Write About This vs OctoStudio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Write About This
This app encourages elementary students to write with a vast library of images and prompts. It supports various writing genres and allows for customization with personal pictures. Students can record their work, fostering engagement and improving writing skills.
- 175+ included images
- 375+ text and voice prompts
- Customizable with own pictures
- Supports multiple writing genres
- Voice recording for writing
- Digital publishing and sharing
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#1 daily writing app in the elementary grades! Endless student engagement with 175 included images, 375 text+voice prompts, OR customize with your own pictures. Kick-start all writing genres and watch reluctant writers soar! Write About This is a creation platform trusted on millions of classroom devices to gets kids writing! “Top Pick” for Elementary School Writing from Common Sense Education! REVIEWS: “Editor’s Choice!” “Outstanding” “Great for a very wide range of ages and abilities..a highly useful and flexible tool for home or classroom to encourage children to write.” -BestAppsforKids.com “The beauty of this app is its ease of use and endless opportunities for creative writing.” -BridgingApps “Making writing fun again... an ‘A’! For any parent who may have a child who is needing extra practice in writing, I highly suggest this app.” -TeachersAppReview.com “Versatile and easy to use for kids of many ages. The pictures are engaging and show diversity; the prompts get kids thinking critically and creatively.” -Common Sense Education WHAT EDUCATORS SAY: “I couldn’t get students to stop writing at the end of the day!” - Rebecca Wildman, 4th Grade Teacher, Apple Distinguished Educator “Very intuitive...an embodiment of the Universal Design for Learning principles” -Kit Hard, Instructional Tech Supervisor “Write About This is always my Writing Center activity. A great feature is the ability for students to record themselves reading their writing.” -Pam Craig, Second Grade Teacher “An excellent app to use for developing writing and fluency skills with students.” -Karen Bosch, K-8 Educator, Apple Distinguished Educator “With an intuitive layout, this app provides a variety of tools for customizing pictures, recording prompts, recording ideas, writing and publishing ideas.” Carol Leynse Harpold, Assistive Technology Expert See how hundreds of classrooms use Write About This: storify.com/WriteAboutThis/in-the-classroom Full version includes: **ALL CORE GENRES An easy way for students to compose and publish writing across the curriculum, including Opinion, Narrative, Expository and Literature Response! **AMAZING COMBINATION OF IMAGES AND PROMPTS Carefully selected and written by teachers, all 175 images and 375 prompts are interesting and appropriate! **FAST PHOTO+WRITING NEW in 2017: Quick Write Gallery saves time by providing 50 safe and popular image catalysts to accompany stories, poems, journals or reflections! **SIMPLE DIGITAL PUBLISHING AND APP SMASHING Download work to the Camera Roll, share by email or use the Open-In feature to send to other apps (.JPG, .PDF or .MOV)! **VOICE RECORDING FOR IMPROVING AND CELEBRATING WRITING Authors can add a voice recording with their work to publish a personalized writing video! Also great during editing and revising to listen to how the writing sounds! **OPEN-ENDED CREATIVITY Quick Write button gets kids publishing immediately– perfect for when they have an idea and a photo to use (no prompt needed)! **CREATE STUDENT PORTFOLIOS Author Profiles include a custom avatar and unique default email for individualized sharing with parents and saved work can be filtered by author (great for shared devices)! **CUSTOM PROMPTS Use your photos, ideas and voice to spark student writing responses about a classroom or school event, a book from class, a science experiment… anything! **FLEXIBILITY TO FIT EVERY LEARNER Voice & Level options (3 per image) based on learning theory and real classroom experience! English Language Learners greatly benefit from voice recording and playback! **WORKS WITH ANY NUMBER OF DEVICES From single teacher iPads, to carts, to 1:1...educators are using the app to meet their unique needs to engage students and improve writing! **EASY AND ACCESSIBLE Search visual content based on interest, curriculum, season or theme. Kids as young as 5 use the app independently. What will your students write about? Visit our Learning Hub at WriteAboutApp.com/blog
OctoStudio
Create animations and games using coding blocks on your mobile device. Bring your own photos and sounds to life, and share your interactive projects with others. Developed by the creators of Scratch at MIT, it's a free and fun way to learn coding.
- Create animations and games
- Use coding blocks
- Incorporate photos and sounds
- Interactive project features
- Share projects as video or GIF
- Offline project creation
- Learn coding through play
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With OctoStudio, you can create animations and games on your mobile phone or tablet. Made by the creators of Scratch at MIT. Code an animated story or game using your own artwork, sounds, and ideas. OctoStudio is completely free of charge - with no ads, no in-app purchases, and no data collected. Create projects without needing an internet connection. Available in more than 30 languages. OctoStudio is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group, the MIT Media Lab team that invented Scratch, the world’s most popular coding language for kids. Create • Create animations, games, and anything else you can imagine • Combine emojis, photos, drawings, sounds, and movement • Make your projects come alive with coding blocks Interact • Make interactive games you can play by tilting your phone • Shake your phone or use a magnet to start your project • Make your projects speak aloud • Code your phone to buzz or turn on and off the flashlight • Collaborate across phones using the beam block Share • Record your project as a video or animated GIF • Export your project file for others to play • Send to family and friends Learn • Get started with intro videos and ideas • Explore and remix sample projects • Develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills • Learn to code in a playful and meaningful way OctoStudio has been designed in collaboration with educators in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, India, Korea, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, United States, and other countries around the world. To learn more about OctoStudio or share your feedback, please visit us at www.octostudio.org
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: OctoStudio at Free against Write About This's $3.99. OctoStudio also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.4) and ratings volume (64 vs 5). Write About This's advantage is iOS requirement (8.1 vs 15.0). On review sentiment, 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
OctoStudio is free to download; Write About This costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
OctoStudio holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OctoStudio has 64 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 83% and 84% positive.
Write About This ships an update every 2 months, OctoStudio monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Write About This | OctoStudio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.4 (5 ratings) | 4.8 (64 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | 84.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5 | 64 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 8.1 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 97 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RSA Group, LLC | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Customer experience
Write About This
OctoStudio
In-app purchases
Write About This
No in-app purchases
OctoStudio
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Write About This free?
Is OctoStudio free?
Which has better reviews, Write About This or OctoStudio?
Do Write About This or OctoStudio have ads?
Which is updated more often, Write About This or OctoStudio?
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