Akros vs. IXL
The better way for your child to learn math.
Children learn math best with a pencil in hand, and schools are taking notice: from Sweden to Iowa, governments are cutting back on classroom screens. IXL puts practice on a screen and checks only the final answer. Akros keeps your child on paper and uses AI behind the scenes to read every step they write, coach the step where they went wrong, and build tomorrow’s lesson from it.
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How Akros and IXL compare
| Akros | IXL | Why it matters for your child | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where your child works | On paper, with a pencil | On a screen | Writing by hand engages more of the brain, and nothing on the page pulls your child away. |
| What gets read | Every step your child writes | Only the final answer, typed or tapped | A wrong step gets fixed where it happened instead of practiced again. |
| After a wrong answer | The problem returns with new numbers and a hint aimed at your child’s own mistake | An explanation of the correct method, then more questions | Your child works out the fix, which is what makes it stick. |
| What a mistake costs | A redo and a hint | The SmartScore drops | Mistakes become part of learning, not a penalty. |
| New topics | A printed Concept Lesson for every Math Topic | Examples inside each practice skill | Children go from about 25% correct to 80% after one lesson. |
| What comes next | A complete lesson every morning, built for your child | Skills you or your child choose from recommendations | No planning for you, and no wasted practice for your child. |
| What you see | A photo of your child’s work beside every graded answer | Scores and usage reports | You see exactly what your child wrote and what got fixed. |
Why Akros is the better choice for your child
Pencil and paper help learning stick.
Writing by hand engages more of the brain than typing, and that engagement goes hand in hand with better learning and memory. In a randomized study, kindergartners who learned new letters by hand named 92% of them correctly, compared with 76% for children who typed. Across 24 experiments, students who took notes by hand scored higher on later tests than students who typed.
Schools are moving back to paper.
Countries that went furthest with classroom screens are turning back. Since 2023, Sweden has budgeted more than a billion kronor for printed textbooks, and Denmark’s education minister said the country owed a generation of schoolchildren “a huge apology” for being “enthusiastic about digitalisation and naive.” In the United States, Iowa now limits digital learning to one hour a day from Kindergarten through Grade 5. The research explains why: across 54 studies of more than 170,000 readers, people understood informational text better on paper than on a screen, and when 1,139 ten-year-olds took the same reading test both ways, they scored lower on screen at every skill level.
Akros reads the work, not just the answer.
IXL sees only the final answer, so it knows your child was wrong but not why. Akros reads every handwritten step, pinpoints where the thinking broke, and names the kind of mistake: a careless slip, a wrong method, or a step left out. When researchers compared computer tutors, those that gave feedback on each step produced more than twice the learning gains of those that checked only the final answer.
Your child fixes each mistake themselves.
Every missed question comes back the next day with new numbers, chosen so the same mistake can’t produce the right answer, and a one-sentence hint aimed at the step that went wrong. The hint never gives away the answer, because working out an answer yourself is one of the most reliable memory boosters in psychology. After this coaching, children get that type of question right on a later lesson 97% of the time, with no hints. That’s proof the coaching works: nearly every mistake gets fixed, and your child does the fixing.
No lucky guesses.
Every Akros answer is written out by hand, never picked from a list or tapped on a screen, so a guess can’t pass for understanding. Your child’s first lesson, the Skills Check-Up, uses written answers to find exactly where they stand, and the next few lessons quietly double-check every miss.
New concepts click in one lesson.
Every new Math Topic opens with a printed Concept Lesson: the key rule, a clear explanation, worked examples, and a warning about the most common mistake. On topics that are new to them, children answer about 25% of questions correctly before the lesson and 80% after it. In other words, one lesson takes your child from mostly wrong to mostly right, from the page alone.
Every skill comes back right before it would fade.
Each topic comes back 2 days after it’s taught, then at widening intervals: a week, 2 weeks, a month, 2 months. Fragile skills return sooner and strong skills later. Memory research finds that this widening spacing is one of the best defenses against forgetting. Every review uses fresh questions, so your child recalls the method instead of recognizing an old problem. As a result, 85% of fixed mistakes are still answered correctly a week or more later: what your child learns stays learned.
Every lesson is planned around your child.
Each morning, a complete lesson arrives, built from every answer your child has given: recent misses to fix, skills due for review, and the next new topic they’re ready for. Akros skips what your child already knows, repairs a missing building block before moving on, and keeps lessons challenging but winnable, with about 4 answers in 5 right. You never pick skills or set goals.
You see proof, not promises.
Your parent dashboard shows the whole map: every skill your child has learned, where Akros is fixing gaps and teaching new concepts, and a photo of your child’s handwriting beside every graded answer. You always know exactly what your child knows and where they need help, with no grading or quizzing on your part.
What Akros does for real children
of questions answered correctly on brand-new topics after one Akros lesson, up from about 25% before it
of missed questions fixed: answered correctly on a later lesson, with no hints
of those fixes still answered correctly a week or more later
A tutor’s job for less than one tutoring session a month
Every first payment comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel online anytime.
Choosing between Akros and IXL
Isn’t IXL cheaper?
My child’s school uses IXL. Do we still need Akros?
Will my child miss the screen?
Can Akros read messy handwriting?
Sources, checked November 2026. Paper vs. screen reading: Delgado et al. (2018) and Støle et al. (2020). Handwriting: Ibaibarriaga et al. (2025) and Flanigan et al. (2024). Feedback on each step: VanLehn (2011). Working out answers yourself: Bertsch et al. (2007). Schools and screens: Government of Sweden, Folkeskolen (December 2023, translated) and Iowa Capital Dispatch (May 2026). IXL SmartScore: IXL. Akros results: real Akros students, as reported on our homepage.
You’re the coach.
Akros is the math teacher.
Start today, because every lesson builds on the one before: your child’s first lesson shows exactly where they stand, and tomorrow’s is built from it. Siblings are half price, and every first payment comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.