Comparison

Starfall ABCs vs Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC

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

Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC

This app teaches foundational reading skills for young learners, focusing on rhyming, segmenting, and blending CVC words. It uses a unique "reverse phonics" approach with interactive feedback to build phonemic awareness and improve spelling and reading.

Highlights
  • Teaches CVC words and short vowel sounds
  • Interactive "reverse phonics" approach
  • Phonics hint feature for blending
  • Spelling rule hints
  • Letter-by-letter feedback
  • Supports up to 40 user accounts
  • Progress reports and user stats
Features
Read full description

- Earned a spot as one of the "Best Five Phonics Apps" by Teachers With Apps. Simplex Spelling CVC Words teaches rhyming, segmenting and blending of over 300 three letter CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words covering all five short vowel sounds. The concepts taught are aligned with many of the US Common Core Standards for Foundational Skills in Reading for Kindergarten. Children will learn phonics and the primary letter sounds and letter names for the alphabet while building the phonemic awareness skills that are critical for becoming a fluent speller and reader. Simplex Spelling Phonics improves English spelling and reading skills in a fun and interactive way by combining a unique “reverse phonics” approach with contextually relevant spelling rules that explain why words are spelled in a particular manner. It works like a personal spelling coach with every word. Recommended for ages 4+. Note: You can not create your own spelling lists in Simplex Spelling Phonics - Rhyming With CVC Words. Features: - Over 300 three letter CVC words covering all five short vowel sounds (e.g. cat, sat, pig, wig, log, bog, bug, rug, get, set). - Words are spoken and used in a sentence to establish context. - Introduction seamlessly leads a student through the application’s features by providing spoken information while having the student spell new words. - The keyboard can be customized to speak either the primary phoneme for each letter , or the letter's name as it is typed. - Powerful phonics hint feature sounds out each word by phonemes from left to right to aid with blending and phonemic awareness skills. - The hint feature also provides a mapping of all the possible graphemes that can represent each sound. - Word lists are organized by onsets, rhymes and medial vowels to allow students to understand and spell new words by changing only a single sound from other words in the same list. - Contextually relevant spelling rule hints that help explain “how to spell” English words. - Unique letter by letter feedback system that provides immediate feedback. - Guaranteed success on every word. - Support for up to 40 user accounts. - Export and email student progress reports. - User stats screen that allows you to see words that have been mastered and words that require further practice. - Remembers each user’s position and progress. - Supports both upper and lower case letters. - Supports both alphabetic and QWERTY keyboard layouts. - Supports both US, UK and Canadian English spelling. Privacy Disclosure: - Does not contain 3rd party ads - Does not share any data - Does not contain In-App purchases - Contains child protected links to "email the developer questions" and developer's website for additional information, support and teaching tips. COPPA Compliant https://pyxwise.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Starfall ABCs4 screens
Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Starfall ABCs at Free against Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC's $4.99. Starfall ABCs also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (477 vs 9). Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 62%). On update cadence, 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

Starfall ABCs is free to download; Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Starfall ABCs holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Starfall ABCs has 477 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of Starfall ABCs's written reviews are positive against 100% of Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Starfall ABCs ships an update every 7 months, Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Starfall ABCs versus Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarfall ABCsSimplex Spelling Phonics CVC
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.2 (477 ratings) — better3.7 (9 ratings)
Positive reviews62.1% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings477 — better9
Update frequencyEvery 7 months — betterEvery 13 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.015.0
Further details — not scored
Size62 MB106 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStarfall Education FoundationPyxwise Software Inc.

Customer experience

Starfall ABCs

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

Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC

All ratings9 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Starfall ABCs

No in-app purchases

None

Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Starfall ABCs free?
Starfall ABCs is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC free?
Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Starfall ABCs or Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC?
Starfall ABCs is rated higher. Starfall ABCs averages 4.2 out of 5 from 477 ratings, while Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC averages 3.7 from 9 ratings.
Do Starfall ABCs or Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC have ads?
Neither Starfall ABCs nor Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Starfall ABCs or Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC?
Starfall ABCs ships an update every 7 months, and Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC every 13 months. Most recently, Starfall ABCs was updated on November 9, 2026 and Simplex Spelling Phonics CVC on November 6, 2026.

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