TouchChat HD, from PRC-Saltillo, is one of the most widely used AAC apps in American schools and clinics. It's the app behind many dedicated speech devices, and its WordPower vocabulary sets are a staple of SLP practice. The base app costs $149.99, or $299.99 bundled with WordPower.
Tala takes a different path: free to start, built around whole phrases instead of single words, and designed so a parent can set it up in minutes without training. Here's how they compare, honestly.
| Tala | TouchChat HD | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free to start · $9.99/mo for unlimited custom boards | $149.99 (base) · $299.99 with WordPower |
| Free for SLPs & teachers | Yes — free forever | No |
| Languages | 14 (EN, ES, SV, IT, PT, DE, FR, NO, DA, TR, NL, ZH, HI, AR) | English and Spanish |
| Whole-phrase cards (GLP) | Yes, by design | No — word-based |
| Platform | iOS | iOS |
| Best for | Beginning communicators, gestalt language processors, families starting out | School teams, WordPower users, device continuity with PRC-Saltillo |
TouchChat HD is a one-time purchase of $149.99 — $299.99 if you want the WordPower vocabulary most SLPs recommend with it. There's a free "TouchChat Discover" trial app, but the full experience requires the upfront purchase.
Tala is free to use with the default communication boards. You only pay ($9.99/month) if you need more than 2 custom boards or 10 custom cards — and it's free forever for speech-language pathologists and teachers. If you're not sure AAC will stick, you can find out for $0.
TouchChat with WordPower is a word-based system: children build sentences one word at a time from research-backed core vocabulary. It's powerful, and for many children it's the right model.
Tala's cards are whole phrases — "I want water", "Can I have a hug" — because many autistic children, especially gestalt language processors, learn language in chunks rather than single words. If your child repeats lines from songs or movies, whole-phrase AAC may match how they actually process language.
TouchChat supports English and Spanish. Tala supports 14 languages with one natural-sounding voice per language — including Swedish, Italian, German, French, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Turkish, Dutch, Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic. For families who don't speak English at home, this is often the deciding factor.
Choose TouchChat HD if your school team already runs on TouchChat or WordPower, your SLP wants continuity with a PRC-Saltillo device, or your child is building single-word-based sentences with a word-by-word system.
Choose Tala if you want to start AAC without a $150–$300 upfront cost, your child learns through whole phrases, or your family speaks one of Tala's 14 supported languages.
The best AAC app is the one your child will actually use every day.