Newsela | Content and assessment platform
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you run a K-12 school or district with budget for quote-based licensing and want standards-aligned, leveled reading content.
Comparison
Newsela | Content and assessment platform vs Actively Learn
Newsela | Content and assessment platform and Actively Learn both land on Depends.
Actively Learn
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you teach ELA, social studies, or science and want students annotating texts and answering embedded questions.
| Compare | Newsela | Content and assessment platform | Actively Learn |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | K-12 districts and schools | Middle/high school ELA teachers |
| Who it's not for | Homeschoolers and tutors wanting pay-as-you-go access | Teachers who just need to share PDFs |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.⁵ | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed, but Hudson Rock flags 2,618 infostealer credentials tied to the domain. |
| Support quality | Free PD sessions advertised, quality unverified | No usable evidence found |
| Public sentiment | No substantial independent user reviews surfaced; search results are dominated by official pages and SEO spam.⁶ | Teachers actively discuss it on r/ELATeachers and education guides call it engaging, but sources surfaced only truncated opinions.11 |
| Biggest gotcha | Pricing is quote-only; expect per-student licensing negotiated through sales, not listed rates.¹ | Platform is migrating to.com; expect account and workflow changes16 |
Pick Newsela | Content and assessment platform when
- K-12 districts and schools
- Literacy and ELA teachers
- Standards-aligned leveled reading
- Districts requiring ESSA-evidence tools
When Newsela | Content and assessment platform is not a fit
- Homeschoolers and tutors wanting pay-as-you-go access
- Higher-ed or corporate training buyers
- Teachers who need transparent, self-serve pricing
- Anyone outside K-12 curriculum workflows
Pick Actively Learn when
- Middle/high school ELA teachers
- Social studies and science reading
- Close reading with embedded questions
- Districts on Clever rostering
When Actively Learn is not a fit
- Teachers who just need to share PDFs
- Self-study learners without a teacher
- Teams wanting a stable non-McGraw-Hill vendor
- Anyone avoiding paid-tier paywalls for core content
Sources
- Newsela | Content and assessment platformnewsela.comofficial
- Newsela Lite and Formative Bronze free tierspreauthenticated-site.newsela.comofficial
- Newsela announces first acquisitions (ESSA Tier II stats)preauthenticated-site.newsela.comofficial
- Security pagenewsela.comsecurity
- Newsela.com Review: Is It Safe? (78/100 Trust Score)gridinsoft.comsecurity
review
news
news
- Newsela- Content And Assessment Platformciocoverage.comnews
- Newsela - Educational Resource Directorylearnlikethis.comnews
review
- What is Actively Learn and Why Should I Try it?askatechteacher.comreview
- Actively Learn . EdTech Books reviewedtechbooks.orgreview
- Actively Learn . Clever Libraryclever.comreview
- What plan is right for me?help.activelylearn.comofficial
- Actively Learn Migration to My.Mheducation.com FAQhelp.activelylearn.comofficial