Comparison

Starfall ABCs vs Learn to Read

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

Head to head
About

Starfall ABCs

This app offers a free introduction to foundational reading skills, featuring interactive activities that engage children through sight, sound, and play. It's designed to help young learners recognize letters and develop essential reading abilities, with special considerations for English language learners and children with disabilities.

Highlights
  • Interactive letter and sound activities
  • Positive reinforcement and play-based learning
  • Develops letter recognition
  • Builds foundational reading skills
  • Accessible for children with impairments
Features
Read full description

Starfall® ABCs is the first step of Starfall’s Learn to Read phonics sequence, which teaches the foundational skills for learning to read. Step 1: ABCs Step 2: Learn to Read Step 3: It’s Fun to Read Step 4: I’m Reading! Starfall ABCs helps children master letter recognition in a stress-free environment through exploration, positive reinforcement, and play. Children delight as they see, hear, and interact with colorful imagery carefully matched to letters and sounds. By mastering these letter-sound relationships, they develop the skills they need to become confident, independent readers. Travel-ready. No internet connection required. Find Starfall ABCs, along with 700+ additional activities and counting across reading, math, music, and more in the Starfall app. The Starfall website and applications are program services of Starfall Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) publicly supported nonprofit organization. Starfall® and Starfall.com® are registered trademarks in the US, the European Union, and various other countries. Copyright © 2002–2026 by Starfall Education. All rights reserved. Starfall apps are inclusively designed to support all children, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Starfall also provides an Enhanced Accessible Index for children with visual, hearing, or mobility impairments. For more information, please contact Customer Service at (+1) 303-417-6414.

About

Learn to Read

This app offers a guided, co-play experience for parents and children aged 3-8 to learn reading skills. It uses research-backed phonics lessons, interactive storybooks, videos, and games to build foundational reading abilities.

Highlights
  • 99 step-by-step phonics lessons
  • 67 interactive digital storybooks
  • 42 educational videos
  • 3 expert-designed reading games
  • Printable offline activities
  • Family subscription with 3 profiles
  • Ad-free experience
Features
Read full description

Teach your child how to read! Ages 3-8. Reading.com is a fun, co-play experience designed by education experts for you to teach your child to read — with the love, care, and joy only a parent and child can share. RESEARCH-BACKED No cape? No problem. Our program gives you supercharged superparent powers! Reading.com’s research-backed, phonics-based lessons are fully scripted so they don’t require any special training or knowledge for you to become the most powerful teacher your child will ever have. FROM LETTER RECOGNITION TO CONFIDENT READING As your child masters more letters, sounds, and words, they'll unlock a playful world of reading activities including interactive storybooks, videos, digital games, and printable activities. THE MOST MEANINGFUL (TEAM)WORK OF YOUR LIFE Each lesson takes just 15 - 20 minutes to complete and they’re designed for you and your child to go at your own pace. Lessons cover letters, letter blends, long vowel sounds, and digraphs, taking your child from basic alphabetic knowledge to reading at a late 1st grade level. This is the easiest head start you’ll ever give your child! KEY FEATURES - 120 step-by-step phonics lessons for a grownup & child to do together - 84 interactive, decodable, digital storybooks - 42 videos featuring letters, letter sounds, and an exclusive alphabet song - 5 expertly-designed reading games for independent play that practice skills in: letter recognition, letter-phoneme correlation, beginning sounds, vocabulary, letter-writing, spelling - Access to printable games & activities for fun offline reinforcement - One subscription for the whole family with up to 3 profiles - Ad-free Download the app today, help your child learn to read and join other parents raising readers! Privacy Policy: https://www.reading.com/privacy-policy/ Terms and Conditions: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Starfall ABCs4 screens
Learn to Read4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Learn to Read at 4.7 against Starfall ABCs's 4.2. Learn to Read also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (81K vs 478). Starfall ABCs's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, ads, device support 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. Learn to Read sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $12.49 per month. Starfall ABCs asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Learn to Read holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Learn to Read has 81K ratings behind it against 478, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of Starfall ABCs's written reviews are positive against 81% of Learn to Read's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Starfall ABCs ships an update every 7 months, Learn to Read weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Starfall ABCs versus Learn to Read: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarfall ABCsLearn to Read
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (478 ratings)4.7 (81K ratings) — better
Positive reviews62.1% of reviews81.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings47881K — better
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#14 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB264 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStarfall Education FoundationTeaching.com

Customer experience

Starfall ABCs

All ratings476 ratings
Positive76.9%
Neutral7.8%
Negative15.3%
Written reviews203 reviews
Positive62.1%
Neutral6.4%
Negative31.5%

Learn to Read

All ratings78,071 ratings
Positive92.4%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.3%
Written reviews775 reviews
Positive81.2%
Neutral3.7%
Negative15.1%

User reviews

Starfall ABCs

From 478 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy for kids to navigate
  • 🚀 Engaging and educational
  • 🎓 Helps with letter recognition and sounds
  • 💖 Great for young learners
  • 🏆 Recommended by teachers and pediatricians

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive for limited content
  • 🤔 Misleading advertising for full website features
  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and glitches
  • 🔇 Sound issues and lack of voice assistance
  • 🤷‍♀️ Gender representation concerns

Learn to Read

From 81K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Engaging and fun for kids
  • 🚀 Effective at teaching reading skills
  • 💡 Structured, step-by-step approach
  • 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Promotes parent-child bonding
  • 🎨 Colorful and visually appealing

Room to improve

  • 🤑 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐢 Slow progression for more advanced learners
  • 🤖 Lack of flexibility to customize or skip lessons
  • 🤔 Placement assessment not accurate for all levels
  • 🤯 Frustrating when app crashes or logs out

Bugs and requests

Starfall ABCs

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Black screen issues
  • Repeated crashes and freezing
  • Incompatibility with latest iOS updates
  • Inability to exit app on certain devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Expand app to include more Starfall website features
  • Add more advanced learning content beyond just ABCs
  • Improve compatibility and stability across devices
  • Integrate voice assistant and accessibility features
  • Address gender representation issues in content

Learn to Read

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Occasional app crashes or freezes
  • User data loss after app updates
  • Inability to redeem promo codes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Option to learn cursive writing
  • More independent practice games and activities
  • Ability to jump to appropriate lesson level
  • Support for multiple languages or accents
  • Printable resources like flashcards or worksheets

In-app purchases

None

Starfall ABCs

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

Learn to Read

Subscriptions6
  • Learn to Read (Monthly)7 Days trial4 variants$12.491 Month
  • Learn to Read (Monthly)$12.491 Month
  • Monthly (With Free Trial)$12.491 Month
Show 3 more
  • Monthly Subscription$12.491 Month
  • Learn to Read (Monthly)7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Learn to Read (Yearly)7 Days trial2 variants$74.991 Year

Questions

Is Starfall ABCs free?
Starfall ABCs is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Learn to Read free?
Learn to Read is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Starfall ABCs or Learn to Read?
Learn to Read is rated higher. Starfall ABCs averages 4.2 out of 5 from 478 ratings, while Learn to Read averages 4.7 from 81K ratings.
Do Starfall ABCs or Learn to Read have ads?
Neither Starfall ABCs nor Learn to Read shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Starfall ABCs or Learn to Read?
Starfall ABCs ships an update every 7 months, and Learn to Read weekly. Most recently, Starfall ABCs was updated on November 10, 2026 and Learn to Read on November 13, 2026.

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