Comparison

iTrace vs Writing Wizard

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

Head to head
About

iTrace

This app helps children learn to write letters, numbers, words, and shapes through guided tracing and playful repetition. It's designed for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary students to develop handwriting skills and fine-motor control in an engaging way.

Highlights
  • Guided letter and number tracing
  • Print and cursive writing
  • Custom word lists with photos/voice
  • Multiple handwriting styles
  • Progress tracking
  • Printable worksheets
  • Rewards and mini-games
Features
Read full description

iTRACE — HANDWRITING AND LETTER TRACING FOR CLASSROOMS AND HOME LEARNING iTrace helps children learn to write letters, numbers, words, and shapes through guided tracing and playful repetition. Designed with educators, it turns handwriting practice into an engaging and effective learning experience for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary students. Each exercise teaches proper letter formation and fine-motor control step by step. Children trace each shape or letter multiple times, building confidence through repetition, gradual improvement, and positive reinforcement. The app adapts to each child’s pace, helping develop strong handwriting habits that transfer to pencil-and-paper writing. iTrace is suitable for both classroom use and learning at home, supporting structured instruction as well as independent practice. KEY FEATURES • Basic shapes for handwriting warm-up • Uppercase and lowercase letters • Numbers 0–9 • Print (block) and cursive writing • 350+ preloaded words plus custom word lists • Create custom words with your own photos and voice recordings • Multiple handwriting styles: Zaner-Bloser, Handwriting Without Tears, and D’Nealian • Left- and right-handed modes • Progress tracking for each student • Rewards, animations, and mini-games that motivate practice • 5 animated scenes with 50+ interactive objects • Printable worksheets for offline practice • Supports English and Spanish alphabets for handwriting practice • Safe, ad-free learning environment FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS iTrace for Schools makes it easy to support multiple students, personalize learning goals, and monitor progress over time. It works well in classrooms, homeschool settings, and early-childhood programs focused on handwriting, tracing, and fine-motor development. Consistent structure and clear guidance help children practice correct stroke order and letter formation—skills that are essential for long-term writing success. FREE VERSION & SUBSCRIPTION The free version includes all handwriting warm-up exercises, three letters, and one interactive scene, allowing children to experience the core learning approach of iTrace. A subscription unlocks the full program, including all letters and numbers, additional scenes, and custom words. PRIVATE AND SECURE No ads. No personal data collected or shared. PRIVACY POLICY: https://itraceapp.com/privacy-policy.html TERMS OF USE: https://itraceapp.com/terms-of-use.html

About

Writing Wizard

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

Highlights
  • Trace letters, numbers, and words
  • Customizable tracing practice
  • Interactive games and animated stickers
  • Create custom word lists with audio
  • Progress reports for tracking
  • Printable PDF worksheets
Features
Read full description

"Fantastic, customizable tracing practice with fun rewards." 5 Stars - Common Sense Media 500,000+ units sold (including 300,000+ 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 • Letter names and phonics (customizable) • 16 Fonts available (including 3 most popular in the US) • Fun tracing using 50+ animated stickers, sound effects and interactive games that animate letters at the end of tracing • 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 a very small size All the shapes, the first 7 letters, numbers, and words are free. The remaining letters and the ability to add your own words can be unlocked with a one-time purchase or a monthly subscription. _______ 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 and France) • Upper and lower case letters, numbers (and word lists) • Letter names and letter sounds (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) _______ 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) • External Links : Before accessing a parent section, an operation must be solved so that young kids cannot access it. Terms of use : https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

iTrace4 screens
Writing Wizard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: iTrace at every 2 months against Writing Wizard's every 4 months. Writing Wizard's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.1). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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

Both are free to download. iTrace sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Writing Wizard sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $2.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for iTrace against 4.4 for Writing Wizard. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.5K and 5.2K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of iTrace's written reviews are positive against 74% of Writing Wizard's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iTrace ships an update every 2 months, Writing Wizard every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
iTrace versus Writing Wizard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriTraceWriting Wizard
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (2.5K ratings)4.4 (5.2K ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.3% of reviews — better73.6% of reviews
Number of ratings2.5K5.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFreemiumFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.115.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size173 MB68 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDEVPOCKET LLCPierre Abel

Customer experience

iTrace

All ratings2,454 ratings
Positive83.7%
Neutral8.8%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews135 reviews
Positive76.3%
Neutral3.7%
Negative20.0%

Writing Wizard

All ratings5,184 ratings
Positive84.3%
Neutral6.0%
Negative9.7%
Written reviews208 reviews
Positive73.6%
Neutral6.7%
Negative19.7%

User reviews

iTrace

From 2.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Positive feedback and achievement tracking
  • 👍 Excellent visual feedback and positive reinforcement
  • 👍 Multi-user support for different learning speeds
  • 👍 Perfect blend of learning and play
  • 👍 Makes handwriting fun with rewards and stickers

Room to improve

  • 💰 In-app purchases required to unlock additional content
  • 🐛 Sound not working for some users
  • 🐛 Family sharing not working properly
  • 🐛 Strict letter formation requirements can be frustrating for beginners

Writing Wizard

From 5.2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 🚀 Engaging animations
  • 💡 Customizable word lists
  • 👍 Helpful for children with special needs
  • 👍 Effective for improving handwriting

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Locked features behind paywall
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 🔒 Paid version not working as expected
  • 💰 Expensive for the limited features

Bugs and requests

iTrace

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Sound not working after updates
  • Inability to restore purchases on multiple devices
  • Incorrect letter formation displayed in the app

Requested features

4 requests
  • Option to adjust difficulty/letter formation requirements
  • Ability to connect cursive letters
  • Addition of lowercase letters in the free version
  • Ability to set number of letter repetitions

Writing Wizard

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes when trying to access locked features
  • Purchased content not unlocking properly
  • Inconsistent letter formation guidance

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more letters, numbers, and shapes
  • Allow recording of custom voice instructions
  • Improve compatibility with stylus/digital pens
  • Provide more customization options

In-app purchases

3 purchases

iTrace

Subscriptions1
  • iTrace Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
One-time2
  • Unlock Premium Features$3.99
  • Lifetime purchase$19.99
4 purchases

Writing Wizard

Subscriptions1
  • Full Access - Monthly$2.491 Month
One-time3
  • All Letters and Numbers$5.99
  • Add Your Words and Word Lists$5.99
  • Lifetime Full Access$9.99

Questions

Is iTrace free?
iTrace is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Writing Wizard free?
Writing Wizard is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, iTrace or Writing Wizard?
Writing Wizard is rated higher. iTrace averages 4.4 out of 5 from 2.5K ratings, while Writing Wizard averages 4.4 from 5.2K ratings.
Do iTrace or Writing Wizard have ads?
Neither iTrace nor Writing Wizard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iTrace or Writing Wizard?
iTrace ships an update every 2 months, and Writing Wizard every 4 months. Most recently, iTrace was updated on October 21, 2026 and Writing Wizard on October 29, 2026.

Other comparisons