Diffit alternative for Ontario teachers
Short version: Diffit is better than we are at turning one text into five reading levels, and this page will not pretend otherwise. We are the better fit when the Ontario expectation code has to live on the resource, and when students are the ones talking to the AI.
Competitor details checked November 2026.
Choose The Secondary AI if
you teach Ontario courses and need the expectation code stored on the lesson plan, quiz, rubric or chatbot, or you want students working with an AI whose conversation you grade. Diffit does neither of those.
Choose Diffit if
your problem is one hard text and five different readers, especially with ELL, newcomer or intervention students. Levelling and translating a source you supply is what Diffit is best at, and we do not match it.
Use both if
you already have Diffit and like it. Level the source text there, then build the unit, the Ontario coding and the student activity here. Nothing on this page asks you to cancel a tool your board may already pay for.
Ontario codes are not a marketing line on this site. They are a field on the resource.
Our curriculum picker holds Ontario course and expectation codes from the published curriculum. When you generate a lesson plan, quiz, rubric, exit ticket, discussion prompt, worksheet, assignment or chatbot, the code you selected is stored on that record. It shows on what you hand students, it shows on the rubric, and it is still there months later when a department head asks what this task was built against.
Diffit, like most levelling and adaptation tools, treats standards as something you select from a list or paste in as text. That works until you have to prove the alignment, and then you are reconstructing it from memory.
| What matters | The Secondary AI | Diffit | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario expectation codes stored on the resource | A curriculum picker with Ontario course and expectation codes. Codes attach to lesson plans, quizzes, rubrics, exit tickets, discussions, worksheets, assignments and chatbots. | Standards and skills alignment is a paid Diffit for Schools feature, and its published alignment work is aimed at US frameworks. Ontario codes are usually added by you. | The Secondary AI |
| Levelling one passage into several reading levels | Differentiation is generated across a bundle for named learner groups, but taking a passage you supply and producing four or five reading-level versions is not our core workflow. | Best in class. Paste a passage, URL, PDF or video transcript, or type a topic, and get variants across a reading-level range with matching vocabulary and comprehension questions. | Diffit |
| Translating the whole resource, not just the dialogue | Chatbots can run in 16 languages, including a bilingual mode that mixes English scaffolding with the target language. | Levelled text, vocabulary and comprehension questions translated together, which is the workflow ELL teachers actually need. | Diffit |
| Bringing your own source | Describe the unit in plain language, or attach files as context for a chatbot or bundle. | A passage, URL, PDF, video transcript, or a topic you type. | Diffit |
| Student-facing AI chatbots | Students join with a share code and talk to an AI configured for one of eight teaching approaches, from Socratic to error-based learning. | None. Diffit is a teacher-side resource generator. | The Secondary AI |
| Grading the student conversation | Rubric-based grading of the transcript, per-outcome progress, and class-level insight summaries. | Answer keys for the materials it generates. There is no student conversation to grade. | The Secondary AI |
| Alignment across the assets in a unit | One description produces the plan, worksheet, quiz, rubric, exit ticket and chatbot from the same brief, so the assets agree with each other. | Lesson kits assemble the components of a lesson, but each item is produced on its own. | The Secondary AI |
| Free Ontario science simulations | Cell membrane, enzyme active site, enzyme activity and DNA replication labs, free and public. | Not a simulation library. | The Secondary AI |
| Reading-intervention depth | Nine single-asset generators (lesson plan, quiz, worksheet, rubric, assignment, discussion prompt, exit ticket, parent communication, presentation), plus teaching bundles, chatbots and labs. Not a reading-intervention library. | Lesson kits, station rotations, unit tests, choice boards and decodable phonics readers. | Diffit |
| Student accounts and personal data | None required. Share code or anonymous ID, no student email collected. | Students do not use the product, so no student accounts exist. | Level |
| Board-level track record | Ontario-built, smaller footprint. | Widely used in US reading intervention; adoption in Ontario varies by board. | Diffit |
| Price model | Free tier: 10,000 output tokens and 500 chatbot messages a month, permanently. Paid plans from $14.95. | Basic is free forever: PDF, print and share, editing, and access to anything created in the last 90 days. Diffit for Schools adds standards, skills, MTSS and DOK alignment, Google and Microsoft exports, graphic organizers and full resource history, quoted per school or district. | Level |
The Diffit column reflects publicly documented features as of November 2026.
Competitor details come from each vendor's own published material, checked November 2026: Diffit. Products change, so confirm anything that decides your choice with the vendor directly.
Real codes from the published curriculum, and the resource we would build from each
- B2Biochemistry
investigate the chemical structures, functions, and properties of biochemical compounds and their roles in metabolic processes
Enzyme active site lab - C3Metabolic Processes
demonstrate an understanding of the chemical changes and energy conversions that occur in metabolic processes
Lesson bundle with quiz and exit ticket - D3Molecular Genetics
demonstrate an understanding of the processes of DNA replication, transcription, and translation, and the role of genes in the synthesis of proteins
DNA replication lab - E2Homeostasis
investigate the feedback mechanisms that maintain homeostasis in living organisms
Socratic chatbot with outcome tracking
- B3Organic Chemistry
demonstrate an understanding of the structures, properties, and chemical behaviour of organic compounds
Lesson bundle with rubric - C3Structure and Properties of Matter
demonstrate an understanding of the structure and properties of matter at the atomic and molecular levels, and of the quantum mechanical model
Discussion prompt set - D3Energy Changes and Rates of Reaction
demonstrate an understanding of energy changes and rates of reaction, and the factors that affect them
Worksheet and exit ticket
- B1Reading and Literature Studies
read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, informational, and graphic texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning
Socratic seminar discussion prompts - C2Writing
draft and revise their writing, using a variety of literary, informational, and graphic forms and stylistic elements appropriate for the purpose and audience
Assignment with AI-proof design check - D1Media Studies
demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts
Role-play chatbot
Expectation wording is quoted from the published Ontario curriculum. Overall expectations are shown; the curriculum picker in the app includes the specific expectations beneath each one.
| Plan | Price | What that buys |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 10,000 AI output tokens a month, 500 chatbot messages, unlimited chatbots, every generator |
| Starter | $14.95/mo | 50,000 output tokens a month, 2,500 chatbot messages |
| Pro | $44.95/mo | 100,000 output tokens a month, 10,000 chatbot messages |
| Premium | $99.95/mo | 250,000 output tokens a month, 20,000 chatbot messages |
We are not going to call ourselves the cheapest, because we cannot prove it and you would be right not to believe it. The figure that decides this is how much AI output your classes actually use in a month. Both tools publish their limits, so compare those against your own volume instead of a headline price. If your honest answer is a handful of worksheets a term, a free tier is a free tier and you should not be paying anyone.
Full plan comparisonTheir levelling is better than ours
If your task is one article and four reading levels, Diffit is faster and more predictable than anything we build. We generate a differentiated bundle; they take the text you hand them and do that one job properly.
Their translation covers the whole kit
Translating the leveled text, the vocabulary and the questions together is a genuinely hard workflow that we do not match. Our multilingual support lives in the student chatbot, which is a different problem.
They go deeper on reading intervention
Decodable phonics readers, unit tests, station rotations and choice boards are real tools for intervention and primary classrooms. We built for secondary courses first, and the gap shows here.
Their free tier is genuinely useful
So is ours. But for pure levelling volume, check both rather than taking a comparison table's word for it, including this one.
Try it on a course you teach
Pick an expectation code, generate the bundle, and read it against the expectation. The free plan is permanent and needs no card, which is the only way a comparison page is worth reading.