Main Idea vs Sort By Kind
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Main Idea
This app helps children in grades 2-5 improve their reading comprehension by teaching them to identify the main idea of a text. It uses a step-by-step, errorless learning approach with a reward system to keep kids motivated. Content is designed by educators and researchers, with reporting features for parents and teachers.
- Step-by-step skill building
- Errorless learning approach
- Engaging reward center
- Parental review and reporting
- Teacher and researcher-designed content
- Timed levels for fluency
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** Happy Frog Apps are featured on FunEducationalApps.com. TeachersWithApps.com, Appolicious.com, iHeartThisApp.com ** 'Main Idea-Short Text' helps kids who have trouble with reading comprehension. Identifying the main idea is a key part of reading comprehension as it allows you to figure out ‘what a text is about'. 'Main Idea -Short Texts' builds this comprehension skill step-by-step until mastery. Accolades for the first app in the Main Idea series... ***** 5 Stars - Thank you for this app! Other software I’ve used has moved too quickly for my son. This one worked! ***** 5 Stars - This app is one the best education apps I have used with my little one. It really helps to improve his reading abilities. He is obsessed with passing the levels and it never let him disappointed. One of the few apps that worth to upgrade to premium version. 'Main Idea - Short Texts' is targeted to children in Grades 2-5 who can read the words (decode), but don't understand what they read. Beginning readers in earlier grades can also benefit from the targeted skill development. The focus of 'Main Idea - Short Text' is teaching kids how to identify the main idea of a paragraph. The skill is built incrementally using visual guides. Key Benefits: - Builds comprehension skills step-by-step until mastery. - Incremental learning. New levels are unlocked only when your child is ready. - Errorless learning for less frustration. Your child will always be guided to the correct answer. - Fun and engaging Reward Center to increase motivation. - Easy parental review. Just check out the stars to see how your child is doing. - Content designed by professional teachers and researchers. - Advanced levels include timers to ensure fluency. Research shows fluency in the foundation skills is critical to reading comprehension. - Can be used independently (just hand it over: your child will know what to do!) or with a therapist/parent for reading intervention. - Provides extensive reporting for up to 10 students to suit the needs of parents, teachers and therapists. To evaluate the app, download the free version, which has 4 free levels. Additional levels and additional players can be accessed with in-app purchase. If you prefer no in-app purchases, download the School Edition of this app. Our apps are designed for and tested by typical and special needs children. Testers include children with Autism and other special needs. Our apps work for them! While you're thinking about reading, check out our other apps at www.HappyFrogApps.com. We take customer service very seriously! If you ever have a problem or find that we've missed something, contact us at our website and we will do our best to fix the problem. We collect NO private information in our app. None! Our apps do not allow unrestricted web access.
Sort By Kind
This educational app helps children aged 2 and up develop visual perception, cognitive, and language skills through fun sorting activities. It offers a simple, distraction-free learning environment designed to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
- Visual item sorting activities
- Develops visual perception
- Enhances cognitive skills
- Improves language skills
- Progress tracking for educators
- Accessibility features for users with disabilities
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- Full version. - No in-app purchases. - No ads. - Safe for kids. Welcome to “Sort By Kind”. This educational app is designed for children aged 2 and above. Here children can learn to sort visually related items. It is fun, and it helps them develop visual perception skills, cognitive skills, and language skills. STEP BY STEP is a professional EdTech studio that focuses on developing educational apps for children aged 1 to 5 years old. During these critical years, children enter a new learning stage every few months. Our apps support and strengthen the development of crucial skills for each learning stage. This way we guide your children, step by step, throughout this entire age range. Our key values are perfection and simplicity. We believe that small details make a big difference, so we give great attention to every detail — both in content and design. Most importantly, we keep our apps simple — simple to understand and simple to use. While playing our games, children will engage in simple activities, such as matching, pairing, ordering, grouping, and sorting. This allows them to practice essential skills, such as: categorization, conceptualization, generalization, abstraction, memory, language, math, visual perception, fine motor, accuracy, attention, and focus. They will learn about shapes, colors, animals, fruit, vegetables, clothing, tools, vehicles, furniture, professions, toys, etc., — all while playing. The levels are generally arranged by difficulty. The first levels are usually quite simple — their main objective is to teach players critical thinking and problem solving. However, the exercises become increasingly challenging as the child advances within the game. Our applications avoid distractions such as popups, unnecessary animation, and noisy feedback. We keep our applications safe for children — no advertisements, no unsafe links to external content, no popups, etc. Furthermore, our experience indicates that our apps can be very helpful for children with special-needs¹, and that they can function as useful tools in both speech-language therapy² and in occupational therapy³. In addition, our apps have been found useful for adults with disabilities or dementia⁴. For this reason, we added two important features: the first one was designed for teachers, therapists, and speech pathologists, which allows them to track the progress of their students; the second feature makes our apps also accessible for users with disabilities, and on this matter we would like to thank the Technology Consulting Center at “Beit Issie Shapiro”⁵ for their professional guidance and consultation regarding accessibility. ________ ¹ Special needs - Learning difficulties due to learning disabilities, communication disabilities, emotional or behavioural disorders, physical disabilities and/or developmental disabilities, which may be caused by Autism (Autistic Spectrum Disorders), Down Syndrome, Dyslexia, Tourette Syndrome, etc. ² Speech-language therapy - Treatment of communication disorders by speech-language pathologists (SLP). ³ Occupational therapy (OT) - Treatment meant to develop, recover, or maintain daily living and work skills for people with a physical, mental or developmental condition. ⁴ Dementia - A condition caused by brain injury (BI), brain damage or brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Lewy bodies (DLB), Vascular dementia, etc. ⁵ "Beit Issie Shapiro" is a leading non-profit organization that develops therapies for people with disabilities, and also acts as a ‘Special Consultant’ to the United Nations.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Sort By Kind at 4.4 against Main Idea's 3.7. Sort By Kind also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 3) and review sentiment (75% vs 42%). Main Idea's advantage is device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume and ads 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
Both are free to download. Main Idea sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. Sort By Kind asks for nothing beyond the download.
Sort By Kind holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 7 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of Main Idea's written reviews are positive against 75% of Sort By Kind's.
Main Idea ships an update every 22 months, Sort By Kind every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 2, 2026.
| Parameter | Main Idea | Sort By Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (3 ratings) | 4.4 (7 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.7% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 7 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 22 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.2 | 7.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 28 MB | 77 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Janine Toole | STEP BY STEP |
Customer experience
Main Idea
Sort By Kind
In-app purchases
Main Idea
- Upgrade to 2 Players$1.99
- Purchase All Levels$2.99
- Upgrade to 10 Players$2.99
Sort By Kind
No in-app purchases









