Teach Your Monster to Read vs Bugs and Beyond
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Teach Your Monster to Read
This app offers fun, phonics-based reading games for children aged 3-6. It helps build essential literacy skills through interactive play, allowing children to create their own monster and embark on a reading adventure. Designed by experts, it's a safe and trusted tool for home and school.
- Interactive reading games for ages 3-6
- Improve letter sound recognition
- Learn to read sentences
- Track player progress
- Phonics games designed by experts
- Supports UK phonics programmes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Welcome to Teach Your Monster to Read, the award-winning app that makes learning to read fun and engaging! Our educational phonics and reading games have helped millions of children build essential literacy skills. Create your own monster and embark on a magical journey through interactive games designed for home and school use. With a safe, trusted, and highly recommended approach, Teach Your Monster to Read offers phonics-based reading games for all levels. Teaching through play is what we do best—download today and start your child’s reading adventure! TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ FEATURES INTERACTIVE KIDS READING GAMES • Take your custom-designed monster through educational games that are suitable for ages 3-6. • Improve letter sound recognition with reading games • Explore a world of phonics and educational games that teach your child to read sentences • Easily track their player’s progress to identify areas where their reader may need extra support PHONICS & READING GAMES DESIGNED BY EXPERTS • Designed in collaboration with Roehampton University and leading game designers • Phonics tools and educational games that complement phases 2-5 of UK Government-approved Letters and Sounds and other major systematic synthetic phonics programmes • 3 reading games designed for those in preschool, primary school, kindergarten, and first grade EDUCATIONAL PLAY AT NO ADDITIONAL COST • Teach Your Monster to Read is available on iPad and iPhone • Explore phonics and educational games without in-app purchases, hidden costs, or in-game adverts • Teach Your Monster to Read supports your child through every step of their reading journey HEAR FROM TEACHERS AND PARENTS WHO USE OUR READING GAMES "This game is the absolute best quality phonics game I have come across for educational and fun value." Marie Lewis, Rochdale “My class have reaped loads of benefits from using the programme and the difference in some of their reading skills has been dramatic." Maria Andrews, Foundation Phase Teacher "This is a fabulous game. I'm not kidding when I say that my daughter essentially learned all her letter sounds using First steps, with relatively minimal input from me! Great for parents to practise their letter sounds too." Eleanor Jones PART OF THE USBORNE FOUNDATION CHARITY Teach Your Monster to Read has been created by Teach Monster Games Ltd. which is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation. The Usborne Foundation is a charity founded by children’s publisher, Peter Usborne MBE. Harnessing research, design and technology, we create playful media addressing issues from literacy to health. Teach a monster today when you download our educational app! Teach Monster Games Ltd is a subsidiary of The Usborne Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales, charity number 1121957.
Bugs and Beyond
Explore a world of learning with over 18 interactive 3D games and activities designed to entertain and educate young children. Develop essential skills like logic, memory, and programming through engaging gameplay and fun challenges.
- Over 18 3D activities and games
- Develops logic, memory, and programming skills
- Designed for ages 4-6
- Parental gate for settings
- Apple Pencil support
- Profiles for multiple children
- High-quality graphics and music
Read full descriptionHide full description
Bugs and Beyond is the newest and first fully 3D app in the award winning Bugs and Buttons series. With over 18 activities and games, this app is packed with hours of curious activities to explore and entertain. Play a board game with whimsically animated characters. Program a robot to navigate its way to a battery. Explore and seek your way through a beetle safari, but don’t forget to feed the cat today! Skills: Colors Hand-eye coordination Letters Logic Memory Numbers Physics Pincer using Apple Pencil Programming/coding Sequencing And more... Highlights: Designed for ages (4-6) but every child is different NO In-Apps / NO third-party advertising Parental gate for settings and non-playable content Visual instructions that demonstrate game play Advanced haptics (iPhone only) for fun vibration effects Apple Pencil support Intelligent leveling in most games Profiles to support multi-child scores and achievements Lots of achievements to earn High quality graphics for next generation visuals Lots of beautiful and fun music Humorous interactions, surprises, and sound effects Data Policy: This app does NOT collect any data. All saved scores, achievements, profiles, and other data elements are private to your device and associated platform account. We want and appreciate your feedback! Email: support@littlebitstudio.com Facebook: littlebitstudio Instagram: @littlebitstudio Twitter: @lilbitstudio
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bugs and Beyond at 5.0 against Teach Your Monster to Read's 4.5. Bugs and Beyond also leads on price ($0.99 vs $8.99) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). Teach Your Monster to Read's advantage is ratings volume (31K vs 7) and chart position (#5 vs unranked). On update cadence, 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
Teach Your Monster to Read costs $8.99 and Bugs and Beyond $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bugs and Beyond holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Teach Your Monster to Read has 31K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of Teach Your Monster to Read's written reviews are positive against 100% of Bugs and Beyond's.
Teach Your Monster to Read ships an update every 6 weeks, Bugs and Beyond every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Teach Your Monster to Read | Bugs and Beyond |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (31K ratings) | 5.0 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 31K — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #5 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 96 MB | 227 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Teach Your Monster | Little Bit Studio, LLC |
Customer experience
Teach Your Monster to Read
Bugs and Beyond
Bugs and requests
Teach Your Monster to Read
Reported bugs
2 issues- Loss of progress and collected items
- Compatibility issues on certain devices
Requested features
4 requests- Add American English pronunciation option
- Introduce more practice modes and customization options
- Implement progress tracking and parental controls
- Allow selective review of specific letter sounds/words
Bugs and Beyond
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Teach Your Monster to Read
No in-app purchases
Bugs and Beyond
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Teach Your Monster to Read free?
Is Bugs and Beyond free?
Which has better reviews, Teach Your Monster to Read or Bugs and Beyond?
Do Teach Your Monster to Read or Bugs and Beyond have ads?
Which is updated more often, Teach Your Monster to Read or Bugs and Beyond?
Other comparisons















