Primary Writer vs CaliKids
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Primary Writer
This app allows children and adults to create and customize stories with various backgrounds and colors. Once complete, users can share their creations as PDFs or print them directly from their iPad.
- Story writing interface
- Customizable paper backgrounds
- Color customization options
- PDF export
- AirPrint direct printing
- Kid-friendly design
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Primary Writer is an app for kids (or the kid at heart) who like to write. Write your story, choose your paper's background and further customize the look with color and other choices. When you're done, you can share the pdf version of your creation to your friends or relatives. If you have access to an AirPrint printing device, you can print it out directly from your iPad.
CaliKids
This app offers a comprehensive learning experience for children aged 1 to 6th grade, covering reading, writing, and math. It features adaptive learning paths with hundreds of games and exercises tailored to specific age groups and grade levels. Parents can manage multiple child profiles, track progress, and customize learning content.
- Adaptive learning paths for ages 1-6th grade
- Reading, writing, and math exercises
- Preschool and elementary school levels
- Progress tracking and child profiles
- Parental admin mode
- Multilingual support
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CaliKids is one app for learning to read, write and count, from age 1 to 6th grade. When you start, you choose Preschool or Elementary school and the level, and each child sees only their own level: a path of exercises in order, each one getting ready for the next, with hundreds of different games. 11 LEVELS • Preschool: Age 1 (to play together, from 18 months), Age 2, Preschool (age 3), Pre-K (age 4) and Kindergarten. • Elementary school: 1st to 6th grade, each grade with its own exercises. PRESCHOOL · READING, WRITING AND NUMBERS For the youngest: looking, tapping, matching, colors and shapes. Then vowels and letters with their sounds, rhymes, syllables and first words; first strokes and mazes to loosen up the hand, every letter with its stroke order animated; and counting, comparing, writing numbers and first additions and subtractions with pictures. ELEMENTARY · ENGLISH, WRITING AND MATHS • English: reading comprehension with texts for each grade (in the upper grades, at several difficulty levels), vocabulary and grammar. • Writing: copying, filling in, and word and sentence dictation, by hand; the app reads what your child has written. • Maths: in arithmetic, answers are typed on the app's own keypad instead of picked from a list. Column arithmetic with a scratch sheet alongside, times tables, word problems with guided help in 4 steps (what we know, what we're asked, which operation, work it out), fractions, decimals, percentages and geometry. • The World Around Us: grades 1 to 3, with more grades on the way. Animals and plants, the body, materials, water, weather, maps, towns and cities, jobs and transport, with short texts to think about. MADE FOR KIDS • A voice reads the instructions aloud, with a button to hear them again. • Each exercise says in one line what it's for. • Hints and an eraser that removes just one part: mistakes are no big deal. • Every exercise picks up where it was left, even after closing the app. • Stickers to collect. • Print or cursive school handwriting, and 11 notebook rulings. • Works with Apple Pencil. • Works with VoiceOver and the system text size. FOR THE FAMILY • Admin mode for parents, protected by your account (Apple, Google or email) and a PIN. • Several children on the same device, each with their own profile, level and progress. • Stats for each child: what they do well, what they find hard and their history. • You decide what each child sees, their level path and how many times they can use the help in word problems. • "Your feedback": send suggestions or propose new exercises, and read the reply in the app. • No ads. Your children's data stays on the device and, if you sign in with Google or Apple, in your own Google Drive or iCloud so you can restore it on another device; never on our servers. You can delete it from either place or both. • In 6 languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Portuguese. It opens in the device's language. WHAT'S FREE AND WHAT'S PAID Every exercise of every level — from age 1 to year 6 of primary school — can be tried for free: 8 games of each exercise on each device. To keep going, CaliKids Premium offers packs of 1, 2 or 3 levels, which you choose, and the Full pack with every level and every word topic; the more levels, the less each one costs. They are monthly or yearly subscriptions that renew automatically unless you cancel them, and you manage them from your account settings. Each subscription can be used on two devices at the same time. Word topics can also be bought on their own from their game. Every purchase goes behind a parental gate first, and anyone who already had the app keeps what they had. Terms of use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy: https://calikids.olmotame.com/privacidad
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CaliKids at 5.0 against Primary Writer's 4.0. CaliKids also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Primary Writer's advantage is ratings volume (5 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Primary Writer sells 8 one-off in-app purchases and CaliKids sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
CaliKids holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Primary Writer has 5 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Primary Writer ships an update every 2 months, CaliKids every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Primary Writer | CaliKids |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (5 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 5 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 130 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Winztech Services LLC | Oliver Tacoronte Mendoza |
Customer experience
Primary Writer
CaliKids
In-app purchases
Primary Writer
- Animals 1$0.99
- Valentine Fun$0.99
- Halloween Treat$0.99
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- Spring Faves$0.99
- We Love Mom$0.99
- We Love Dad$0.99
- Summertime$0.99
- Christmas$0.99
CaliKids
- CaliKids Premium weekly$3.997 Days
- Jobs$2.99
- Feelings$2.99
- The city$2.99
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- The sea$2.99
- The farm$2.99
- The jungle$2.99
- Fairy tales$2.99
- Insects$2.99
- Shapes$2.99
Questions
Is Primary Writer free?
Is CaliKids free?
Which has better reviews, Primary Writer or CaliKids?
Do Primary Writer or CaliKids have ads?
Which is updated more often, Primary Writer or CaliKids?
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