Comparison

Shape Up! vs Visual LightPad

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Shape tracing
  • Color filling
  • Interactive animations
  • Sound effects
  • Shape identification
  • Color recognition
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Visual LightPad

Features
Read full description

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

Shape Up!4 screens
Visual LightPad1 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shape Up! ships an update every 34 months, Visual LightPad weekly. Both last shipped on September 17, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Shape Up! versus Visual LightPad: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShape Up!Visual LightPad
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews88.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 34 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS6.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBusy Things LimitedAW Games

In-app purchases

None

Shape Up!

No in-app purchases

None

Visual LightPad

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Shape Up! free?
Shape Up! costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Visual LightPad free?
Visual LightPad is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Shape Up! or Visual LightPad have ads?
Neither Shape Up! nor Visual LightPad shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shape Up! or Visual LightPad?
Shape Up! ships an update every 34 months, and Visual LightPad weekly. Most recently, Shape Up! was updated on September 17, 2026 and Visual LightPad on September 17, 2026.

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