Starfall ABCs vs Count Sort
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Interactive letter and sound activities
- Positive reinforcement and play-based learning
- Develops letter recognition
- Builds foundational reading skills
- Accessible for children with impairments
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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.
Count Sort
This app introduces young children to basic number concepts and counting. It helps them understand one-to-one correspondence and early numeral recognition with adjustable counting targets. An iPad version offers 10 Frames for visual counting.
- One-to-one counting practice
- Adjustable counting targets (up to 32)
- Early numeral recognition
- Number family recognition
- 10 Frames option (iPad)
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A very basic set of activities for children just beginning to learn about numbers. Using numbers up to 32, Count Sort helps children recognize that counting must be done in a “one-to-one” fashion. Options exist to limit the counting target to 10, 15, 20, 25, and 32 chips. The activities also develop early numeral recognition and early recognition of number “families.” The iPad version includes an option to display the chips in 10 Frames. Developed as part of the Number Sense Project at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Starfall ABCs at 4.2 against Count Sort's 1.0. Starfall ABCs also leads on ratings volume (472 vs 1) and review sentiment (60% vs 50%). Count Sort's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Starfall ABCs holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Starfall ABCs has 472 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Starfall ABCs's written reviews are positive against 50% of Count Sort's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Starfall ABCs | Count Sort |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (472 ratings) — better | 1.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 60.4% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 472 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 10.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 62 MB | 41 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Starfall Education Foundation | Classroom Focused Software |
Customer experience
Starfall ABCs
Count Sort
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
Count Sort
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Starfall ABCs
No in-app purchases
Count Sort
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Starfall ABCs free?
Is Count Sort free?
Which has better reviews, Starfall ABCs or Count Sort?
Do Starfall ABCs or Count Sort have ads?
Which is updated more often, Starfall ABCs or Count Sort?
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