Comparison

SPEAKplay! vs Sunspeak

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

Head to head
About

SPEAKplay!

This app uses gesture-based games to help young children and new users of communication devices develop essential motor skills for navigating touchscreens. It focuses on directed touch, drag and drop, and swipe gestures to improve operational competence and enable earlier access to mobile content.

Highlights
  • Gesture-based games
  • Directed and Sustained Touch training
  • Drag and Drop skill development
  • Vertical and Horizontal Swipe practice
  • Progressive difficulty levels
  • Auditory and visual feedback
Features
Read full description

SPEAKplay!™ is an evidence-based therapy app to introduce mobile interfaces to prospective users of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). SPEAKplay! offers a series of gesture-based games that directly target the difficulties in learning complex and multi-step motor skills to access content on mobile AAC devices. The intended outcome of engaging with these games is to enhance motor functioning of the young child or first time AAC user to maximize operational competence in navigating touchscreen-based content. With better gesture and operating skills, children can get started earlier on mobile devices and benefit from AAC applications to the full extent. Training with SPEAKplay! focuses on the critical gestures of (1) Directed and Sustained Touch, (2) Drag and Drop, and (3) Vertical and Horizontal Swipe. The gestures are introduced through a series of fun and engaging games, including “Pop the Bubbles” (for Targeted Touch), “Fly the Rocket” (for Targeted and Sustained Touch), and “Feed the Dino” (for Horizontal and Vertical Swipes as well as Drag and Drop). In the “Pop the Bubbles” game the user is faced with multicolored bubbles that emerge from a bathtub on the bottom. When the bubbles are tapped or “popped” by the user, they disappear from the screen with an auditory “bubble pop” cue. The task for the user is to “pop” all the bubbles till the “You win!” screen appears. To increase the game’s difficulty, the size and number of bubbles available to “pop” can be modified. The “Fly the Rocket” game teaches its users to respond to a visual stimulus, the movements of the stars. The stars either pulse, shake or flash, signaling the user that they need to be touched to fly the rocket through space. With each star that is pressed the rocket moves closer to the moon, and once it reaches the moon the user wins the game. Three levels of difficulty involve four, six, or eight stars to be tapped. Randomization of the sequence in which the stars appear makes the game different each time and unpredictable. The “Feed the Dino” game teaches the user to press and hold onto a dinosaur and move it around to collect food and bones scattered across the screen. To reward and encourage the user to keep playing, the dinosaur dances for a moment as bones are collected before continuing. Once all the food and bones are gathered, the user drags the dinosaur to its home to complete the game and reach the win screen. The game has two modes, one with a free moving dino and one with a path that the dino must follow. This path can be adjusted to be shorter or longer to change the difficulty for completion. SPEAKplay! is a research-based application and complements intervention provided through SPEAKall!® and SPEAKmore!®. The SPEAK application suite has received strong recognition in the AAC industry as documented by prestigious awards including among others: ● 2025 European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD) Technology & Innovation Award, First Place ● 2018 Anna Kennedy Online Autism Charity, Autism Hero Award – First Place, Entrepreneurial Category ● 2017 Milken Family Foundation Grand Prize and Overall Winner, Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition ● 2017 ChanceLight Behavioral Health and Education Prize, Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition ● 2017 Edison Innovation Award – Gold, Language Learning Products Thank you for your continued support and please continue to send us your feedback and ideas! (www.speakabilities.com) Product Features: ● Gamification elements to keep the user engaged and motivated ● 
Active training of motor capabilities needed for operating AAC apps ● Different levels of difficulty to adjust for learner growth ● Easy programming through intuitive admin mode ● Manage multiple learners on a single device ● Direct access to SPEAK Abilities YouTube Channel ● Haptic feedback when moving Dino character ● Compatibility with both iPhone and iPad

About

Sunspeak

Features
Read full description

Tap words and symbols to build sentences and speak. Sunspeak is an easy to use and highly customizable AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app for people who cannot speak or need help being understood. Fully customizable • Create and edit communication boards • Drag and drop to move and resize buttons • Customize layouts, colors, content and more • Gradually reveal more words as communication improves • Adapt the app to each individual user Built for real-world use • Fast, responsive and designed for daily communication • Works offline for reliability anywhere • Simple to use Version history and control • See every change made to a board • Instantly restore previous versions • Undo / redo changes while editing • Experiment freely without losing progress Sync across devices • Seamlessly sync your boards between devices • Set up once and access everywhere Progress insights • See communication improve over time • Understand patterns like longer messages and faster typing Multiple languages • Create and use boards in different languages • Support for bilingual communication Private and secure • Your data stays under your control • No ads or invasive tracking Designed for caregivers and users • Flexible setup for parents, carers and therapists • Suitable for both children and adults • Scales from simple boards to advanced setups Who is Sunspeak for? Sunspeak is ideal for people who: • are non-verbal or have limited speech • use AAC systems to communicate • need a flexible, modern communication tool Sunspeak makes communication simple, fast and accessible. https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

SPEAKplay!4 screens
Sunspeak4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: SPEAKplay! at none against Sunspeak's 3. SPEAKplay! also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Sunspeak sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. SPEAKplay! asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SPEAKplay! ships an update every 2 days, Sunspeak every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
SPEAKplay! versus Sunspeak: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSPEAKplay!Sunspeak
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB99 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSPEAK Abilities, LLPAlzenware

In-app purchases

None

SPEAKplay!

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Sunspeak

Subscriptions2
  • Pro$9.991 Month
  • Pro$84.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$199.99

Questions

Is SPEAKplay! free?
SPEAKplay! is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sunspeak free?
Sunspeak is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SPEAKplay! or Sunspeak have ads?
Neither SPEAKplay! nor Sunspeak shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SPEAKplay! or Sunspeak?
SPEAKplay! ships an update every 2 days, and Sunspeak every 2 weeks. Most recently, SPEAKplay! was updated on October 24, 2026 and Sunspeak on October 17, 2026.

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