Comparison

READING MAGIC vs Reading Raven

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

Head to head
About

READING MAGIC

This app makes learning to read an exciting adventure for young children. It focuses on CVC words and uses science-based phonics principles to build essential reading skills like blending and segmenting.

Highlights
  • CVC word focus
  • Blending and segmenting practice
  • Phonemic awareness building
  • Phonological processing improvement
  • Engaging games and activities
  • Discourages picture guessing
Features
Read full description

Unlock the Magic of Reading with READING MAGIC 1! Transform your child into a confident reader with READING MAGIC 1! This app makes learning to read an exciting adventure with interactive activities focused on short-vowel words, specifically CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words. Meticulously designed to provide an advanced boost to your child’s phonemic awareness, this app combines three foundational pillars of literacy science into one powerful, interactive ecosystem: Blending (Listening), Segmenting (Speaking), and Decoding (Reading). Grounded firmly in Science of Reading principles and utilizing University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) guidelines, READING MAGIC provides specific, precise training with extensive repetitions to help young brains bridge the gap between spoken sound units and complete words. IDEAL FOR BOTH BEGINNING PRE-READERS AND STRUGGLING READERS For Beginning Pre-Readers: A stress-free launchpad. By practicing words through pure sound sequences first, your child masters the internal mechanics of reading without cognitive overload. This keeps them from being frustrated by trying to learn separate, difficult skills at the same time. For Struggling or Remedial Readers: If your child's reading is hesitant or choppy, or if they guess at words, this app provides the targeted intervention recommended by modern reading science to help young brains bridge the gap. THREE CRITICAL SKILL-BUILDING PILLARS While many phonics programs completely overlook the auditory mechanics of reading, our program systematically guides your child through the complete progression of decoding: Skill 1: Blending (Listening): Interactive listening activities train your child’s neural processing ability to hear isolated sounds in words and join them together mentally. This builds the vital auditory runway required for future fluency. Skill 2: Segmenting (Speaking): True spelling and reading independence require the ability to pull spoken words apart into their individual sound units. These exercises build explicit awareness of the acoustic structure of language. Skill 3: Decoding (Reading): The ultimate bridge to literacy. Your child applies their mastery of blending and segmenting directly to text, smoothly moving from spoken sounds to visual words. STRUCTURAL SPACING & INSTRUCTION (Science-Backed Layout) Our app builds the actual findings of reading science directly into the user interface for maximum visual clarity: Anti-Crowding Design: Peer-reviewed research, including Marinus et al. (2016) and Wery & Diliberto (2017), demonstrates that generous letter spacing is critical for early decoding. By placing each letter on its own isolated card with distinct physical gaps, our layout eliminates visual crowding, allowing your child to isolate each sound unit cleanly. True Comprehension: The app strictly discourages picture guessing, forcing children to rely purely on their decoding skills to foster true comprehension and build lasting confidence. INDEPENDENT LEARNING & AESTHETIC SIMPLICITY Distraction-Free: Our minimalist design eliminates overstimulating audio-visual clutter, excessive sound effects, and animations to keep your child entirely focused on the mechanics of reading. Stress-Free Growth: Built-in natural feedback loops offer gentle corrections, nurturing self-discovery and independent learning at your child's own pace. EXPERT RESEARCH BACKING "Before a child can read fluently with their eyes, they must be able to blend fluently with their ears. Weakness in auditory blending is one of the strongest early predictors of later reading failure." — Dr. Joseph Torgesen, Florida State University. "Teaching students to blend and segment benefited their reading much more than did a multiple-skills approach... and teaching phonemic awareness with letters created effect sizes almost twice as large as teaching children without letters." — The National Reading Panel (NRP) Meta-Analysis.

About

Reading Raven

This app guides young children through a fun, adventure-filled journey to learn reading. It offers step-by-step lessons from pre-reading skills to reading full sentences, incorporating games and printing practice.

Highlights
  • Self-paced reading lessons
  • Eleven types of educational games
  • Customizable by age/reading level
  • Dynamic speed and tolerance adaptation
  • Sticker rewards
  • Free form letter and word writing
  • Voice instructions and feedback
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Help your kids learn to read with their own personal reading-adventure guide! "Reading Raven has one of the strongest educational and design foundations we have seen." -- Kindertown "Finally – a seriously educational app that leads children from early phonological awareness and phonics right up to reading full sentences while integrating printing skills and teaching through games. Reading Raven for iPad is an incredible learn-to-read app, easily the best I’ve encountered to date in the App Store. I’m in love." -- Apps For Homeschooling "[Reading] Raven has what it takes to get kids on the road to reading and the developers have done it brilliantly..." -- Teachers With Apps "This is one of the best educational apps that I’ve ever seen. This app is so well built and is worth every penny!" -- iHeartThisApp "...I can see [Kaylee] really learning and growing with this. Already she's starting to learn more and faster than she ever has before." -- Rita Webb, mother of two "Reading Raven ... has so many fun features for kids, they hardly know they're actually learning something. No, really, I kid you not. My daughter absolutely loves this app." -- Margaret Steck, mother of two News Flash: Reading Raven Vol 2, the next volume in the award-winning Reading Raven series, is also now available for download! ____________________ Reading Raven is an extremely fun and engaging learn-to-read educational game that provides step-by-step reading lessons designed to help young children build a solid foundation for reading. FEATURES: - Self-paced lessons take kids all the way from pre-reading to reading sentences! - Eleven types of super fun games/activities that teach critical sub-skills! - Fully customizable by age or reading level! - Speed and tolerance dynamically adapt to motor control ability! - Sticker rewards that reinforce what was learned! - No pressure tactics! - Extremely effective voice instructions and feedback! - Free form letter and word writing! - Children can pause and save their progress anytime! - Beautiful hand-illustrated artwork! - No third party advertising! - No external links to social network sites! With the Reading Raven companion guiding them along, children will go on delightful fun-filled adventures where they will encounter fly eating frogs, caterpillars that turn into butterflies, circus acrobats, ball balancing seals, underwater sea creatures, snow monsters, flying penguins, space robots, rhyming rockets, and much more! Reading Raven includes the following progression of self-paced educational activities: Ages 3 and Up - Letter matching - Letter tracing - Letter sounds - Word matching Ages 4 and Up - Vocabulary - Word beginnings - Word building (spelling) - Word spotting Ages 5 and Up - Reading aloud using voice recording - Word tracing - Word groups (rhyming and beginning sounds) Reading Raven includes five extensive lessons, with hundreds of individual activities in total. Parents and teachers will find the multi-sensory learning games to be a great complement to traditional classroom and home-based reading instruction. Recommended Ages: 3-7 Categories: Reading, Phonics, Letters, Spelling, Writing, Vocabulary, Early Learning, Special Needs Build your child's reading confidence with Reading Raven and watch their learning take flight. Happy Reading Adventures! ____________________ MORE INFO, FEEDBACK & SUPPORT Learn more about the product and our team: http://www.readingraven.com/ Like us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/readingraven Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/readingraven If you have feedback or suggestions, please email us at feedback@earlyascent.com. We’d love to hear from you! ____________________ PRIVACY We have kids too and take the privacy of you and your children seriously. This product does not collect any personally identifiable information by default.

Screenshots

READING MAGIC4 screens
Reading Raven1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: READING MAGIC at Free against Reading Raven's $2.99. READING MAGIC also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.3) and update cadence (every 6 months vs every 16 months). Reading Raven's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (87% vs 62%). On ratings volume, ads 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

READING MAGIC is free to download; Reading Raven costs $2.99 up front. READING MAGIC sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Reading Raven asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

READING MAGIC holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 41 and 64 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of READING MAGIC's written reviews are positive against 87% of Reading Raven's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

READING MAGIC ships an update every 6 months, Reading Raven every 16 months. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
READING MAGIC versus Reading Raven: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterREADING MAGICReading Raven
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.6 (41 ratings) — better4.3 (64 ratings)
Positive reviews62.2% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4164 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank—#199 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS13.78.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size208 MB92 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPRESCHOOL UNIVERSITYEarly Ascent, LLC

Customer experience

READING MAGIC

All ratings41 ratings
Positive90.2%
Neutral4.9%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive62.2%
Neutral8.1%
Negative29.7%

Reading Raven

All ratings64 ratings
Positive82.8%
Neutral1.6%
Negative15.6%
Written reviews76 reviews
Positive86.8%
Neutral5.3%
Negative7.9%

Bugs and requests

READING MAGIC

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Reading Raven

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Freezes iPhone during letter tracing
  • Background noise makes letter names hard to hear
  • No option to add more than 1 player profile (despite guide saying so)
  • In-app purchases removed (positive feedback, but implies previous issue)

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add multi-user profiles
  • Option to change manuscript style (D'Nealian)
  • More levels for paid app
  • Add more volumes/lessons
  • Dark mode option
Show 2 more
  • Ability to add more than 1 player profile
  • Add higher levels to introduce other combinations like ch and sh as well as long vowels

In-app purchases

1 purchases

READING MAGIC

One-time1
  • Deluxe Upgrade$3.99
None

Reading Raven

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is READING MAGIC free?
READING MAGIC is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Reading Raven free?
Reading Raven costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, READING MAGIC or Reading Raven?
READING MAGIC is rated higher. READING MAGIC averages 4.6 out of 5 from 41 ratings, while Reading Raven averages 4.3 from 64 ratings.
Do READING MAGIC or Reading Raven have ads?
Neither READING MAGIC nor Reading Raven shows ads.
Which is updated more often, READING MAGIC or Reading Raven?
READING MAGIC ships an update every 6 months, and Reading Raven every 16 months. Most recently, READING MAGIC was updated on September 23, 2026 and Reading Raven on September 23, 2026.

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