Counting Bear vs Bookshare Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Counting Bear
This educational game helps young children learn to count from 1 to 20 through interactive sight, sound, and touch. It allows for personalization with custom voices and items, offering a multi-sensory learning experience for ages 0 to 6.
- Learn numbers 1-20
- Count objects by sight
- Count by touch with audio feedback
- Add custom voice recordings
- Personalize with own photos
- Adjustable difficulty
- Multi-sensory learning
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Endorsed by parents, teachers, and toddlers. Grasshopper Apps = Top Educational Apps for Kids :-) Warning: Your child will keep begging for your iPhone or iPad after they try this app. Counting Bear is an exciting educational game that helps your child rapidly learn how to count by sight, sound, and touch. The interface is so easy to use that even a 6 month old baby will delight in using this app. Ideal for ages 0 to 6. FEATURES: ● Learn how to count from 1 to 20 - you decide exactly what numbers to teach ● Learn how to recognize numbers by counting objects ● Learn how to count by touch - each time an item is counted the child will hear the number ● Add your own voice - now your toddler can learn everything in mommy's or daddy's voice ● Add your own items - take pictures of your child's favorite items to make the game more fun and personal ● Uses real, crisp photographs that are carefully hand picked and selected vs. cartoonish illustrations ● Fun & engaging voice artist keeps kids engaged ● Dynamic game play adjust difficulty (the number of objects per page) progressively or randomly based on user preferences ● Wrong answers do not interfere with gameplay, the child can immediately try again and touch the correct answer (most other games are too slow to keep kids interested by slowly repeating the desired question). ● Multi-sensory learning tool - combining audio, voice, and written words ● Don't like some of the existing items... no problem, just delete any item your kids does not enjoy ● Multi-language support - since you can edit existing items and add new items, you can record everything in your native tongue HEROIC SUPPORT Heroic Support is not just what we do. It's really what makes us, well, us. It's that drive to make a difference in your life - no matter how big or small. Really, it's our way of life because we want you to be our customer for a lifetime of fun and learning. Have questions? We are here to help. Email us at support@grasshopperapps.com
Bookshare Reader
Access a vast library of ebooks designed for individuals with reading barriers. Enjoy high-quality audio narration and customize your reading experience with adjustable fonts, colors, and speeds. Continue reading seamlessly from where you left off.
- Access millions of ebooks
- High-quality audio narration
- Customizable reading experience
- Adjustable font size and colors
- Follow along with highlighted text
- Offline reading
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Get the official Bookshare Reader app. Access millions of ebooks from Bookshare, the world's largest library of ebooks for people with reading barriers like dyslexia, blindness, low vision, and physical disabilities. Listen to books in high quality audio and customize your reading experience in ways that work for you. Read bestsellers, new releases, textbooks and educational books, children’s books, young adult, mysteries, biographies, and more. Read your way with these customizable features: • Listen to books in high quality audio • Adjust reading speed, font size, and colors • Follow along with highlighted text • Navigate by page and chapter • Stop reading and pick up from your last spot • Download books and read offline To use Bookshare Reader, you must have a Bookshare membership. Learn more by visiting the Bookshare website.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Bookshare Reader at Free against Counting Bear's $0.99. Counting Bear's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 3.3) and review sentiment (76% vs 36%). On ratings volume, 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
Bookshare Reader is free to download; Counting Bear costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Counting Bear holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 85 and 68 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Counting Bear's written reviews are positive against 36% of Bookshare Reader's.
Counting Bear ships an update monthly, Bookshare Reader every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Counting Bear | Bookshare Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (85 ratings) — better | 3.3 (68 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.1% of reviews — better | 35.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 85 — better | 68 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #197 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 81 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Innovative Investments Limited | Benetech |
Customer experience
Counting Bear
Bookshare Reader
User reviews
Counting Bear
From 85 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for learning to count
- 🎨 Highly customizable
- 🗣️ Ability to record own voice
- 🖼️ Realistic and nice pictures
- 🧒 Engaging for young children
Room to improve
- 🐛 App crashes frequently
- 🐛 Photo loader/custom photos don't work
- 🐛 App freezes or closes unexpectedly
- 🔊 Audio issues (no sound, incorrect counting)
- 🚫 No support from developers
Bookshare Reader
From 68 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for dyslexic readers
- 👍 Realistic text-to-speech voices
- 👍 Offline book downloads
- 👍 Essential for blind users
- 👍 Significant improvements made
Room to improve
- 🐛 Prolonged pauses in speech
- 🐛 Library not syncing across devices
- 🐛 Reading lists don't sync
- 🐛 Progress not saved across devices
- 🐛 Stuck on copyright page (manga)
Bugs and requests
Counting Bear
Reported bugs
13 issues- App crashes when adding own pictures
- Photo loader doesn't work
- App crashes when the bear in the corner is touched
- App freezes and doesn't progress
- App crashes on launch after update
Show 8 moreShow fewer
- App opens and closes immediately
- App crashes on iPad
- App closes when bear at the bottom is touched
- App automatically closes when child touches the bear
- Keeps saying '4' in the background
- App crashes more often than others
- Fails to display image on screen occasionally
- No sound with the app
Requested features
11 requests- Allow counting past 20
- Option to delay voice prompts
- Landscape view option
- Confirmation at the end of counting
- Option to create an endpoint or 'play again'
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Customizable upper limit for counting
- Hear corresponding number when previously counted object is clicked
- Counting pattern from left to right, top to bottom
- Fix the issue with the bear in the corner causing crashes
- Fix the issue with the orange picture showing 1.5 oranges
- Option to delay voice from saying each number
Bookshare Reader
Reported bugs
42 issues- Prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Library not syncing across devices
- Reading lists not syncing
- Reading progress not saved across devices
- Manga stuck on copyright page
Show 37 moreShow fewer
- Pages disappear during reading
- Trouble downloading books
- Frequent app crashes
- App won't load books
- App shuts down when typing
- App crashing repeatedly
- Books disappearing from library
- Cannot download added books
- Search tab closes the app
- Poor VoiceOver compatibility
- App crashes on any click
- Text-to-speech voice change kicks user out
- Copyright issues preventing audio playback
- Download errors
- Playback stops when screen is locked
- Clunky user interface
- Picture books not displaying images
- Unable to play videos from other sources
- Form controls not coded correctly for VoiceOver
- Cannot delete searched titles from library
- App requires screen to be on for reading
- Blank screen after orientation change
- Too many bugs and crashes
- Next chapter fails to load
- Blank white page after pausing and resuming
- Table of Contents only shows first few chapters
- App displays as phone screen on iPad
- Cannot access reading lists
- Synthesized speech has limited control
- Speech randomly cuts off
- Reading stops if phone ringer is off
- Pause/Play restarts from chapter beginning
- Text-to-speech voices do not indicate language
- Voice selection process is cumbersome
- No functional stop and start button
- Limited speaking speed options
- Paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
Requested features
38 requests- Fix prolonged pauses in text-to-speech
- Sync library across devices
- Sync reading lists across devices
- Save reading progress across devices
- Fix manga page navigation
Show 33 moreShow fewer
- Fix disappearing pages bug
- Improve book download reliability
- Fix app crashes
- Fix app shutdown when typing
- Improve VoiceOver compatibility
- Allow adjustment of speaking rate by specific value
- Make reading lists accessible
- Add highlighting for textbooks
- Improve navigation of Contents menu
- Highlight current location in Contents menu
- Include missing video content in textbooks
- Fix copyright issues for audio playback
- Allow background playback
- Add ability to listen to human-narrated audiobooks
- Add 'Read Now' for periodicals
- Add VoiceOver gestures for page turning
- Add percentage of reading completed on mobile devices
- Make downloaded books tab default on opening app
- Fix inability to delete searched titles
- Add 'where am I' feature (page/percentage)
- Fix blank screen after orientation change
- Make app accessible for students without teacher assignment
- Fix next chapter loading issue
- Fix blank white page after pause
- Fix incomplete Table of Contents
- Improve app scaling on iPad
- Fix inability to access reading lists
- Allow users to choose which word reader begins reading
- Fix paragraph by paragraph reading limitation
- Indicate language for text-to-speech voices
- Improve voice selection process
- Add functional stop and start button
- Increase speed options for text-to-speech
In-app purchases
Counting Bear
No in-app purchases
Bookshare Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Counting Bear free?
Is Bookshare Reader free?
Which has better reviews, Counting Bear or Bookshare Reader?
Do Counting Bear or Bookshare Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Counting Bear or Bookshare Reader?
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