Learning app (subscription) · Updated September 4, 2026

Kindy vs HOMER

HOMER, made by Begin, is a subscription app for ages 2 to 8 built around early reading with math, social-emotional, creativity and thinking activities, on a personalized pathway set by the child's age, interests and skill level. Kindy is a $9.99 a month parent-led preschool curriculum for ages 3 to 5: the child is never on a screen, placement comes from a free readiness assessment, and the parent gets one 10 to 15 minute activity a day. Choose HOMER for a reading-focused app a child uses alone. Choose Kindy if you want to teach your child yourself and cover the whole readiness picture.

Choose Kindy if

  • You want to be the teacher, 10 to 15 minutes a day, no screen for your child
  • You want placement by what your child can do rather than by age and interests
  • You want listening, self-help and social skills practised, not just shown
  • You want simple, published pricing and one-tap cancellation

Choose HOMER if

  • Your priority is early reading and you want a child-led app for it
  • Your child is 2 or already past preschool and you want one app to age 8
  • You need up to four child profiles and an offline mode for travel
  • Your child already has a screen slot and you want it to be educational

At a glance

Kindy and HOMER at a glance. Facts checked September 4, 2026; sources at the end of the page.
KindyHOMER
Price$9.99 per month, $4.99 per month for each additional child, cancel anytime in the appAbout $9.99/month or $59.99/year after a 30-day trial; published prices vary, check the live checkout
Free option or trialFree readiness assessment with full results kept in the account; no card needed; subscribe only if you want the daily curriculum30-day free trial
Ages3-5 (the two to three years before kindergarten); placement is by ability, not age2-8
Who is on the screenThe parent onlyParent and child
Formatweb app for the parent (installable on a phone); activities are done hands-on, off screenapp + web
Time per dayOne 10 to 15 minute activity a day; the app offers more on energetic daysMarketed claim: '15 minutes a day' (used in their reading-score claim); no separate recommended session length published
How it adapts to the childEvery activity ends with one tap on how it went (Nailed it, Almost, Not yet). Three Nailed it ratings mark a skill mastered and it leaves the rotation; mastered letters and skills circle back for quick reviews so they stick. The next day's activity is chosen from the child's current level across all areas.HOMER creates a personalized learning pathway based on your child's age, interests, and skill level
How the child is placedBy a readiness assessmentBy age
Skills coveredliteracy (letters, sounds, print awareness), early math (counting, number sense, shapes), language (vocabulary, storytelling, listening), thinking (problem solving, memory), social-emotional (sharing, manners, separation, feelings), fine motor (pencil grip, scissors, self-help), focus and self-controlreading, math, social-emotional learning, creativity, thinking skills
Secular or faith-basedsecularsecular
What the parent doesThe parent reads today's activity on their phone and does it with the child using things at home; the app tells them what to do and what to say. The child never uses the app.Sets up child profile(s) and can view progress on web or in the app to see milestones, favorite activities, and time spent; app description also states parental involvement/monitoring alongside independent child use

What each one actually is

HOMER is the flagship app of Begin, the company that also runs Little Passports, codeSpark and KidPass. It covers reading, math, social-emotional learning, creativity and thinking skills with more than a thousand lessons, games and stories, and describes its personalized learning pathway as based on the child's age, interests and skill level. It is ad-free and kidSAFE certified, supports up to four child profiles, and added an offline mode in version 11. It comes with a 30-day free trial and then auto-renews; HOMER states it is the only learn-to-read program for ages 2 to 6 proven to raise early reading scores by 74% in 15 minutes a day.

Kindy is a curriculum for the parent, not an app for the child. A free five-minute readiness check places the child by what they can already do. Kindy then builds a plan across literacy, early math, language, thinking, social-emotional and fine motor skills and hands the parent one hands-on activity a day with exactly what to do and say. A tap on how it went adjusts tomorrow. $9.99 a month, cancel in one tap.

Two things worth knowing before you subscribe to HOMER

Pricing was hard to pin down when we checked on September 4, 2026. HOMER's own pricing and FAQ pages returned errors, and figures across the App Store and third-party round-ups ranged from $7.99 to $12.99 a month and $59.99 to $99.99 a year. The most repeated figures were $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year. Check the live checkout before you commit, and note from the terms that prepaid periods are not refunded and cancellation must happen at least 24 hours before renewal.

Begin, HOMER's parent company operating as Conscious Content Media, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on December 17, 2025, with about $205 million in funded debt, and as of the most recent reporting in April 2026 its plan had not yet been confirmed. The app continues to operate. We mention it because a subscription is a relationship, and parents deserve to know.

Reading approach and the rest of readiness

HOMER's strength is reading. One dated 2026 review from a phonics-focused site described its method as mixed, blending phonics with sight words and picture cues rather than systematic synthetic phonics; parents who follow the science of reading closely may want to read that review before choosing. Kindy teaches letters and sounds as one strand of a wider readiness plan and does it through the parent, using real objects and real conversation.

Kindy's other strands are the ones an app cannot practise: separation, turn-taking, following directions, pencil grip, scissors. HOMER lists social-emotional learning as a subject; Kindy has you do it with your child.

Where HOMER is the better choice

A child-led reading program with range. From age 2 to age 8, four child profiles, an offline mode, and a large library of stories and games that a child can use without a parent beside them. If reading is the goal and the child will be on a screen, HOMER is a strong, well-reviewed choice with a 4.4-star average across roughly 25,000 App Store ratings.

Time. HOMER asks for nothing from the parent beyond setup and a look at the dashboard. Kindy asks for 10 to 15 minutes of you every day.

Where Kindy is the better choice

Whole-child readiness, placed by ability. Kindy starts from what your child can do, not their age, and covers the social, self-help and motor skills teachers notice first alongside letters and numbers. Nothing happens on a screen for the child.

Clarity. Kindy's price is published in one place: $9.99 a month, $4.99 for another child, cancel in one tap, readiness results free either way. There is no trial to remember and no renewal window to miss.

Questions parents ask

How much does HOMER cost?

When checked on September 4, 2026, HOMER's own pricing page was unavailable and published figures ranged from $7.99 to $12.99 a month and $59.99 to $99.99 a year, most often $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, with a 30-day free trial. Check the live checkout for the current price.

Is HOMER shutting down?

Not as far as we know. Its parent company Begin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2025 and was still working through plan confirmation in April 2026. The app continues to operate and is updated.

Does Kindy teach reading?

Kindy teaches the pre-reading skills kindergarten expects: letter names and sounds, print awareness, rhyming and beginning sounds, through short daily activities you do with your child. It is not a learn-to-read app for the child to use alone.

Which is better for a 3 year old?

If you want your 3 year old on a screen learning letters independently, HOMER. If you want to do 10 to 15 minutes a day together, screen-free, with a plan that starts from what your child can already do, Kindy.

Can I cancel Kindy easily?

Yes, in one tap in the app. Your child's readiness results and progress stay in your account.

Sources

Facts about HOMER:

Facts about Kindy:

Note: Could not load learnwithhomer.com/pricing, /faq/, or /homer-app/ directly (all returned 404 on 2026-09-04), so pricing and trial/auto-renew terms were pieced together from the Apple App Store listing, the HOMER Terms of Use PDF, and third-party pricing round-ups (myelearningworld.com, published 2025-06-04, and teachyourkidtoread.org, published 2026-07-20). Reported monthly price ranges from $7.99 to $12.99 and annual/bundle price ranges from $59.99 to $99.99 depending on source and plan tier (app-only vs. app+lessons+workbook premium bundle); this file uses the two figures ($9.99/mo, $59.99/yr) that recurred most often across sources as of the check date, but the live checkout page should be checked for the current exact price before publishing a comparison claim. Number of child profiles (up to 4) and offline mode (added in app v11.0.0) are both sourced from the Apple App Store listing rather than the primary marketing site. Auto-renewal is confirmed via the official Terms of Use PDF: subscriptions renew automatically at the then-current price unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends; no refunds for prepaid periods already used. Whether HOMER offers a separate lower-priced 'Learn & Play' app for children under 3 (mentioned by one secondary source) was not independently verified against the primary site and is not included as a fact here. 'skills_not_covered' left null because Begin markets no explicit exclusion list; the five subjects listed appear to be the full official scope.

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