YourHomeschool vs IXL

Both help a child get better at math and reading, but they do different jobs. IXL gives a student questions and tracks how they answer. YourHomeschool tries to teach the material first — then practices it. Here is the honest version of the difference.

The short answer

Choose IXL

Pick IXL if your child already understands the material and needs volume — lots of adaptive practice, plus detailed analytics you can put in a portfolio.

Choose YourHomeschool

Pick YourHomeschool if the sticking point is the teaching — nobody at home is confident in the subject, or your child needs the concept explained before drilling it.

Side by side

	IXL	YourHomeschool
Core model	Adaptive practice engine — serves questions and adjusts difficulty	Socratic AI tutor that teaches, plus video lessons and practice
Teaches new material	Practice with feedback after an answer	Yes — guided instruction, worked examples, then practice
Grade range	Pre-K through 12	K through 12 (1,376 lessons published)
Standards alignment	Published skill maps per state	Published lesson map — every lesson lists its CCSS / NGSS / C3 code
Scoring	SmartScore — a running mastery number that can fall on a wrong answer	No running score. The check returns a starting point, not a grade
Bilingual	Spanish offered as a subject to study	Every lesson in English and Spanish, plus a bilingual parent helper
Price structure	Per subject bundle, with per-additional-child pricing	Per child, everything included — $199 per child for a full year, all eight subjects and the tutor's teaching, no auto-renew
Printed materials	Digital only	K–12 workbooks whose QR codes open the matching lesson video
Placement	Real-Time Diagnostic (included with membership)	Free adaptive placement check — no account required

We deliberately do not print IXL's prices here — they change, and a stale number on our site would be worse than none. Check their current pricing at www.ixl.com/membership/family/pricing. Ours is below, in full.

What IXL does well

Enormous breadth of practice items, and the adaptive engine is genuinely good at keeping difficulty in the right band.
The analytics are among the strongest in this category. Homeschoolers use IXL reports for portfolios and state reporting, and they hold up.
Real-Time Diagnostic gives a defensible placement across subjects.
More than two decades in the market and very widely used in schools. That is a real trust signal we do not have yet.

Where the two models differ most

It practices, it does not teach

A common reason families look elsewhere: the child gets a wrong answer and an explanation, but nobody taught the concept first. If the parent is not confident in the subject, that gap sits on them.

Score-drop frustration

A frequent complaint in homeschool communities is that a mastery score can fall sharply after a wrong answer late in a set, which some children find demoralizing. Whether that motivates or discourages depends a lot on the child.

Costs stack by subject and child

Pricing is per subject bundle with additional-child pricing on top, so a multi-child, multi-subject household adds up. Ours is one flat per-child price with every subject included.

What we charge

$199 per child for a full 12-month school year — everything included: all eight subjects, the bilingual parent helper, the parent dashboard, exams and study plans, and printable transcripts and records. No per-subject add-ons, no tiers.

One license per child; every child is added to the same parent login with one combined dashboard. The license does not auto-renew and no card is kept on file.

A 7-day free trial needs no card, and the placement check is free without an account.

Common questions

Is YourHomeschool a full curriculum or a supplement?

A full K–12 core program — math, reading and writing, science, and social studies — with a published scope and sequence you can browse before subscribing. Plenty of families still use it alongside something else.

Do you have IXL-style progress reports?

Yes. Printable records include standards covered, instructional days and hours, a transcript, and an annual record — designed for state reporting and portfolios.

Can I try it without paying?

The placement check is free and needs no account. The program itself has a 7-day free trial with no card required.

What does it cost?

$199 per child for a full 12-month school year — everything included: all eight subjects, the bilingual parent helper, the parent dashboard, exams and study plans, and printable transcripts and records. One license per child, every child on one parent login. It does not auto-renew and no card is kept on file.

En español

IXL es un motor de práctica adaptativa: le da preguntas a tu hijo y mide cómo responde. YourHomeschool primero enseña — con un tutor con IA que guía con preguntas, videos de la lección en inglés y español, y práctica después. Cuesta $199 por hijo por un año escolar completo de 12 meses — todo incluido, sin renovación automática — y la prueba de ubicación es gratis y sin cuenta.

Haz la prueba de ubicación gratis →

Not sure where your child would start?

The placement check is free, takes about 20 minutes, needs no account, and tells you the grade to begin at in each subject.

Take the free placement check