Comparison

HB Following Directions vs Initial Code

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

Head to head
About

HB Following Directions

This educational app helps children improve auditory processing and following directions skills through a fun game format. It systematically teaches basic concepts and listening skills essential for reading, adapting to different learning levels.

Highlights
  • Follows increasingly difficult directions
  • Teaches 40 basic concepts
  • Improves listening and sound awareness
  • Fun game format
  • Monitors progress and provides feedback
  • Adapts to different skill levels
Features
Read full description

Our award-winning, research-based and evidence-based software program is now an iPad app! HearBuilder Following Directions gives students a systematic way to improve their auditory and following directions skills! At the same time, students will learn how to become Master Toy Makers while building their own Toy Central factories. App features: • Follow increasingly difficult directions • Demonstrate knowledge of 40 basic concepts in five areas: Basic Directions, Sequential Directions, Quantitative & Spatial Directions, Temporal Directions, and Conditional Directions • Teaches children important listening and sound awareness for reading • Uses a fun game format to teach children better auditory processing and listening skills • Meets the needs of children with different skill levels • Monitors progress and provides frequent feedback With HearBuilder Online at my.hearbuilder.com you can: • Access all four HearBuilder programs – Following Directions, Phonological Awareness, Auditory Memory and Sequencing • Monitor progress and track student data • Individualize each student’s program settings • Set levels of difficulty for each activity • Add background noise at any level and adjust the volume for each student • Customize and print reports

About

Initial Code

This educational app helps young children learn to read and spell in English through interactive activities. It focuses on blending, segmenting, and sound-spelling correspondences, with units unlocking as progress is made. Designed for iPad, it reinforces learning for automatic reading and writing skills.

Highlights
  • Reading and spelling practice
  • Blending and segmenting activities
  • Sound-spelling correspondence
  • Word and sentence reading/writing
  • Unit-based progression
  • Reinforces learning through repetition
Read full description

The official app for the Sounds-Write Initial Code phonics programme, for learning to read and spell in English. ******* IPAD ONLY ******* This app is currently unavailable on the iPhone because of the writing element of the app. For young children to become fluent readers and spellers they need to rehearse and consolidate what they are learning. It is this, repeated over and over again, that enables their access to alphabetic code knowledge and skills to become totally automatic and internalised processes. This app offers a variety of activities to develop the skills of blending and segmenting, sound spelling correspondence, word reading and writing and some sentences reading and writing. The app has been designed to introduce all the sound-spelling correspondences your child(ren) needs to learn to put them well on the way to learning to read and write. Each unit will be locked until the child has completed enough of the current unit to be able to progress. For more information on the Sounds-Write programme please visit www.sounds-write.co.uk

Screenshots

HB Following Directions1 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Initial Code at 5.0 against HB Following Directions's 3.3. Initial Code also leads on review sentiment (67% vs 38%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). HB Following Directions's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and ratings volume (24 vs 2). On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Initial Code holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HB Following Directions has 24 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of HB Following Directions's written reviews are positive against 67% of Initial Code's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
HB Following Directions versus Initial Code: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHB Following DirectionsInitial Code
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (24 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews37.5% of reviews66.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings24 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size295 MB83 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSuper Duper PublicationsSounds-Write Ltd

Customer experience

HB Following Directions

All ratings24 ratings
Positive54.2%
Neutral4.2%
Negative41.7%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral12.5%
Negative50.0%

Initial Code

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral13.3%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

None

HB Following Directions

No in-app purchases

None

Initial Code

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HB Following Directions free?
HB Following Directions is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Initial Code free?
Initial Code is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HB Following Directions or Initial Code?
Initial Code is rated higher. HB Following Directions averages 3.3 out of 5 from 24 ratings, while Initial Code averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do HB Following Directions or Initial Code have ads?
Neither HB Following Directions nor Initial Code shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HB Following Directions or Initial Code?
HB Following Directions ships an update every 2 months, and Initial Code every 2 months. Most recently, HB Following Directions was updated on November 2, 2026 and Initial Code on November 1, 2026.

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