BrainPOP vs PBS LearningMedia

BrainPOP offers animated educational movies and learning activities for students, with products for grades K–3, grades 3–8, middle school science and English language development. Activities include vocabulary practice, quizzes, challenges and creative responses such as drawing. Family subscriptions include BrainPOP Jr. for K–3 at $119 a year, BrainPOP for grades 3–8 at $129 a year, and a K–8 Combo at $159 a year; each lists two child profiles. Teacher classroom licenses range from BrainPOP ELL at $210 a year to BrainPOP for grades 3–8+ at $330 a year. The listed classroom licenses provide front-of-class access; the Jr. and 3–8+ licenses omit student accounts and progress tracking. School and district subscriptions add student, administrative and integration features, with prices by quote. BrainPOP supports Clever, ClassLink/OneRoster API, Google SSO and LTI, and lists Google Workspace and Schoology among supported tools. A school can use only one SSO integration at a time. Family access is available on the website and through BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. iOS apps.

PBS LearningMedia is a free digital media service for educators and students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Its library contains more than 30,000 classroom-ready materials from PBS member stations and partners, including videos, images, interactives, lesson plans, articles and primary sources. Content aligns with state and national curriculum standards, and search filters include grade, subject, resource type, video length, accessibility supports and language. With an account, educators can browse by standards, save favorites, build lessons and create shareable folders. Users can also watch videos, complete assignments, search and share content. The platform integrates with Google Classroom, Clever and Remind. PBS says classroom use does not require permission, including distribution through Lesson Builder or those integrations. Printed pages must include the website URL and cannot be distributed to students for a charge. PBS says it will not sell student data or use it for targeted advertising, and describes technical, administrative and physical safeguards. A free account is required for all features.