Keyboarding Without Tears vs Animal Typing
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Keyboarding Without Tears
This app provides touch-typing practice for K-5 students using a game-based curriculum. Licensed users can log in to access assigned activities and develop essential computer skills. An educator account is required for access.
- Game-based touch-typing activities
- Pre-keyboarding lessons
- Developmentally appropriate lessons
- Online progress monitoring
- Digital citizenship training
- Cross-curricular connections
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Access the Keyboarding Without Tears K-5 student curriculum. This app is available for licensed students of Keyboarding Without Tears web-based program and serve as a companion app for touch-typing practice on mobile devices. Students can login and access their Keyboarding Without Tears activities assigned to them by their educator. An existing educator account in +Live Insights educator dashboard is required to access the app. The Keyboarding Without Tears K-5 curriculum features: • Effective, game-based activities • Pre-keyboarding and touch-typing lessons • Developmentally appropriate lessons by grade • Easy online progress monitoring • Digital citizenship and general computer readiness activities • Strong English Language & Arts and other Cross-Curricular connections
Animal Typing
Learn touch typing with a fun, game-like approach. Your typing speed and accuracy determine your animal's speed, encouraging faster and more precise key presses. Features lessons for all ages, including specialized content for children.
- Typing speed and accuracy game
- 28 general typing lessons
- 32 kid-specific typing lessons
- Virtual and Bluetooth keyboard support
- Animated finger guides
- Multiple keyboard layouts
- Customizable finger zones
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• Animal Typing is a simple and funny way to learn touch typing for all ages. In Animal Typing, the animal you get depends on your typing skills. The faster you type, the faster is your animal (snail, rabbit, horse, etc.). However, be careful, Animal Typing also greatly rewards your accuracy. So, avoid the typos and get the cheetah! • Use the virtual keyboard or a Bluetooth keyboard. ** A hardware Bluetooth keyboard is recommended. ** • 28 lessons to gradually learn the keyboard keys. • Also include two sets of 32 lessons designed for kids under 12 years old. • You could also import your own lessons (add them using iCloud Drive). • Animated fingers showing the proper typing technique. • Multiple Keyboard layouts: Qwerty (US/UK), Dvorak, Colemak, Workman, Qwertz (German/Swiss), Azerty (France). (Kids Lessons are designed for the Qwerty and Dvorak layout.) • Possibility to customize the finger typing zones. • Local user login system to switch between multiple users. • Dictation mode that spells out the words to be typed. • Include advanced lessons for specials characters (1234... #$%[]...). Credits: I want to thank the translators Mr Oscar Céspedes, Mr Amos Del Fabbro, Ms Lingnan Wang, Ms Kwon Nam Soo, Ms Masako Nagano and Ms Hanah Nguyen for the realization of the Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese lessons respectively. I want to thank Ms Gaylene Sutton for her suggestion and advices in the preparation of the "Kids Lessons" set. I want to thank the freesound.org community for the sound effects. Full audio credits: https://sites.google.com/view/animaltyping/.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Animal Typing at 73% against Keyboarding Without Tears's 4%. Animal Typing also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (597 vs 6). Keyboarding Without Tears's advantage is price (Free vs $19.99) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.6). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Keyboarding Without Tears is free to download; Animal Typing costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Animal Typing holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Animal Typing has 597 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 4% of Keyboarding Without Tears's written reviews are positive against 73% of Animal Typing's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Keyboarding Without Tears | Animal Typing |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 3.7 (6 ratings) | 4.3 (597 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 4.1% of reviews | 73.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 597 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 83 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Handwriting Without Tears & Get Set for School | Corentin Faucher |
Customer experience
Keyboarding Without Tears
Animal Typing
User reviews
Keyboarding Without Tears
From 6 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Age-appropriate exercises (for some)
- 👍 Motivating for students (for some)
- 👍 Works well on computer (for some)
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐛 Freezing screens
- 🐛 Keyboard not recognized
- 🐛 Inconsistent progress tracking
- 🐛 Confusing login process
Animal Typing
From 597 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Fun and engaging for kids
- 🚀 Improves typing speed and accuracy
- 💡 Teaches correct finger placement
- 🌟 Entertaining and enjoyable
- 🎯 Effective for learning to type
Room to improve
- 💸 Expensive for some users
- 🤔 Unnatural text movement
- 🤷♀️ Words are not always real
- ❌ Some users can't advance levels
- 👎 Sound issues for some
Bugs and requests
Keyboarding Without Tears
Reported bugs
10 issues- App crashes frequently
- App freezes during use
- External keyboards are not recognized
- Progress is deleted without warning
- Puzzle pieces do not work correctly
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- Screen does not rotate
- No sound after sign-in
- Login issues (PIN required, invalid email)
- Inconsistent skipping of review content
- Grammar errors in the app
Requested features
11 requests- Make the app more fun and engaging
- Fix the keyboard recognition issue
- Improve app performance and stability
- Allow skipping of review content
- Ensure puzzle pieces work correctly
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- Fix screen rotation issues
- Add sound to tutorials and lessons
- Clarify PIN/license requirements
- Make the app available to the general public
- Improve grammar and spelling
- Use the default iOS keyboard
Animal Typing
Reported bugs
11 issues- No sound on iPad
- DELETE key stops working
- App crashes when screen is tapped
- App gets stuck
- Payment cancellation issues
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- Custom lesson text shows 'undefined'
- Logs out during gameplay
- Space key not working on iPad Magic Keyboard
- Cannot advance past level 24
- Typing experience unnatural
- No sound on iPad Pro
Requested features
8 requests- Add uppercase letters and numbers
- Allow custom text input
- Add voice dictation
- Modify finger colors
- Improve graphics and interface
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Allow family sharing
- Option to change default username
- More intros/animations
In-app purchases
Keyboarding Without Tears
No in-app purchases
Animal Typing
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Keyboarding Without Tears free?
Is Animal Typing free?
Which has better reviews, Keyboarding Without Tears or Animal Typing?
Do Keyboarding Without Tears or Animal Typing have ads?
Which is updated more often, Keyboarding Without Tears or Animal Typing?
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