Comparison

Writing Wizard vs Phonics Reading Program

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

Head to head
About

Writing Wizard

This app helps children learn to trace letters, numbers, and words with a fun, motivating system. It offers customizable tracing, interactive games, and progress reports for parents and educators.

Highlights
  • Customizable tracing practice
  • Interactive games and rewards
  • Letter names and phonics
  • Create custom word lists
  • Progress reports
  • Printable worksheets
Features
Read full description

"Fantastic, customizable tracing practice with fun rewards." 5 Stars - Common Sense Media 470,000+ units sold (including 260,000 to schools) ! Writing Wizard is designed to help every child learn how to trace letters, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to maintain motivation. • Show and enforce how to trace letters correctly • 16 Fonts available (including 3 most popular USA fonts) • Fun tracing using 50+ animated stickers, sound effects and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing • Letter names and phonics • Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers and words • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Fully customizable to suit every child’s needs (letter size, difficulty,...) • Check progress thanks to reports that display what the child has traced • Shapes tracing activity for toddlers • Create PDF Worksheets and print them to help your child to write on paper • Use Apple pencil to write at very small size _______ ACCOLADES • "Writing Wizard is the most complete and intelligent letter tracing app we’ve seen"" AppoLearning.com • "This brand-new app should be the go-to for every parent, teacher and therapist to work on handwriting" - TOP PICKS - 5 stars - SmartAppsForKids.com • "Writing Wizard by L’Escapadou is everything a parent wants in a handwriting app, and more." 5/5 - kids-app-reviews.com • "L’Escapadou has made handwriting fun." AppyMall.com 5/5 • Listed in "20 best educational iPhone and iPad apps for kids of 2013" - appsplayground.com • Editor's Choice Award for Excellence in Design - Children's Technology Review _______ PERFECT FOR KIDS Kids want to have fun, and Writing Wizard offers a lot of fun to keep them motivated in the learning process ! • They can trace using 50+ animated stickers and sound effects • Once tracing is complete, they can interact with them on 4 games that animate letters • They can trace any word - like their name - and record their voice for each word • They can collect stars in 5-Stars play mode _______ PERFECT FOR PARENTS & TEACHERS • Ability to create your own word lists (and record audio for each word) • Detailed reports provide information on what kids have done, including the ability to replay and export the tracings to view kids' progress • Share word lists via iCloud drive or other cloud providers, adhoc network, or email • Multiple parameters to customize the app according to the child’s current education level (e.g. letter size, difficulty, show/hide model, allow to stop between key points, etc.) • 3 most popular fonts in the US (ZB, DN & HWT) and 13 international fonts (UK, Scandinavia,Australia, germany, France) • Upper and lower case letters, numbers (and word lists) • Letter names and phonics (which can be customized) • A customizable 5-Stars play mode prompting the child to trace a letter or a word 5 times using different parameters (each step is more challenging) • Create an unlimited number of users • Many settings to customize the app (sound, game time limit, black background,...) • In the A-Z section, special graphics available to match letters (e.g. ant graphic for A/a) _______ Note that a free to try version is available (search for "Writing Wizard -Starter" on the App Store) _______ Privacy Policy KNOW WHAT'S INSIDE As a Moms with Apps member, we follow the "Know what's inside" best practices for kids’ apps L’Escapadou takes children’s privacy seriously. We believe you should not have to worry about your kids being tracked by apps or websites. This app: • Does not collect any user information (we do not use data collection tools) • Does not contain in-app purchases • External Links: Protected parent sections are available where you can send us a mail and check out our others apps. Before accessing a parent section, an addition must be solved so that young kids cannot access it. *

About

Phonics Reading Program

A phonics-based reading program for children aged 4-7. It offers 31 cumulative lessons to teach reading and spelling skills through fun games, with progress tracking to identify areas needing support.

Highlights
  • Phonics-based learning
  • 31 cumulative lessons
  • Reading and spelling practice
  • In-game rewards (coins)
  • Progress tracking
  • Supports workbooks and electronic tools
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

This is a phonics-based reading program for children ages 4-7. There are 31 lessons that will help you teach your child the sounds and rules in a cumulative, repetitive manner. Your child will have fun practicing reading and spelling while earning coins that can be spent in the stores. As your child plays the games, progress will be saved, so you can see where your child needs help. For a more complete reading program, this app can be used with the workbooks, which contains the lessons and activity pages. This can also be used with our distance learning electronic tools. Part 1 (Book A) covers: the alphabet, consonants, vowels, consonant blends, FLOSS words, high frequency words, 'ch', 'sh', 'th', 'ck', 'ng', 'nk', VCV, 'oo', 'ou' and 'ow' as /ou/. Part 2 (Book B) covers: 'ow' as long 'o', 'ay', 'ar', 'er', 'ir', 'or', 'ur', 'oy', 'oi', long vowel teams, the letter 'y', words ending with 'ie', 'ew', long 'o' words, long'i' words, 'qu', 'au', 'aw', 'alk', 'ct', 'ea' as short 'e', protecting short vowels, and past tense words. No in-app purchases, no subscriptions. The price is for the entire app.

Screenshots

Writing Wizard4 screens
Phonics Reading Program4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Phonics Reading Program at 5.0 against Writing Wizard's 4.3. Phonics Reading Program also leads on price ($8.99 vs $13.99) and chart position (#180 vs unranked). Writing Wizard's advantage is ratings volume (3.3K vs 3). On update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Writing Wizard costs $13.99 and Phonics Reading Program $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Phonics Reading Program holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Writing Wizard has 3.3K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, Phonics Reading Program every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Writing Wizard versus Phonics Reading Program: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWriting WizardPhonics Reading Program
Price$13.99$8.99 — better
Rating4.3 (3.3K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews90.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings3.3K — better3
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
Best chart rank—#180 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.612.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPierre AbelBlast Off to Learning, LLC

Customer experience

Writing Wizard

All ratings3,324 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral9.5%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews154 reviews
Positive90.3%
Neutral2.6%
Negative7.1%

Phonics Reading Program

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Writing Wizard

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Incorrect letter formation for some characters
  • Inconsistent performance on older devices

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more font options, including cursive and UK-specific styles
  • Improve parental control accessibility
  • Integrate Apple Pencil support
  • Allow easier clearing of tracing history
  • Expand character support (e.g., Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Arabic)
Show 1 more
  • Add a free-form writing mode or blank canvas

Phonics Reading Program

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Writing Wizard

No in-app purchases

None

Phonics Reading Program

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard costs $13.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Phonics Reading Program free?
Phonics Reading Program costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Writing Wizard or Phonics Reading Program?
Phonics Reading Program is rated higher. Writing Wizard averages 4.3 out of 5 from 3.3K ratings, while Phonics Reading Program averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Writing Wizard or Phonics Reading Program have ads?
Neither Writing Wizard nor Phonics Reading Program shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Writing Wizard or Phonics Reading Program?
Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, and Phonics Reading Program every 3 months. Most recently, Writing Wizard was updated on September 30, 2026 and Phonics Reading Program on September 21, 2026.

Other comparisons