Comparison

Minimal Pairs 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

Minimal Pairs

This app helps children aged 3-5 with speech intelligibility issues discriminate between words that differ by a single sound. It uses a phonological approach with a "cycle" method, focusing on specific speech patterns. Children can "Show Me" target words by tapping pictures and record their own speech for playback.

Highlights
  • Auditory discrimination of minimal pairs
  • Phonological approach (Hodson & Paden)
  • Cycle method for targeting patterns
  • Record and playback speech
  • Multiple scoring methods for clinicians
  • Focus on Final Consonants, Initial Consonants, Initial /S/ Clusters
Features
Read full description

Minimal Pairs is an auditory discrimination activity that helps children discriminate between words that differ in pronunciation by one sound. They learn to hear the difference between words like “stop - top” and “rake - wake”. They are prompted to “Show Me” the target word by tapping on the colorful pictures and listening for the sounds in the target word and a foil. This app uses a phonological approach to remediating speech that is based on the ideas of Hodson and Paden. The program focuses on target patterns rather than target phonemes. One pattern is targeted for a limited time, two to four weeks, then the next pattern is targeted. Hodson and Paden called this method of introducing patterns a “cycle”. A clear speech model is presented for the child to imitate and they can record and play back their own speech. The clinician can choose from three scoring methods. 1. Score each response as correct, distorted or incorrect. 2. Score responses as correct, distorted, substituted, or omitted. 3. Score productions based on whether they are spontaneously correct/incorrect or imitatively correct/incorrect. This app focuses on Final Consonants, Initial Consonants, and Initial /S/ Clusters. Appropriate for children ages 3-5 with impaired speech intelligibility. This app uses the content from the Minimal Pairs game from LocuTour’s Phonology CD.

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
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

Minimal Pairs4 screens
Simplex Spelling Phonics 34 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 at 92% against Minimal Pairs's 0%. Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 also leads on price ($4.99 vs $5.99). Minimal Pairs's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 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

Minimal Pairs costs $5.99 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Minimal Pairs ships an update every 8 months, Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Minimal Pairs versus Simplex Spelling Phonics 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMinimal PairsSimplex Spelling Phonics 3
Price$5.99$4.99 — better
Rating—4.2 (5 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews92.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings—5 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 months — betterEvery 13 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS9.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB230 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLearning Fundamentals, Inc.Pyxwise Software Inc.

Customer experience

Minimal Pairs

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

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

Minimal Pairs

No in-app purchases

None

Simplex Spelling Phonics 3

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Minimal Pairs free?
Minimal Pairs costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 free?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Minimal Pairs or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 have ads?
Neither Minimal Pairs nor Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Minimal Pairs or Simplex Spelling Phonics 3?
Minimal Pairs ships an update every 8 months, and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 every 13 months. Most recently, Minimal Pairs was updated on October 17, 2026 and Simplex Spelling Phonics 3 on October 16, 2026.

Other comparisons