Oz Phonics 1 vs Monster Phonics
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Oz Phonics 1
This app focuses on phonemic awareness and letter/sound knowledge for early readers. It offers 10 interactive exercises and sound reference screens to help children differentiate sounds, match them to letters, and build foundational spelling and reading skills. It aligns with US Common Core State Standards for kindergarten.
- Phonemic awareness exercises
- Letter-sound matching
- Sound differentiation games
- Beginning and ending sound identification
- Rhyme recognition
- Sound reference screens
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Visit ozphonics.com for free worksheets to accompany this app. Exercises covering US Common Core State Standards: RF/K/2a, RF/K/2d, RF/K/3a, RF/K/3b(short vowels only). This app is focused on phonemic awareness and letter/sound knowledge. Oz Phonics 1 has 10 exercises and 2 sound reference screens, covering the beginning steps of both spelling and reading. Students are trained to listen first, before they even see the letters written down. Matching the sounds they hear to the written letters is the next step. 1.Sound Match Being able to differentiate between sounds and match identical ones is fundamental to the reading and spelling process. Here we play a sound matching game with a random selection from the 28 sounds covered in this app. 2.Odd One Out – Beginning Sound Listen to all the beginning sounds, then drag the odd one out into the basket. 3. Odd One Out – Rhyme This activity is quite difficult and requires careful listening and remembering. Note that some of the words in this exercise are nonsense words. 4. Phonics Sounds Reference We learn to read and spell by listening to the sounds in the words, not the names of the letters, (though these will be important later on). This screen allows the student to listen to the word first, then hear the sound at the beginning. Note the first sound in ‘quiz’ is /k/ (not /kw/). At this point we teach the sounds of the letter ‘x’ when it comes at the end of the word six, /ks/. We introduce the end sound in the word sunny /ee/. Another new sound is /th/at the beginning of this. Because we could not represent this word with a picture, we have shown it in letters. It is underlined because it is a voiced sound. (An unvoiced /th/ is heard at the beginning of thin.) 5. Odd One Out – Beginning Vowel Vowels are more difficult than consonants. Careful listening is necessary for this activity. Tap the tiles again if you don’t get it the first time. The word honest begins with a silent ‘h’ – the first sound we hear is the short /ŏ/. 6. Missing Beginning Sound Tap on the middle and end tiles to hear that part of the word. Think which sound is missing, then tap on the colored tiles until you find it. Drag that tile onto the question mark. The whole word will then be sounded out. Note that the tiles represent sounds not letters – the word egg has two sounds and therefore only two tiles. 7. Missing End Sound Tap on the first tiles to hear that part of the word. Think which sound is missing, then tap on the colored tiles until you find it. Drag that tile onto the question mark. The whole word will then be sounded out. 8. Missing Middle Sound Tap on the first and last tiles to hear those parts of the word. Think which sound is missing, then tap on the coloured tiles until you find it. Drag that tile onto the question mark. The whole word will then be sounded out. Note that most students find the middle sound most difficult to identify. 9. Sound Match (letter visible) Consonants are black and vowels are red. Tap on the tiles until you find a matching pair. When you tap them quickly, one after the other, the lizards will gobble them up. You may play this again. 10. Phonics Touch Pad Tap on each tile to hear the sound. Make up some two-letter words like on, in, up, at; three-letter words like cat, dog, man, fox, big, sun, ten; four-letter words like this, that, then. You will be surprised how many words the student will be able to make. 11. Vowel Test Test how many vowel sounds your student knows. 12. Phonics Sound Test – 28 sounds Note there are three letters that make the /k/ sound – ‘c’, ‘k’ and ‘q’. It does not matter in which order you tap on them. When the letter ‘y’ is a consonant and says /y/, it is black. When it is a vowel and says /ee/, it is red.
Monster Phonics
This app uses a multi-sensory approach with character phoneme cues and color coding to teach reading and spelling of high-frequency words. It aims to accelerate learning progress for young children by simplifying "tricky" words.
- Multi-sensory phonics learning
- Character phoneme cues
- Color coding for sounds
- Teaches first 100 high-frequency words
- Supports reading and spelling
- Handwriting and letter formation
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Monster Phonics products are already listed as highly effective multi-sensory phonics resources by the Department for Education, UK (2014). Monster Phonics has also been selected by BETT futures as one of the top 20 most inspiring new ed-tech ideas in the UK. This app supports the reading and spelling of the first 100 high frequency words and is part of a wider phonics scheme that supports the New Curriculum for Spelling (KS1) and phonics in Reception. Monster Phonics is a synthetic phonics scheme. It is unique in that it uses character (monster) phoneme cues and colour coding to represent the sounds A, E, I, O, U, oo, ow, silent letters and tricky letters. Each monster and its corresponding colour is linked to a specific set of graphemes that makes the particular phoneme. Monster Phonics Apps have been developed specifically to make phonics more accessible for all learners. The revolutionary use of colour coding and characterisation has been proven to dramatically accelerate progress in reading. Monster Phonics also teaches handwriting and the correct letter formation for the first 100 words. This Monster Phonics APP show how the first 100 words are more accessible to children because of the use of colour. The number of “tricky” words is reduced considerably with the colour coding system. There will be 2 Monster Phonics APPs covering the first 300 words. Once learned these words stay with children forever. The first 300 words make up 65% of all reading texts. Learning these words quickly is incredibly important for all children. Selected to be in the BETT Futures Cohort - January 2015!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Monster Phonics at 5.0 against Oz Phonics 1's 4.0. Monster Phonics also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.6). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and update cadence 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
Oz Phonics 1 costs $2.99 and Monster Phonics $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Monster Phonics holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 71% of Oz Phonics 1's written reviews are positive against 73% of Monster Phonics's.
Oz Phonics 1 ships an update every 11 months, Monster Phonics every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Oz Phonics 1 | Monster Phonics |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 71.4% of reviews | 72.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 11 months | Every 9 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 784 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | +4 |
| Developer | DSP Learning Pty Ltd | Ingrid Connors |
Customer experience
Oz Phonics 1
Monster Phonics
In-app purchases
Oz Phonics 1
No in-app purchases
Monster Phonics
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Oz Phonics 1 free?
Is Monster Phonics free?
Which has better reviews, Oz Phonics 1 or Monster Phonics?
Do Oz Phonics 1 or Monster Phonics have ads?
Which is updated more often, Oz Phonics 1 or Monster Phonics?
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