Hopscotch vs Lightbot
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hopscotch
This app allows children to create their own games, art, and stories using kid-friendly programming. Users can share their creations with a moderated community, play and remix projects from others, and learn to code through interactive video tutorials.
- Create games, art, and stories
- Kid-friendly programming interface
- Share creations with a moderated community
- Play and remix projects from other users
- Learn coding through video tutorials
- Build advanced games and apps
Read full descriptionHide full description
“Hopscotch is the best way to express your imagination! Most other "learn to code" apps just make you complete boring levels with 4 "move" blocks, but in hopscotch you have the freedom to create anything, which is amazing.” — BuildASnowman, Hopscotcher “This taught me sooooo much about basics of coding. I have been able to make some cool games I hope to learn more as I advance this app was extremely helpful and easy to learn.” — BestBeginnersCoding, Hopcotcher “I had ZERO background or programming experience. I personally checked all 8 or 10 of these blogs about recommendations. And Hopscotch was the most intuitive and interactive. It’s not like you’re just playing video games. My daughter loves it!” — Mom, S. to daughter, 8 “I am a 4th grade teacher who LOVES your app. Our students have been introduced to coding through it and I am impressed with the creativity they have shown and the skills they are building while creating projects.” — Kelley, 4th grade teacher CREATE Whether games, art, stories or more, you can code whatever you want with kid-friendly programming. Publish your creations to Hopscotch’s fully moderated community, where kids can play and learn from your games. PLAY Explore and learn from millions of projects created by other kids. Open up any project to play, tweak, or remix it. With thousands of games published every week, you’ll never run out of ideas or inspiration! LEARN Our play-along video tutorials teach you to make Crossy Road, PokemonGo, and more. Listen, watch, and code as you go! As you become a better programmer, Hopscotch will challenge you to create increasingly advanced games and apps. These skills will help you in high school, college, and beyond. PRESS + AWARDS ** Parents Magazine: Best Apps for Families ** ** FastCompany: Innovation By Design Finalist ** ** Parent’s Choice Gold Medal: Software ** ** Children’s Technology Review: Best Educational Technology ** Featured in: ** The New York Times ** ** The Wall Street Journal ** ** WIRED ** ** Parents Magazine ** ** FastCompany ** ** Apple App Store Editors ** FOR PARENTS See how much your child will love learning to code with Hopscotch! Join 10 million families coding on Hopscotch. Upgrade to Hopscotch Pro for premium creation tools. Get a week-long free trial, and then subscribe for $9.99/month or $79.99/year. You can cancel anytime, hassle free. FOR EDUCATORS Hopscotch is used on 44% of school iPads in the US. Sign up as an educator when you download Hopscotch, and then start coding in your classroom with free lesson plans and student accounts. Increase student engagement with our library of self-guided video tutorials. Email us at classrooms@gethopscotch.com to get started. SAFETY + PRIVACY Hopscotch values kids’ safety and privacy. Hopscotch does not require or collect Personal Information from children, and is COPPA Certified by iKeep Safe. SUBSCRIPTIONS Subscribe to Hopscotch Pro for premium creation tools. You can choose between two auto-renewing subscription options: - $9.99 per month - $79.99 per year Get a 7-day free trial when you upgrade to Hopscotch Pro. Cancel at any time before the trial period ends, and you won’t be charged until after the trial period. Price may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. To cancel a subscription, disable auto-renewal in your iTunes settings (General > iTunes Settings > Subscriptions > Manage) and allow the current period to end. Refunds are not available for unused portions of a subscription per iTunes policy. Hopscotch Privacy Policy: https://gethopscotch.com/privacy-policy Hopscotch Terms of Use: https://gethopscotch.com/terms
Lightbot
This programming puzzle game introduces players to coding logic through interactive challenges. Guide a robot using commands to solve levels, learning concepts like procedures, loops, and conditionals. It's designed for beginners, making coding accessible and fun for students.
- Programming puzzle gameplay
- Introduces programming logic
- Teaches procedures, loops, conditionals
- 20 levels for beginners
- Multiplayer progress tracking
- Supports multiple languages
Read full descriptionHide full description
Get kids hooked on coding within minutes! Lightbot : Code Hour is a programming puzzle game- a game whose game mechanics require using programming logic to solve levels. This short teaser is meant to introduce players to programming who may have little to no experience. Anyone, anywhere, from grades K-12 can play, have fun and learn real programming logic! Simply guiding a robot to light up tiles and solve levels using commands, Lightbot cultivates a real understanding of procedures, loops, and conditionals. Educators around the world are choosing to use Lightbot first when introducing their students to programming, coding and Computer Science. Lightbot : Code Hour features 20 levels. The follow-on Lightbot : Programming Puzzles features 50 levels and 20 challenge stars to collect for when you want more of a challenge! This version of Lightbot can be played in English, French, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Norwegian, Slovenian, Romanian, Indonesian, German, Polish, Danish, Croatian, Dutch, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Hindi, Swedish, Finnish and Hungarian! Just hit the associated flag icon on the main screen to select a language. Lightbot features multiple save slots and separate progress tracking for multiple players. Multiple players can advance at their own pace in their own save slot, and also compete on number of levels finished, number of stars collected and number of overall commands used to complete the game. There are NO in-app purchases in Lightbot.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Lightbot at none against Hopscotch's 10. Lightbot also leads on review sentiment (80% vs 70%) and iOS requirement (5.1.1 vs 13.0). Hopscotch's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 6 months) and rating (4.5 vs 4.1). On price, ads and device support 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. Hopscotch sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. Lightbot asks for nothing beyond the download.
Hopscotch holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hopscotch has 15K ratings behind it against 242, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 70% of Hopscotch's written reviews are positive against 80% of Lightbot's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Hopscotch ships an update every 2 weeks, Lightbot every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hopscotch | Lightbot |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (15K ratings) — better | 4.1 (242 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 70.2% of reviews | 79.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 15K — better | 242 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 5.1.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 203 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Hopscotch Technologies | SpriteBox LLC |
Customer experience
Hopscotch
Lightbot
User reviews
Hopscotch
From 15K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use for beginners
- 🚀 Powerful coding tools
- 💡 Encourages creativity and problem-solving
- 👍 Supportive community
- 🚀 Great for learning coding
Room to improve
- 💰 Subscription model restricts free access
- 🐛 Glitches and bugs
- 💰 Expensive subscription
- 🔒 Limited account/login options
- 🔒 Concerns about child safety and moderation
Lightbot
From 242 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great level design
- 🤩 Fun and addictive
- 🧠 Helps develop coding skills
- 🎓 Good for kids and beginners
- 🏆 Awesome game
Room to improve
- 🤯 Levels too difficult
- 🤏 Not enough space for code
- 🕰️ Game too short
- 🙄 Unclear tutorial
- 🎵 Bad music
Bugs and requests
Hopscotch
Reported bugs
4 issues- Projects disappearing or not saving properly
- Shapes/objects not displaying correctly
- Crashes and freezes when using certain features
- Subscription/login issues
Requested features
6 requests- Add cloud variables and multiplayer support
- Allow custom sounds and profile pictures for free
- Improve the 'Newest' tab to better showcase new projects
- Restore old features like unlimited free projects
- Add a 'reset' button for projects
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Improve the coding logic and debugging tools
Lightbot
Reported bugs
3 issues- Level 1-7 impossible to complete
- Procedures level 5 glitched
- Robot not moving as expected
Requested features
4 requests- More levels and content
- Ability to create own games
- Better tutorial and instructions
- More music options
In-app purchases
Hopscotch
- 1 Month Subscription with free trial7 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Hopscotch Monthly Subscription7 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Hopscotch Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$7.991 Month
Show 6 moreShow fewer
- Hopscotch Monthly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
- Hopscotch Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- 1 Year Subscription with free trial1 Month trial$79.991 Year
- 1 Year Subscription with free trial7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Hopscotch Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Hopscotch Yearly Subscription1 Month trial$79.991 Year
Lightbot
No in-app purchases








