PrepScholar vs. Kaplan ACT Prep: Which Is Better in 2026?

A redesigned version of the ACT was recently released, showcasing new features, content, and challenges. To succeed on the revamped exam, you need top quality prep built by ACT experts.

Two of the biggest names in ACT prep are Kaplan and PrepScholar. Both of these companies provide a range of program options for ACT prep, and while they share the goal of helping you improve your ACT scores, they’re tailored to meet the needs of different types of students.

To help you choose the ACT prep program that will help you achieve your goals, we’ve put together a full comparison of Kaplan’s and PrepScholar’s ACT prep programs. Keep reading to find out which one is the right fit for you!

Section 1: Rationale

Section 2: The Best ACT Prep Winner

Section 3: Comparison of Core Offerings

Section 4: PrepScholar vs. Kaplan Comparison Table

Section 5: Comparison Point 1 - Instruction Quality and Feedback

Section 6: Comparison Point 2 - Personalization and Adaptive Learning

Section 7: Comparison Point 3 - Test Updates and Alignment

Section 8: Comparison Point 4 - Value

Section 9: Overall Pros and Cons

Section 10: FAQs

How We Picked Our ACT Prep Winners

We’ve spent hours researching, testing, and reviewing real student feedback on both PrepScholar and Kaplan’s ACT program offerings to give you a thorough comparison of what they have to offer.

As a test taker, you need to know that the core features of your ACT prep program will create a prep experience that fits your needs and guarantees your success on the real exam. To help you find the best program for you, we reviewed both ACT prep companies’ based on the following features and offerings:

• Value
• Offerings and Update
• Price
• Score guarantee
• Variety of products
• Real student reviews

Knowing what you’re buying before you commit is the key to choosing an ACT prep program that gets you the results you’re looking for. Keep reading to find out which ACT prep program is the winner for the kind of student you are!

PrepScholar vs Kaplan: Which Has the Best ACT Prep?

For its adaptive, personalized prep, robust collection of over 2,800 practice questions with in-depth explanations, and 4-point score guarantee, we rank PrepScholar as the overall winner when it comes to ACT prep programs.

Overall Winner: PrepScholar

PrepScholar delivers quality experiences and consistent results that are carefully tailored to the needs and goals of each student. Built on adaptive tech, PrepScholar’s programs provide personalized study plans in a suite of self-paced courses to one-on-one tutoring, offering customization for every student that’s backed by one consistent score guarantee for all of its ACT prep programs.

While Kaplan gets a lot of credit for being an official partner of the ACT, their ACT prep experience aligns less closely with the new Enhanced ACT than PrepScholar’s. For their commitment to tailoring comprehensive, cutting-edge prep to each student’s needs, PrepScholar comes out on top as the overall winner.

Best for Students Looking for Cutting-Edge Prep: PrepScholar

When the new Enhanced ACT was announced several years ago, PrepScholar didn’t just update their ACT prep programs. They revamped their entire suite, redesigning their practice questions, drills, and assessments from the ground up to bring students a prep experience that’s fully aligned with the new ACT. Students who are seeking the most cutting edge, comprehensive prep on the market will be in good hands with PrepScholar’s ACT prep.

Best for Varied Baseline Prep Options: Kaplan

While PrepScholar’s baseline Complete Online ACT Course is extremely popular, Kaplan provides a wider variety of baseline ACT prep options. From their self-paced course to their a la carte last-minute ACT prep modules, Kaplan has more offerings for students who don’t want to commit to a more comprehensive, personalized test prep experience.

Comparing Core ACT Prep Options

ACT prep programs come with multiple features and offerings, packaged in different ways. To make sure you know exactly what your options are, we’ll break down all of PrepScholar’s ACT prep options and Kaplan’s ACT prep options below.

PrepScholar ACT Prep Overview

PrepScholar provides four digital ACT prep options that are designed to meet every kind of learning need: Complete Online ACT Prep, Complete Online ACT Prep + Admissions Bootcamp, Live Instructor Led Classes, and 1-on-1 Online Tutoring.

PrepScholar’s most popular course, Complete Online ACT Prep, is a self-paced adaptive program that includes a smart diagnostic test, more than 50 skill lessons, 2800+ practice questions with explanations, and four official ACT exams to take as practice. This program comes with a year of full access to all included prep materials.

There’s also Complete Online ACT Prep + Admissions Bootcamp, which comes with everything that’s included in the Complete Online package, with the addition of Admissions Bootcamp lessons that take you through every step of the admissions process, from curating your college list, making your application stand out, how to write the perfect essay, how and when to submit your applications, and even financial aid.

PrepScholar’s Live Instructor Led Classes give you up to 36 hours of expert-led classes in a live, online classroom. You’ll get to learn in a small group of up to nine other students and get feedback and answers to your questions in real-time. This program includes everything in the Complete Online ACT Prep program as well as the Admissions Bootcamp, both at no additional cost.

With the 1-on-1 Tutoring program, you can get 4, 10, 18, or 32 one-on-one tutoring hours with a 99th percentile-scoring tutor. You’ll pick the tutoring package that best fits your schedule, needs, and goals, and receive a fully personalized prep experience.

Each of PrepScholar’s ACT prep programs include a 4-point guarantee, customized weekly prep plans, and 60+ hours of prep content.

Kaplan ACT Prep Overview

Kaplan offers four core ACT program options: Self-Paced ACT Course, Live Online, Online Tutoring, and Kaplan College Advantage.

Kaplan’s baseline offering is the Self-Paced ACT Course, which comes with 35 on demand, prerecorded lessons taught by an instructor, three official practice ACTs, and a customizable QBank that includes over 2,000 practice questions. With this course, you’ll get six months of access to all included prep materials.

Live Online, Kaplan’s most popular offering, includes 16 hours of online live instruction from 99th percentile-scoring teachers, three practice ACTs, and 2,000+ practice questions with hints. You’ll also receive access to an ACT prep eBook.

In the self-paced tier, Kaplan also offers a la carte Last-Minute prep courses. These mini courses allow you to select your prep by ACT section–Math, English, Reading, or Science–or bundle multiple mini courses into one package. With Last-Minute prep, you’ll get access to video-based modules led by an ACT expert, access to practice questions, and the ability to watch the prep videos as many times as you want.

Kaplan’s Online Tutoring is a customizable package that comes with 5, 10, 20, 30, or 40 hours of 1-on-1 tutoring and a personalized study plan from an ACT expert. If you want to work with a tutor who has 8+ years experience, you can upgrade to the Premium Online Tutoring package. You’ll also get access to 7+ hours of on-demand video lessons, official ACT practice tests, 2,000+ practice questions, and customized homework assigned by your tutor.

College Advantage is Kaplan’s most comprehensive suite of programs. It includes a range of ACT prep, SAT prep, tutoring, and admissions advising options that are packaged into basic, plus, and unlimited tiers and customized for freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

While Kaplan states that students who complete their Live Online course raise their score by 4 points on average, their ACT prep programs don’t come with a score guarantee.

PrepScholar vs. Kaplan Comparison Table

Below, check out our side-by-side comparison of the ACT prep services offered by PrepScholar and Kaplan.

Comparison Point 1 – Instruction Quality and Feedback

Quality instruction does more than teach you a bunch of concepts to memorize. It helps you develop an ACT strategy that targets areas where you need growth so you can actually boost your score! Here’s how PrepScholar and Kaplan approach ACT instruction and the feedback they give students. 

PrepScholar

Every ACT prep offering from PrepScholar is built on the idea that targeted, personalized practice is what it takes to succeed on the ACT. Their courses and teaching methods are designed to give students a deep understanding of how the exam is structured and equip them with test-taking strategies that help them evade the exam’s traps, which leads to better scores.

PrepScholar’s ACT prep programs deliver more than 60 hours of instructional materials and more than 50 skill-focused lessons covering the skills and content that are tested on the ACT. Each lesson blends video instruction with written explanations, broken into manageable segments that are easy to absorb. At the end of every lesson, students take quizzes that reinforce what they’ve learned and identify gaps in their understanding for further practice going forward.

One area where PrepScholar really stands out is in how they handle errors and incorrect answers. Every one of the 2,800+ practice questions comes with a thorough answer explanation that goes over not only why a wrong answer is wrong, but also how it was trying to trick you and how to attack similar questions on the real exam. These detailed breakdowns are essential to learning an exam strategy that will lead to score improvement over time.

PrepScholar’s programs also include four official ACT practice tests sourced directly from the Official ACT Prep Guide. Rather than relying on internally developed tests, PrepScholar holds that official materials offer students the most authentic and effective prep there is. After completing practice exams, students receive detailed feedback that aims to help them track progress over time and continuously focus on skills that need the most work. Students seeking more hands-on support can take advantage of PrepScholar’s one-on-one tutoring option. Every PrepScholar tutor is a 99th-percentile ACT scorer who’s been trained to develop a tailored prep strategy for each student and lead personalized sessions that focus on students’ weak spots and work to eliminate them.

Kaplan

As an official partner of the ACT, Kaplan has the benefit of direct input from the creators of the ACT when designing their prep programs. Thanks to this partnership, Kaplan is able to provide realistic prep and an exclusive learning experience.

In Kaplan’s self-paced and live instruction courses, students follow a “Learning Path” that guides them through study units consisting of a set of video lessons, practice problems, and some readings. To help students stay engaged, Kaplan caps the length of their video lessons at 12 minutes. Students take three practice ACTs at designated times as they progress through the Learning Path.

All of Kaplan’s lessons follow the same structure, starting with a short video lesson, followed by a drill, and ending with a quiz that allows students to “prove” what they’ve learned. Each quiz question and answer comes with a video explainer, followed by a customized chart that allows students to identify struggle areas that require extra practice.

While Kaplan’s bank of 2,000 practice questions provide plenty of opportunities for ongoing practice, some reviewers claim that they’re easier than the questions you encounter on the real ACT. Students have expressed surprise when the ACT was more difficult than they were expecting, and a wish that practice questions had more accurately reflected the difficulty of the real exam.

As students work through lesson modules, they’ll find that drill questions on each ACT concept come with engaging video explanations that break down the process for finding the right answer. While these videos are excellent for helping students learn what they did wrong and how to fix their mistakes next time, drill questions are unfortunately the only questions that are accompanied by video explanations. When you work through Kaplan’s QBank of 2,000+ questions, you’ll only get text-based explanations, which may provide less motivation for continued practice.

Kaplan’s self-paced and live courses are taught by 99th percentile-scoring ACT instructors. However, in one-on-one tutoring packages, Kaplan only guarantees you’ll get to work with a 99th percentile-scoring tutor with 8+ years of experience if you upgrade to their Premium tutoring package, which costs around $500 more than the basic tutoring package. If working with an experienced tutor is important to you, you’ll have to pay extra.

For students with busy schedules and limited time to study, Kaplan’s short lessons provide an easy way to fit daily prep into their routine. Kaplan states that their prep packages require just 30 minutes of prep per day, allowing for a consistent daily schedule that helps students maintain balance in their lives.

Winner: PrepScholar

Kaplan leans heavily on their partnership with the ACT to lend credibility to their prep program, which is high-quality. But PrepScholar’s ACT prep goes the extra mile when it comes to answer explanations, which sets their quality of instruction and feedback apart from competitors. Whereas Kaplan claims that working with materials developed in collaboration with the ACT is what will give students an edge, it’s PrepScholar’s focus on helping students understand and eliminate their weaknesses that makes a real difference in the end.

Comparison Point 2 — Personalization and Adaptive Learning

A good sign that an ACT prep program has what it takes to help you succeed is a commitment to personalized learning through adaptive prep. Below, we go over how PrepScholar and Kaplan compare to each other based on personalization and adaptive learning.

PrepScholar

All of PrepScholar’s ACT prep programs use a skill-by-skill approach to learning that adapts to each student individually, allowing them to focus on areas where they need the most improvement. This adaptivity is baked into the foundation of PrepScholar’s ACT prep platform, and it allows PrepScholar to provide a degree of personalization that’s unique in the test prep world.

At the beginning of each program, students complete a 60-question smart diagnostic test that evaluates their performance across every skill that the ACT tests. Using your results, PrepScholar then creates a personalized weekly study plan that focuses on the topics and questions types where you need the most practice. The platform’s adaptive software reworks your study plan every week to ensure that you’re focusing on the areas where you need the most improvement, which is the approach that’s most likely to improve your score.

PrepScholar’s adaptive technology adjusts to the student’s performance with each question, which allows you to make more progress in less time. As you complete quizzes and practice tests, your weekly study plan continually updates to keep you focused on the skills and content that will help you progress quickly.

Students who enroll in PrepScholar’s one-on-one tutoring receive even more personalized content and guidance. Using diagnostic data from students’ ongoing performance on drills and practice exams, PrepScholar matches students with a tutor who specializes in the content and skills they need to focus on. Tutors build each session around the student’s progress and adjust the study plan to provide targeted practice from one week to the next.

Kaplan

Kaplan’s ACT prep offers personalization and customization options in various ways, especially in higher tier programs. However, adaptivity isn’t built into the foundation of Kaplan’s SAT prep programs. While you can customize what’s included in your prep packages, you won’t get a prep experience that’s meticulously tailored to your progress and goals.

To make their ACT prep more personalized, students can use the QBank of 2,000+ practice questions to create customized quizzes, with the option to tailor them based on number of questions, ACT concept, or problem areas you’re having difficulty with. In other words, Kaplan’s ACT prep courses don’t adapt to your performance and adjust based on the areas where you need the most work. If you want more personalization, you’ll have to create it yourself by building your own assessments.

While they don’t offer adaptivity outside of practice exams, Kaplan’s baseline prep courses do offer some options for customization. If committing to the Self-Paced ACT course isn’t right for you or you need extra guidance right before your exam, you can choose from Kaplan’s four Last Minute ACT prep courses. Each last-minute course focuses on a single subject area, with options in Math, Reading, English, and Science, and can be easily bundled into one prep package.

Kaplan’s ACT packages become increasingly personalized as you move up to higher tier offerings. One-on-one tutoring packages are customizable, allowing students to choose between a light, 5 hour package, or more intensive prep that tops out at 40 total tutoring hours. While students will receive individualized guidance and a customized study plan, Kaplan matches students and tutors randomly instead of using diagnostic data to place students with a tutor who specializes in their problem areas.

Where Kaplan’s personalization stands out is in its suite of College Advantage packages. These packages bundle ACT and SAT prep and college admissions planning into one program that’s tailored to the needs and goals of students in different years of high school. You’ll select your graduation year from among the packages provided, then choose from basic, plus, and unlimited prep that’s designed to put you on track to meet all of your goals by graduation.

Kaplan’s dedicated AI assistant, KapAdvisor Premium, allows parents to track their students’ progress and stay involved in the ACT prep process while letting their student take the lead. KapAdvisor Premium is included in some ACT prep programs, like Kaplan College Advantage, but can also be added onto other packages for $199.

Winner: PrepScholar

While Kaplan’s variety of mix and match ACT prep options offers appealing flexibility, PrepScholar’s built-in adaptivity, which leads to even more personalization, allows students to focus on what matters most: drilling problem areas to eliminate mistakes and improve their scores. Because of PrepScholar’s adaptive foundation that’s woven throughout every ACT prep program, they edge out Kaplan on this point of comparison.

Comparison Point 3 — Test Updates and Alignment

Any test prep company worth its salt will continuously update its ACT prep program to align with the current version of the ACT. Here’s our comparison of PrepScholar and Kaplan based on their approach to test updates and alignment.

PrepScholar

When the new Enhanced ACT was released, PrepScholar fully overhauled their entire ACT prep curriculum, tailoring every component of their program to fully align with the new exam. Rather than tweaking old ACT prep materials, PrepScholar redesigned lessons, practice questions, and their entire testing interface in order to give students a prep experience that mirrors the Enhanced ACT as much as possible.

PrepScholar’s revamped ACT prep includes 50 targeted skill lessons that cover the most crucial skills tested on the ACT, new strategy lessons that focus on the ways the ACT tries to trap you, and content addressing new skills that didn’t appear on the old ACT. And because ACT Science is optional, you can choose a prep package that excludes science prep if you aren’t planning to take that section of the ACT.

Additionally, the updated ACT prep program includes 2800+ brand new practice questions, Math questions that have been fully rewritten for the ACT’s new four answer choice format, and a refresh to the prep interface that aligns it more closely with the ACT’s new section lengths and pacing.

Thanks to these updates, PrepScholar is able to provide a fully emulated Enhanced ACT prep experience, with an interface that’s designed to mirror the ACT’s new format and design, so students can get an authentic feel for what it’ll be like on exam day.

Kaplan

A large part of Kaplan’s credibility as a test prep company comes from its direct partnership with the ACT. Some of Kaplan’s prep materials are accessed through the ACT website itself, and their bank of practice questions includes real exam questions from past ACTs.

Kaplan also releases a new edition of their ACT prep books annually. These updates reflect any minor changes that are made to the ACT year by year, as well as major overhauls, like when the new Enhanced ACT was released. When relevant, Kaplan is also transparent about corrections made to their ACT books to ensure accuracy, and provides access to those corrections for free.

Winner: PrepScholar

Kaplan and PrepScholar have created a highly realistic emulation of what the new Enhanced ACT exam environment looks like through their online practice and testing systems. But because PrepScholar went a step further and completely redesigned their ACT prep program in response to the release of the Enhanced ACT, when it comes down to it, they beat out Kaplan’s more basic updates to ACT prep.

Comparison Point 4 — Value

Test prep is an investment in your future. To make sure you’re putting your resources in the right place, you need to know that the ACT program you choose will help you meet your needs and goals in a capacity that works best for you.

PrepScholar

PrepScholar offers four ACT programs: Complete Online ACT Prep, Complete Online + Admissions Bootcamps, Live Instructor-Led Classes, and One-on-One Tutoring. Higher tier programs add more personalization and instruction at higher price points.

The self-paced Complete Online course is the foundation of PrepScholar’s entire ACT prep program. It includes a smart diagnostic test, 2,800+ practice questions, drills, lessons, four practice tests, and detailed answer explanations, all within an adaptive platform that continuously recalibrates your study plan based on your performance. However, you won’t receive one-on-one or live instruction in this course.

Each higher tier program builds on this foundation, adding live or one-on-one instruction, a free Admissions Bootcamp, and easy SAT bundling options on top of the self-paced course materials. Live instruction packages range from 4 to 32+ hours across Beginner, Essentials, and Advanced levels, while tutoring is available in 4, 10, 18, or 32 hour packages.

Every program comes with a 4-point score improvement guarantee, though some users have reported friction with the refund process, which means reading the guarantee terms and conditions before enrolling is crucial.

Like many competitors, PrepScholar doesn’t have a dedicated mobile app. While you can use their prep platform on a mobile device, the experience may be less polished.

PrepScholar packs an impressive degree of personalization into every program tier thanks to their proprietary, built-in adaptive technology. That personalization translates to more value. When an ACT prep program is meticulously tailored to your learning needs and goals, it’s going to do an excellent job of helping you achieve your score goals quickly and efficiently, bringing you maximum value for every dollar you spend.

Kaplan

Kaplan offers four main ACT prep programs: the Self-Paced ACT Course, Live Online, Online Tutoring, and Kaplan College Advantage. These programs increase in complexity and cost as you move up to higher program tiers.

At the self-paced and Live Online program tiers, students are able to move through lesson modules pretty quickly, thanks to the consistent structure of the Learning Path. Because of this, some students have reported that they wish there was more guided practice provided. While you can supplement the official curriculum by drilling practice questions from the QBank, these questions don’t include any written solutions or problem explanations. This limits the gains that students can make from using the QBank, since understanding your mistakes and how to correct them is essential to improving your score.

Students who aren’t able to commit to a more intensive prep program can opt for Kaplan’s a la carte Last Minute, subject-based ACT prep packages. At only $20 per course, the Last Minute packages provide a quick and easy way to fit in last-minute expert prep in a self-paced format.

Kaplan packs the most value for every dollar you pay into its live online courses. At a low $649 compared to competitors, Kaplan’s 16 hours of live instruction from highly interactive 99th-percentile scoring teachers offer the highest value option you can get from this SAT prep company.

Compared to competitors, Kaplan’s Live Online class sizes are very big, with up to 30 students per class. Larger class sizes make it difficult for students to receive individualized instruction and personalized feedback. Some reviewers report that Kaplan tends to cancel class if not enough students sign up, and it isn’t clear if those sessions are rescheduled.

With the exception of the multi-year College Advantage packages, Kaplan’s ACT prep courses come with only six months of access to program materials. This places students on a more compressed timeline for completing the courses, and affords less flexibility for students who want to spread their prep out over a longer period of time.

Because of Kaplan’s partnership with the ACT, they’re able to offer some lower tier prep options for free or at a relatively low cost to students who register for the ACT with a fee waiver.

Winner: Kaplan (A La Carte Content), PrepScholar (Program Robustness)

When it comes to the amount of ACT prep available, PrepScholar wins handedly. They offer optimized self-guided prep along with tutoring, coursework, and an AI assistant so students can get the most out of their prep time. When considering cost plus material quality, PrepScholar is also the best value. 

Kaplan, on the other hand, makes it easier for students to pick-and-choose the material they'd like to engage with. For instance, students can purchase individual video modules at low prices that target their weakest areas (as long as they've identified those areas correctly using practice tests). That's why we're giving Kaplan the edge on customization. 

Overall Pros and Cons

While test prep programs provide tons of great features, they also come with some drawbacks. Below, we outline the pros and cons of PrepScholar’s ACT prep and Kaplan’s ACT prep.