Counting Bear vs Writing Wizard
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
Writing Wizard
This app helps children learn to trace letters, numbers, and words with a fun, motivating system. It offers customizable tracing, interactive games, and progress reports for parents and educators.
- Customizable tracing practice
- Interactive games and rewards
- Letter names and phonics
- Create custom word lists
- Progress reports
- Printable worksheets
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"Fantastic, customizable tracing practice with fun rewards." 5 Stars - Common Sense Media 470,000+ units sold (including 260,000 to schools) ! Writing Wizard is designed to help every child learn how to trace letters, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to maintain motivation. • Show and enforce how to trace letters correctly • 16 Fonts available (including 3 most popular USA fonts) • Fun tracing using 50+ animated stickers, sound effects and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing • Letter names and phonics • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers and words • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Check progress thanks to reports that display what the child has traced • Shapes tracing activity for toddlers • Create PDF Worksheets and print them to help your child to write on paper • Use Apple pencil to write at very small size _______ ACCOLADES • "Writing Wizard is the most complete and intelligent letter tracing app we’ve seen"" AppoLearning.com • "This brand-new app should be the go-to for every parent, teacher and therapist to work on handwriting" - TOP PICKS - 5 stars - SmartAppsForKids.com • "Writing Wizard by L’Escapadou is everything a parent wants in a handwriting app, and more." 5/5 - kids-app-reviews.com • "L’Escapadou has made handwriting fun." AppyMall.com 5/5 • Listed in "20 best educational iPhone and iPad apps for kids of 2013" - appsplayground.com • Editor's Choice Award for Excellence in Design - Children's Technology Review _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process ! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 4 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular fonts in the US (ZB, DN & HWT) and 13 international fonts (UK, Scandinavia,Australia, germany, France) • Upper and lower case letters, numbers (and word lists) • Letter names and phonics (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) _______ Note that a free to try version is available (search for "Writing Wizard -Starter" on the App Store) _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • Does not contain in-app purchases • External Links: Protected parent sections are available where you can send us a mail and check out our others apps. Before accessing a parent section, an addition must be solved so that young kids cannot access it. *
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Counting Bear at $0.99 against Writing Wizard's $13.99. Counting Bear also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). Writing Wizard's advantage is ratings volume (3.3K vs 86) and review sentiment (90% vs 76%). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Counting Bear costs $0.99 and Writing Wizard $13.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Counting Bear against 4.3 for Writing Wizard. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Writing Wizard has 3.3K ratings behind it against 86, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Counting Bear's written reviews are positive against 90% of Writing Wizard's.
Counting Bear ships an update monthly, Writing Wizard every 4 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Counting Bear | Writing Wizard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $13.99 |
| Rating | 4.5 (86 ratings) — better | 4.3 (3.3K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.1% of reviews | 89.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 86 | 3.3K — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #131 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 69 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Innovative Investments Limited | Pierre Abel |
Customer experience
Counting Bear
Writing Wizard
User reviews
Counting Bear
From 86 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
Writing Wizard
From 3.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Customizable word lists and recording
- 🎨 Engaging graphics and animations
- 🏫 Great for teaching handwriting and spelling
- 🔒 No ads or in-app purchases
- 🎓 Helpful for children with special needs
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezing
- 🔤 Limited font options, especially for UK users
- 🔒 Difficulty accessing parental controls
- 🖋️ Apple Pencil not supported
- 🔄 Difficulty clearing tracing history
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
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- 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'
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- 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
Writing Wizard
Reported bugs
2 issues- Incorrect letter formation for some characters
- Inconsistent performance on older devices
Requested features
6 requests- Add more font options, including cursive and UK-specific styles
- Improve parental control accessibility
- Integrate Apple Pencil support
- Allow easier clearing of tracing history
- Expand character support (e.g., Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Arabic)
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Add a free-form writing mode or blank canvas
In-app purchases
Counting Bear
No in-app purchases
Writing Wizard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Counting Bear free?
Is Writing Wizard free?
Which has better reviews, Counting Bear or Writing Wizard?
Do Counting Bear or Writing Wizard have ads?
Which is updated more often, Counting Bear or Writing Wizard?
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