Comparison

ELSB Lite vs HearApp Kids

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

Head to head
About

ELSB Lite

This app provides systematic instruction for print and phonemic awareness, featuring seven levels and ongoing assessments for personalized student progress. Research supports its effectiveness as a literacy program.

Highlights
  • Systematic print and phonemic awareness instruction
  • Seven distinct learning levels
  • Ongoing student assessments
  • Personalized progress tracking
  • Research-backed effectiveness
Read full description

The Early Literacy Skills Builder app incorporates systematic instruction to teach both print and phonemic awareness. ELSB is a multi-year program with seven distinct levels and ongoing assessments so students progress at their own pace. Note: This free version comes with level 1 - Lesson 1 and Level 5 - lesson 1. Full levels can be purchased from the in-app store. 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. Instruction is one-on-one or in small groups. 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

HearApp Kids

This app provides auditory exercises designed to improve listening skills for individuals with hearing loss. It offers personalized sessions with visual prompts and repetition to help users discriminate speech sounds in various environments. The program is suitable for both children and adults, supporting multiple user profiles.

Highlights
  • Auditory exercises for listening improvement
  • Personalized sessions based on progress
  • Identification and discrimination of words/phrases
  • Support for background noise scenarios
  • Visual prompts and listening helpers
  • Multiple user profiles
Features
Read full description

HearApp helps people with listening challenges learn to hear better. It's the perfect exercise plan for children and adults with hearing loss looking to achieve optimal hearing. Rooted in research and praised by users and audiologists alike, the app is fun, effective, affordable, and easy to use—at home or in clinic. How it works: HearApp takes you or your child through a series of auditory exercises. You'll practice identifying and discriminating words and phrases in quiet and with background noise. Visual prompts, repetition, and other listening helpers provide support along the way. Your progress is saved automatically and used by HearApp to personalize your listening sessions. HearApp supports up to four separate user profiles on one iPad. Our goal: HearApp is the result of several years of hearing research by BioSpeech, Inc., a biomedical research company located in Portland, Oregon, specializing in speech and hearing technology. The goal of HearApp is to build the listening skills of individuals with hearing loss, so that they can comprehend the language in their environment. With HearApp, individuals with hearing loss can begin to discriminate and identify the speech sounds in the spoken language around them. Background: In the United States, there are roughly 35 million individuals with some degree of hearing loss. Of these people, around 10 million have hearing aids and 67,000 have cochlear implants. Intensive auditory rehabilitation training is needed to fully realize the potential benefit of these devices and fully hear and understand speech. Face-to-face training with a specialist is expensive and not always accessible. HearApp aims to make auditory rehabilitation training more accessible for children and adults alike.

Screenshots

HearApp Kids4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ELSB Lite at 4.8 against HearApp Kids's 4.0. ELSB Lite also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months). HearApp Kids's advantage is device support (4 vs 1). On price, ratings volume, 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. ELSB Lite sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and HearApp Kids sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ELSB Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 2 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ELSB Lite ships an update every 2 months, HearApp Kids every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on June 6, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ELSB Lite versus HearApp Kids: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterELSB LiteHearApp Kids
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4 ratings) — better4.0 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 5 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size236 MB680 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAttainment Company, Inc.BioSpeech, Inc.

Customer experience

ELSB Lite

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

HearApp Kids

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

ELSB Lite

One-time7
  • Level 1$21.99
  • Level 2$21.99
  • Level 3$21.99
Show 4 more
  • Level 4$21.99
  • Level 5$21.99
  • Level 6$21.99
  • Level 7$21.99
1 purchases

HearApp Kids

One-time1
  • Unlock All Content$19.99

Questions

Is ELSB Lite free?
ELSB Lite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HearApp Kids free?
HearApp Kids is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ELSB Lite or HearApp Kids?
ELSB Lite is rated higher. ELSB Lite averages 4.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while HearApp Kids averages 4.0 from 2 ratings.
Do ELSB Lite or HearApp Kids have ads?
Neither ELSB Lite nor HearApp Kids shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ELSB Lite or HearApp Kids?
ELSB Lite ships an update every 2 months, and HearApp Kids every 5 months. Most recently, ELSB Lite was updated on June 6, 2026 and HearApp Kids on September 10, 2026.

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