Comparison

DreamBox Math vs Imagine Learning Student

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

DreamBox Math

This digital math program offers interactive, game-like lessons for PreK-8 students. Its adaptive technology personalizes learning, while parent and educator dashboards provide insights into progress and proficiency. Available in English and Spanish, it supports conceptual understanding and critical thinking.

Highlights
  • Adaptive learning technology
  • Interactive game-like lessons
  • Personalized learning paths
  • Conceptual understanding development
  • Parent and educator dashboards
  • Bilingual (English/Spanish) lessons
  • Aligned to state standards
Read full description

DreamBox Learning Award-winning PreK-8 digital math program developed by educators with proven effectiveness. Awarded Best Math Learning Solution in 2019 by the EdTech Breakthrough Awards and scoring the highest privacy rating by Common Sense Media, DreamBox is meaningful screen-time that kids love! What You Need to Know About DreamBox: • Independent studies from Harvard and SRI found that kids who use DreamBox 60 minutes per week improved their math scores by 60% more than kids who don’t use DreamBox. • Interactive lessons with a game-like experience keep kids engaged – serious learning that’s seriously fun! • Adaptive technology meets each learner right where they are and adjusts based on how kids are solving problems for a truly personalized learning experience that’s age and grade agnostic. • Rigorous curriculum and rich learning pathways develop conceptual understanding, critical thinking, mental math skills, and procedural fluency. • Students learn independently with built-in help and in-the-moment scaffolding for “just in time” support tailored to their unique needs. • All student lessons are available either in English or Spanish and have closed captioning. • Parent and Educator Dashboards provide insight into each child’s growth and proficiency to help identify learning needs and celebrate learning milestones. • Using math proficiency insights, parents and educators can assign specific concepts or skills based on areas where additional support is needed. • Reporting aligned to all state standards. • Available for either school or home accounts. For school accounts, a school login is required. Contact your school for set-up instructions. By downloading the DreamBox Math app, students will have access to its full preK-8 curriculum. “DreamBox is such a fun platform for learning math for my kids. We have been using it for three years, sometimes as a primary resource and sometimes as a supplement to another program. Even when choosing another program, we keep the DreamBox subscription as a "go to" when the kids are feeling less motivated for book work.” — Fonda, Parent “DreamBox is awesome! My kiddo loves it and looks forward to playing on it. I love that they are learning so much, and that they think it's a game!” — Jules, Parent “DreamBox helps students understand the background information; making them stronger mathematically, conceptually, and helping them fully understand the material. That’s what I like. They’re walking away with a deeper understanding of math.” — Amber, Teacher “DreamBox allows our teachers to really provide in-the-moment differentiation to reach each student where they are.” — Leia, Principal

About

Imagine Learning Student

This app provides interactive language and literacy instruction for students from Pre-K to 6th grade. It offers a personalized learning path with thousands of engaging activities to improve reading, vocabulary, and spelling skills. It requires a site code from a school or district to function.

Highlights
  • Interactive language and literacy instruction
  • Personalized learning paths
  • Thousands of engaging activities
  • Focus on letters, phonological awareness, reading, and vocabulary
  • Develops reading comprehension and spelling skills
  • Learn to read over 250 books and articles
Features
Read full description

Imagine Language & Literacy® harnesses the power of technology to teach language and literacy to students around the world through engaging, interactive instruction. This mobile app is a companion to Imagine Learning's cloud-based services which allows students and teachers to have flexible access to the extensive curriculum activities. Imagine Language & Literacy lessons and activities are designed for Pre-K through 6th grade students. A personalized learning path differentiates instruction and boosts student achievement for English language learners, struggling readers, early childhood students, and students with disabilities. Imagine Language & Literacy includes thousands of fun, interactive, research-based activities, so students have fun while learning! Build a crazy monster while learning the alphabet. Play basketball while learning to spell. Free aliens by identifying the correct letter. Learn to read more than 250 books and articles. Children encounter activities in four main areas: letters, phonological awareness, reading, and vocabulary. Instruction is offered in a variety of literacy skills including letter recognition, reading comprehension, idiom comprehension, vocabulary development, phonic rules, spelling, rhyming, and phoneme segmentation. Please note this app will not work without being assigned a site code specific to your school or district. Please visit http://support.imaginelearning.com for information about System Requirements and Release Notes.

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Imagine Learning Student at free against DreamBox Math's subscription. Imagine Learning Student also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and rating (3.2 vs 3.0). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Imagine Learning Student holds the better App Store score, 3.2 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 673 and 1K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 22% of DreamBox Math's written reviews are positive against 36% of Imagine Learning Student's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DreamBox Math ships an update every 2 months, Imagine Learning Student fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
DreamBox Math versus Imagine Learning Student: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDreamBox MathImagine Learning Student
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (673 ratings)3.2 (1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews22.5% of reviews36.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings6731K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationSubscriptionFree — better
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB85 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDreamBox Learning, Inc.Imagine Learning, Inc.

Customer experience

DreamBox Math

All ratings673 ratings
Positive48.1%
Neutral5.6%
Negative46.2%
Written reviews307 reviews
Positive22.5%
Neutral6.5%
Negative71.0%

Imagine Learning Student

All ratings1,017 ratings
Positive53.1%
Neutral5.2%
Negative41.7%
Written reviews96 reviews
Positive36.5%
Neutral8.3%
Negative55.2%

User reviews

DreamBox Math

From 673 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤗 Fun and engaging
  • 💡 Adaptive to user's level
  • 👍 Helps improve math skills

Room to improve

  • 🤖 Annoying AI assistant
  • 🤯 Lessons too difficult or confusing
  • 🕰️ Lessons take too long to complete
  • 🙄 Lack of clear explanations
  • 🤬 Incorrect answers marked as wrong

Imagine Learning Student

From 1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Fun and engaging
  • 🎓 Educational and helpful for learning
  • 👍 Good for distance/online learning
  • 🎨 Customizable avatar

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy and glitchy
  • 🕰️ Time-consuming and repetitive
  • 🤔 Outdated and babyish for older students
  • 🤯 Frustrating and not helpful for learning
  • 🔇 Annoying audio/voice

Bugs and requests

DreamBox Math

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes and freezes
  • Glitches with lesson progress tracking
  • Compatibility issues on certain devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Allow skipping of explanations
  • Provide more detailed feedback on mistakes
  • Offer different difficulty levels for lessons
  • Improve game mechanics and mini-games

Imagine Learning Student

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Frequent crashes and log-outs
  • Incorrect scoring/grading in activities
  • Compatibility issues on certain devices
  • Syncing/progress issues when switching devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • More engaging and challenging content for older students
  • Improved stability and fewer bugs
  • Faster pacing and less repetition
  • Better customization options

In-app purchases

None

DreamBox Math

No in-app purchases

None

Imagine Learning Student

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DreamBox Math free?
DreamBox Math is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Imagine Learning Student free?
Imagine Learning Student is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, DreamBox Math or Imagine Learning Student?
Imagine Learning Student is rated higher. DreamBox Math averages 3.0 out of 5 from 673 ratings, while Imagine Learning Student averages 3.2 from 1K ratings.
Do DreamBox Math or Imagine Learning Student have ads?
Neither DreamBox Math nor Imagine Learning Student shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DreamBox Math or Imagine Learning Student?
DreamBox Math ships an update every 2 months, and Imagine Learning Student fortnightly. Most recently, DreamBox Math was updated on September 19, 2026 and Imagine Learning Student on September 18, 2026.

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