Shape Up! vs Visual LightPad
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shape Up!
This educational game helps very young children learn about basic shapes and colors through interactive tracing and filling activities. Completed creations come to life with animations and sounds, encouraging repeated engagement and curiosity about shapes.
- Shape tracing
- Color filling
- Interactive animations
- Sound effects
- Shape identification
- Color recognition
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Shape Up! is a shape game designed for very young children, but parents and older children will love it too! Simply trace around the simple shapes or use the paint bucket to fill them in. Once you have finished your creation will come to life! The rewarding animations and sound effects will ensure that children want to play again and again. Shape Up! introduces simple shapes of different colours and sizes to young children. The game encourages children to describe and name shapes as well as show curiosity about them.
Visual LightPad
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Visual LightPad creates a bright illuminated surface for developing visual perceptual and visual motor skills in people with visual impairment. It's a cheaper alternative to expensive, dedicated hardware visual impairment light boxes. Think of it as a digital light box! Adjust Visual LightPad's brightness and color, then place semi transparent toys, numbers or letters on the iPad's screen. Where colors become difficult, open the color picker and change the background color to something that accentuates the toys. Where hardware light boxes can be associated with work, iPads tend to be associated with play. Visual LightPad helps develop awareness to color and light, but using objects also helps in the development of visual perceptual skills, hand eye coordination, and both visual scanning and tracking. Visual LightPad can also be used for; - Reading content printed onto acetate - Providing a reading backlight when paper documents are placed on top of it - Photo negative illumination - Sensory / mood lighting Visual LightPad is purposefully easy to use and relatively low on features. It supports presets for easy saving and recall of preferred settings. It is designed to run on iPad, but also runs on iPhone - meaning you can keep a small light box in your pocket at all times.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Visual LightPad at Free against Shape Up!'s $0.99. Visual LightPad also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 34 months). Shape Up!'s advantage is iOS requirement (6.0 vs 17.0). On 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
Visual LightPad is free to download; Shape Up! costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Shape Up! ships an update every 34 months, Visual LightPad weekly. Both last shipped on September 17, 2026.
| Parameter | Shape Up! | Visual LightPad |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 88.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 34 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 6.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 25 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Busy Things Limited | AW Games |
In-app purchases
Shape Up!
No in-app purchases
Visual LightPad
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Shape Up! free?
Is Visual LightPad free?
Do Shape Up! or Visual LightPad have ads?
Which is updated more often, Shape Up! or Visual LightPad?
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