Comparison

Reading Steps For Kids vs Phonic Flashcards

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

Head to head
About

Reading Steps For Kids

Features
Read full description

Reading Steps is a powerful teaching tool designed to help children develop essential reading skills in English. This engaging app aligns with the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and combines two proven methods—word recognition and phonics—to support early literacy development. With sight word (Dolch Words) card sets, children learn to recognize words by sight, while phonics-based exercises help them understand letter-sound relationships, empowering them to decode new words independently. Comprehensive Learning Topics: - Alphabet – Learn letter sounds and recognition through interactive exercises: Beginning Sounds, Find the Letter, Audio Quiz, Word Quiz, Picture Quiz - Consonants – Master CVC words with engaging activities: Fill the Word, Letter Wheel, Audio Quiz, Word Quiz, Picture Quiz - Short Vowels – Build fluency with single-syllable word sets: Fill the Word, Letter Wheel, Audio Quiz, Word Quiz, Picture Quiz - Long Vowels – Differentiate between short and long vowels with fun challenges: Fill the Word, Short-Long Vowel, Audio Quiz, Word Quiz, Picture Quiz - Digraphs & Blends – Strengthen phonics skills with specialized card sets and exercises. Each card includes a high-quality photo, text, and pronunciation. You can also personalize any card and record your own voice. The Reading Steps application covers the full scope of reading education and is accessible to both young and very young learners. It offers a wide range of engaging practice activities for learning reinforcement. This app is not only highly beneficial for individual learners but also for schools and language training centers.

About

Phonic Flashcards

This educational app helps young children build a strong foundation for reading and spelling by teaching phonics. It uses interactive flashcards with professional voiceovers and includes engaging games to reinforce learning.

Highlights
  • Interactive phonics flashcards
  • Professional voiceovers for phonemes and words
  • Multisensory word-building game
  • Picture-word matching activity
  • Phonological awareness quiz
  • Reward arcade games
  • Multiple voice accents
Features
Read full description

We've been making educational software for twenty years, and this is by far the best educational app we have ever made. We wish every child could use it before they start school. Why are Phonic Flashcards better than regular flashcards? Because when you learn with Phonic Flashcards, the phonemes (letters and digraphs) are sounded out! The word "fish" becomes "fff" "i" "shhh", with all words and phonemes recorded by a professional voice artist, helping to build a solid phonics foundation for reading (and spelling) success! All our apps are designed to maximize learning outcomes, while also being super easy to use. Parents do not need a degree in order to use Phonic Flashcards to teach their child how to read. Phonic Flashcards makes a great classroom activity for literacy centers, as well as for one-on-one teaching and assessment, and also whole-class instruction when teaching short vowel sounds. Ages 4-7 plus remedial Includes 200+ flashcards, mainly common nouns. Each interactive card features a picture, which you can tap to hear a fun sound effect. Choose whether to have the words voiced, sounded-out, or both! Tap the letters and digraphs to hear each phoneme. Blend them together to sound-out the word. Hide the picture to administer a reading test. Begin with the sounds of the alphabet. Next learn to read CVC words, focusing on each short vowel sound. Then progress on to 4-5 letter words with blends and common digraphs. Choose a phoneme/sound from the "Digraphs Menu" which includes: ck, sh, ch, th, ng, oo, ee, oa, ou, ai, ea, oi, oy, ow, aw, ir, ar, or, and ur. Full details of all of the Word Lists can be found at: www.phonicflashcards.com As well as FLASHCARDS, there are three additional activities: SHADOWS - a multisensory word-building game which is visual and tactile, while also reinforcing phonemes. MATCH UP! - simply involves matching words with pictures. Turn off the sound cues to test word recognition. WHICH WORD? - a game-show style phonological awareness quiz, to test students on initial sounds and rimes. Upon completing each activity, children are rewarded with a simple tap-tap style arcade game of their choice, Frog Hop or Fish Food. Please refer to the PDF Guide (found at www.phonicflashcards.com) for full details of all the activities, and "How to teach your child to read using Phonic Flashcards". The Phonic Flashcards app requires no setting up, apart from choosing your voice accent the very first time you use it. There are USA, UK and Australian speech options. (You may change voice accent at any time in ‘Settings’ via the cog icon on the front screen.) We care about your child's privacy. This app contains: no ads, no in-app purchases, no sharing of data, no tracking of your location, and no links to social media. If you like our apps, please support us by reviewing and/or rating them in the app store! If you have any suggestions to make our apps better, please contact us directly via our website (www.phonicflashcards.com)

Screenshots

Reading Steps For Kids4 screens
Phonic Flashcards4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Phonic Flashcards at every 8 months against Reading Steps For Kids's every 28 months. Phonic Flashcards also leads on price ($0.99 vs $3.99) and iOS requirement (6.0 vs 15.6). On ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Reading Steps For Kids costs $3.99 and Phonic Flashcards $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Reading Steps For Kids ships an update every 28 months, Phonic Flashcards every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Reading Steps For Kids versus Phonic Flashcards: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReading Steps For KidsPhonic Flashcards
Price$3.99$0.99 — better
Rating—4.7 (19 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—87.5% of reviews
Number of ratings—19 — better
Update frequencyEvery 28 monthsEvery 8 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Paid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.66.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size116 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSergey RozovikMichael Harvey

In-app purchases

None

Reading Steps For Kids

No in-app purchases

None

Phonic Flashcards

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Reading Steps For Kids free?
Reading Steps For Kids costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Phonic Flashcards free?
Phonic Flashcards costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Reading Steps For Kids or Phonic Flashcards have ads?
Neither Reading Steps For Kids nor Phonic Flashcards shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Reading Steps For Kids or Phonic Flashcards?
Reading Steps For Kids ships an update every 28 months, and Phonic Flashcards every 8 months. Most recently, Reading Steps For Kids was updated on October 26, 2026 and Phonic Flashcards on November 1, 2026.

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