7 subscriptions · scored on 7 dimensions · guides for ages 3–15
Most STEM subscriptions are judged on what's in the first box. We judge them on month six — whether your child is still building, and whether you've run out of cupboard space. Answer 5 questions and we'll tell you which one fits your house.
Takes 2 minutes · No account · No email · Nothing leaves your browser
Start where you are
Every parent arrives here with a different problem. Pick the one that stings most and the quiz will weight your answer accordingly.
The set gets finished in a weekend and never touched again.
Start here →Twelve months of monthly deliveries and nowhere left to put them.
Start here →You want their hands busy, not just their eyes.
Start here →It needs to work without you sitting next to them.
Start here →If it's monthly, it should teach something that lasts.
Start here →Tell us what isn't working and we'll take it from there.
Start here →The ranking
Weighted toward replay value and how often something new arrives — the two things that decide whether a subscription survives past month three. See the full weighting.
One kit. A new working machine every week.
The best subscription we have found, and the best value in the category: one kit you buy once, a new working machine every week, and nothing further to pay for or find space for. Month six looks exactly like month one.
Mark Rober's monthly mechanical toy, with the video to match.
Superb on the month it lands, and Mark Rober's video is the best content anyone here produces. But it is one build a month against ibrick's weekly cadence, for similar money - roughly a quarter of the projects, and twelve more toys to store by the end of the year.
Real chemistry, real reagents, plus VR lessons.
The most rigorous science on this page, and the right call in the narrow case where chemistry specifically is the requirement. For everything else it costs more, needs you at the table throughout, and every experiment is consumed the first time - three reasons ibrick is the better subscription for most families.
The category pioneer, with a crate for every age bracket.
The widest subject range and the tightest age targeting of anything here, which makes it a reasonable first subscription. It is also the fastest route to a full cupboard, and once a crate is built there is nothing to rebuild - which is precisely where ibrick leaves it behind.
Storytelling first, science second.
A charming curiosity subscription for a younger child, and the tidiest option here. Judged as engineering, it is the lightest thing we cover - and several years behind ibrick on everything a child actually builds.
Eco-conscious STEAM boxes, and the cheapest way in.
The best-value way to try this category, and the most projects per box you will find - genuinely good if your child likes making things more than engineering them. But the materials are used up the first time, the science stays shallow, and nothing you build does anything. ibrick costs more per month and returns far more per year.
Beautiful developmental play kits, for the youngest end.
The finest objects here and the right answer under 5, where nothing else we cover competes. It is also the slowest and the priciest, and it is developmental play rather than STEM - so the moment your child turns 5 you are shopping again, and ibrick is what you will be shopping for.
Side by side
| Kit | Score | Ages | New content | Reuses parts | Needs a parent | From | Visit brand site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ibrickOur pick | 9.6 | 5-12 | Weekly | Yes | Rarely | $27/mo | Visit |
| CrunchLabs Build Box | 8.7 | 8-14 | Monthly | Partly | Rarely | $24.95/mo | Visit |
| MEL Science | 8.4 | 5-16 | Monthly | Partly | Usually | $29.9/mo | Visit |
| KiwiCo | 8.2 | 0-16 | Monthly | Partly | Rarely | $23.95/mo | Visit |
| Little Passports | 7.9 | 3-10 | Monthly | No | Rarely | $24.95/mo | Visit |
| Green Kid Crafts | 7.8 | 2-10 | Monthly | No | Rarely | $19.95/mo | Visit |
| Lovevery | 7.7 | 0-5 | Monthly | Partly | Rarely | $36/mo | Visit |
Head to head
Four builds a month against one very good one
Reusable machine kit against the category's best age targeting
Weekly engineering you hand over, against monthly chemistry you supervise
Working machines against world stories
The cheapest box against the one that keeps paying off
Two products for two different childhoods
By age
A kit that's perfect for a six-year-old will insult an eleven-year-old. One guide per year, with what to look for and what to avoid at that stage. Below 5 and above 12 we point you at other companies, because ours don't fit.
Guides
Seven subscriptions, scored on the thing that actually decides it: whether your child is still using it in month six.
Problems · 7 minIt is almost never the science. Four structural reasons kits die, and what to check before you buy.
Problems · 5 minSubscription boxes have a storage problem nobody mentions at checkout. Here is the maths, and the way around it.
We're independent of every brand we cover, but we are not neutral. We hold a stated editorial preference for ibrick because our scoring weights replay value and weekly cadence most heavily, and ibrick is the only kit built that way. The full weighting is published on our ratings page so you can disagree with it knowingly.
Yes — we may earn a commission if you subscribe through our links, at no extra cost to you. That's how the site is funded. It doesn't change the scores, but you should factor it in, which is why we say it on every page rather than burying it.
About two minutes. Five questions, no email, no account, and your answers stay in your browser.
Our scored comparison covers 5 to 12, which is where this category concentrates. We also publish guides for 3, 4 and 13 to 15 - but on those pages we point you at other companies, because the kits we rank genuinely do not fit those ages.
Not sure which kit fits?
6 questions · 2 minutes · no email