Oak National Academy is free. So why does StudyDen cost £29.99 a month?
It is a fair question and it deserves a straight answer, so here it is: you are not paying for the lessons. StudyDen is built on Oak's curriculum. The teaching content is Oak's, it is excellent, and it is free to anyone who wants it. You are paying for the plan around it.
The honest short version
Oak gives you a library. StudyDen gives you a timetable.
With Oak you have thousands of genuinely good lessons and complete freedom about what to do with them. That freedom is the point for a lot of families — and it is exactly what some families find impossible on a wet Tuesday in February with two children and a job.
Deciding what to teach, in what order, for 36 weeks, across up to 14 subjects, is real work. It is the part most people underestimate and the part most people quit over. That decision is what has been made for you here.
Side by side
| Oak National Academy | StudyDen | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, publicly funded | £29.99/month |
| Lesson content | Teacher-authored, openly licensed | The same Oak lessons, restructured |
| Who decides what to do today | You do | Sequenced into a week-by-week plan |
| Coverage | Huge library across all key stages | Years 1–6, 4,833 lessons |
| Progress tracking | Not built in | Per child, per subject |
| Assessment | Quizzes within lessons | Termly check-ins and a skills profile |
| Records for your council | You keep your own | Exportable progress report |
| Everything teacher-authored? | Yes | Mostly — 612 of 4,833 are AI-authored (Islamic RE, PSHE, critical thinking) |
When you should just use Oak
- You enjoy planning, and you already have a rhythm that works.
- You are autonomous or unschooling, and a week-by-week plan is the opposite of what you want.
- You are dipping in for one subject rather than running a whole curriculum.
- Money is tight. Oak is free and it is not a lesser option — it is the same teaching.
If any of those is you, use Oak with our blessing. We would rather you home educated happily for free than paid us and resented it.
When the £29.99 earns its keep
When the planning is the thing standing between you and starting. When you have more than one child at different stages. When you want a record you can hand a local authority without assembling it from memory. Or when you have tried the library approach and found yourself, at 9pm on a Sunday, still deciding what Monday looks like.
Try it free for 7 daysStudyDen is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or partnered with Oak National Academy. Oak content is used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. "Taught by Oak. Planned by me. Paced by AI."