The best Boom Cards alternatives for SLPs depend on why you are leaving. Boom Cards charges in two places: a membership for the teacher tools (the paid Premium plan is $6.99 a month) and decks bought one by one with points. If deck purchases keep adding up, an all-access library such as Ultimate SLP or The Digital SLP is usually the cheaper route. If you only need a few activities, Wordwall, Teachers Pay Teachers, or free articulation word lists on a shared screen cost less. If your sessions moved back to paper, a printable option fits better than any digital deck.
Full disclosure: we build Ga-loo, which generates printable articulation worksheets. It is one of the options below, and we say where it does not fit. Prices were checked on official pages in September 2026 unless noted.
How Boom Cards pricing works
Boom Learning hosts interactive, self-checking decks made by thousands of independent creators. What you pay depends on two separate things:
The membership. Since December 1, 2025, free accounts are called Limited: they include FastPlay links that stay live for 5 days, do not record student progress, and come with a watermarked prep mode. More students, more classrooms, 14-day FastPlay links, Boom Live, and progress data need a paid plan. The Premium plan is available monthly at $6.99.
The decks. Boom's own help center is explicit: a membership does not include purchased decks. Decks are sold separately in the Boom Store, mostly for points. Points cost about a cent each: $5 buys 450 points, $10 buys 1,000, $50 buys 5,000, and $98 buys 10,000. Each seller sets the price of their own decks.
That model is cheap for a teacher who needs ten good decks a year. It gets expensive for an SLP who needs new articulation and language decks for a whole caseload every month, and that is the most common reason SLPs look for an alternative.
Boom Cards alternatives at a glance
Alternative | Format | Price | Free option | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Ultimate SLP | Online games, flash-card decks, photos | $12.95/month; $139.92/year | 2-week trial | All-access drill for less than a few decks a month |
The Digital SLP | Interactive PDFs and digital games | $35/month; $89/quarter; $329/year | 30-day trial | Full-time teletherapy with family sharing |
SLP Now | Materials library plus planner | $29/month; $249/year | 14-day trial, 5 downloads | Themed units with planning in one place |
Teachers Pay Teachers | Pay per resource, digital or print | Set by each seller | Many freebies | Occasional one-off purchases |
Wordwall | Make your own interactive activities | Free plan; paid plans unlock unlimited activities | 3 activities free | SLPs who like to build their own games |
Free articulation word lists | Verified lists by sound and position | $0 | Everything | Drill on a shared screen or on paper |
Ga-loo | Generated printable worksheets | From $9 for 10 worksheets; $15/month | First worksheet free, no card | Printable articulation practice for one child |
1. Ultimate SLP: all-access instead of deck by deck
Ultimate SLP is the closest swap for an SLP who uses Boom Cards for drill. It advertises 100+ online games with 500+ built-in card decks, 30,000+ flash cards, and 40,000+ real-life photos for preschool through high school, and you can target several goals in one game with up to 6 players. It costs $12.95 a month or $139.92 a year after a two-week trial. The trade-offs: no self-checking decks from thousands of creators, no student progress data advertised, and an interface reviewers call dated. More in our Ultimate SLP review.
2. The Digital SLP: interactive PDFs with family sharing
The Digital SLP sells a no-print library of web-based interactive PDFs and digital games for PreK to 8th grade, strongest in language. Every plan includes homework sheets and QuickLinks for sharing activities with families: 5 a month on the monthly plan, 25 on quarterly, 50 on annual. It is the priciest option here at $35 a month or $329 a year, with a 30-day trial and a 7-day refund window. For how it stacks up against the cheaper library, see Ultimate SLP vs The Digital SLP.
3. SLP Now: a library with the planning attached
SLP Now costs $29 a month or $249 a year and pairs a library of 6,000+ therapy materials with a planner and data tools. It is less of a like-for-like swap for Boom Cards, since it is not built around self-checking decks, but it replaces several subscriptions at once. The trial gives 14 days and up to 5 material downloads. See SLP Now alternatives if you are weighing it against other memberships.
4. Teachers Pay Teachers: pay per resource
No membership at all: each seller prices their own digital or printable resources, and many are free. Plenty of SLPs already buy interactive Google Slides and PDF activities there instead of Boom decks. You pay in time instead: quality varies, and nothing is checked for phonetic accuracy.
5. Wordwall: build your own interactive activities
Wordwall is a general classroom tool for making quiz, matching, and game-show activities from your own word lists. The free Basic plan lets you create up to 3 activities from 12 templates; paid plans unlock unlimited activities, more templates, and printing, with prices that vary by country. It fits an SLP who would rather type a target list once and turn it into a game than buy a deck.
6. Free articulation word lists on a shared screen
A large share of articulation drill needs only a good word list. Our articulation word lists are free, organized by sound and position, and checked against the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary: for example initial R words, initial S words, ST blend words, and initial R sentences. They work on screen share, and each sound-and-position list has a free printable PDF. For ways to run them online, see no-prep teletherapy articulation.
7. Ga-loo: when the session needs paper
If you are leaving Boom Cards because your sessions moved back to a table, a digital deck of any kind is the wrong shape. Ga-loo generates a printable articulation worksheet from a sound, word position, age, and theme, and checks every word against the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. It does not do self-checking games, language units, or data tracking. Credit packs start at $9 for 10 worksheets, a subscription is $15 a month, and the first worksheet is free with no card.
Boom Cards vs Ultimate SLP
The difference is how you pay. With Boom Cards you pay for what you pick: a membership for the teacher tools plus each deck you buy. With Ultimate SLP you pay one fee, $12.95 a month, for the whole library. If you already pay for Boom's Premium plan at $6.99 a month, Ultimate SLP costs $5.96 a month more, so buying even a few decks a month on top of Premium usually makes Ultimate SLP the cheaper option. Boom Cards wins on variety, because thousands of creators publish decks, and on student progress data in its paid plans. Ultimate SLP wins on predictable cost and zero shopping.
Boom Cards vs The Digital SLP
The Digital SLP costs $35 a month, five times Boom's Premium plan before any deck purchases. What you get for it is a complete PreK to 8th-grade library, homework sheets, and QuickLinks for sending activities to families. Boom Cards is cheaper if you need a handful of targeted decks; The Digital SLP makes more sense if you run teletherapy full time and would otherwise buy decks for every student and every goal.
What is cheaper than Boom Cards?
It depends on how many decks you buy. For a light user, Boom Cards itself is hard to beat: a free Limited account and a few low-priced decks. For an SLP buying new decks every month, an all-access library such as Ultimate SLP at $139.92 a year often costs less than the decks alone. And for plain articulation drill, free word lists cost nothing.
How to choose
You mostly use Boom for articulation and language drill on screen: Ultimate SLP.
You run full-time teletherapy and send activities home: The Digital SLP.
You want planning and materials in one subscription: SLP Now.
You buy a couple of activities a month: Teachers Pay Teachers, or stay on Boom Cards.
You like building your own games: Wordwall.
Your sessions run on paper: free word lists plus printable worksheets.
Frequently asked questions
Are Boom Cards free?
Partly. A free Limited account can play decks through FastPlay links that last 5 days, without saving student progress. Paid plans add more students, classrooms, and progress data, and decks are bought separately in the Boom Store.
Do you have to buy Boom Cards decks?
Some decks are free, but most in the Boom Store are paid, usually with points. A membership does not include purchased decks.
Is Ultimate SLP like Boom Cards?
Both run interactive activities on a screen. The difference is the business model: Ultimate SLP is one subscription for its whole library, while Boom Cards is a marketplace where you buy decks from independent creators.
Is there a free alternative to Boom Cards?
Yes. Wordwall's free plan lets you build up to 3 activities, Teachers Pay Teachers has many free resources, and free verified articulation word lists work on screen share without an account.
What is the best Boom Cards alternative for SLPs?
For articulation and language drill on screen, Ultimate SLP is the closest and cheapest all-access swap. For full-time teletherapy with family sharing, The Digital SLP. For printed practice, a printable generator or free word lists.
Keep reading
Ultimate SLP vs The Digital SLP: the two no-print libraries, side by side.
Ultimate SLP alternatives: seven options if the fixed library is not enough.
The Digital SLP alternatives: cheaper and printable options.
Best apps and digital tools for SLPs: 15 tools sorted by job.
Sources
Boom Learning monthly membership: boomlearning.com
Boom Learning help center, free Limited accounts: helpcenter.boomlearning.com
Boom Learning help center, memberships vs points: helpcenter.boomlearning.com
Boom Learning help center, what Boom Learning is (free and paid store content): helpcenter.boomlearning.com
Boom Learning help center, point packages: helpcenter.boomlearning.com
Ultimate SLP homepage: ultimateslp.com
The Digital SLP membership: thedigitalslp.com/digitalslp
SLP Now pricing: slpnow.com/pricing
Wordwall plans: wordwall.net
Prices and features reflect what the companies published in September 2026 and may change.