Is Pok Pok free?

Pok Pok is a subscription with a 7-day free trial. Its FAQ offers a monthly and an annual plan, with no ads and nothing for a child to buy. Its own site never prints the price. Apple's list does, and it shows ten items: four monthly prices, five annual ones and a Lifetime plan at $89.99.

What Apple lists

Apple gives no reason for the spread, and Pok Pok's pages give none either. Apple shows at most ten items. There is no promoted purchase above the App Privacy panel, and Google Play shows an “In-app purchases” badge with no items-and-offers section.

Lifetime against annual

At the lowest annual price on the list, $45.99, the $89.99 Lifetime item costs about as much as two years. At $79.99 a year it costs less than fourteen months (derived from Apple's prices). For a toddler who will outgrow a 2-to-7 app in a few years, that arithmetic is the whole decision. But neither the FAQ nor the store description mentions a Lifetime plan, so whether a given family is offered it cannot be checked from outside the app.

One subscription, every device

The FAQ is generous here. One Pok Pok account can be logged in on every device in a family, across iPhone, iPad, Android and Amazon Fire tablets, at no extra cost; Apple's Family Sharing works too. The app runs offline once downloaded and subscribed. Two details catch people out: deleting the app does not cancel the subscription, and a discount code has to be redeemed before downloading, because a trial already started blocks it until the trial ends.

The privacy price

Apple's App Privacy panel has no “used to track you” section. It links purchase history to your identity and lists a user ID, product interaction and other data as not linked. Google Play says no data is shared with third parties and that the app follows the Play Families Policy. The FAQ says Pok Pok complies with COPPA and GDPR.

Other preschool apps, and how they price

PBS KIDS Games and Khan Academy Kids list nothing to buy; see is Khan Academy Kids free. For other free games and what they cost once you are past the free part, see is Toca Boca World free.

What Pok Pok does better

• It is built for the youngest children: no words, no menus, no winning or losing, and toys a two-year-old can use alone. Taco Rain is a score game for kids old enough to chase one.
• It has no ads at all. Taco Rain shows one banner outside gameplay.
• It won an Apple Design Award and holds a 4.7 average across 25,514 App Store ratings, and it runs on Fire tablets as well as Apple and Android.