Proloquo vs Proloquo2Go: two apps, one company, different answers

Side by side

The two rows that decide it for most families are the grid and the languages. Proloquo has one grid, always 60 buttons, and never moves a word. Proloquo2Go has 23 grid sizes so it can start a two-year-old on nine big buttons and grow. If your child cannot reliably hit a 60-button target, that flexibility is not a nice-to-have.

What AssistiveWare itself says

Unusually for a company selling two competing products, AssistiveWare publishes a straight recommendation. Its comparison page says the vast majority of English-language iPad users who need symbol-supported AAC will benefit most from Proloquo. It points to Proloquo2Go for Spanish, French, Dutch and bilingual users, and for English users who cannot physically access a 60-button grid.

The reasoning it gives for the rebuild is worth repeating, because it explains the fixed grid. AssistiveWare says 80% of Proloquo2Go users do not follow its recommended settings, and that Proloquo2Go produces comparable language outcomes only when the recommended 77-button layout is used. Proloquo removes the choice. One grid, one layout, consistent everywhere, which is the point when a child is building motor memory for where words live.

The money, over time

Proloquo is cheaper to start and more expensive to keep. It overtakes Proloquo2Go partway through year three. For AAC, which a child may use for decades, that matters more than it would for most apps.

Two things push back the other way. The Proloquo subscription covers everyone supporting the user rather than one device, so a child whose school SLP, teacher and grandparents all need it on their own iPads is buying one subscription instead of several $249.99 purchases. And in many countries AAC apps and devices are fundable through insurance, education budgets or a disability scheme, which changes the arithmetic entirely. Ask about funding at the assessment.

Proloquo Coach, which only comes with one of them

Proloquo Coach is a separate free app for parents, included with any Proloquo subscription. It gives step-by-step guidance on using AAC with your child, with practice and support built around the vocabulary they are actually using. There is no equivalent for Proloquo2Go.

That is a bigger deal than it sounds. The most common way AAC fails is not the app: it is a family who were handed an iPad and no plan for how to model language on it. If nobody has trained you, the coaching app is a real reason to lean toward Proloquo.

How to actually choose

1. 1Get an AAC assessment from a speech-language pathologist. They trial systems with your child instead of guessing from a table. This page cannot tell you whether your child can hit a 60-button grid, and that question decides the answer.
2. 2Use the free month. Proloquo downloads for nothing and gives a full month. Proloquo2Go has no trial, so if you want to compare, start with the one that is free to try.
3. 3Ask what the school uses. A child who uses one system at school and a different one at home is learning two layouts. Matching beats optimising.
4. 4Ask about funding at the same appointment. Both are routinely funded, and the SLP knows the local route and which is easier to get approved.

Neither of these, if your child is talking

AAC is for a child who cannot tell you what they need. If your child talks but comes out unclear, this is the wrong category entirely and $249.99 is a lot to spend finding that out. What that child needs is articulation practice: the same word over and over with feedback on how close it got. We make Help Me Talk for that, at $39.99 a year on iPhone, iPad and Android, and the free word lists for all 30 sounds on this site cost nothing at all.