Comparison

Bugs and Buttons 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

Bugs and Buttons

Engage young children with a collection of 18 creative learning games designed for ages 3-5. Activities focus on developing essential skills like counting, critical thinking, and memory through interactive play with colorful graphics and sounds.

Highlights
  • 18 learning games and activities
  • Develops counting, critical thinking, sorting, patterns, memory, and motor skills
  • Designed for ages 3-5
  • Visual instructions and self-leveling activities
  • Over 40 achievements
  • Original graphics and engaging music
Read full description

CREATIVE LEARNING Play tic-tac-toe with a dragon fly. Carefully avoid bees while picking apples. Complete colorful patterns of buttons and beautiful yarn. Even sort bugs from Uncle Bob's button factory conveyer belt (better be fast). Did we mention 18 games and activities? INCLUDES: Counting, Critical Thinking, Sorting, Patterns, Memory, Hand-Eye Coordination, and more FEATURES: • Designed for ages (3-5), playable by everyone! • Motor Skills: tap, pinch, drag, and tilt • Visual instructions for each activity • Most activities are self leveling. • Over 40 achievements • Original, detailed, and visually intriguing graphics • Each of the 18 activities has its own beautiful, and engaging music. • Humorous interactions and sound effects. • NO In-Apps / NO third party advertising • Parental Gate Thank you for supporting an independent software studio! We want and appreciate your feedback! Email: support@littlebitstudio.com Instagram: @littlebitstudio Facebook: @littlebitstudio Twitter: @lilbitstudio

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

Bugs and Buttons4 screens
Reading Raven1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Reading Raven at 87% against Bugs and Buttons's 69%. Reading Raven also leads on chart position (#199 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 16.0). Bugs and Buttons's advantage is update cadence (every 6 months vs every 16 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.3). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases 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

Bugs and Buttons costs $0.99 and Reading Raven $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Bugs and Buttons holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 56 and 64 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 69% of Bugs and Buttons'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

Bugs and Buttons ships an update every 6 months, Reading Raven every 16 months. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Bugs and Buttons versus Reading Raven: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBugs and ButtonsReading Raven
Price$0.99 — better$2.99
Rating4.5 (56 ratings) — better4.3 (64 ratings)
Positive reviews69.2% of reviews86.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5664 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 16 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank—#199 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size156 MB92 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperLittle Bit Studio, LLCEarly Ascent, LLC

Customer experience

Bugs and Buttons

All ratings56 ratings
Positive83.9%
Neutral7.1%
Negative8.9%
Written reviews263 reviews
Positive69.2%
Neutral6.1%
Negative24.7%

Reading Raven

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

User reviews

Bugs and Buttons

From 56 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Engaging and educational
  • 🎨 Beautiful graphics and music
  • 🧠 Helps develop cognitive skills
  • 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Great for all ages
  • 🕹️ Variety of fun mini-games

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes or compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • 🕷️ Some games feature realistic bugs that may concern parents
  • 🔍 Lack of instructions for some games

Reading Raven

From 64 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Highly effective for learning to read
  • 🤩 Fun and engaging for children
  • 🚀 Well-thought-out progression
  • 💡 Innovative voice recording feature
  • 👍 Easy to navigate and understand

Room to improve

  • 💸 Charges money without authorization
  • 👎 No way to cancel subscriptions
  • 😞 Slow email support
  • 💰 Have to pay again for each device
  • 😠 Poor customer service

Bugs and requests

Bugs and Buttons

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • App not working on iOS 11 and later
  • Games freezing or not loading properly

Requested features

3 requests
  • User profiles to track individual progress
  • Ability to select/disable certain games
  • More frequent updates to maintain compatibility

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

None

Bugs and Buttons

No in-app purchases

None

Reading Raven

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Bugs and Buttons free?
Bugs and Buttons costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Reading Raven free?
Reading Raven costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Bugs and Buttons or Reading Raven?
Bugs and Buttons is rated higher. Bugs and Buttons averages 4.5 out of 5 from 56 ratings, while Reading Raven averages 4.3 from 64 ratings.
Do Bugs and Buttons or Reading Raven have ads?
Neither Bugs and Buttons nor Reading Raven shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Bugs and Buttons or Reading Raven?
Bugs and Buttons ships an update every 6 months, and Reading Raven every 16 months. Most recently, Bugs and Buttons was updated on September 27, 2026 and Reading Raven on September 23, 2026.

Other comparisons