Comparison

ELSB Lite 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 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

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 review sentiment: ELSB Lite at 50% against Clicker Books's 0%. ELSB Lite also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). Clicker Books's advantage is monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). 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. ELSB Lite sells 7 one-off in-app purchases and Clicker Books sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ELSB Lite ships an update every 2 months, Clicker Books every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
ELSB Lite versus Clicker Books: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterELSB LiteClicker Books
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size236 MB116 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAttainment CompanyCrick Software

Customer experience

ELSB Lite

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

Clicker Books

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

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

Clicker Books

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

Questions

Is ELSB Lite free?
ELSB Lite is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Clicker Books free?
Clicker Books is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do ELSB Lite or Clicker Books have ads?
Neither ELSB Lite nor Clicker Books shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ELSB Lite or Clicker Books?
ELSB Lite ships an update every 2 months, and Clicker Books every 4 months. Most recently, ELSB Lite was updated on November 1, 2026 and Clicker Books on November 3, 2026.

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