes, they’ll develop creative thinking and essential problem-solving skills, both critical for the start of formal schooling. PROMOTES FUN, MEANINGFUL LEARNING Highlights Shapes combines geometric, sorting and matching skills that are crucial for preschool-aged children to grasp, with the fun of an engaging, age-appropriate game. Children will learn valuable math and vocabulary skills all while having a blast traveling through new and exciting worlds! PROMOTES CONFIDENCE AND CREATIVITY In this game, children will foster confidence, creativity and curiosity as they make decisions! They’ll build colorful geometric scenes, learn how colors mix to form other colors, and explore three exciting environments. DEVELOPS FINE MOTOR SKILLS As children touch and drag each colorful shape, they’ll develop their fine motor skills. INCREASES VOCABULARY As they correctly match and sort each object, children will hear their shapes and colors repeated aloud, helping them learn new words and increasing their existing vocabularies. ABOUT US Highlights for Children Founded by educators Dr. Garry and Caroline Myers in 1946, Highlights was built on the belief that “Children Are the World’s Most Important People™.” Today, 70 years later, every “Fun with a Purpose™” product is still designed to help children become their best selves: creative, curious, caring and confident. Colto Colto is creating imaginative and educational mobile play experiences for kids around the world based on original and branded properties. Our Team, made up of a Mum/Teachers and talented Game Designers, Developers and Marketers, strives to develop high quality educational Apps that kids love and parents trust. Our games are ethical, safe and designed to be non-addictive for kids. Required iOS 8.1 onwards

Screenshots

Highlights™ Shapes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Itsy Bitsy Spider at none against Highlights™ Shapes's 6. Itsy Bitsy Spider also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.8). Highlights™ Shapes's advantage is update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (325 vs 40). On price, review sentiment, ads and iOS requirement 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. Highlights™ Shapes sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Itsy Bitsy Spider asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Itsy Bitsy Spider holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Highlights™ Shapes has 325 ratings behind it against 40, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Itsy Bitsy Spider's written reviews are positive against 63% of Highlights™ Shapes's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Itsy Bitsy Spider ships an update every 7 months, Highlights™ Shapes every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Itsy Bitsy Spider versus Highlights™ Shapes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterItsy Bitsy SpiderHighlights™ Shapes
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (40 ratings) — better3.8 (325 ratings)
Positive reviews70.5% of reviews — better62.8% of reviews
Number of ratings40325 — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better10.0
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB96 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuck Duck Moose LLCHighlights for Children, Inc.

Customer experience

Itsy Bitsy Spider

All ratings40 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral2.5%
Negative17.5%
Written reviews105 reviews
Positive70.5%
Neutral9.5%
Negative20.0%

Highlights™ Shapes

All ratings325 ratings
Positive68.6%
Neutral6.8%
Negative24.6%
Written reviews86 reviews
Positive62.8%
Neutral9.3%
Negative27.9%

User reviews

Itsy Bitsy Spider

From 40 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👶 Highly engaging for toddlers and young children
  • 🎨 Beautiful graphics and animations
  • 🎵 Entertaining music and sound effects
  • 🖱️ Interactive cause-and-effect gameplay
  • 🎓 Educational value for learning

Room to improve

  • 🎤 Male singer's voice sounds creepy or odd
  • 📱 Limited content - only 2 screens
  • ⏱️ Short play duration before boredom sets in
  • 🔄 Repetitive gameplay with limited variety
  • 💸 Expensive for the amount of content

Highlights™ Shapes

From 325 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👶 Excellent educational tool for learning shapes and colors
  • 🎮 Engaging and intuitive gameplay mechanics for toddlers
  • 🧠 Builds abstract reasoning, patience, and problem-solving skills
  • 🎨 Appealing graphics and visual design
  • 🦊 Charming fox character guide

Room to improve

  • 🔊 Persistent sound/audio issues across multiple devices
  • 💰 Expensive in-app purchases for additional levels
  • 🚫 No family sharing support for purchases
  • 📉 Limited content - only 3-4 levels available
  • ⏱️ Levels complete too quickly (3-10 minutes each)

Bugs and requests

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Reported bugs

7 issues
  • App won't progress past opening screen after iOS 13 update
  • App won't open at all after recent update
  • Stuck on first page with no way to turn pages
  • Sound not working despite troubleshooting
  • Program crashes and requires restart to change pages
Show 2 more
  • App incompatible with iPad HD version
  • Freezes and performance issues

Requested features

8 requests
  • More nursery rhymes in similar format
  • Additional screens and content
  • Female or child voice option for singing
  • More verses of Itsy Bitsy Spider incorporated
  • Automatic music playback option
Show 3 more
  • Multi-touch support for simultaneous screen touches
  • Ability to switch singer voice
  • More interactive activities and projects

Highlights™ Shapes

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Sound/audio not working despite system updates and reinstalls
  • Notifications must be enabled for sound to function
  • Purchased levels not transferring to new devices
  • Language switching glitch preventing Spanish audio
  • Home button not protected from accidental child taps
Show 3 more
  • In-app purchase system not functioning on some devices
  • Account creation issues preventing purchase completion
  • App support/live chat not responsive

Requested features

9 requests
  • More levels and increased difficulty progression
  • Additional shape types and more complex puzzles
  • Alphabet/letter learning app similar to shapes version
  • Language options including Spanish and Chinese audio
  • Family sharing capability for purchases
Show 4 more
  • Parental controls and screen time timer options
  • More diverse themes (animals, fish instead of artifacts)
  • Ability to transfer purchases between devices
  • More challenging content for advanced learners

In-app purchases

None

Itsy Bitsy Spider

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Highlights™ Shapes

One-time6
  • Chapter Two$1.99
  • Chapter Three$1.99
  • Chapter Four$1.99
Show 3 more
  • Chapter Five$1.99
  • "Pack 2 + Pack 3"$2.99
  • 25% Off Preschool Puzzle Fun!$5.99

Questions

Is Itsy Bitsy Spider free?
Itsy Bitsy Spider is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Highlights™ Shapes free?
Highlights™ Shapes is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Itsy Bitsy Spider or Highlights™ Shapes?
Itsy Bitsy Spider is rated higher. Itsy Bitsy Spider averages 4.2 out of 5 from 40 ratings, while Highlights™ Shapes averages 3.8 from 325 ratings.
Do Itsy Bitsy Spider or Highlights™ Shapes have ads?
Neither Itsy Bitsy Spider nor Highlights™ Shapes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Itsy Bitsy Spider or Highlights™ Shapes?
Itsy Bitsy Spider ships an update every 7 months, and Highlights™ Shapes every 6 weeks. Most recently, Itsy Bitsy Spider was updated on September 27, 2026 and Highlights™ Shapes on September 14, 2026.

Other comparisons