Story app guides and comparisons
The best Giant alternatives for kids (2026)
Full disclosure: we make one of the alternatives below. Giant is lively, well funded and well reviewed, and for some families it's exactly right. These are the options worth knowing when it isn't, including when to stick with Giant.
| App | Best for | Price | What it leaves out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branchlings (ours) | storybooks your child steers, with no AI chat and nothing social | From $9.99/month; sample stories free to read, no free trial | No chat of any kind, no friends list, nothing public |
| Oscar Stories | personalized bedtime stories at a low price, on any device | $4.99/month or $39.99/year on iPhone; coin packs; first stories free | No AI chat, no social features; one subscription or pay-per-story coins |
| Epic | real books, picked by people, instead of AI | $13.99/month or $84.99/year; 7-day free trial | No generative AI and no chat; published books, audiobooks and videos |
| Khan Academy Kids | a free, no-ads app for ages 2 to 8 | Free, with no ads or subscriptions | No AI characters to chat with, no ads, no purchases |
| Toca Boca World | open-ended pretend play, no AI | Free to start; extra places and packs $0.99–$4.99 | No AI, no chat, no strangers: single-player |
Why people look for a Giant alternative
- Live voice chat with AI characters. It's at the heart of Giant, and it's the part some parents aren't comfortable with. Giant keeps text transcripts for moderation and shows flagged chats to parents, but the conversations are open-ended.
- A subscription plus stars. Giant's plans ($9.99 a month, or $59.99 or $79.99 a year) include a monthly allowance of stars, which pay for episodes, chats and story chapters, and it sells more.
- Friends and sharing. Giant has a friends list, adventures together and sharing creations. Great for some kids, more than others want.
- A lot of change. Giant was renamed and redesigned on October 1–2, 2026, after several reshuffles this year.
When to stick with Giant
If your child loves talking with characters, watching episodes they star in and playing with friends, nothing below does all of that. Giant is also on Android, cheaper by the year than us, and certified by PRIVO's COPPA Safe Harbor program, which we aren't yet.
1. Branchlings ours
- Best for
- storybooks your child steers, with no AI chat and nothing social
- Price
- From $9.99/month; sample stories free to read, no free trial
- What it leaves out
- No chat of any kind, no friends list, nothing public
This is ours. Branchlings keeps the part of Giant where your child stars in a story and makes choices, and leaves out the rest. Every story is painted pages, written for your child's age and read together or aloud, and at every fork your child decides what happens, or types their own idea with a grown-up.
Grown-ups set words and topics to leave out, how exciting stories get, and whether each child can add their own ideas. Around bedtime, stories wind down to goodnight.
What it won't do: talk back, make videos, or run on Android yet. It costs $9.99 a month or $109.99 a year (more than Giant by the year), and like Giant, plans come with a monthly allowance (story credits; a usual story uses about 3) that subscribers can top up. There's no free trial, and we don't have an outside privacy certification like Giant's yet.
2. Oscar Stories
- Best for
- personalized bedtime stories at a low price, on any device
- Price
- $4.99/month or $39.99/year on iPhone; coin packs; first stories free
- What it leaves out
- No AI chat, no social features; one subscription or pay-per-story coins
Oscar Stories writes an illustrated bedtime story starring your child, with narration and story videos, in about ten languages, on iPhone, Android and the web. $4.99 a month on iPhone, and your first stories are free.
The catch: no choices once the story starts, and its privacy policy is written for Europe and doesn't mention COPPA.
3. Epic
- Best for
- real books, picked by people, instead of AI
- Price
- $13.99/month or $84.99/year; 7-day free trial
- What it leaves out
- No generative AI and no chat; published books, audiobooks and videos
If the AI is the part you'd rather avoid, Epic is a library of 40,000+ published children's books, with professional narration on its Read-to-Me books. Epic says it doesn't use generative AI or chatbots.
The catch: your child isn't in the stories and can't change them, and it costs $13.99 a month or $84.99 a year.
4. Khan Academy Kids
- Best for
- a free, no-ads app for ages 2 to 8
- Price
- Free, with no ads or subscriptions
- What it leaves out
- No AI characters to chat with, no ads, no purchases
Completely free, from the nonprofit Khan Academy: lessons, games and about 300 books read aloud, covering early reading, math and social-emotional skills, with no ads and no subscriptions.
The catch: it's learning first, not stories starring your child, and it stops at about age 8.
5. Toca Boca World
- Best for
- open-ended pretend play, no AI
- Price
- Free to start; extra places and packs $0.99–$4.99
- What it leaves out
- No AI, no chat, no strangers: single-player
If what your child loves about Giant is making up worlds, Toca Boca World is a huge digital dollhouse with no AI at all. It's single-player, with no chat, and Toca Boca is in PRIVO's COPPA Safe Harbor program, like Giant.
The catch: nothing is written or read, and the world grows through paid packs ($0.99–$4.99).
How to choose
- Want your child starring in stories, without the AI chat? Branchlings.
- Want it cheap, on Android or in another language? Oscar Stories.
- Want no AI at all? Epic for books, Toca Boca World for play.
- Want it free? Khan Academy Kids.
Questions
- Is there an app like Giant without AI chat?
- Branchlings lets your child star in stories and make choices, with no chat of any kind. Oscar Stories writes personalized bedtime stories with no chat. Epic and Toca Boca World have no generative AI at all.
- What's cheaper than Giant?
- Khan Academy Kids is free. Oscar Stories is $4.99 a month on iPhone. Giant's yearly plans ($59.99 and $79.99) are cheaper than Branchlings ($109.99 a year for Basic).
- Which Giant alternative is on Android?
- Oscar Stories, Epic, Khan Academy Kids and Toca Boca World all run on Android. Branchlings is coming to Android.
- Is Giant safe for kids?
- Giant is in PRIVO's COPPA Safe Harbor program, has no ads, and shows parents flagged chats. Whether it suits your family mostly comes down to how you feel about your child talking freely with AI characters, and playing with friends in the app.
Try Branchlings
Your child dreams up the story and picks what happens at every fork, and Branchlings writes and paints it. Free to download, with in-app purchases. You can read the sample stories before you choose a plan. Painting your character and new stories come with a plan. Plans start at $9.99 a month, and there's no free trial. For iPhone and iPad in the US.
Pricing and features for every app on this list checked October 2026. Apps change fast, so double-check on each app's own site before you buy. Names of other apps are trademarks of their owners and are used here only to identify them; we're not connected with any of them.