Six apps a small child can use without meeting a single advert — what each one costs, what it actually teaches, and where it falls short. Ours is on the list, and so is a free one we think is very good.
The badge on a store listing usually covers only the first of these. All three are worth checking before you hand over a tablet.
No banners, no video between levels, no “watch this to keep playing”. This is the one the badge normally means.
A locked card is still a sales pitch, even without a banner around it. What matters is whether a three-year-old tapping at random can reach a payment screen.
An app can carry no adverts at all and still send your child’s behaviour to an analytics service. This is the promise least often made and hardest to check.
Forty animal sounds, counting to ten, eleven colours, the alphabet and five shapes. The listing promises no adverts, no purchases, no data collection and no internet — and as far as we can tell it keeps all four. It is English only, and there is no parent area and no time limit.
Best for: an English-speaking household that wants one good free app and nothing to think about
Ninety-eight cards — animals, colours, shapes and counting to twenty — with no written words anywhere, because the spoken clip is the word. Every colour, shape and number is voiced by a person in each of eleven languages rather than translated on screen only. A Parent Zone behind a maths gate sets a daily limit of 15, 30 or 60 minutes. The free version covers all the colours and shapes, counting to ten and most of the animals, with no daily cap. It is on iPhone and iPad only for now.
Best for: a household that isn’t English-speaking, or one that wants the app to stop on its own
Ten categories including birds, insects, fruit, transport and letters, counting all the way to a hundred, a picture-matching quiz, and twenty-two languages. Easily the broadest app here. The price is charged weekly, which comes to roughly $155 over a year — worth knowing before the trial ends.
Best for: breadth, if you are the sort of person who cancels on time
A very large library — the developer counts more than 1,700 activities — aimed at two to five year olds, with the adverts removed by the subscription rather than absent by design.
Best for: an older toddler who gets bored of a small app quickly
A genuine curriculum with reading, writing, maths and social-emotional learning, and no adverts or subscriptions of any kind. It is built for two to eight year olds, which shows: there is a lot of on-screen text and a lot of menu to get through for a child who is not yet two.
Best for: three and up, and hard to argue with at the price
Handmade, quiet, text-free and open-ended, with an Apple Design Award for the artwork. There are no drills and no right answers, which parents either love or find frustrating depending on what they wanted. iPhone and iPad only.
Best for: unhurried open-ended play rather than learning a set of things
Read the “In-App Purchases” list on the store page before you install. It is there on every listing, and it is more honest than the description above it.
Turn the wifi off and open the app. Whatever still works is what you actually have.
Tap something locked and see how far you get. If a payment screen appears without an adult having to do anything, your child can reach it too.
Check the language list against the sound, not the menus. Several apps translate the on-screen text and leave the voice in English.
Kidster is ours, which is why it is described above in the same terms as everything else, including what it doesn’t do. It is free to try, there is no account to make, and Premium is free for families who ask.
Get KidsterPrices, features and language lists checked in September 2026. Apps change; the store listing is always the final word.