If your child is struggling with math and you're trying to figure out what to do, you've probably already looked at all three. Khan Academy is free and thorough. Online programs like IXL or Mathletics are organized and easy to track. A private tutor costs more and requires consistent scheduling.
All three can work, just not for the same situations. Choosing the wrong one for the situation your child is actually in is one of the more common reasons that the support you chose isn't working.
Khan Academy: when it works and when it doesn't
Khan Academy is genuinely excellent for a student who understands the material and needs more practice, or who missed a class or two and needs to catch up on a specific topic. For a motivated, independent learner who knows what they need to work on, it's hard to beat, especially at no cost.
The limitation shows up when a student doesn't know what they don't know. Identifying the right topic to watch, working through frustration without support, and connecting the video to the homework problem in front of them, these all require a level of self-direction that many struggling students don't have yet. If your child could navigate a confusing subject independently, they probably wouldn't be struggling in the first place.
Khan Academy also can't tell you where the actual gap is. It can show you that your kid is getting 4 out of 10 on polynomial exercises. It can't tell you that the reason is a shaky understanding of integer operations from two years ago. For a recent, specific gap in a reasonably self-directed student, it's the right call. For a foundational gap with an anxious kid, it probably isn't.
Online programs: what they're actually solving
Subscription programs like IXL, Prodigy, or Mathletics are primarily practice tools. They're good at giving students repetition across a range of skills, tracking errors, and providing a structured path through curriculum. For a student who has understood the concept and needs to build fluency, they do that reasonably well.
Where they fall short is the same place Khan does: they can show you where errors are happening, but they can't diagnose why. And there's a completion trap in these programs. A student can click through enough exercises to show progress without any actual understanding sticking. The program rewards correct answers, not correct thinking. If your student is relatively confident and just needs structure and accountability, a subscription program makes sense. If they're already frustrated and the errors look inconsistent rather than careless, you're probably trying to address a gap that practice alone won't fix.
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Private tutoring: what you're actually paying for
A tutor is not a faster, more expensive version of the other two. The thing you're paying for is someone in the room with your kid when they're stuck. A tutor can ask "walk me through how you got that" and actually hear the answer. They can notice the moment a student's explanation goes wrong and trace it back to the exact place the understanding broke down. They can try a different explanation when the first one doesn't land, because they can see it's not landing.
A good tutor is also doing diagnostic work the other options can't do, figuring out whether this is a knowledge gap, a confidence problem, a test anxiety issue, or some combination. The intervention looks different depending on the answer.
The tradeoffs are real. It costs money, it requires consistent scheduling, and quality varies enormously. A credential doesn't guarantee a good fit. Someone with 10 years teaching Grade 12 math is not automatically the right person for a Grade 8 student who is shutting down. Tutoring makes the most sense when the problem is foundational rather than recent, when a student is showing signs of anxiety or avoidance, when you've tried other things and the gap isn't closing, or when you're dealing with credit recovery or exam prep. An occasional session, by the way, is less useful than most people expect. Consistency is what will move the needle.
The honest answer
For mild, recent gaps in a student who's still reasonably confident: start with Khan Academy or a structured program and see if it helps.
For foundational gaps, anxiety, or a student who has already tried the other options: tutoring is probably what's actually needed, and delaying it makes the situation more expensive and harder to fix.
Sometimes the right answer is a combination: a tutor to find and fill the gap, and Khan Academy or similar for practice between sessions.
Match the intervention to the problem in front of you.
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