Lingokids Alternatives: Free and Paid Learning Apps Compared

Lingokids is a popular learning app for ages 2 to 8, with more than 4,000 activities in maths, reading, science, social-emotional skills, music and English, and content from partners like Disney, NASA and Oxford University Press. It has no ads.

Parents usually look for alternatives for one of three reasons: the price (Plus is $13.49 a month or $161.88 a year on its website, though the app often shows a discount), the free tier's limit of 10 games a day, or that it runs only on phones and tablets, with no version for computers. This page compares the alternatives fairly. It's written by the dad who makes Tiny Hands, which is free, so read it knowing that.

The short version

Details are from each app's own website and its US App Store and Google Play pages, checked on 1 November 2026. Prices change and vary by country.

If you want it free

Khan Academy Kids is free and run by a nonprofit, with reading, maths and social-emotional skills for ages 2 to 8, and no ads or purchases. It's in English, so it also suits families helping a child with English. Our Khan Academy Kids alternatives page compares it in detail.

PBS KIDS Games has more than 280 free games in English and Spanish, needs no account, and plays in a browser.

Starfall teaches reading through phonics for free in a browser, with no sign-in for the free part.

Duolingo ABC teaches letters, phonics and first words in English for free. The Android app is still updated; the iPhone version hasn't been updated since 2023.

If you want it on a computer

Lingokids has no computer version. These run in a web browser on a laptop or desktop: Starfall, PBS KIDS, ABCmouse, and Tiny Hands. Khan Academy Kids works on Chromebooks through the Play Store. That matters more than it sounds: not every family has a tablet, but many have a laptop, a desktop computer or a computer at the library, and a big screen is easier for a child and a grown-up to share.

Where Tiny Hands fits

Tiny Hands Learn is free for every family, for good: no subscription, no ads, kept going by donations, because we believe every child, wherever they're born and whatever their family can afford, deserves the same start. It runs in any browser, on a tablet, phone, laptop or desktop computer, because to truly level the playing field, the device a family owns shouldn't be a barrier either.

It's much smaller than Lingokids. Today it's one program, reading and writing in English, for ages 2 to 7: Bubba the whale teaches every letter by its sound, then blending, writing and little stories, all said out loud, so a child can follow along before they can read and, for many families abroad, while they learn English. Numbers, music and money are on the way. A grown-up makes a free account first, so each child's progress is kept.

There are also free games with no account, Tiny Hands Feel for calm-downs and Tiny Hands Move for movement breaks.

Which should you pick?

• Your child loves Lingokids and the price is fine: keep it. Look for app discounts before paying the full yearly price.
• You want everything free: Khan Academy Kids, plus PBS KIDS for variety.
• You want to use a computer: Starfall, PBS KIDS, ABCmouse or Tiny Hands.
• You want English reading: Starfall, Duolingo ABC, or Tiny Hands Learn: Reading. Our reading apps compared page has every option.

Our guide to free educational apps with no ads lists every free option in one place.