Comparison

READING MAGIC 2 vs SpeakColors

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

Head to head
About

READING MAGIC 2

This app helps children master consonant blends, a key skill for reading success. It offers interactive modes for blending sounds, segmenting words, and independent reading practice with over 300 words and engaging themes.

Highlights
  • Blending Mode for sound practice
  • Segmenting Mode for word breakdown
  • Reading Mode for independent word reading
  • Focus on CCVC and CVCC words
  • Advanced consonant blend practice
  • Over 300 words with male/female voices
  • Themed lessons for engagement
Features
Read full description

Unlock the Magic of Reading with READING MAGIC 2! Transform your child into a confident reader with READING MAGIC 2! This app makes learning to read an exciting adventure with interactive activities focused on CCVC (Consonant-Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) and CVCC short-vowel blend 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

SpeakColors

This iPad app helps young children with speech and language delays practice using two-word phrases with colors and objects. It features colorful photos and allows voice recording to build vocabulary and language skills.

Highlights
  • Two-word phrase practice
  • Color and object vocabulary
  • Voice recording
  • Interactive photos
  • Progressive language skills
Features
Read full description

SpeakColors is an iPad app designed to encourage young children to imitate and use two word phrases with color words and common objects. The app is geared toward toddlers with speech and language delays, autism, Down syndrome and other developmental disorders. This motivating app increases vocabulary skills, phrase length, and receptive and expressive language. This lite version of SpeakColors contains 7 common colors and 100 colorful photographs of objects. Children can record their own voice to name colors, food, animals, toys, and common objects. "SpeakColors can do an excellent job of teaching words and sentence structure as a precursor to or in conjunction with other reinforcing hands-on multi-modality activities." ~ SpeechPathologyApps.com *** Free App of the Week in SpeechPathologyApps.com Newsletter (05/31/2012) *** Instructions: - From the main menu, press "Start". - Pick a color from the top of the screen. - Pick a sentence template from the upper-left of the screen. - Swipe left or swipe right (or use arrow buttons) to change objects. - Press a color or object in the middle of the screen to hear the name of the color or object. *** Includes In App Purchase to unlock features of the Full Version. *** *** Disclosure *** At RWH Technology we are committed to the privacy and safety of our customers and their children. This app: - Does not collect/share any user's personally identifiable information. - Does not contain Social Network Integration or Links to Social Media. - Does not contain ads. - Does not contain push notifications. - Does contain In-App-Purchase on a separate, parent oriented screen.

Screenshots

READING MAGIC 24 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: READING MAGIC 2 at 4.5 against SpeakColors's 2.5. READING MAGIC 2 also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 67%) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

Both are free to download. READING MAGIC 2 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and SpeakColors sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

READING MAGIC 2 holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 8 and 4 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of READING MAGIC 2's written reviews are positive against 67% of SpeakColors's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

READING MAGIC 2 ships an update every 19 months, SpeakColors every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
READING MAGIC 2 versus SpeakColors: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterREADING MAGIC 2SpeakColors
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (8 ratings) — better2.5 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews81.3% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings8 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 19 monthsEvery 16 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS13.7 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size258 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPRESCHOOL UNIVERSITYRWH Technology, LLC

Customer experience

READING MAGIC 2

All ratings21 ratings
Positive90.5%
Neutral9.5%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews32 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.3%
Negative12.5%

SpeakColors

All ratings4 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%
Written reviews12 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative16.7%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

READING MAGIC 2

One-time1
  • Deluxe Upgrade$3.99
1 purchases

SpeakColors

One-time1
  • Full Version$3.99

Questions

Is READING MAGIC 2 free?
READING MAGIC 2 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SpeakColors free?
SpeakColors is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, READING MAGIC 2 or SpeakColors?
READING MAGIC 2 is rated higher. READING MAGIC 2 averages 4.5 out of 5 from 8 ratings, while SpeakColors averages 2.5 from 4 ratings.
Do READING MAGIC 2 or SpeakColors have ads?
Neither READING MAGIC 2 nor SpeakColors shows ads.
Which is updated more often, READING MAGIC 2 or SpeakColors?
READING MAGIC 2 ships an update every 19 months, and SpeakColors every 16 months. Most recently, READING MAGIC 2 was updated on November 6, 2026 and SpeakColors on November 1, 2026.

Other comparisons