Lovevery vs KiwiCo: Which Subscription Toy Box Is Better?

Lovevery Review

Lovevery was founded by Jessica and Rod. Jessica is passionate about the best and healthiest beginning of life, so she helped to build Happy Family into a top organic baby food company.

The next step was to focus on the child’s brain development.

Rod was focusing on building companies and movements with social and environmental impact. His superpower is to make things that generate results.

Lovevery makes products that help babies and toddlers develop natural curiously, cognitive, and motor skills. Those age-appropriate products are designed by development experts and specifically tailored to match the child’s needs at each stage.

Lovevery products are Montessori-inspired meaning that the main focus is on the realistic, hands-on play.  That’s why most of the toys are made from simple materials that could be found around the house.

Lovevery Subscription

The subscription sign-up process is quite straightforward – go to Lovevery.com, sign up, choose the age of your child and the box will be on its way.

For babies (0 – 12 months) the play kits are delivered every two months. For toddlers (12 – 36 months) the kits are delivered every three months.

Year 1 contains six different kits designed specifically to match the stage of development of your child. Years 2 and 3 contain four different kits for your toddlers.

What impressed me when it comes to Lovevery is the rating on various websites. Lovevery has an incredible 4.9-star average rating from 9,655 reviews across 3 websites.

That’s just… WOW!

What’s in the kit?

For the sake of this review, I’ll take the Helper Kit (25-27 months) as an example.

All the kits contain 7 – 8 age-appropriate toys along with a play guide for parents.

In the Helper Kit you’ll find:

• Super Sustainable Sink With Bio-Based Cups & Plates – thanks to circularity, the water can run for hours without going down the drain.

• Drop & Match Dot Catcher – line up colors vertically, horizontally, or diagonally

• Felt Flowers in a Row – flowers come with a wooden board so your child can plant and pick them.

• Anywhere Art Kit With Washable Tempera Paintsticks – believe it or not, after using this one, you won’t have to clean the mess… a lot.

• Double-Sided Sunny Day Puzzle – a great way for boosting creativity and solving problems.

• Let’s Map It Out Routine Cards – plan daily routines.

• ‘Making Muffins’ Board Book – ready to get messy?

• Play Guide for Months 25, 26, 27

Shipping and Returns

The shipping is free for orders $75 and above in the contiguous US and Canada. If your order is less than $75 then you’ll pay $5.95.

Speaking of Alaska and Hawaii, you will be charged a flat $9.95 for orders $200 and less, and $24.95 for orders $200 and above.

If you’re unhappy with your Lovevery product, you can return it for free within 30 days of purchase. Please bear in mind that the return shipping is free only within the contiguous United States and Canada.

KiwiCo Review

KiwiCo was founded by Sandra Oh Lin, a mother of three. Just like almost any parent, Sandra was struggling to find age-appropriate activities for her kids. That’s how she got the idea of founding KiwiCo.

KiwiCo is also a subscription toy box service, offering kits for babies, toddlers, and even preteens.

How does the KiwiCo team make each box?

First, they brainstorm. They put loads of ideas on a board. Next, they make the first prototypes. Now the most fascinating thing – it takes around 1000 hours to create and develop each crate.

Last, the content of the crates is tested by, kids of course!

Speaking of the activities, KiwiCo is focused more on STEM-related activities. The toys are safe and non-toxic, but you would expect such a thing anyway.

KiwiCo Subscription

The signing-up process is basically the same as Lovevery’s – go to kiwico.com, sign up, choose the age of your child, and the crates will be shipped to your doorstep every month or every other month.

For babies and toddlers (0–24m) Panda Crate is delivered every two months, while the crates for kids 3+ are delivered monthly.

What’s in the crate

KiwiCo crates usually contain one or two larger toys/activities and two or three smaller ones. There’s also a guidebook for parents.

KiwiCo offers 9 different crates for all ages – Panda Crate, Koala Crate, Kiwi Crate, Atlas Crate, Yummy Crate, Doodle Crate, Tinker Crate, Maker Crate, and Eureka Crate. Maker and Eureka Crate are suitable for all ages.

For the sake of this review, I picked Panda Crate Look With Me which is suitable for toddlers (18-24 months).

In the Panda Crate Look With Me you will find:

• Ramp racer – kids create a wooden ramp and roll the ball down it.

• Wooden rainbow: Each color in the rainbow is a separate piece or arch

• Rainbow path: A cardboard S-shaped track for the wooden ball.

• Spin and slide board: A two-sided board with slide and spin details.

• Poppy’s Duck Chase book: Spot the ducklings.

Shipping and returns

All subscriptions include a shipping fee of $4.00 to anywhere in the United States, including Hawaii, and Alaska.

Subscribers also get free shipping in the U.S. on products purchased from KiwiCo Store. Customers who are not subscribers get free shipping in KiwiCo Store on orders of $49 or more for the U.S. and $125 CAD or more for Canada.

Speaking of returns, if you’re unhappy with your product, you may return it within 60 days, but you will pay the shipping expenses.

Head to Head – Kiwico Or Lovevery?

Both Lovevery and KiwiCo have outstanding products. In this section, I will compare them, head to head to give you a clear picture of which subscription box is more suitable for you.

Lovevery offers high-quality products based on the Montessori framework. Even though not all the activities are Montessori-approved, they are inspired by the framework.

KiwiCo’s activities are STEM-inspired, meaning that, just like with Montessori, the main focus is on hands-on, realistic play. The only difference is that STEM focuses more on science and craft.

As I mentioned already, Lovevery has incredibly quality products, and it doesn’t wonder since the price is also one of the main differences between the two brands. Lovevery is a bit more expensive than KiwiCo.

Speaking of the delivery cycle, honestly, I’m not convinced that the older kids e.g. 14 – 16 need new toys and activities every month.

KiwiCo delivers the 3+ year kits every month, while Lovevery delivers toddler kits (12-36m) every three months.

Also, there are certain differences when it comes to shipping. Lovevery offers free shipping for orders $75 and above in the contiguous US and Canada.

KiwiCo has a shipping fee of $4.00 to anywhere in the United States, including Hawaii, and Alaska.

Subscribers get free shipping in the U.S. on products purchased from KiwiCo Store.

The Verdict

Lovevery and KiwiCo offer amazing services that save parents, hours and hours of googling and activity planning.

Even though both companies are similar there are certain things that set them apart, as you could read in this article.

KiwiCo definitely is cheaper than Lovevery, but Lovevery has toys that are more practical. Some parents have noticed that their kids need parents to stick around and help them with the activities.

Also, they are not great for long-term play since they are more like “craft and make”. On the other hand, I think KiwiCo crates would be an amazing gift solution.

The reasons listed above made me shift toward Lovevery. The toys are amazing, made of high-quality materials and they are designed for long-term play. On top of that, just like with KiwiCo, your child will develop essential mental and motor skills while playing.

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