Comparison

Custom Boards Elite vs CardTalking

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

Head to head
About

Custom Boards Elite

Create custom visual support materials using a vast library of symbols or your own photos. Design boards, schedules, and worksheets for communication and learning. Print, save, or email your creations directly from the app.

Highlights
  • Activity creation center
  • 21,000+ built-in symbols
  • Add custom photos
  • Template library (120+)
  • Print, save, and email
  • Organize with folders
Features
Read full description

The Ultimate Visual Support & Activity Creator Empower communication and learning with Custom Boards Elite! Designed specifically for speech therapists, special education teachers, and parents, Custom Boards Elite is an evidence-based app that revolutionizes how you create visual supports. Whether you need a daily schedule, a communication grid, or an engaging articulation game, Custom Boards gives you the tools to build professional, customized materials in minutes. UNMATCHED SYMBOL LIBRARY Say goodbye to stick figures and limited clip art. Custom Boards includes over 29,000 high-quality, diverse symbols from the renowned Smarty Symbols library. Need something specific? You can easily upload and integrate your own photos directly from your device! 120+ READY-TO-USE TEMPLATES Stop starting from scratch. Choose from over 120 expertly designed templates categorized into six core areas: Activities & Games: Bingo, Dominoes, Board Games, and more. Devices & Switches: Perfect for AAC device overlays. Signs & Labels: Create classroom rules, labels, and directional signs. Grids & Boards: Standard communication grids from 1x1 up to complex layouts. Schedules & Calendars: First-Then boards, weekly schedules, and daily routines. Worksheets: Ready-made educational printables. DEEP CUSTOMIZATION Make every board your own. Our intuitive editor allows you to: Customize background and text colors for every single cell. Tweak border styles (solid, dashed, circular) to highlight specific targets. Easily edit text labels to match your student's specific vocabulary. BUILT FOR SPEECH THERAPISTS Save hours of prep time with our advanced search filters. Target specific speech goals by filtering the entire 21,000+ symbol library by Initial, Medial, or Final letter positions! EXPORT & ORGANIZE When your masterpiece is complete, you are ready to PRINT, SAVE, or E-MAIL the final template. Print directly from your iPad to any AirPrint-ready printer. Creating boards for a whole caseload? Keep your finalized templates neatly organized into custom folders inside the app's Archive. Join the revolution in special education and start creating beautiful, effective visual supports today!

About

CardTalking

This app provides visual support tools for children with autism, offering customizable boards for schedules, instructions, and choices. Parents and educators can create tailored courseware with built-in and custom cards to aid in training and communication.

Highlights
  • Visual Schedule boards
  • First-Then Boards
  • PECS Board for language training
  • Reinforcer Choice Boards
  • Customizable courseware layouts
  • User-created cards and classifications
  • Card sharing functionality
Features
Read full description

CardTalking(former name is Blossoming) is a visual support tool for autism children, include First-Then Board, Visual Schedule, Visual Instruction, Reinforcer Choice Board and PECS Board. Parents or teachers can design special courseware to support or train child based on theire own requirement. There are lots of cards and courseware examples built in the App. And users can expand them unlimitedly. User can share cards after simple register/login. More functions and user guide as below: 1. This App is only support iPad/iPhone. Author have no play to develop version for other platforms. 2. First page is for child. Only courseware in use will be listed. 3. Parents or teacher can enter settings by shake iPhone/iPad, or triple clicking the screen with 3 fingers. Before the settings, one simple question is needed to prevent child to use it by mistake. 4. Materials are orignal version for all cards. Courseware is for sepcial trainning purpose. And the cards in courseware are from materials. 5. There are 5 kinds of coureseware: PECS Board, First-Then Board, Visual Schedule, Visual Instruction and Reinforcer Choice Board. 1) PECS Board is for language training. Child's operation is draging (or pressing, depends on the settings) the card needed to the sentence strip above, and then clicking the check button in top-right. Please read PECS introduction in the end of this page before you use it to train child. 2) First-Then Board to tell child 'xxx firstly, then xxx'. eg: wash hands firstly, then have lunch. 3) Visual Schedule defines the schedules of one day, or steps of some action. eg: steps of washing hands. a) Open the tap; b) Make hands wet... 4) Visual Instruction shows one card and one command to child. 5) Reinforcer Choice Board let child to choose one reinforcer as award in DTT. 6. The times can be used for card in PECS is settable. 'No Limit' means the card will back to box after check button clicked. But cards in 'Daily' can be used only one time everyday. 'Daily' is used to control the quantity of snacks or games child wants. 7. Parents or teachers can set operation mode for PECS courseware . There are two options, 'Drag' and 'Press'. if 'Drag', child need to drag the card to sentence strip. if 'Press', child only need to press the card, and it will fly to sentence strip automatically. 8. The layout of some coursewares is customizable. It can be 1x1, 2x2, 3x3 or 3x5. You can put some blank card into courseware if needed. 9. Teachers can prepare different coursewares for different children. Click the Edit button in courseware list page,and then coursewares will be draggable. The coursewares in not used(hidden) section won't appear in first page. 10. The App has some built-in cards. Parents and teachers can add his own classifications and cards, or edit existing ones. 11. While editing card, click the existing picture can take photo to replace it. 12. Sharing card is appreciated. 13. The built-in cards are from Internet. If it infringe your copyright, please tell me. 14. The coureseware and cards added by you are stored in your device only. Please don't uninstall this App, or they will lost. 15. Please don't use this App for other purpose. More about PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_Exchange_Communication_System

Screenshots

CardTalking4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Custom Boards Elite at 56% against CardTalking's 0%. CardTalking's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume 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. Custom Boards Elite sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. CardTalking asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

CardTalking holds the better App Store score, 2.0 against 1.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 56% of Custom Boards Elite's written reviews are positive against 0% of CardTalking's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Custom Boards Elite ships an update every 7 months, CardTalking every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on July 26, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Custom Boards Elite versus CardTalking: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCustom Boards EliteCardTalking
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.6 (5 ratings)2.0 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews55.6% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings55
Update frequencyEvery 7 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size880 MB81 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSmarty Ears章晟 潘

Customer experience

Custom Boards Elite

All ratings5 ratings
Positive20.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative80.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive55.6%
Neutral11.1%
Negative33.3%

CardTalking

All ratings5 ratings
Positive20.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative60.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Custom Boards Elite

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Six months Access7 Days trial$49.996 Months
  • Yearly Access7 Days trial$59.991 Year
One-time7
  • The ant$0.99
  • Placemat$0.99
  • Tech talk$0.99
Show 4 more
  • Weekly$0.99
  • Orderly$0.99
  • Story Board$0.99
  • Purchase 10,000 Smarty Symbols$19.99
None

CardTalking

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Custom Boards Elite free?
Custom Boards Elite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is CardTalking free?
CardTalking is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Custom Boards Elite or CardTalking?
CardTalking is rated higher. Custom Boards Elite averages 1.6 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while CardTalking averages 2.0 from 5 ratings.
Do Custom Boards Elite or CardTalking have ads?
Neither Custom Boards Elite nor CardTalking shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Custom Boards Elite or CardTalking?
Custom Boards Elite ships an update every 7 months, and CardTalking every 2 weeks. Most recently, Custom Boards Elite was updated on July 26, 2026 and CardTalking on September 10, 2026.

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