Comparison

Hands vs Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

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

Head to head
About

Hands

This app simulates a virtual geoboard for exploring geometry and math concepts. It offers interactive activities and an instructor's guide with lesson ideas for elementary and middle school students. Students can draw shapes and receive instant feedback on geometric properties.

Highlights
  • Virtual geoboard simulation
  • Interactive math activities
  • Instructor's guide with lesson ideas
  • Geometric feedback on note card
  • Shape properties exploration
  • Measurement and coordinate geometry tools
Features
Read full description

Hands-On Math: Geoboard creates a virtual geoboard on your iPad and includes activities for a variety of math topics. The app purchase includes an instructor's guide with hands-on activities for elementary and middle school age students. This free iBook provides teachers with lots of activities and lesson ideas that are designed to be used with the app. A simple tap downloads the extensive teacher's guide and installs it in iBooks. The app simulates the use of a popular math manipulative used to teach basic geometry and other math concepts. It is perfect for elementary and middle school classrooms. Our Geoboard is one of the best ways to help students explore and discover geometry. Students draw line segments, rectangles or circles on a 5x5 pegboard. As they draw geometric feedback is reported on a note card helping students better understand length, perimeter, and area. Using Hands-On Math Geooard students can develop the following important mathematical concepts: Properties of Shapes Composing and Decomposing Plane Figures Measurement Naming Shapes and Parts of a Circle Symmetry Drawing and Analyzing Two-Dimensional Shapes Congruence and Similarity Naming and Recognizing Basic Shapes Length, Area, Perimeter, Circumference, Radius and Diameter Coordinate Geometry

About

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

This app enhances English spelling and reading skills through phonics lessons, word patterns, and a unique reverse phonics approach. It scientifically helps students improve their spelling, covering over 750 high-frequency words and 52 instructional lists.

Highlights
  • Phonics lessons and word patterns
  • Reverse phonics approach
  • 750+ high-frequency words
  • 52 instructional lessons
  • Contextual spelling rule hints
  • Progress tracking for 40 users
  • Exportable progress reports
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Simplex Spelling is one of the best ways to improve English spelling and reading skills. Using a powerful combination of phonics lessons, spelling/word patterns, syllabication, our unique “reverse phonics” (phonics encoding) approach and contextually relevant spelling rules. Scientifically validated as a highly effective approach to improving spelling skills, a published study revealed that students demonstrated an average spelling improvement of 1.9 grades among children in a classroom setting who regularly used Simplex Spelling over a 18 week period. The largest student improvement observed over the same time period was 4.4 grade levels as assessed by administering the Schonell Spelling Test. 

Teaching over a year of spelling curriculum with more than 750 high frequency words divided into 52 lists that are organized by spelling patterns and difficulty levels. Each of the 52 lists comes with a lesson that teaches one of the basic building blocks of spelling in the English language. Students learn a new concept for each lesson building on the skills learned from previous lessons and those covered in Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 & 2. Simplex Spelling Phonics Advanced Phonograms guides the student and acts as a personal spelling coach with every word, while teaching students "how to spell" English words. Every word is broken down into its syllables both visually and auditorily to help students build phonological awareness skills. Our “reverse phonics” hint feature breaks each word down further into individual phonemes to improve phonemic awareness, a critical skill in achieving literacy. Simplex Spelling Advanced Phonograms focuses on some of the more difficult phonograms in the English language in addition to lessons covering contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. Recommended age 9+
 
Note: You can not create your own spelling lists.

 Features: 
 - Over 750 high frequency spelling words to help build literacy. - Words are spoken and used in a sentence to establish context and improve vocabulary. 
 - Introductory spelling list seamlessly leads a student through all of the application’s features.
 - 52 instructional lessons teach phonics, phonograms, spelling rules, contractions and the capitalization of proper nouns. 
- A full “reverse phonics” approach that builds phonemic awareness. - Contextually relevant spelling rule hints that help explain “how to spell” English words.
 - Letter by letter feedback system provides feedback while the student is in the process of spelling each word. 
 - Support for 40 user accounts. 
 - Remembers each user’s progress in every list.
 - User stats screen track progress with every word. - Export and email progress reports. - Ability to set the number of times a word must be spelled correctly to become mastered. 
 - Supports upper and lower case letters.
 - Supports alphabetic and QWERTY keyboard layouts. 
- Supports US, UK and Canadian English spelling of words.

 Please check the word lists provided on www.pyxwise.com to ensure that the word lists provided in Simplex Spelling meet your educational needs. - Advanced Phonograms has previously been featured by Apple as New & Noteworthy in 20 countries. - "Best Educational App of 2014" - Balefire Labs. -iTeach: Apps For The Classroom - "I was immediately in awe of the design and educational thought that has gone into this product." -Teachers With Apps - Certified Developer - Academics' Choice Award. Privacy Disclosure: 
- Does not contain 3rd party ads 
 - Does not share any data 
 - Does not contain In-App purchases 
 - Contains child protected links in app to developer's website for additional information, support and teaching tips. - Contains child protected link to developer email support. 

COPPA Compliant 
https://pyxwise.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Simplex Spelling Phonics 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 at 92% against Hands's 33%. Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.0) and chart position (#187 vs unranked). Hands's advantage is price ($2.99 vs $4.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Hands costs $2.99 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 33% of Hands's written reviews are positive against 92% of Simplex Spelling Phonics 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hands ships an update every 16 months, Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on September 8, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Hands versus Simplex Spelling Phonics 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHandsSimplex Spelling Phonics 3
Price$2.99 — better$4.99
Rating3.0 (1 ratings)4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews92.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings15 — better
Update frequencyEvery 16 monthsEvery 13 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#187 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperVentura Educational SystemsPyxwise Software Inc.

Customer experience

Hands

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive92.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Hands

No in-app purchases

None

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hands free?
Hands costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 free?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hands or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 is rated higher. Hands averages 3.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 averages 4.2 from 5 ratings.
Do Hands or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 have ads?
Neither Hands nor Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hands or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Hands ships an update every 16 months, and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. Most recently, Hands was updated on September 8, 2026 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 on September 13, 2026.

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