If you love Lovevery's stage-based play kits but want a lower price or a different format, the strongest alternatives split into two camps. On the subscription side, KiwiCo, Lalo, and Little Passports deliver curated developmental toys to your door. On the buy-outright side, Melissa & Doug, PlanToys, and Hape sell the same open-ended wooden toys with no monthly commitment.
Lovevery built its name on Montessori-inspired kits designed around a child's developmental stage, delivered every couple of months with a play guide. It works well, but the price adds up and a subscription is not for everyone. Some parents want the same idea for less, some want to buy individual toys instead of a recurring box, and some want more art, science, or older-kid content than Lovevery covers.
The list below sorts real alternatives by what each one does best, so you can match a brand to your reason for looking. One quick note before we start: you will still see older roundups pushing Monti Kids, but that company stopped selling toys in 2023, so it is left off here.
How we picked these brands
- Real developmental focus. Every brand here builds around open-ended, Montessori-style, or milestone-based play, not licensed characters and batteries.
- Safe, well-made materials. Real wood, non-toxic finishes, and BPA-free plastics, with third-party safety testing where the brand publishes it.
- A clear model. We flag whether each brand is a subscription or a buy-it-once shop, so you know exactly what you are committing to.
- Track record and reviews. Brands with a real history and a large base of parent reviews, not one-season dropshippers.
- A defined age range. Each entry says who it fits, from newborn through the older preschool and grade-school years.
At a glance
| Brand | Best for | Price | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| KiwiCo | The Lovevery format for less | Budget | Panda Crate, pediatrician-developed |
| Lalo | Design and sustainability | Mid-premium | The Play Box, wood and natural rubber |
| Little Passports | Learning past the toddler years | Mid | World and STEM subscriptions |
| Sago Mini | Preschoolers, less screen time | Budget | Themed monthly play-and-craft box |
| Green Kid Crafts | Art and science, older kids | Mid | Educator-designed STEAM boxes |
| Melissa & Doug | Buying classics outright | Budget-mid | Open-ended wooden toys and puzzles |
| PlanToys | Sustainable Montessori wood | Mid-premium | Reclaimed-rubberwood pioneer |
| Hape | Award-winning wood, a la carte | Budget-mid | 300+ award-winning wooden toys |
| Tender Leaf Toys | Beautiful eco wooden toys | Mid-premium | Rubberwood and birch, replanting scheme |
| Petit Collage | Modern eco puzzles and play | Mid | FSC materials, modern design |
| Fat Brain Toys | Sensory and fine-motor toys | Budget-mid | In-house Dimpl line |
| Tiny Land | Active, large-scale Montessori play | Mid | Pikler triangles and play kitchens |
1. KiwiCo
KiwiCo is the alternative most parents reach for first, because its Panda Crate is the closest match to Lovevery at a lower price. The bi-monthly box serves ages 0 to 3, and its products and parent curriculum are developed with Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children's Hospital. KiwiCo has shipped more than 50 million crates across its various lines, so the operation is proven.
Best for: parents who want Lovevery's stage-based format for roughly half the cost. The trade-off is that a KiwiCo crate is lighter than a full Lovevery kit, so some families supplement it with a few of their own toys.
2. Lalo
Lalo is a modern baby brand founded by two dads, and its Play Box brings the same design sensibility to developmental play. The set covers newborn through about age two with toys made from wood and natural rubber, and Lalo leans hard into sustainability with BPA-free materials, recycled content, and a donation program.
Best for: design-led parents who want beautiful, eco-conscious play products and are happy to pay a little more. Lalo runs on Shopify and also sells high chairs, play gyms, and other nursery gear, so it doubles as a one-stop shop.
3. Little Passports
Little Passports is the pick for when your child grows past the toddler kits. Its monthly subscriptions run from Early Explorers for ages 3 to 5 up through World Adventures and Science Junior for older kids, each with hands-on projects, activity booklets, and stories built around world cultures and STEM.
Best for: parents who want learning to keep going after the baby years, especially around geography and science. It is less about Montessori toys and more about themed discovery, which is exactly the gap Lovevery leaves at the top of its age range.
4. Sago Mini
Sago Mini makes the Sago Mini Box, a monthly themed box for preschoolers that pairs three to four craft activities with a collectible figurine and letters from its characters. Themes rotate through familiar preschool worlds like farms, zoos, and tools, and the boxes are made with recycled paper.
Best for: preschoolers around ages 3 to 5, and for parents trying to shift a little time away from screens. Sago Mini is also known for its award-winning preschool apps, so the physical box slots into an ecosystem kids may already recognize.
5. Green Kid Crafts
Green Kid Crafts delivers monthly STEAM boxes with four to six educator-designed projects plus a companion magazine. It offers a Junior box for ages 3 to 5 and a Discovery box for ages 5 to 10 and up, so it reaches well beyond the toddler stage. Founded by environmental scientist Penny Bauder in 2010, the brand has sold more than 1.5 million boxes and plants a tree with every order.
Best for: parents who want more art and science than a standard toy box, and whose kids are aging out of infant-toddler kits.
6. Melissa & Doug
Melissa & Doug is the classic buy-outright choice. Instead of a subscription, you pick exactly the open-ended wooden toys, puzzles, and pretend-play sets you want, from block sets to play food. The brand positions itself as a leading preschool wooden-toy maker, and its catalog is deep enough to build your own Lovevery-style rotation.
Best for: parents who dislike subscriptions and would rather own a handful of trusted toys outright. Prices sit at the accessible end, and you will find Melissa & Doug in most toy aisles as well as online.
7. PlanToys
PlanToys is a strong match for anyone who liked Lovevery because of the wooden Montessori toys specifically. The brand pioneered making toys from reclaimed rubberwood with non-toxic finishes, and its designs span ages 0 through 3 and up, with plenty of open-ended pieces that suit a Montessori shelf.
Best for: sustainability-first parents who want real wooden developmental toys they can buy one at a time. PlanToys has collected numerous international design and sustainability awards, which shows in the build quality.
8. Hape
Hape makes wooden educational toys from sustainably sourced wood and non-toxic paint, and it has won more than 300 international awards including the Red Dot Design Award. Its range covers babies through older kids, with well-known pieces like its two-in-one hammer-and-xylophone toy.
Best for: parents who want award-winning wooden toys they can buy a la carte rather than by subscription. Hape sits at an accessible price point and, like several brands here, runs its shop on Shopify, so browsing by age or best-seller is easy.
9. Tender Leaf Toys
Tender Leaf Toys makes beautifully illustrated wooden toys from sustainably sourced rubberwood and birch plywood, dreamt up in England and crafted in Indonesia, with a tree-replanting scheme behind the sourcing. The brand won a Junior Design Award in 2025, and its pieces tend to be more decorative than a plain Montessori block set.
Best for: parents who want eco wooden toys that look as good on the shelf as they play. It is a buy-outright brand, so you choose individual pieces rather than a box.
10. Petit Collage
Petit Collage brings a modern, graphic design eye to eco toys, puzzles, and games. The brand uses FSC-certified wood and paper, recycled PET, and vegetable inks, and it started back in 2006 from a handmade animal collage its founder made for a friend. The result is a catalog of puzzles and play sets that feel more contemporary than traditional.
Best for: design-led parents who want modern, sustainable puzzles and activities. Petit Collage runs on Shopify and sells directly, so it is easy to build a small order of exactly what you want.
11. Fat Brain Toys
Fat Brain Toys is a family-owned company that has designed its own developmental toys in-house since 2002. It is best known for the Dimpl line of push-and-pop sensory toys, which the founders' son actually invented, and which is popular for building fine-motor skills in babies and toddlers.
Best for: parents focused on sensory and fine-motor play who want to buy specific toys outright. The in-house design approach means many Fat Brain toys are hard to find anywhere else, and prices stay reasonable.
12. Tiny Land
Tiny Land covers the larger, more active side of Montessori play that boxes rarely include, with Pikler triangles, climbing sets, and wooden play kitchens. Its climbing sets are made from beech wood, its play kitchens from sustainably sourced wood with child-safe paints, and selected items are third-party tested to U.S. ASTM and CPSC standards.
Best for: parents who want big-ticket Montessori play furniture and gross-motor gear alongside the smaller toys. It is a buy-outright brand, and it runs its shop on Shopify.
How to choose the right Lovevery alternative
Start with your reason for switching.
If you want the Lovevery experience for less, go with KiwiCo, or with Sago Mini for a lighter, cheaper box. If you would rather not subscribe at all, buy from Melissa & Doug, PlanToys, or Hape and build your own rotation. If your child is past the toddler kits, Little Passports and Green Kid Crafts carry learning into the science and world-culture years.
For design and sustainability, Lalo, Tender Leaf Toys, and Petit Collage lead the pack. For real wooden Montessori toys specifically, PlanToys and Hape are the safest bets, with Tiny Land for the bigger climbing and play-kitchen pieces. And if you are chasing fine-motor and sensory development in particular, Fat Brain Toys is built for exactly that.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Lovevery?
Yes. KiwiCo's Panda Crate is the closest lower-priced subscription, often around half the cost, and Sago Mini's box is cheaper still. If you skip subscriptions entirely and buy from Melissa & Doug or Hape, you can spend even less by choosing only the toys you want.
What happened to Monti Kids?
Monti Kids stopped manufacturing and selling its Montessori toys in 2023 and is no longer in business, though older roundups still list it. That is why it is not included here.
Do I have to subscribe, or can I just buy the toys?
You can do either. KiwiCo, Lalo, Little Passports, Sago Mini, and Green Kid Crafts are subscriptions, while Melissa & Doug, PlanToys, Hape, Tender Leaf Toys, Petit Collage, Fat Brain Toys, and Tiny Land let you buy individual toys with no recurring commitment.
Are these brands actually Montessori?
Some are closer than others. PlanToys, Hape, Tender Leaf Toys, and Tiny Land make open-ended wooden toys that fit a Montessori shelf well, and KiwiCo and Lalo build around developmental stages. Little Passports and Green Kid Crafts are more STEM and activity boxes than strict Montessori.
What is the best Lovevery alternative for a newborn?
For the newborn-to-toddler window, Lalo's Play Box and KiwiCo's Panda Crate are the most direct matches, since both are stage-based and start at birth. If you prefer to buy outright, PlanToys and Melissa & Doug both make infant-safe wooden toys.
Which alternative is best for older kids?
Once a child is past age three, Little Passports and Green Kid Crafts carry play forward with world-culture and science projects. Tiny Land's climbing sets and play kitchens also grow with a toddler into the preschool years.
Are the toys non-toxic and made from real wood?
Many are. PlanToys uses reclaimed rubberwood with non-toxic finishes, Hape uses sustainably sourced wood and non-toxic paint, Tender Leaf uses rubberwood and birch plywood, and Tiny Land uses beech wood with child-safe coatings. Always check the specific product page, since ranges include some plastic and fabric pieces too.