Akros vs. Mathnasium
More individual attention, every day, at home, for a fraction of the price.
At Mathnasium, your child goes to a center two or three times a week, where one instructor splits their time among a few students. Akros gives your child more individual attention: every lesson is built for your child alone, and every step they write gets read and coached. It all happens at home, every day, for a fraction of the price.
- A lesson every day at home, not twice a week at a center
- Every lesson built for your child alone
- No drive and no time slot
- A fraction of the price; each sibling adds $9.99
7-day money-back guarantee · Siblings half price · Cancel online anytime
How Akros and Mathnasium compare
| Akros | Mathnasium | Why it matters for your child | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How often | Every day: a new lesson each morning | Usually 2 sessions a week, about an hour each | Consistency is key to successful learning, and daily practice keeps skills fresh. |
| Attention | Every lesson built for your child alone; every step on every page read | One instructor for 3 or 4 students at once | More individual attention for your child. |
| Where and when | At home, whenever suits your day | At a center, during after-school hours | No drive, no waiting room, no fixed time slot. |
| What you see | Every skill, and a photo of every graded answer | An online portal with progress after each session | You see your child’s own handwritten work beside every grade. |
| Between sessions | The next lesson is already on its way | Typically no work sent home | Learning continues every day, not just on center days. |
| A second child | Adds $9.99 a month | Discounts vary by center; where offered, about $25 to $30 a month off | A second child costs $9.99 on Akros, versus roughly $320 to $425 a month at centers that post prices. |
| Price | From $19.99 a month, with no enrollment fee | $350 to $449 a month at centers that post prices, plus about $199 to enroll | A fraction of the cost. |
Why Akros is the better choice for your child
Your child practices every day, not twice a week.
Consistency is key to successful learning. Most Mathnasium families come to a center 2 or 3 times a week, and centers typically send no work home. Akros sends a new lesson every morning, so your child can practice every day, and on Akros Premium, Instant Grading delivers the next lesson in about 10 minutes when your child wants to keep going. Psychologists who reviewed 10 popular study methods rated spaced practice one of the 2 most effective: short practice spread across the week beats a long session now and then.
Your child gets more individual attention.
At Mathnasium, one instructor splits their time among 3 or 4 students. With Akros, every lesson is built for your child alone, and every handwritten step on every page your child sends gets read. Akros pinpoints where the thinking broke and brings the problem back the next morning with new numbers and a hint aimed precisely at that step. After this coaching, children answer that type of question correctly on a later lesson 97% of the time, with no hints.
No drive and no time slot.
Mathnasium centers open in after-school hours, so your family plans around them, drives to them and waits through them. Akros has no appointments. The lesson waits in your inbox, and your child does it whenever suits your day: before school, after soccer, on a Saturday morning, or on vacation. Your part takes about 5 minutes.
You see exactly what your child knows.
Your Akros parent dashboard shows the whole map: every skill your child has learned, where Akros is fixing gaps and teaching new concepts, and every graded question beside a photo of your child’s handwritten work. You always know where your child stands and where they need help.
Your child learns to figure things out.
With Akros, your child learns each new topic from the page and fixes each mistake with a hint, not a person leaning over their shoulder. That self-sufficiency is the skill that lasts. Most advanced math won’t be used after school (when did you last do calculus?), but the ability to learn something new on your own will be used for life. Every fix tells your child: you didn’t need anyone to show you; you figured it out yourself.
New concepts click in one lesson.
Every new Math Topic comes 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: one lesson takes your child from mostly wrong to mostly right.
Skills stay learned.
Akros tracks every question your child answers and every skill they learn, so it knows exactly when each skill is due for review. Each topic comes back 2 days after it’s taught, then at widening intervals of a week, 2 weeks, a month, and 2 months. 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, with no hints.
No screens and no devices.
Mathnasium’s online program runs on a computer or tablet, and some centers now have students work on iPads. Akros is completely device-free: every lesson is printed, and your child writes out each step with a pencil. Children get more math problems right when they write out their steps: in a study of Dutch 6th graders who found math hard, answers with written-out steps were right 40% of the time, compared with 19% for answers worked out in their heads. In another study, accuracy rose when children were asked to write out problems they had been doing in their heads. Screens get in the way, too: when Massachusetts moved its state math test from paper to computers, students in grades 3–8 scored lower.
A second child costs $9.99.
Mathnasium sibling discounts vary by center: where offered, they run about $25 to $30 a month off. At centers that post prices, that still leaves a second child at roughly $320 to $425 a month. With Akros, each brother or sister adds $9.99 a month, with no enrollment fee.
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
Every day, for a fraction of Mathnasium’s price
Every first payment comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel online anytime.
Choosing between Akros and Mathnasium
Is Akros personalized like a Mathnasium learning plan?
My child needs things explained. Can a printed lesson do that?
Can Akros help with a test coming up?
Can Akros read messy handwriting?
Sources, checked November 2026. Writing out work: Fagginger Auer et al. (2018) and Hickendorff et al. (2010). Paper vs. computer math tests: Backes and Cowan (2019). Mathnasium sessions, staffing and work at home: Mathnasium and Mathnasium of West Seattle FAQ. Prices and fees posted by centers: Glenview, Long Beach and Andover. Sibling discounts: Mathnasium of Stillwater. Online program: Mathnasium@home. Study methods: Dunlosky et al. (2013). Akros results: real Akros students, as reported on our homepage. Akros is not affiliated with Mathnasium.
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.