Spike™ LEGO® Education vs Cabacus
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Spike™ LEGO® Education
This app facilitates playful STEAM learning for students, designed to work with specific LEGO® Education kits. It helps develop computational thinking through coding, encourages building and experimentation, and supports programming for various projects and competitions.
- Icon-block, word-block, and text-based coding
- Develop computational thinking
- Build, tinker, and experiment with LEGO® creations
- Program and debug designs
- Create stories with LEGO® Minifigures
- Prepare for FIRST® LEGO® League competitions
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Engage every student in playful STEAM learning with the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ App. Designed for use with the LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Portfolio, the SPIKE App is a powerful tool that helps teachers facilitate engaging, hands-on STEAM learning. When combined with SPIKE Essential or SPIKE Prime, the SPIKE App allows students to: - Develop computational thinking skills using a progression of icon-block, word-block, and text-based coding. - Build, tinker, and experiment - progressing from simple creations to complex structures. - Learn to program, test and tweak designs, debug and optimize, create stories with LEGO® Minifigures, prepare for FIRST® LEGO® League competitions, and more! *** IMPORTANT*** This is not a standalone educational app. This app is used to program LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Essential and LEGO® Education SPIKE™ Prime, which are sold separately. Please contact your local LEGO Education reseller for further information. LEARN MORE: LEGOeducation.com/Teacher-resources For app support, contact LEGO® Education at https://support.legoeducation.com. LEGO, the LEGO logo and the SPIKE logo are trademarks and/or copyrights of the LEGO Group. FIRST® LEGO® League is a jointly held trademark of FIRST® and the LEGO Group. ©2026 The LEGO Group. All rights reserved.
Cabacus
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Brought to you by cabacus.school Coming Soon: - Arithmetic challenges and exercises (+, −, ×, ÷) - More colors Want to become a math master? Cabacus is your pocket abacus! Train your brain for super-fast mental math. Easy to use. Just tap to move the beads, tap on CABACUS to reset to zero. Perfect for learning arithmetic. Visualizing numbers on the abacus makes math super easy and fun! Used for centuries, the abacus boosts math skills, concentration, and number sense. Whether you are a student, teacher, or just a curious learner, Cabacus lets you explore the power of the abacus anytime, anywhere. Develop powerful mental math abilities through interactive practice. Download Cabacus now and see why the abacus is one of humanity's greatest inventions!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Spike™ LEGO® Education at Free against Cabacus's $7.99. Spike™ LEGO® Education also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 14 months). Cabacus's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Spike™ LEGO® Education is free to download; Cabacus costs $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Spike™ LEGO® Education ships an update every 2 months, Cabacus every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Spike™ LEGO® Education | Cabacus |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $7.99 |
| Rating | 4.7 (3.7K ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 68.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 3.7K — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 14 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 227 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LEGO Education | Benjamin Tan |
Bugs and requests
Spike™ LEGO® Education
Reported bugs
3 issues- Bluetooth connection issues
- Unable to flash hub or connect
- Incompatibility with programs written in previous version
Requested features
5 requests- Hub-to-hub control
- RC features
- Merge Inventor app into one
- Add more color options for color sensor
- Bring back Python coding support
Cabacus
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Spike™ LEGO® Education
No in-app purchases
Cabacus
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Spike™ LEGO® Education free?
Is Cabacus free?
Do Spike™ LEGO® Education or Cabacus have ads?
Which is updated more often, Spike™ LEGO® Education or Cabacus?
Other comparisons
