Alphabet apps by job: which one does what

Every fact below comes from the app's US App Store listing as it read on October 24, 2026, plus the developer's own site where the listing was thin. We did not run play tests, and we do not quote user reviews. Where a listing does not say something, the answer is listed as not stated rather than guessed. Fasty Letters is ours; it gets the same treatment.

The useful question is not which app is best. It is which job you need done this month: letter names and shapes, letter sounds, tracing, or a whole early-learning library.

Job: letter recognition. Letter names and the 52 uppercase and lowercase shapes, with the least-mastered letter returning every third question and a per-letter progress grid. Two modes, Letter Match and Letter Recognition. Up to four profiles per device.

Price and ads: free, no ads, no in-app purchases, no account. Privacy label: Data Not Collected. Platform: iPhone and iPad, iOS 18.6 or later. No Android, no browser version. Offline: yes, the listing states gameplay needs no connection. Ratings on the inspection date: 3, averaging 5.0.

Does not do: letter sounds, tracing or handwriting, blending, sight words, math, books.

Job: tracing plus phonics. The listing describes tracing games that follow arrows with a finger, phonics pairing, letter matching, and uppercase and lowercase letters to trace, listen to, and match. A Teacher Mode and report cards are mentioned. Age label: made for ages 0 to 5. Available in 25 languages.

Price and ads: free; the listing states no third-party ads and no in-app purchases. Privacy label: Data Not Collected. Platform: iPhone, iPad, and Apple silicon Macs, iOS 15 or later; the developer also lists Android and Windows versions. Offline: not stated. Ratings on the inspection date: about 35,000, averaging 4.5.

Does not do, per the listing: adaptive targeting of individual missed letters is not described. It is the app to pick when the job is forming letters with a finger.

Job: an early-learning library for ages 2 to 8. The listing counts more than 5,000 games, books, and videos covering phonics and letter sounds, reading, writing, math, and social-emotional topics, with a character assigned to each strand. Teacher tools for assignments and progress are included.

Price and ads: free, no ads, no subscriptions, from a nonprofit. Privacy label: Data Not Linked to You, covering usage and performance data. Parental controls are listed. Platform: iPhone and iPad, iOS 13 or later, and Android. Offline: yes, the listing says books and games can be downloaded for use without wifi. Ratings on the inspection date: about 132,000, averaging 4.8.

Does not do: one skill at a time. It is a curriculum, so a child who needs ten minutes on six missed letters has to find that inside a much larger app. Pick it when you want the whole library.

Job: hear the most common sound of each letter. Tap a letter, hear the sound. The listing is explicit that it covers only the first sound of each of the 26 letters and that other sounds live in the company's separate Phonogram Sounds app. It is built to accompany the All About Reading Pre-reading curriculum.

Price and ads: free. Privacy label: Data Not Collected. Ads and in-app purchases: not stated in the listing. Platform: iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision, iOS 11 or later; the developer's site also lists Android, Windows, macOS, and Kindle. Offline: not stated. Ratings on the inspection date: 143, averaging 4.3.

Does not do: games, progress tracking, letter names, or shapes. Pick it when the job is hearing a clean /b/ instead of buh, which the letter names and sounds guide explains.

Letter names and both cases, with the misses coming back: Fasty Letters. Tracing letters with a finger alongside phonics: ABC Kids. One free library across reading and math for several years: Khan Academy Kids. Just the sounds, said cleanly: Letter Sounds A to Z.

Two of these can sit on the same device without overlapping. A 4-year-old might use Fasty Letters for names and shapes now and a sound tool later. Which half your child needs first is the question the letter recognition check answers.