Monster Phonics vs Chess Max Academy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Monster Phonics
This app uses a multi-sensory approach with character phoneme cues and color coding to teach reading and spelling of high-frequency words. It aims to accelerate learning progress for young children by simplifying "tricky" words.
- Multi-sensory phonics learning
- Character phoneme cues
- Color coding for sounds
- Teaches first 100 high-frequency words
- Supports reading and spelling
- Handwriting and letter formation
Read full descriptionHide full description
Monster Phonics products are already listed as highly effective multi-sensory phonics resources by the Department for Education, UK (2014). Monster Phonics has also been selected by BETT futures as one of the top 20 most inspiring new ed-tech ideas in the UK. This app supports the reading and spelling of the first 100 high frequency words and is part of a wider phonics scheme that supports the New Curriculum for Spelling (KS1) and phonics in Reception. Monster Phonics is a synthetic phonics scheme. It is unique in that it uses character (monster) phoneme cues and colour coding to represent the sounds A, E, I, O, U, oo, ow, silent letters and tricky letters. Each monster and its corresponding colour is linked to a specific set of graphemes that makes the particular phoneme. Monster Phonics Apps have been developed specifically to make phonics more accessible for all learners. The revolutionary use of colour coding and characterisation has been proven to dramatically accelerate progress in reading. Monster Phonics also teaches handwriting and the correct letter formation for the first 100 words. This Monster Phonics APP show how the first 100 words are more accessible to children because of the use of colour. The number of “tricky” words is reduced considerably with the colour coding system. There will be 2 Monster Phonics APPs covering the first 300 words. Once learned these words stay with children forever. The first 300 words make up 65% of all reading texts. Learning these words quickly is incredibly important for all children. Selected to be in the BETT Futures Cohort - January 2015!
Chess Max Academy
Learn chess through interactive courses and activities. Engage with explanations, puzzles, and practice games to improve your skills. Designed for various learning levels, it makes understanding chess concepts easy and fun.
- Interactive chess courses
- Activity-based learning
- Explanation activities
- Capture activities
- Puzzle and tactics solving
- Multiple-choice quizzes
- Play against computer
Read full descriptionHide full description
It's time to learn interactive chess courses with activity-based solving! Our courses have hundreds of activities from various learning levels. The different types of interactive activities help you digest the information easily. 1) Explanation Activity: This will teach you a concept in a concise way. 2) Capture Activity: The most fun and engaging way to learn piece movements and captures. 3) Puzzle Activity: Solve interesting puzzles and tactics from a given position. 4) MCQ Activity: Test your knowledge with quiz-based multiple-choice questions. 5) Play with Computer: Train your skills by practicing must-know positions with the computer.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chess Max Academy at Free against Monster Phonics's $2.99. Chess Max Academy also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 9 months) and review sentiment (100% vs 73%). On rating, 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
Chess Max Academy is free to download; Monster Phonics costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Monster Phonics against 5.0 for Chess Max Academy. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 73% of Monster Phonics's written reviews are positive against 100% of Chess Max Academy's.
Monster Phonics ships an update every 9 months, Chess Max Academy every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Monster Phonics | Chess Max Academy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 72.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 784 MB | 86 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | Ingrid Connors | Chess Max Nexus Inc |
Customer experience
Monster Phonics
Chess Max Academy
In-app purchases
Monster Phonics
No in-app purchases
Chess Max Academy
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Monster Phonics free?
Is Chess Max Academy free?
Which has better reviews, Monster Phonics or Chess Max Academy?
Do Monster Phonics or Chess Max Academy have ads?
Which is updated more often, Monster Phonics or Chess Max Academy?
Other comparisons















