The short answer: Ellii, formerly ESL Library, is a library of lessons to teach from. If that is what you need, its 2,000-plus lessons are hard to beat and most alternatives will feel thin. People usually start looking elsewhere for one of two reasons: the price, since there is no free tier and it begins at $14 a month, or because what they actually needed was practice that marks itself rather than more material to teach.
Checked on ellii.com on 3 September 2026:
No free plan is advertised on their pricing page. Treat Ellii as paid software rather than something you can trial your way into indefinitely.
The library, and it is not close. Over 2,000 lessons, more than 4,500 flashcards and over 400 videos. Nothing in this comparison matches that volume of ready-made teaching material, including us. If you walk into a classroom needing something to teach for the next 50 minutes, Ellii answers that question better than almost anything else.
Level range. Ellii spans a much wider range of levels than a focused practice platform. Our content sits at roughly B1 to C1, so if you teach genuine beginners, Ellii covers ground we simply do not.
Printables and lesson structure. Its materials are built for a teacher to run a lesson around: a reading, a discussion, a task. That is a different shape from a set of auto-marked exercises, and for a communicative classroom it is the right shape.
Unlimited students on the Schools plan. At $250 a year per teacher the student cap disappears, which matters for anyone teaching large groups.
Price with no free tier. $14 a month for one teacher with 35 students is not expensive by edtech standards, but there is no free plan to fall back on, which rules it out for teachers with no budget at all.
It is material, not marking. This is the distinction that matters most. Ellii gives you excellent things to teach. It does not remove the part of the week most teachers actually want removed, which is marking thirty pieces of homework. Its reporting tells you what students did inside Ellii; it is not a substitute for a system that grades work automatically and gives written feedback.
You still plan the lesson. A library shortens preparation. It does not eliminate it. You choose the lesson, sequence it, and decide what happens afterwards.
iSLCollective and British Council TeachingEnglish are the realistic free options. Neither is as coherent or as well produced as Ellii, and iSLCollective in particular is community-uploaded so quality varies, but between them they cover a lot of ground for nothing.
Wordwall for activity templates, Baamboozle for whole-class games with no student devices, and Kahoot for the live competitive moment. These solve a different problem from Ellii and cost less.
This is where The Kingdom of English is a different kind of tool, and it is mine, so weigh that accordingly.
It is not a library. There are 61 grammar topics, 60 reading comprehension exercises and 60 listening exercises, plus vocabulary and four games. The point is that all of it is marked automatically and recorded per student, and written work receives AI feedback on grammar, structure and content. You set it as homework with a deadline and see who did it.
The honest trade is real: our content is a fraction of Ellii's in volume, it is English only, and it sits at B1 to C1. If you need something to teach on Monday morning, Ellii is the better purchase. If you need Sunday evening back, we are.
| Ellii | The Kingdom of English | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A library of lessons to teach from | Practice that marks itself |
| Volume of content | 2,000+ lessons, 4,500+ flashcards, 400+ videos | 61 grammar, 60 reading, 60 listening topics |
| Level range | Wide, including beginners | Roughly B1 to C1 |
| Automatic marking | Reporting on activity within Ellii | Yes, across all exercise types |
| AI writing feedback | Not advertised | Yes, on grammar, structure and content |
| Printable materials | Yes, a core strength | No |
| Free plan | None advertised | Grammar and Games, unlimited, forever |
| Free trial | Not advertised on the pricing page | 7 days, no card |
| Entry price | From $14/month, up to 35 students | €9.90/month, up to 60 students |
| Per student | About 40 cents/month at entry | About 16 cents/month |
| Unlimited students | Yes, on Schools at $250/year per teacher | No, capped at 60 |
Ellii figures checked on ellii.com, 3 September 2026. Where their pricing page does not state something, this table says so rather than guessing.
At the entry tier we are cheaper both outright and per student: €9.90 for up to 60 against $14 for up to 35. But the comparison inverts at scale. Ellii's Schools plan removes the student cap for $250 a year per teacher, and we cap at 60 with no equivalent tier. If you teach 150 students, Ellii is the cheaper answer and we are not a serious option.
Ellii and a practice platform are not really competitors, which is why the comparison confuses people. One shortens your preparation, the other shortens your marking. Teachers who have budget for both often run both, and that is a reasonable outcome rather than a cop-out.
If you are choosing one, answer this honestly: is your bad evening the one before the lesson, or the one after it?
Ellii is an ESL and EFL materials platform, called ESL Library until it rebranded. It provides a large library of ready-made lessons, flashcards and videos for planning and running classes, plus a lesson planner and reporting tools.
Private Teachers starts at $14 a month for up to 35 students, expandable. Schools is $250 a year per teacher with unlimited students. Public library pricing starts at $4,500 a year.
No free plan is advertised on their pricing page. Pricing starts at the Private Teachers plan, so treat it as paid software.
Breadth of ready-made material: over 2,000 lessons, 4,500-plus flashcards and 400-plus videos across a wide level range. If your problem is finding good material to teach from, that library is the strongest reason to choose it.
It depends whether you need lessons to teach from or practice that marks itself. For a comparable library, iSLCollective and British Council TeachingEnglish are the main free options. For automatically graded practice recorded per student, The Kingdom of English covers 61 grammar topics, 60 reading and 60 listening exercises with AI writing feedback, at €9.90 a month including up to 60 students.
Ellii's entry plan is roughly 40 cents per student per month at 35 students. Ours is roughly 16 cents at 60. The Schools plan at $250 per teacher a year removes the cap entirely, so for large classes the comparison changes in Ellii's favour.
If marking is the bottleneck rather than material, this is what we do: grammar, reading, listening and vocabulary graded automatically, writing with AI feedback, and a record for every student. Seven days free, no card required.
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