Epic vs PBS KIDS Games

Epic is a digital reading platform for children 12 and under, with a library of more than 40,000 books, audiobooks, and learning videos from over 250 publishers. The collection includes illustrated and chapter books, Read-to-Me titles, graphic novels, decodables, quizzes, and educational videos. Epic describes its service as ad-free and offers parent controls to guide each child's reading. Teachers can assign and share books, track daily and weekly reading, filter titles by reading level or grade, use quizzes and dictionary lookup, and create collections. The platform runs on the web, iOS devices with iOS 17 or higher, and Android devices with version 7.0 or higher; Kindle and Fire tablets are not compatible. Books can be downloaded for offline reading on iOS and Android, but each download is accessible only on the device where it was saved. Family access costs $7.25 per year when billed annually or $13.99 per month, and a seven-day trial is listed. A free school plan offers classroom access on weekdays from 7am to 4pm.

PBS KIDS Games is a free collection of educational games for children ages 2 to 8. Its app listing describes more than 280 curriculum-based games covering subjects such as math, reading, science, and art, with play available in English and Spanish. The web catalog includes titles such as Stu's Delivery Service, City Island Adventure Game, and Carl's Collections. A Building Games topic includes Marble Run, Toy Maker, and Alma Train Game. PBS KIDS also describes its apps as a way to watch and play its content while away from home. The service is listed for web, Android, iOS, and Windows, and the PBS KIDS Games plan costs nothing. An account is not required to use PBS services, though an account can save progress, settings, or created content. PBS says it does not collect information that directly identifies a child on its own, but may collect information about game activity, videos watched, pages viewed, and links clicked. For accounts, usernames are moderated to discourage personal information and passwords are encrypted. PBS identifies itself as a private nonprofit corporation founded in 1969.