Lightbot vs AlgoRun
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lightbot
This game teaches programming logic through engaging puzzles. Players guide a robot using commands to solve levels, fostering an understanding of procedures, loops, and conditionals. It's an excellent introduction to coding for kids and puzzle enthusiasts.
- Programming logic puzzles
- Robot guidance with commands
- Teaches procedures, loops, conditionals
- 50 levels and 20 challenge stars
- Multiplayer progress tracking
- Multiple language support
Read full descriptionHide full description
Featured by Apple in over 100 countries *Best New Apps and Games* *Best for Learning to Code* *Best in Hot Educational Games* Get kids hooked on coding within minutes! Lightbot is a programming puzzle game- a game whose game mechanics require using programming logic to solve levels. Simply guiding a robot to light up tiles and solve levels using commands, Lightbot cultivates a real understanding of procedures, loops, and conditionals. Educators around the world are choosing to use Lightbot first when introducing their students to programming, coding and Computer Science. Lightbot features 50 levels and 20 challenge stars to collect and is a must-have for puzzle enthusiasts. This version of Lightbot can be played in English, French, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Norwegian, Slovenian, Romanian, Indonesian, German, Polish, Danish, Croatian, Dutch, Slovak, Czech, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Hindi, Swedish, Finnish and Hungarian! Just hit the associated flag icon on the main screen to select a language. Lightbot features multiple save slots and separate progress tracking for multiple players. Multiple players can advance at their own pace in their own save slot, and also compete on number of levels finished, number of stars collected and number of overall commands used to complete the game. There are NO in-app purchases in Lightbot.
AlgoRun
This game teaches fundamental coding concepts through interactive puzzles. It uses game mechanics inspired by programming principles like functions, loops, and conditionals to build algorithmic thinking skills in a fun and engaging way.
- Algorithmic thinking puzzles
- Sequential instruction execution
- Functions and recursive loops
- Conditionals
- Step-by-step debugging
Read full descriptionHide full description
A puzzle game for learning, practicing and improving algorithmic thinking. AlgoRun features puzzles that will teach you the basics of coding in a fun interactive way by using game mechanics derived from programming concepts such as: • Sequential Instruction Execution • Functions • Recursive Loops • Conditionals • Step-by-Step Debugging
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: AlgoRun at Free against Lightbot's $2.99. AlgoRun also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). Lightbot's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (85% vs 57%). On ratings volume, 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
AlgoRun is free to download; Lightbot costs $2.99 up front. AlgoRun sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Lightbot asks for nothing beyond the download.
AlgoRun holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 65 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 85% of Lightbot's written reviews are positive against 57% of AlgoRun's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Lightbot ships an update every 2 months, AlgoRun every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lightbot | AlgoRun |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (38 ratings) | 4.8 (65 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 84.7% of reviews — better | 57.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 38 | 65 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 5.1.1 — better | 12.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 53 MB | 140 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SpriteBox LLC | bitcrumbs s.r.l. |
Customer experience
Lightbot
AlgoRun
Bugs and requests
Lightbot
Reported bugs
7 issues- App crashes on open/startup
- App crashes during gameplay/levels
- Conditional level 2 bug
- Play button covers code in Conditional level
- Not loading due to iOS version
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- English levels not working on iPod 4th gen
- Crashing on 4th gen iPod/iPad
Requested features
8 requests- More levels
- Puzzle editor/user-created levels
- Hint system
- Ability to listen to music while playing
- Unlockable content/robot customization
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- More reward for completing challenges
- More levels to reinforce concepts
- Solutions page
AlgoRun
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Lightbot
No in-app purchases
AlgoRun
- Algorun Premium$1.99
