App
Craft kits vs a craft app (when you already have a table)
A kit mails specialty parts and a ritual unboxing. Crafty is a weekly bench on iOS that uses materials you can usually find. Both can be the right Saturday. They are not the same product.
If you typed “KiwiCo alternative,” you may be tired of boxes, or of the gap between the crate’s age band and the mixed table you actually have. Fair. KiwiCo is good at what it is: a subscription that arrives with the odd gear you would not buy for one afternoon. Crafty does not pretend to be that crate. We wrote this page so you can choose without a smear.
When a mailed kit is the better tool
Choose a kit when the project needs a part you will not find at the drugstore — a particular loom, a circuit, a mold, a finish that is the whole point of the box. Choose it when the unboxing is the afternoon: the tissue, the booklet, the feeling that someone packed this for your kid. Choose it when you do not want a list.
KiwiCo’s lines are built around that ritual, often by age. Other crates do the same with different themes. You pay for logistics and for parts that would be a scavenger hunt. That is a real service. It is also cardboard in the hallway and a project that showed up on a Tuesday when you needed it on Saturday.
When an app is the better tool
Choose an app when you already have a table, an hour, and a house that contains paper, glue, or a shipping box. Choose it when you want this week, not next week’s mail. Choose it when the household is mixed ages and the adult will split jobs anyway.
Crafty starts you on a project that fits the window you picked — about thirty minutes, or a Saturday. Materials roll into one shopping list. You photograph the finish so it lives on a shelf. Parent-guided: scissors stay with the adult. iOS only. One membership can cover the household on yearly, through Apple Family Sharing.
Side by side
| Mailed craft kit | Crafty (app) | |
|---|---|---|
| What arrives | A box of specialty parts and a printed or in-box project. | Nothing in the mail. Instructions and a list on the phone you already have. |
| Materials | Chosen for that crate. Often unique to the brand. | Grocery, drugstore, Amazon, recycling. Some weeks the cupboard is enough. |
| Timing | Whenever the shipment lands. | This week’s bench. A widget named This week, if you add it. |
| Who it fits | Often one age band per line. | The table: with kids, or just you. Mixed ages split the work. |
| Leftovers | Spare parts, extra boxes. | A photograph, and whatever you did not use from the shop. |
| Platform | The porch. | iOS. App Store name: Crafty Kids. |
We are not cheaper-by-spreadsheet here. Kit pricing and app membership are different receipts. Look at Apple’s price in the store, and at whatever crate you are leaving, and decide if a list from the drugstore is the life you wanted.
Another app, fairly: GlueStick
GlueStick is a peer, not a crate. They are known for a supply snap — photograph the cupboard, see what you can make from it. That is a clever front door if the constraint is “we will not buy anything.”
Crafty does not ship that camera. We ask how long you have and who is sitting down, put one project first, and let you check off what you already own. If the list still has holes, you shop. Different door, same kitchen.
Will Crafty mail a box?
There is a waitlist in Shop for Craft Box: a monthly kit of this week’s free project, packed and sent to the house, when it is ready. It is not for sale today. Until it is, do not treat Crafty as a subscription crate. Treat it as the app it is.
You can keep a KiwiCo line for the specialty Saturday and use Crafty for the weeknight paper. That is a reasonable household. We would rather you make something than pick a team.
If you want the app
Crafty is a small weekly bench, clear steps, a list, a private studio. Free projects stay open. The rest is membership. More in the FAQ.
Questions
Is Crafty a KiwiCo alternative?
If you wanted a weekly make without waiting for a box, yes. If you wanted mailed specialty parts, no — that is still a kit.
Does Crafty mail kits?
Not yet. Waitlist only. The shopping list is how materials get to the table.
Do you snap my cupboard like GlueStick?
No. Project first, then a list you check off. We do not dunk on their snap. We do not copy it either.