Comparison

HB Phonological Awareness vs Auditory Memory Ride

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

Head to head
About

HB Phonological Awareness

This educational app helps students improve listening and phonological awareness skills through interactive sound-based activities. Students learn to segment, blend, and manipulate sounds to build a virtual rock band, with a multi-level program that gradually increases in difficulty.

Highlights
  • Targets nine phonological awareness skills
  • Systematic sound segmentation and blending
  • Multi-level program with increasing difficulty
  • Monitors progress and provides feedback
  • Teaches listening skills for reading
  • Customizable program settings
Features
Read full description

HearBuilder is available for all users—families, educators, therapists, schools, and districts. Anyone with a HearBuilder subscription can access the full program. HearBuilder Phonological Awareness gives students a systematic, engaging way to build phonological awareness and listening skills. As they learn to segment, blend, and manipulate sounds, students earn instruments and band members to form the rock group The Phonemix, turning skill practice into a fun musical adventure. Program Features • Targets nine essential phonological awareness skills: Sentence Segmentation, Syllable Blending, Syllable Segmentation, Rhyming, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation & Identification, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition, and Phoneme Manipulation • Multi level activities that gradually increase in difficulty • Builds foundational listening and sound awareness skills needed for early reading • Supports learners at a wide range of skill levels • Tracks progress and provides frequent feedback to keep students motivated HearBuilder Online (my.hearbuilder.com) • Access all four HearBuilder programs: Following Directions, Phonological Awareness, Auditory Memory, and Sequencing • Monitor progress and track student performance • Individualize each student’s settings and difficulty levels • Add adjustable background noise to increase challenge • Customize and print detailed reports

About

Auditory Memory Ride

This app helps children aged 6-13 improve their auditory memory and receptive language skills through engaging, hierarchical exercises. It offers over 1000 stimuli, the option to add background noise, and adjustable delays for recall tasks.

Highlights
  • Over 1000 audio stimuli
  • Adjustable background noise
  • Four delay modes for recall
  • Recognition and recall tasks
  • Hierarchical skill building
  • Targets digits, words, sentences, details, and paragraphs
Features
Read full description

****Auditory Memory Ride is a great tool I will use on a regular basis because it is flexible (I can easily control what it does for each specific child), entertaining, and hierarchical in its skill building. It is a fun "ride" for students to take as they work to improve receptive language and auditory memory. I love the feature of presenting the stimulus with and without background noise, as well as the length of time between the stimulus being presented and when they answer. (Stephanie M.S.CCC-SLP, blogger)**** ****Auditory Memory Ride is a fantastic app that directly targets auditory memory in a number of different contexts. (Nikky Heyman, SLP, blogger)**** The Auditory Memory Ride app is a comprehensive and fun app for students aged six to 13 with central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) or other related disorders (e.g., receptive language disorder or autism). The Auditory Memory Ride app includes over 1000 stimuli with pre-recorded audio and the ability to introduce background noise. The app includes both recognition and recall tasks with the ability to delay the presentation of the stimuli. There are four modes of delay, including No delay, 5-second delay, 10-second delay, and 15-second delay. Students will practice their auditory memory by recognizing and recalling the following: •Digits and numbers (e.g., recalling three digits or recalling two largest digits in the field of five (9 levels of difficulty) •Words and sentences (e.g., recognizing/recalling two unrelated words or recognizing/recalling five to seven-word sentences (10 levels of difficulty) •Details (e.g., recognizing/recalling two objects with two details (four levels of difficulty) •Paragraphs (six levels): Level 1 Yes/No Questions—three to four sentence paragraphs Level 2 Multiple Choice Questions—three to four-sentence paragraphs Level 3 Open-Ended Questions—three to four-sentence paragraphs Level 4 Yes/No Questions—five to seven-sentence paragraphs Level 5 Multiple Choice Questions—five to seven-sentence paragraphs Level 6 Open-Ended Questions—five to seven-sentence paragraphs Auditory Memory refers to the ability to retain and recall what was heard. Functional auditory memory is critical for following increasingly complex directions, acquiring and expanding vocabulary and knowledge, and for becoming literate. Children with auditory processing disorder struggle with tasks involving auditory memory. They have difficulty retaining auditory information, such as verbal directions or recalling stories. Research is still needed in the area of central auditory processing disorder; however, most individuals will benefit from procedures that target the acoustic signal and from procedures that target language. Comprehensive evaluation and multidisciplinary approach are important aspects of the treatment of individuals with central auditory processing disorder (ASHA 2005). Other apps developed by Virtual Speech Center for central auditory processing disorder include Auditory Workout, Auditory Processing Studio, and School of Multi-Step Directions. Resources: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (2005). (central) auditory processing disorder [Technical Report]. Available from www.asha.org/policy.

Screenshots

HB Phonological Awareness4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: HB Phonological Awareness at Free against Auditory Memory Ride's $24.99. HB Phonological Awareness also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 66 months) and review sentiment (67% vs 50%). Auditory Memory Ride's advantage is iOS requirement (7.0 vs 15.0). On rating, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

HB Phonological Awareness is free to download; Auditory Memory Ride costs $24.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 3.4 for HB Phonological Awareness against 3.5 for Auditory Memory Ride. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 24 and 14 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 67% of HB Phonological Awareness's written reviews are positive against 50% of Auditory Memory Ride's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HB Phonological Awareness ships an update every 2 months, Auditory Memory Ride every 66 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
HB Phonological Awareness versus Auditory Memory Ride: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHB Phonological AwarenessAuditory Memory Ride
PriceFree — better$24.99
Rating3.4 (24 ratings)3.5 (14 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.7% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings24 — better14
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 66 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS15.07.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size239 MB215 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSuper Duper PublicationsVirtual Speech Center Inc.

Customer experience

HB Phonological Awareness

All ratings24 ratings
Positive62.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative37.5%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Auditory Memory Ride

All ratings14 ratings
Positive64.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative35.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

None

HB Phonological Awareness

No in-app purchases

None

Auditory Memory Ride

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HB Phonological Awareness free?
HB Phonological Awareness is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Auditory Memory Ride free?
Auditory Memory Ride costs $24.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HB Phonological Awareness or Auditory Memory Ride?
Auditory Memory Ride is rated higher. HB Phonological Awareness averages 3.4 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while Auditory Memory Ride averages 3.5 from 14 ratings.
Do HB Phonological Awareness or Auditory Memory Ride have ads?
Neither HB Phonological Awareness nor Auditory Memory Ride shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HB Phonological Awareness or Auditory Memory Ride?
HB Phonological Awareness ships an update every 2 months, and Auditory Memory Ride every 66 months. Most recently, HB Phonological Awareness was updated on October 24, 2026 and Auditory Memory Ride on October 9, 2026.

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