Kaplan vs PrepScholar ACT Review – Which Is Better?

In this Kaplan vs PrepScholar ACT review I put the two courses head to head – price, practice volume, question quality, live classes and score guarantees – and pick a winner in each category. This is a much closer call than the equivalent SAT comparison, and it turns on something most reviews skip entirely: where the practice questions come from, and whether you can learn anything from getting them wrong.

Kaplan ACT prep

Kaplan is the biggest name in test prep, and on the ACT they have something nobody else in this comparison does: an official partnership with ACT. Their question bank includes real, previously administered ACT items, and their practice interface is built to mirror the actual exam. ACT’s own fee-waiver course is powered by Kaplan. They hold a 4.5 out of 5 on Trustpilot across more than 6,200 reviews.

Kaplan ACT pros:

• Official ACT partnership – real retired ACT questions
• Practice interface mirrors the real exam
• Self-paced course is about $180, less than half PrepScholar’s price
• Excellent video production and hardcopy books with Live Online

Kaplan ACT cons:

• Question bank gives you the right answer but not a written explanation of why
• 6 months of access, half PrepScholar’s twelve
• No published score guarantee on the ACT course
• No mobile app

PrepScholar ACT

Two Harvard graduates created PrepScholar. It rates 4.7 out of 5 on Trustpilot, though across only 301 reviews – a higher score than Kaplan on a twentieth of the sample. Their ACT course was rebuilt for the Enhanced ACT rather than relabelled: 54 refreshed skill lessons, math questions rewritten for the new four-choice format, and science lessons you can switch off if you’re not sitting that section.

PrepScholar ACT pros:

• 3,000+ practice questions, each with a worked explanation
• 4 official ACT practice tests to Kaplan’s 3
• 12 months of access, double Kaplan’s six
• 4+ point score guarantee with a real refund
• Adaptive diagnostic and weekly study plan, plus an AI tutor on the $495 tier

PrepScholar ACT cons:

• $397 against Kaplan’s $180 – more than double the entry price
• Questions are PrepScholar’s own rather than official retired ACT items
• No books, no mobile app

Features Face to Face

I break these comparisons into the categories students actually weigh: price, practice, question quality, books, platform, live classes and score guarantees. I pick a winner in each, but no single course is best for everyone – a student on a tight budget and a student chasing a 34 want different things.

Price

Here’s how the cheapest and most expensive options compare.

Kaplan’s self-paced ACT course is about $180 for six months. PrepScholar’s front door is $397 for twelve. Per month of access that’s $30 against $33, which is much closer than the sticker prices suggest – but if you only need eight weeks before test day, Kaplan is simply cheaper.

Above that, Kaplan’s Live Online runs about $650 for 16 hours of class time with books included. PrepScholar’s Classes package is $895 for 9 to 36+ hours depending on the schedule you pick, with the $495 AI Learning Assistant tier folded in.

Category winner: Kaplan, on entry price. $180 is a genuinely low bar to clear.

Practice questions and tests

This is the interesting one, because the two courses are strong in opposite directions.

Kaplan gives you 2,000+ practice questions, and crucially many are real, previously administered ACT questions under their official partnership. That is about as authentic as paid practice gets. They also include 3 official full-length practice tests.

PrepScholar gives you 3,000+ questions and 4 official practice tests – 50% more practice and one more full-length exam. The questions are written in-house rather than licensed.

So Kaplan has better provenance and PrepScholar has more volume. What breaks the tie is what happens when you get one wrong. Kaplan’s question bank tells you the correct answer but doesn’t give you a written explanation of why. PrepScholar explains every question – why the right answer is right, why the wrong ones are tempting, and which strategy would have got you there faster – and indexes everything you miss so you can come back to it.

An official question you can’t learn from is worth less than a good question you can. Category winner: PrepScholar, though Kaplan’s official sourcing is a real point in its favour and closer than this framing makes it sound.

Quality of class material and instruction

Kaplan uses a “learn it, drill it, prove it” structure: video instruction, then drills, then a quiz. PrepScholar runs a similar “learn, practice, review” loop. Both are well-organised and flow sensibly from topic to topic.

Kaplan wins clearly on video. Their production values are higher, the instructors have more personality, and the tone is informal in a way most teenagers will sit through more happily than PrepScholar’s more businesslike delivery. Kaplan gives you 35 video lessons of 7 to 12 minutes each; PrepScholar’s 54 skill lessons lean more on text and graphics.

What PrepScholar has that Kaplan doesn’t is the adaptive layer – a diagnostic across your weak skills that reshapes what you’re shown as you go.

Category winner: Kaplan on video, PrepScholar on adaptivity. Pick according to how you learn.

Prep Books

Kaplan ships hardcopy books with the Live Online course, and their ACT prep books consistently make our list of the best on the market. PrepScholar provides no books with any package.

Category winner: Kaplan, uncontested.

Learning Experience and Platform

Kaplan’s platform is the more polished of the two – cleaner design, easier navigation, and a practice interface deliberately built to feel like the real ACT, which is worth something on test day. PrepScholar’s is functional rather than beautiful.

Where PrepScholar pulls ahead is the study plan. It asks for your target score, test date and weekly availability up front and builds an individual schedule from your diagnostic, rather than handing you a boilerplate one.

Above you can see how PrepScholar helps to track your progress using a study plan that builds out based on your diagnostic.

Category winner: split. Kaplan for the interface, PrepScholar for the plan.

Live Classes

Kaplan’s Live Online ACT course is about $650 for 16 hours of live instruction, with books and the on-demand materials included. PrepScholar’s Classes package is $895 for 9 to 36+ hours in groups of up to nine, with the AI Learning Assistant included.

At the top of PrepScholar’s range you get roughly double the face time for about $245 more; at the bottom you get fewer hours for more money. Read the schedule before you buy, because the hours vary by cohort.

Category winner: Kaplan for value at a fixed 16 hours, PrepScholar if you can get onto one of the longer cohorts.

Score Guarantees and Refunds

PrepScholar guarantees a 4+ point increase on your official ACT or refunds the course in full. There’s fine print: if you’re already scoring 31 or above, the bar isn’t four more points, it’s reaching a 34. You also have to complete the assigned lessons and practice tests.

Kaplan markets a Higher Score Guarantee across its business, but does not publish an equivalent promise on the ACT course the way PrepScholar does. If a guarantee is part of why you’re buying, confirm the terms with Kaplan directly before you pay.

Category winner: PrepScholar, on having a specific number you can hold them to.

The Bottom Line on Kaplan vs PrepScholar ACT Prep

Choose Kaplan if you:

• Want official, previously administered ACT questions
• Want the cheapest way in – about $180 for six months
• Learn best from video, and want production quality and personality
• Would like hardcopy books to work from
• Are testing within a few months and don’t need twelve months of access

Choose PrepScholar if you:

• Want a worked explanation for every question you get wrong
• Want more practice – 3,000+ questions and 4 official tests
• Want a specific score guarantee you can hold them to
• Are starting early and need twelve months rather than six
• Study alone and want a diagnostic-driven weekly plan

My Final Verdict

On the SAT this comparison isn’t close – PrepScholar has eight times the questions. On the ACT it genuinely is, and I’d be overselling to declare a clean winner.

Kaplan’s official ACT partnership is the strongest single argument either course makes. Real retired questions in an interface that mirrors the real test, for $180, is a lot of value. If you are a self-directed student who mostly needs authentic practice material and can work out your own mistakes, buy Kaplan and spend the difference on something else.

But most students aren’t that student. The reason I’d point most ACT preppers at PrepScholar is the explanations. Practice only raises your score if you learn something from the questions you miss, and Kaplan’s question bank confirms your answer without telling you why. Add 50% more questions, an extra official practice test, twice the access period and a guarantee with a number attached, and the extra $217 is doing real work.

Put simply: Kaplan has the better-sourced questions, PrepScholar does more with them. If you already know how to learn from a wrong answer, Kaplan is the better buy. If you need the course to teach you that, it isn’t.

Kaplan vs PrepScholar ACT FAQs