Comparison

Writing Wizard vs Learning Patterns

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

Learning Patterns

This interactive game helps children develop critical thinking and mental reasoning skills by teaching them to recognize and complete various patterns. It offers two learning modes with adjustable difficulty and a wide variety of objects for engaging, long-term learning.

Highlights
  • Pattern recognition and completion
  • Two learning modes
  • Adjustable difficulty levels
  • Variety of object collections
  • Automatic session summaries
  • Supports 8 unique patterns
Features
Read full description

"This app is the gold standard if you want to help your little one learn how to have fun while learning patterns." Sonja - mom and teacher Learning Patterns helps your child develop critical thinking and mental reasoning skills thus expanding a very important part of their mind. Plus, even adults will have fun playing with this app at the more advanced levels. :-) Approved by parents, teachers, and kids the world over. Learning Patterns is an exciting interactive game that helps you learn how to recognize and complete patterns all with just the touch of your finger. Pattern recognition and completion represents an important developmental skill for kids of all ages. The interface is so easy to use that even a toddler will delight in moving their first objects around the page. The app supports two modes to learning patterns. In the first mode, you decide the type of objects you want to use to learn to recognize patterns such as numbers, letters, images, etc. Once you start, the app will start with the most basic patterns such as ABABAB and it automatically increases the difficulty based on the users skills. The difficulty increases in two ways. First, the patterns get increasingly difficulty. Second, the missing tile moves from the last place to the second place and later the last two tiles are missing. The second mode allows you to zero in on specific patterns and lets students master that pattern with a huge variety of different images. The patterns included in this app are: ABABAB AABBAA ABBABB AABAAB AAABBB ABCABC ABCDAB ABCCBA IF there are other types of patterns you would like us to add please let us know and we can easily get them added. In total, the app focuses on 8 unique patterns and includes 3 levels of difficulty for each pattern like this: ABABA? A?ABAB ABAB?? The app also comes with over 25 unique collections of items to learn patterns. This way you can learn patterns by letters, numbers, colors, shapes, dots, balloons, hats, fruits, vegetables, animals, vehicles, etc. The huge variety of patterns and collections means that there are almost an infinite way of learning patterns which ensures to keep kids excited and engaged vs. getting bored by always staring at the same content. Not only that, at the end of every session you automatically get a beautiful summary to see exactly how your little one did. HEROIC SUPPORT Heroic Support is not just what we do. It's really what makes us, well, us. It's that drive to make a difference in your life - no matter how big or small. Really, it's our way of life because we want you to be our customer for a lifetime of fun and learning. Have questions? We are here to help. Email us at support@alligatorapps.com

Screenshots

Writing Wizard4 screens
Learning Patterns4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Learning Patterns at Free against Writing Wizard's $13.99. Learning Patterns also leads on iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.6). Writing Wizard's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 13) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 22 months). On rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Learning Patterns is free to download; Writing Wizard costs $13.99 up front. Learning Patterns sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Writing Wizard asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.3 for Writing Wizard against 4.3 for Learning Patterns. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Writing Wizard has 3.3K ratings behind it against 174, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 90% of Writing Wizard's written reviews are positive against 78% of Learning Patterns's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, Learning Patterns every 22 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Writing Wizard versus Learning Patterns: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterWriting WizardLearning Patterns
Price$13.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (3.3K ratings)4.3 (174 ratings)
Positive reviews89.7% of reviews — better78.0% of reviews
Number of ratings3.3K — better174
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 22 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.68.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size69 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPierre AbelInnovative Mobile Apps

Customer experience

Writing Wizard

All ratings3,338 ratings
Positive81.8%
Neutral9.5%
Negative8.7%
Written reviews155 reviews
Positive89.7%
Neutral2.6%
Negative7.7%

Learning Patterns

All ratings174 ratings
Positive79.3%
Neutral7.5%
Negative13.2%
Written reviews59 reviews
Positive78.0%
Neutral6.8%
Negative15.3%

User reviews

Writing Wizard

From 3.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Customizable word lists and recording
  • 🎨 Engaging graphics and animations
  • 🏫 Great for teaching handwriting and spelling
  • 🔒 No ads or in-app purchases
  • 🎓 Helpful for children with special needs

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezing
  • 🔤 Limited font options, especially for UK users
  • 🔒 Difficulty accessing parental controls
  • 🖋️ Apple Pencil not supported
  • 🔄 Difficulty clearing tracing history

Learning Patterns

From 174 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for learning patterns
  • 👍 Visually appealing interface
  • 👍 User-friendly for young children
  • 👍 Good for special needs students
  • 👍 Educational and engaging

Room to improve

  • 😞 App stopped working suddenly
  • 😞 Too easy and too little content
  • 😞 Paid version doesn't transfer to new devices
  • 😞 Micro-transactions/subscriptions disliked
  • 😞 In-app purchases not supported by VPP

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

Learning Patterns

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App suddenly stopped working
  • Screen bounces when scrolling
  • Incompatible with older iPads (requires iOS 6+)
  • App will not allow object selection/movement at times

Requested features

9 requests
  • More patterns on paid version
  • Option to permanently own the app
  • Educational version for schools (VPP compatible)
  • Option to keep completed pattern visible
  • Longer patterns with three repeats
Show 4 more
  • Option to choose specific pattern types (e.g., ABAB)
  • Easier/medium/harder difficulty levels
  • Option to choose pictures for patterns
  • Slide and drop selection instead of immediate selection

In-app purchases

None

Writing Wizard

No in-app purchases

13 purchases

Learning Patterns

One-time13
  • ABC - Hard Game$0.99
  • Shapes - Easy Game$0.99
  • Shapes - Hard Game$0.99
Show 10 more
  • Colors - Easy Game$0.99
  • Animals - Easy Game$0.99
  • Animals - Hard Game$0.99
  • Food - Hard Game$0.99
  • Pattern 6 Game$0.99
  • Pattern 8 Game$0.99
  • Pattern 7 Game$0.99
  • Colors - Hard Game$0.99
  • Food - Easy Game$0.99
  • Unlock All Games$1.99

Questions

Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard costs $13.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Learning Patterns free?
Learning Patterns is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Writing Wizard or Learning Patterns?
Writing Wizard and Learning Patterns are both rated 4.3 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3.3K and 174 ratings respectively.
Do Writing Wizard or Learning Patterns have ads?
Neither Writing Wizard nor Learning Patterns shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Writing Wizard or Learning Patterns?
Writing Wizard ships an update every 4 months, and Learning Patterns every 22 months. Most recently, Writing Wizard was updated on October 17, 2026 and Learning Patterns on October 11, 2026.

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