What to use when your child outgrows Starfall
This is not your child rushing. Starfall's depth really does run out, and it runs out around second grade.
Written and checked September 2026. No affiliate links anywhere on this site — we make nothing if you choose a competitor, which is the only reason a comparison page is worth reading.
What actually comes after early phonics
Parents often assume that once a child can decode, reading instruction is finished. It is not — it changes shape. The grade 2–5 work is: syllable division for long words, consonant-le, morphology (prefixes, suffixes, roots, and the join rules — doubling, drop-e, change-y-to-i), advanced and low-frequency correspondences (soft c and g, -dge and -tch, silent letters, -tion), fluency with prosody, and above all knowledge and vocabulary, which is what actually determines comprehension after about grade three.
Very few products cover that middle band well, which is why so many children plateau there.
And in maths
Grade 3 is the hinge: multiplication and division as concepts rather than facts, and fractions as numbers. A child who leaves grade 3 thinking a fraction is a shape with some parts shaded will struggle for years. This is the single highest-leverage thing to get right, and it is exactly where thin content hurts most.
Where to go
| Product | Cost | Ages | What it is | Pick it when… |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ladderbug | Free tier, $60/yr for 6 children, $180 once | 4–11 | Adaptive mastery ladder for phonics and K–5 math. No video, no ads, no account needed. | You want a sequence rather than a library, and you want to see real mastery rather than minutes played. |
| Khan Academy Kids | Genuinely free | 2–8 | Beautifully made, completely free, no ads and no in-app purchases. Backed by a nonprofit. | You want the best free option and you have an iPad or Android tablet. There is no web version, which rules it out on a Chromebook. |
| Teach Your Monster to Read | Web version free | 3–6 | Charming, well-sequenced early phonics from a UK charity. The browser version is free permanently. | Your child is just starting and you want something delightful at no cost. The app moved to a subscription in 2026; the web version did not. |
| Reading Eggs / Mathseeds | $99.99/yr, 4 children | 2–13 | A long, structured reading path with a lot of content and decent reporting. | You want one product to carry reading for several years and you do not mind the price. |
| ABCmouse | $45/yr promo, $14.99/mo, 3 children | 2–8 | The biggest library in the category, across many subjects, heavily gamified. | You want breadth and your child likes the reward economy. Note the FTC settlement over auto-renewal — set a calendar reminder. |
| IXL | $79–$159/yr, +$40/yr per extra child | PreK–12 | The widest standards coverage and the best analytics for a parent who wants data. | Your child is resilient and you want to track standards precisely. Many parents find it relentless. |
| Prodigy Math | Game free; $58.95–$118.95/yr | 6–14 | A genuine RPG with maths bolted into the battles. Children love it. | Motivation is your problem, not instruction. Be aware of the 2021 FTC complaint about in-game upselling to children. |
| Beast Academy | $100/yr +$64.99 per extra child | 6–13 | The most intellectually serious elementary maths available, from Art of Problem Solving. | Your child finds maths easy and is bored. It is a poor fit for a struggling learner. |
| ABCya / Funbrain | Free with ads | 4–12 | Big libraries of quick browser games, free because they are ad-supported. | You want a five-minute filler and you do not mind advertising in front of your child. |
| Epic! | $84.99/yr | 2–12 | A large digital library of real books. | You want reading volume rather than reading instruction. Watch for badge-driven page-flipping. |
| Nessy | Varies | 5–12 | Orton-Gillingham-based, built specifically for dyslexic learners. | You have a diagnosis and want a programme designed around it. |
| Time4Learning | $39.95/mo per student | PreK–12 | A full graded curriculum with automated grading and attendance records. | Your state requires records and you want a single vendor. Its Trustpilot rating is 2.2/5 across 3,000+ reviews, mostly about billing. |
Questions people actually ask
Does Starfall have content for older kids?
A little. Grades 4–5 were added in 2021 and the section is a gateway to two areas, English and maths. The grade 4–5 mathematics section contains fifteen activities in total, against a catalogue of more than seven hundred, and most of it needs a membership.
What is the best Starfall replacement for a third grader?
Depends on the subject. For reading past decoding — morphology, syllable division, fluency — a structured ladder like Ladderbug or a programme like Nessy. For maths, Beast Academy if they find it easy, Khan Academy if you want free, IXL if you want standards coverage.
My child reads fine but hates reading. What now?
That is a volume and interest problem, not a decoding problem. Epic!, your library, and reading aloud to them well above their own level. No phonics product will fix it.