Comparison

TenseBuilder vs Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

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

Head to head
About

TenseBuilder

This app uses animated videos to teach students how to identify and use correct past, present, and future verb tenses. It includes interactive exercises and a recording feature to help improve language skills.

Highlights
  • Animated video lessons
  • Demonstrates past, present, future tense
  • Focus on irregular past tense verbs
  • Interactive sentence completion
  • Voice recording for practice
  • Drag and drop sentence building
Features
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Own as an individual app or as part of our MES Speech Therapy Bundle. Winner - 2012 2nd Best Educational App by Let's Talk SLP Winner - 2012 Best Teaching App by TeachHub.com Winner - 2012 Best Education App by TeachersWithApps.com TenseBuilder is designed to help students learn how to identify and use correct tense forms by playing movie quality animated videos to demonstrate past, present and future tense. 48 video lessons (will expand to 58) are in place to help give students a deeper understanding about the purpose of tense. Special attention is paid to the past tense of irregular verbs. Students will learn how to sequence events and how to differentiate between events that will happen, events that are happening now and events that have already happened. Students will also identify correct written verb forms and drag them to complete sentences. Students have the opportunity to record their sentences in their own voice to improve their receptive and expressive language skills and promote carryover of these target verb forms to their conversational speech. Tense Builder offers a unique environment for improving a student's ability to understand tenses and use verb forms properly. FEATURES -48 target verbs with matching animated movies -Movies employ humor to engage student -Video modeling for each verb and tense form used -Each verb has separate animated lesson to show past, present and future tense -Option to focus on a particular tense -Ability to address past tense developmentally, by first teaching regular past -ed forms and then moving to irregular past. -Includes receptive task, where student taps the correct image to match a sentence, and an expressive task where student drags the correct verb form to complete the sentence -Intuitive drag and drop to create sentences -Words are spoken as they are being dragged for emerging readers -Record feature allows students to record sentences in their own voice -Save and email recorded sentences LANGUAGES - English REQUIREMENTS - Compatible with iPad - Requires iPad 5.0 software update TenseBuilder is part of "The Builder Series" of award winning education apps. Mobile Education Store has won over 40 app awards and has been named educational developer of the year in 2011 and 2012. Mobile Education Tools is a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families. Recommended Ages: 3-6, 6-10 Categories: Special Needs, Education

About

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

This app enhances English spelling and reading skills through phonics lessons, word patterns, and a unique reverse phonics approach. It scientifically helps students improve their spelling, covering over 750 high-frequency words and 52 instructional lists.

Highlights
  • Phonics lessons and word patterns
  • Reverse phonics approach
  • 750+ high-frequency words
  • 52 instructional lessons
  • Contextual spelling rule hints
  • Progress tracking for 40 users
  • Exportable progress reports
Features
Currently charting
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Simplex Spelling is one of the best ways to improve English spelling and reading skills. Using a powerful combination of phonics lessons, spelling/word patterns, syllabication, our unique “reverse phonics” (phonics encoding) approach and contextually relevant spelling rules. Scientifically validated as a highly effective approach to improving spelling skills, a published study revealed that students demonstrated an average spelling improvement of 1.9 grades among children in a classroom setting who regularly used Simplex Spelling over a 18 week period. The largest student improvement observed over the same time period was 4.4 grade levels as assessed by administering the Schonell Spelling Test. 

Teaching over a year of spelling curriculum with more than 750 high frequency words divided into 52 lists that are organized by spelling patterns and difficulty levels. Each of the 52 lists comes with a lesson that teaches one of the basic building blocks of spelling in the English language. Students learn a new concept for each lesson building on the skills learned from previous lessons and those covered in Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 & 2. Simplex Spelling Phonics Advanced Phonograms guides the student and acts as a personal spelling coach with every word, while teaching students "how to spell" English words. Every word is broken down into its syllables both visually and auditorily to help students build phonological awareness skills. Our “reverse phonics” hint feature breaks each word down further into individual phonemes to improve phonemic awareness, a critical skill in achieving literacy. Simplex Spelling Advanced Phonograms focuses on some of the more difficult phonograms in the English language in addition to lessons covering contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. Recommended age 9+
 
Note: You can not create your own spelling lists.

 Features: 
 - Over 750 high frequency spelling words to help build literacy. - Words are spoken and used in a sentence to establish context and improve vocabulary. 
 - Introductory spelling list seamlessly leads a student through all of the application’s features.
 - 52 instructional lessons teach phonics, phonograms, spelling rules, contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. 
- A full “reverse phonics” approach that builds phonemic awareness. - Contextually relevant spelling rule hints that help explain “how to spell” English words.
 - Letter by letter feedback system provides feedback while the student is in the process of spelling each word. 
 - Support for 40 user accounts. 
 - Remembers each user’s progress in every list.
 - User stats screen track progress with every word. - Export and email progress reports. - Ability to set the number of times a word must be spelled correctly to become mastered. 
 - Supports upper and lower case letters.
 - Supports alphabetic and QWERTY keyboard layouts. 
- Supports US, UK and Canadian English spelling of words.

 Please check the word lists provided on www.pyxwise.com to ensure that the word lists provided in Simplex Spelling meet your educational needs. - Advanced Phonograms has previously been featured by Apple as New & Noteworthy in 20 countries. - "Best Educational App of 2014" - Balefire Labs. -iTeach: Apps For The Classroom - "I was immediately in awe of the design and educational thought that has gone into this product." -Teachers With Apps - Certified Developer - Academics' Choice Award. Privacy Disclosure: 
- Does not contain 3rd party ads 
 - Does not share any data 
 - Does not contain In-App purchases 
 - Contains child protected links in app to developer's website for additional information, support and teaching tips. - Contains child protected link to developer email support. 

COPPA Compliant 
https://pyxwise.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Simplex Spelling Phonics 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 at $4.99 against TenseBuilder's $9.99. Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 also leads on rating (4.2 vs 4.0) and chart position (#187 vs unranked). TenseBuilder's advantage is update cadence (every 6 months vs every 13 months) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 14.0). On review sentiment, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

TenseBuilder costs $9.99 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 5 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of TenseBuilder's written reviews are positive against 92% of Simplex Spelling Phonics 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

TenseBuilder ships an update every 6 months, Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on June 5, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
TenseBuilder versus Simplex Spelling Phonics 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTenseBuilderSimplex Spelling Phonics 3
Price$9.99$4.99 — better
Rating4.0 (2 ratings)4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews85.0% of reviews92.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings25 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 13 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#187 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size466 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobile Education Store LLCPyxwise Software Inc.

Customer experience

TenseBuilder

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews20 reviews
Positive85.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative5.0%

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive92.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

TenseBuilder

No in-app purchases

None

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is TenseBuilder free?
TenseBuilder costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 free?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, TenseBuilder or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 is rated higher. TenseBuilder averages 4.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do TenseBuilder or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 have ads?
Neither TenseBuilder nor Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, TenseBuilder or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
TenseBuilder ships an update every 6 months, and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. Most recently, TenseBuilder was updated on June 5, 2026 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 on September 13, 2026.

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