3 Cheap iPad Alternatives For Your Kids

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Tablets are an increasingly common way to keep kids occupied with books, games, and other forms of entertainment, and kids love them too. It's a well-known fact that even toddlers are able to navigate an iPad with relative ease (though the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping tablets away from kids until at least age 2 aside from video calling). But as child-friendly as iPads can be, they're also expensive. Even the entry-level iPad runs $350 for the cheapest version, which is a lot of scratch for something your kids might try to use as an improvised baseball bat. Sure, you could throw it in one of those kid-friendly cases, but you're only delaying the inevitable. Plus, it's not as if the average child has much use for the productivity-focused features of iPadOS, or needs the beefy processing power of Apple's custom silicon.

As one of SlashGear's resident tablet nerds, I've spent entirely too much time studying the differences between iPads and Android tablets, going hands-on with tablets large and small, and helping users avoid mistakes with Android tablets. When it comes to parents looking for a cheap screen to occupy their little ones, I've narrowed down three of the best options. These tablets were selected based on their value for the price, child-friendly features and safety, and relative durability (including child-proof accessories that come in the box). So, for those who need a kid-friendly touchscreen on a budget, here are three of the best options you can find in 2025.

Perhaps the best value kids' tablet for the price is the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro. As its name suggests, it's designed specifically for tots, providing an easy-to-use and child-friendly experience right out of the box. At just $190, it still features an expansive, immersive 10-inch 1080p HD display and a battery that lasts approximately 10 hours with average use. There's also a headphone jack in addition to the USB-C port, so you can give your kids cheap wired earbuds instead of expensive Bluetooth ones, and it comes with a kid-friendly case to prevent the tykes from bashing it to pieces too easily.

Of course, Amazon doesn't provide a tablet with this many features at such a low price for no reason. It's really a portal to an Amazon Kids+ Subscription, which costs $6 a month after a month-long free trial and includes a library of kid-favorite books, games, video content like "Bluey," "Sesame Street," Marvel Comics, and apps. Depending on how much you would otherwise spend each month on kids' entertainment, this could be a good deal, as it's certainly cheaper than (for example) a Disney+ subscription. But you also need to consider whether the cost of such a subscription over time will end up being more than you'd spend on a different tablet.

If you want a tablet exclusively for your young children, the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro is one of the better value options. It's basically a child-proofed version of the regular Amazon Fire HD 10 we loved in our review of that device. However, if you'll be sharing it with them, or if your kids are old enough to be outgrowing the sort of content it's geared toward, you may want to look elsewhere.

Aside from Apple, Samsung sells the largest number of tablets worldwide. In part, that's because the Korean conglomerate makes a wide variety of tablets. If you want ultra-premium productivity, there's the Galaxy Tab S10. For midrange entertainment, the S10 FE. Those who just need a cheap screen that runs apps can pick up the Galaxy A9+. And if you want a cheap screen that runs apps but won't break easily or let your kids run loose online, there's the Galaxy Tab A9+ Kids Edition.

The Tab A9+ Kids Edition drastically undercuts the iPad in price at $270, and there are steep trade-in deals available if you order directly from Samsung. It runs a mid-range processor (likely the Snapdragon 695 found in the regular A9+) with 64 gigabytes of storage. The display is an 11-inch TFT LCD with a resolution of 1920 x 1200. It has a reasonable 7,040 milliamp-hour battery that should last for long stretches in cars and airplanes, a headphone jack, crayon-shaped styluses, and even comes with a kid-friendly case and a lanyard to prevent most types of damage a tot might inflict.

As for child-proofing software, Samsung Kids enables an environment that lets parents and guardians track and limit screen time and app usage, set bedtimes, and enable child-friendly versions of apps. There are also educational games and puzzles designed to encourage important skills like critical thinking and problem solving. You can also add whichever apps you deem worthy from the Play Store. This is a great alternative to the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro above for anyone who doesn't want their experience (or their children's) to be locked into Amazon's ecosystem.

If you're looking for the absolute cheapest option in a tablet that can work for your kids, slap down $100 for the Amazon Fire HD 8. Sure, you can find off-brand tablets for even cheaper, but many such options are likely to have problems right out of the box, from sluggish processors that will struggle to run even the simplest games to poor support, or even hardware issues. Amazon is known to sell its hardware at a loss in order to make up for it with on-device purchases, which is why I chose the Fire HD 8 as one of the best small Android tablets.

While it isn't a kid-specific tablet, Amazon's Android skin allows users to add a dedicated child profile that will essentially turn it into one. That also makes it a great option for those on a tight budget looking for a tablet they can share with their kid, although the measly 32 gigabytes of onboard storage may prove limiting. That's an astonishingly small amount of storage in 2025. The 3 gigabytes of memory is also paltry, but should prove fine for reading, watching video content, and light games on the HD (800 x 1280) display. And of course, you'll have to put up with ads on the lockscreen, another way Amazon keeps costs low. To get the no-ads version, you'll need to shell out another $15.

Even with those caveats, it's difficult to find a tablet with better specs at this price point. Your alternative would be to look for a refurbished or used device, which may be the way to go if your child needs more from a tablet than the Fire HD 8 can provide, but you can't stretch your budget any further.

To comply with SlashGear's rigorous editorial standards, the tablets on this list were selected based on their value for the price, their advertised ability to provide a safe and kid-friendly experience, and their reputation in the tablet market. These criteria were used to curate the selections based on my expertise with Android tablets, including extensive knowledge of their features and prices.