# Spike™ LEGO® Education vs Cabacus

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.

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.

## The numbers

| Metric | Spike™ LEGO® Education | Cabacus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | **Free** | $7.99 |
| Rating | **[4.7 (3.7K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spike-lego-education/id6443545905/reviews)** | — |
| Number of ratings | **3.7K** | — |
| Positive reviews | 68.2% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | **Every 2 months** | Every 14 months |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Size | 227 MB | 28 MB |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | **12.0** |
| Devices | iPad, Mac | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [LEGO Education](https://appshunter.io/developer/708170734) | [Benjamin Tan](https://appshunter.io/developer/1748368453) |

## What reviewers say

### Spike™ LEGO® Education

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spike-lego-education/id6443545905)

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.

**Highlights:** 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

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Awesome
- 🚀 Super good
- 🚀 Great app
- 👍 User friendly and easy to use
- 👍 Engineering Excitement in Kindergarten

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Restricted features due to LEGO's focus on profits
- 🐛 Missing basic quality of life functionality
- 🐛 Doesn't work on iPad
- 🐛 Slow loading and issues with connectivity
- 🐛 Tutorials have limitations

**Reported bugs**

- Bluetooth connection issues
- Unable to flash hub or connect
- Incompatibility with programs written in previous version

**Requested features**

- Hub-to-hub control
- RC features
- Merge Inventor app into one
- Add more color options for color sensor
- Bring back Python coding support


### Cabacus

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/cabacus/id6503203800)

**Features:** macOS Compatibility

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Spike™ LEGO® Education free?

Spike™ LEGO® Education is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Is Cabacus free?

Cabacus costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Do Spike™ LEGO® Education or Cabacus have ads?

Neither Spike™ LEGO® Education nor Cabacus shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Spike™ LEGO® Education or Cabacus?

Spike™ LEGO® Education ships an update every 2 months, and Cabacus every 14 months. Most recently, Spike™ LEGO® Education was updated on November 7, 2026 and Cabacus on October 27, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*