Comparison

Starfall Learn to Read vs HMH Brain Arcade

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

Head to head
About

Starfall Learn to Read

This free app offers engaging books, games, and movies to help children learn to read. It focuses on vowel sounds and spelling through interactive activities, songs, and movies, fostering a love for language and reading.

Highlights
  • Interactive reading activities
  • Engaging games and movies
  • Focus on vowel sounds and spelling
  • Songs and positive reinforcement
  • Suitable for emerging readers
  • Supports English language learners
Features
Read full description

Starfall® Learn to Read is the second step of Starfall’s Learn to Read phonics sequence, which teaches the foundational skills for learning to read. Step 1: ABCs Step 2: Learn to Read Step 3: It’s Fun to Read Step 4: I’m Reading! In Starfall Learn to Read, children explore early phonics in a sequential, stress-free environment. Each step of the learning journey comes to life with help from the Vowel Pals—delightful characters that add depth and personality to each vowel sound. Children develop their phonics skills through the use of CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, sight words, and vowel teams. Mastering the skills taught in Starfall Learn to Read helps children become confident, independent readers. Travel-ready. No internet connection required. Find Starfall Learn to Read, along with 700+ additional activities and counting across reading, math, music, and more in the Starfall app. The Starfall website and applications are program services of Starfall Education Foundation, a 501(c)(3) publicly supported nonprofit organization. Starfall® and Starfall.com® are registered trademarks in the US, the European Union, and various other countries. Copyright © 2002–2026 by Starfall Education. All rights reserved. Starfall apps are inclusively designed to support all children, including English Language Learners (ELLs). Starfall also provides an Enhanced Accessible Index for children with visual, hearing, or mobility impairments. For more information, please contact Customer Service at (+1) 303-417-6414.

About

HMH Brain Arcade

Practice math skills through engaging games that reinforce arithmetic reasoning, number fluency, and problem-solving. Unlock new challenges and levels as you progress, building proficiency in fractions, decimals, and more.

Highlights
  • Engaging math games
  • Arithmetic reasoning practice
  • Number fluency building
  • Progress tracking and rewards
  • Fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios
  • Companion to MATH 180 curriculum
Features
Read full description

Come play in the Brain Arcade! A fun and engaging place to build upon and practice what you’ve learned in MATH 180, while playing appropriately challenging games. Brain Arcade games strengthen arithmetic reasoning, build fluency, support standards, and reward progress! Can you master them all? ENGAGING GAMES: • Sushi Monster World Tour: Feed monsters with sushi rolls by making sums and products. Use speed and accuracy to place sushi pieces near the monster to make the target number. Plan the equations to ensure the monster enjoys the meal. • You’re Toast: Butter pieces of toast by ordering many representations of numbers. Quickly compare numbers and build a chain of numbered toast – from smallest to largest – using butters and jams to make Toast happy. • Circles: Connect pairs of numbers that add or multiply to each target. Swap the circles around to connect the addends and multiplicands that make the target number. There are 5 number pairing to find in each round. Try to get them all! • Decked Out: Make your character dance by matching equivalent representation of numbers. Sort different representations of numbers – from equations to number lines – and match three-in-a-row to help your character get ready for the party. • Gnat Zapper: Zap bugs by estimating sums and differences. Bugs are only around briefly, so be quick about zapping the bug that satisfies the target number condition in this fast-paced game. • Fair Share: Cut the shape or whole into parts. Then use the parts to form the target fractions or decimals. Score points for matching the representation of the fraction or decimal. LEARN WHILE YOU PLAY: The Brain Arcade includes extended fact knowledge to support strategic reasoning and computational flexibility in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. It builds proficiency in ordering numbers, estimation, and identifying number representations. As players progress in the arcade, new challenges for math facts and arithmetic reasoning are introduced with fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios. PROGRESS IS REWARDED: Earn stars and personal high scores to challenge yourself and unlock new levels. MATH 180 COMPATIBLE: This app serves as a companion app to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s MATH 180 Intensive Intervention curriculum for Grades 5+. It promotes math fluency in the classroom and in remote-learning environments. MATH 180 content cannot be purchased via this app. This is an application for educational institutions to access the MATH 180 Brain Arcade content that they have purchased and licensed from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. PARENTAL DISCLOSURE: This app does not collect any personally identifiable information. This app contains: • No Links to websites. • No social media sharing. • No location tracking functions

Screenshots

Starfall Learn to Read4 screens
HMH Brain Arcade4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Starfall Learn to Read at 75% against HMH Brain Arcade's 0%. HMH Brain Arcade's advantage is iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Starfall Learn to Read ships an update every 9 months, HMH Brain Arcade every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Starfall Learn to Read versus HMH Brain Arcade: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarfall Learn to ReadHMH Brain Arcade
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (228 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews74.7% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings228 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 monthsEvery 5 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.010.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size91 MB233 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperStarfall Education FoundationHoughton Mifflin Harcourt

Customer experience

Starfall Learn to Read

All ratings229 ratings
Positive77.3%
Neutral7.0%
Negative15.7%
Written reviews75 reviews
Positive74.7%
Neutral1.3%
Negative24.0%

HMH Brain Arcade

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Starfall Learn to Read

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • App won't load beyond launch screen (black or green screen)
  • Math games incompatible with iPhone updates
  • Sound not playing in some instances
  • App requires deletion and reinstallation to function
  • Crashes on iOS 9.2.1 and older versions
Show 3 more
  • Glitches when pressing letter machine words
  • App needs to be opened twice each time to run
  • Compatibility issues with various iOS versions

Requested features

10 requests
  • Reward/star system for motivation and progress tracking
  • Lesson progression markers showing mastery of modules
  • Writing and spelling exercises to reinforce learning
  • More stories and content variety
  • UK English version option
Show 5 more
  • Settings to control word pronunciation features
  • More word-building exercises
  • Sight vocabulary games for common words
  • Additional phonics rules (ng, tch, ck, tion, sion)
  • Level progression system to track advancement

HMH Brain Arcade

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Starfall Learn to Read

No in-app purchases

None

HMH Brain Arcade

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Starfall Learn to Read free?
Starfall Learn to Read is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HMH Brain Arcade free?
HMH Brain Arcade is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Starfall Learn to Read or HMH Brain Arcade have ads?
Neither Starfall Learn to Read nor HMH Brain Arcade shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Starfall Learn to Read or HMH Brain Arcade?
Starfall Learn to Read ships an update every 9 months, and HMH Brain Arcade every 5 months. Most recently, Starfall Learn to Read was updated on October 24, 2026 and HMH Brain Arcade on October 21, 2026.

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