Best IXL alternatives for schools (2026)
1. Goblins
Goblins lets students speak and draw to learn math. That lets Goblin, the tutor, pinpoint exactly where mistakes and misconceptions arise. A miss becomes a lesson instead of a lower score, and teachers see who is stuck right now with per-standard analytics after every session. The Gates Foundation funds Goblins.
“Let's back this up to maybe something that we should have done two chapters ago. Do you understand this? Can you explain this? Okay, great. So from there, we're going to build on that and get back up to question number one.”
Rich Grell · HS Math Teacher, 22 yrs
“I cannot split myself up into 30 pieces. ... It truly is powerful because there's like 30 of mes in the computer.”
Bobbye Graboyes · 26-year math teacher
“It forces them to really think about what they're doing and understand their process. ... They have to prove it. They have to show all of their work and it's been great.”
Renee Schuch · 6th Grade Math · Deer Valley
The Goblins free plan includes something none of these tools sell at any price, a live 1-on-1 tutor that watches students draw and speak and steps in mid-problem, with 15 live help-enabled problems per student each month. Free also covers worksheet uploads, standards-aligned assignments, and teacher avatars, no credit card. Goblins Max makes live help unlimited and adds standards and engagement reporting across a school or district. Students work in whatever language they think in. We also wrote a deeper Goblins vs. IXL comparison.
2. DreamBox Math
DreamBox Math is adaptive K-8 practice that adjusts to how a student solves, not just whether the answer was right. Discovery Education acquired it in 2023 and now sells it alongside DreamBox Reading.
- The adaptive engine reads the strategy behind an answer and adjusts lessons in the moment, with a strong real-time teacher dashboard.
- Elementary heritage shows. Middle schoolers and advanced students outgrow it, and K-2 students often need an adult to help navigate.
- Rerouting is not teaching. When a student is stuck, the engine serves an easier lesson. Nobody explains anything.
Right for: K-6 classrooms that want adaptive placement without a person in the loop.
3. ST Math
ST Math teaches K-8 math through language-free visual puzzles led by JiJi the penguin, building spatial reasoning before symbols. That makes it unusually friendly to English learners.
- Site subscriptions from around $3,500 a year for up to 150 students.
- Its flagship randomized trial of 16,307 students found +0.04, and the ESSA-listed average is +0.07. The marketed +0.35 is a subgroup of a non-randomized study that kept only the best-run rollouts.
- A supplement, not a core curriculum, and its most-cited studies date from 2013 to 2019. Puzzles adapt, but nobody intervenes while a student is stuck.
Right for: visual, language-independent practice, especially for English learners.
4. Zearn Math
Zearn is a nonprofit K-8 program aligned to Eureka Math and EngageNY, pairing teacher-led lessons with digital practice. It is free for teachers and classrooms, with paid School Accounts for admin tooling, and Ohio negotiated statewide free access for 2025-26.
- Free at scale and directly aligned to the Eureka sequence your teachers may already run.
- Rigid linear sequencing with no skip-ahead, even after a student shows mastery.
- Independent effects are small. Louisiana's statewide study found +0.03 SD on LEAP, under the 0.05 SD line education researchers treat as small even for school interventions.
Right for: budget-constrained districts already committed to Eureka Math or EngageNY.
5. DeltaMath
DeltaMath is a 6-12 practice platform, algebra through calculus, with auto-graded assignments teachers build themselves. It goes deeper into secondary math than anything else here.
- 2,500+ modules, real teacher authoring, and per-question time and accuracy analytics.
- Pricing is published, about $125 per teacher or $17.65 per student per its national list price. That is a lot per student for auto-graded practice with no tutoring.
- Feedback on wrong answers is shallow. Teachers report it never tells students what they got wrong, and strict notation checking can mark correct work wrong.
Right for: middle and high school teachers who want deep, teacher-authored practice from algebra up.
Frequently asked questions
IXL's all-or-nothing SmartScore is so widely resented that students have petitioned to eliminate it, and schools misuse it as a grade against IXL's own guidance. A miss drops the score and the next question comes easier, so the students with gaps grind alone below the skill you assigned. IXL checks answers, it does not teach.
IXL costs around $299 per year for a single-subject classroom license, per TrustRadius.
- School pricing scales by subject and class size from that single-subject base, per TrustRadius.
- Families pay from $9.95 a month per subject.
- Reviewers note the 30-day free trial charges at signup with a refund window, so read the terms before entering a card.
Only DeltaMath among these IXL alternatives publishes a national price list. Zearn and Goblins are free for teachers, and DreamBox makes you ask for a quote.
- Zearn is free for teachers and classrooms, with School Accounts around $2,500 per school per a Louisiana DOE price list.
- ST Math site subscriptions start around $3,500 a year for up to 150 students, per G2.
- DeltaMath publishes a national list price, about $125 per teacher for PLUS and about $17.65 per student for district licenses.
- DreamBox is quote-based through Discovery Education. Third-party listings put it starting around $20 per student, unconfirmed.
- Goblins is free for teachers, and Goblins Max is priced per school or district.
No independent average for any of these IXL alternatives clears +0.10 SD, and the largest randomized trials measured +0.03 and +0.04. For scale, education researchers treat effects under 0.05 SD as small and 0.20 SD as large (Kraft, 2020).
- Zearn's best independent result is +0.03 SD in Louisiana.
- ST Math's flagship 16,307-student randomized trial found +0.04 and the ESSA-listed average is +0.07, while the marketed +0.35 comes from an implemented-with-fidelity subgroup, a filter that keeps only the best-run rollouts.
- DreamBox's independent studies all predate 2016 and average +0.10, with +0.03 in the largest upper-grade group.
- DeltaMath publishes no independent effect-size study.
The strongest independent numbers on this list round to zero.
Zearn is free forever for teachers and classrooms, and Ohio negotiated statewide free access for 2025-26. Goblins is also free for teachers, with 15 live help-enabled problems per student each month, standards-aligned assignments, worksheet uploads, and teacher avatars, no credit card.
Goblins is the only tool on this list that watches a student's written work live. DreamBox and ST Math adapt on answers and puzzle moves, Zearn on lesson progress, and DeltaMath grades typed answers. None of them watch a student's pencil. Goblin, the tutor, follows the written work stroke by stroke and hears the student reason through it, so it catches the misconception at the step where it starts.
Reviews of these IXL alternatives repeat one pattern: strong practice engines, weak or absent feedback when a student is stuck.
- DreamBox gets praise for its adaptive engine and teacher dashboard, and criticism for weak middle school coverage and limited feedback depth.
- ST Math gets credit for language-free visual intuition, though its most-cited studies date from 2013 to 2019 and the randomized effects were small.
- Zearn's independent effect sizes are modest and teachers flag the rigid no-skip-ahead sequencing.
- DeltaMath wins on depth and price, but teachers report it never tells students what they got wrong.
Yes. Goblins complies with COPPA, FERPA, and student data privacy laws in all 50 states.
Weighing other options? See how Goblins compares.
Or see how schools run Goblins across intervention tiers in our MTSS math guide.