Comparison

ELSB vs Clicker Books

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

Head to head
About

ELSB

This comprehensive preliteracy curriculum helps students develop essential print and phonemic awareness skills. It offers daily lessons and assessments across seven levels, guided by an engaging narrator and featuring interactive activities like flashcards and tapping games. Students can also personalize their learning experience by creating unique avatars.

Highlights
  • Multi-year preliteracy curriculum
  • Levels 1-7 with daily lessons
  • Print and phonemic awareness objectives
  • Interactive games (tapping, flashcards)
  • Customizable student avatars
  • Research-backed effectiveness
Read full description

The ELSB app is a multi-year preliteracy curriculum for students who have not acquired print and phonemic awareness. The software brings to life Levels 1—7; daily lessons and level assessments. The program narrator and main character Moe the frog, take students through lessons that are built to shape mastery of 14 objectives following an easy-to-hard sequence. Objectives include sight word vocabulary with flashcards, syllable segmentation with a tapping game, and print awareness with pointing to text as it is read. Collaborate with each student to create their own unique avatar. Five years of solid research have been completed through the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, proving ELSB to be a highly effective literacy program and more effective than a sight-word only program. ELSB is based upon the principles of systematic and direct instruction. It incorporates scripted lessons, least-prompt strategies, teachable objectives, built-in lesson repetition, and ongoing assessments. The seven ELSB levels contain five structured lessons each. All students begin at Level 1. Teach scripted lessons daily in two 30-minute sessions. On the completion of each level, formal assessments are given. ELSB includes everything you need to implement a multi-year literacy curriculum.

About

Clicker Books

Create personalized books with text, pictures, and sound. Offers customizable reading and writing support for all abilities, with hundreds of ready-made books available. Teachers can create custom content for students to complete.

Highlights
  • Child-friendly book creation tools
  • Customizable reading and writing support
  • Hundreds of ready-made books
  • Teacher-friendly book creation
  • Speech support and word predictor
  • Add pictures and record audio
  • Link pages for interactive stories
Read full description

Develop literacy skills and build confidence with Clicker Books – the book making app that includes extensive support for students of all abilities. Continuously developed by Crick Software for over 25 years, the Clicker product range is used in schools around the world. CHILD-FRIENDLY BOOK MAKING Students use the child-friendly tools to add pictures, text and sound to create fantastic looking books. As you’d expect with a Crick Software app, customizable reading and writing support is included to help children of all abilities achieve success. HUNDREDS OF READY-MADE BOOKS Choose from a huge selection of books on LearningGrids, our online library accessed from within the app. Books cover a wide variety of curriculum topics across different levels. TEACHER-FRIENDLY TOOLS Clicker Books enables teachers to quickly and easily create books for students to read, tailoring the content to their learning needs. Create complete books or leave selected parts for students to complete. WRITE WITH CLICKER SUPPORT As they write into their books, children benefit from acclaimed Clicker support features including: • Speech Support – enables students to review what they have written and think carefully about what they are about to write. • Word Predictor – suggests words that fit the context of students’ writing. The predictor can be customized according to reading level, helping students to use good vocabulary and create flowing text with accurate spelling. • Child-Friendly Keyboard & Font – a choice of two lowercase keyboards and the Sassoon font as standard. ADD & DRAW PICTURES Add pictures from your iPad, take photos with the camera, or use the integrated painting tools - you can even paint on top of images. LISTEN AND RECORD Tap the speech button to listen to the text on the page. Or record your own speech – a fantastic way to fully personalize a book, and a great alternative to writing for children with special needs. LINK PAGES Add links wherever you like to create a content page or a choose-your-own-adventure story – the only limit is your imagination! BOOKS TO BE PROUD OF Use a simple tiled layout or customize your page as much as you want. When you’re ready, share your books as a PDF. Watch your students’ confidence grow as they see what they have achieved! PART OF THE CRICK SOFTWARE CLICKER FAMILY Based in the UK and US, Crick Software has a worldwide reputation for quality educational software for students of all abilities. To find more Clicker Apps, search for Crick Software in the App Store. WHAT TEACHERS SAY “This app gives children a structure to work within but also enough flexibility to produce personalized books. I would certainly recommend Clicker Books for use across the whole curriculum.” - Mike Elliott, Teacher and IT Advisor “As brilliant as the PC version of Clicker… take it from me this is an essential app for a special or elementary classroom blessed with iPads.” - Anthony Evans, Assistant Principal "LOVE LOVE LOVE the Clicker support in Clicker Books! I LOVE how the editing functions are so intuitive and self-explanatory and how easy it is to export and share." - Erin Sheldon, parent and AT Consultant

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Clicker Books at Free against ELSB's $149.99. ELSB's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 6 weeks vs every 4 months). On review sentiment, ads 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

Clicker Books is free to download; ELSB costs $149.99 up front. Clicker Books sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. ELSB asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ELSB ships an update every 6 weeks, Clicker Books every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ELSB versus Clicker Books: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterELSBClicker Books
Price$149.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size238 MB116 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAttainment CompanyCrick Software

Customer experience

ELSB

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Clicker Books

Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

In-app purchases

None

ELSB

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Clicker Books

One-time1
  • Clicker Books In-App Purchase$350.00

Questions

Is ELSB free?
ELSB costs $149.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Clicker Books free?
Clicker Books is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ELSB or Clicker Books have ads?
Neither ELSB nor Clicker Books shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ELSB or Clicker Books?
ELSB ships an update every 6 weeks, and Clicker Books every 4 months. Most recently, ELSB was updated on October 19, 2026 and Clicker Books on October 8, 2026.

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