One household price. No per-child tax.
Charging a homeschooling family separately for each child, and again for each subject, is a pricing model built to punish exactly the customer who needs you most. We do not do it.
Free
$0 forever
The whole K–1 ladder, no account, no card, no ads.
- Every phonics rung through blends
- Number sense through place value to 100
- All free skill pages on this site
- Sound wall and Field Notes
- First three decodable books
Family
$60 per year
Everything, for up to six children in one household.
- All ${C.RUNGS.length} rungs, K through grade 5
- Full decodable bookshelf
- Offline mode and device syncing
- Printable packs and placement check
- Weekly Field Notes email
Family for life
$180 once
Pay once. Includes everything we ever add.
- Everything in Family
- Six children, no renewal, ever
- Transferable between your own children
- No auto-renew to forget about
Teacher
$0 forever
Up to 35 students, with a class view.
- Everything in Family
- Class roster and group progress
- Printable small-group plans
- No card required at any point
School
$349 per campus, per year
Unlimited students and staff on one campus, at home and at school. Rostering by CSV or Clever.
District
$2 per student, per year (min $1,500)
SSO, LMS integration, district reporting, a named contact, and a signed data agreement.
What the alternatives cost
| Product | Free tier | Monthly | Per year | Children |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ladderbug | Full K–1, forever | $7 | $60 or $180 once | 6 |
| Starfall | Part of the library | $5.99 in-app | $35 home | 1 household |
| ABCmouse | Limited, 1 child | $14.99 | $45 (renews higher) | 3 |
| Reading Eggs | 30-day trial | $13.99 | $99.99 | 4 |
| IXL | Samples only | $9.95–$19.95 | $79–$159 | 1 (+$40/yr each) |
| Prodigy | Full game free | $9.95–$19.95 | $58.95–$118.95 | Per parent account |
| Time4Learning | None | $39.95 per student | — | Per student |
| Khan Academy Kids | Everything | — | Free | Unlimited |
Checked September 2026 against each company's own store or support pages. Khan Academy Kids is genuinely free and genuinely good; it is app-only, with no web version, which matters if you are on a Chromebook.
- One-click cancellation inside the app. No retention flow.
- An email seven days before every renewal, with a one-click stop.
- Full refund within 30 days, and a prorated refund after that, for any reason.
- No price rises on an existing subscription without 60 days' notice and an option to lock the old price for a year.
- No child-facing purchase prompt, ever. Children never see a price.
We publish these because the biggest product in this category paid a $10 million settlement to the Federal Trade Commission in 2020 over auto-renewal disclosure and cancellation difficulty, and the second-biggest holds a 2.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot across more than three thousand reviews, largely about billing.
Questions people actually ask
How do I cancel?
One click, inside the app, at any time. No phone call, no chat window, no retention offer. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for. We also email you seven days before any renewal — the renewal date is in the email, and one click in that email stops it.
Is there really a lifetime option?
Yes — $180 once, for the household, forever, including every rung we add later. It exists because homeschooling families are rightly tired of subscription creep, and because a company that has to keep you subscribed makes different product decisions than one that does not.
What if I cannot afford it?
Email hello@ladderbug.com and we will switch your household to Family free for a year. No means test, no proof, no form. Our marginal cost per family is fractions of a cent because there is nothing to stream.
What is actually free forever?
The entire kindergarten and first-grade ladder — phonics through three-letter blends, number sense through place value to 100 — plus every free skill page on this site, the sound wall, Field Notes, and the first three decodable books. No account, no card, no ads, no time limit.
Do teachers pay?
No. An individual teacher with up to 35 students gets everything free, permanently, including the class view. We would rather be in classrooms than charge for them.