Comparison

CodeStart by ChatStick vs Terminal Drill

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

Head to head
About

CodeStart by ChatStick

Features
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CodeStart helps beginners learn coding in a clear, practical way. Start with the basics, practice with interactive quizzes, and build real project logic step by step. Stay motivated with XP, streaks, achievements, and progress tracking. What you'll get: - Beginner-friendly learning paths - Bite-sized lessons with code examples - Interactive quizzes and daily coding challenges - Guided projects to apply what you learn - Progress dashboard with XP, streaks, and accuracy stats - Achievements and shareable certificates (Premium) Free experience includes core lessons and practice. Upgrade once to unlock all learning paths, all projects, premium themes, certificates, offline-focused learning flow, and an ad-free experience. Whether you're a student or a complete beginner, CodeStart gives you a structured way to build real coding confidence.

About

Terminal Drill

Features
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Build command-line confidence, one useful session at a time. Terminal Drill is an offline practice companion for terminal skills, developer workflows and Linux administration. Learn with short lessons, recall commands, troubleshoot simulated machines and take the same tasks to your own system. FOUR LEARNING TRACKS • Terminal Foundations — files, text, permissions and everyday shell skills. • Developer Workflows — Git, shell productivity and automation. • Linux Operations — services, networking, storage and containers. • RHCSA preparation — a RHEL 10 curriculum with 83 lessons, review assignments, 48 chapter labs and six capstones. PRACTISE, THEN APPLY Choose guided practice or independent recall. Use hints when you need them, then return for a later retrieval attempt. Practical labs check the represented machine state, including protected data and configuration that must survive a simulated reboot. Each lab declares its supported commands and limitations. Companion guides help you practise on a disposable real system. The 66 practical labs include twelve additional exercises across shell reasoning, Git recovery, files and text, service troubleshooting, networking and container operations. Labs are bounded teaching simulations, not a Linux runtime. They remain labelled as awaiting independent technical review; completion is not a certification or an exam-readiness guarantee. CLASSIC OR ADVENTURE Keep the familiar Classic experience, or switch to Adventure in Settings. Adventure adds missions, a character profile, twelve achievements, earned titles and cosmetics, flexible weekly goals and a collectible homelab. Progress, XP and purchases are shared between modes. Switch whenever you like. BUILT FOR USEFUL PRACTICE • Adaptive sessions and spaced review • Searchable command reference with examples and pitfalls • Mistake review and targeted practice • Saved lab checkpoints and session history • Manual backup and replacement restore for account-free device transfer • iPhone, iPad and Mac support ONE PURCHASE. EVERY TRACK. Start with free introductory content, Starter Ops and the RHCSA sampler. The existing one-time Full Access purchase unlocks every track and future content updates. Existing Full Access owners receive this expansion at no additional cost. No subscription. OFFLINE AND PRIVATE No account, advertising SDK or app analytics. Learning content is bundled and progress stays on your device. You control exports and sharing. Purchases and restoration use Apple's StoreKit. Terminal Drill is an independent learning product, not affiliated with or endorsed by Red Hat. Red Hat, RHEL and RHCSA are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc.

Screenshots

CodeStart by ChatStick4 screens
Terminal Drill4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Terminal Drill at none against CodeStart by ChatStick's shown. Terminal Drill also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. CodeStart by ChatStick sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Terminal Drill sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
CodeStart by ChatStick versus Terminal Drill: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCodeStart by ChatStickTerminal Drill
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 3 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.217.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChatStick Company LimitedRichard Ziolkowski

In-app purchases

1 purchases

CodeStart by ChatStick

One-time1
  • CodeStart Premium (Lifetime)$2.99
1 purchases

Terminal Drill

One-time1
  • Terminal Drill - Full Access$3.99

Questions

Is CodeStart by ChatStick free?
CodeStart by ChatStick is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Terminal Drill free?
Terminal Drill is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do CodeStart by ChatStick or Terminal Drill have ads?
CodeStart by ChatStick shows ads; Terminal Drill does not.

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