Screen-free audio players for kids solve a very specific parental problem: They keep children independently engaged with music, audiobooks, and podcasts, like the modern version of an old-school Walkman or Discman. And they can do it without kids ever needing to interact with a smartphone, iPad, or TV. There are lots of options, but the Yoto Mini and the Toniebox are the most popular. I have heard rave reviews of both from dozens of parents, Strategist and New York colleagues included. But because they aren’t cheap — the players themselves cost between $70 and $100, and the corresponding Yoto cards and Tonies figures go for $10 to $20 each — many families commit to one “ecosystem” or the other and will talk your ear off about why it’s the better choice. So to help undecided shoppers choose between becoming a Yoto family or a Tonies family, a face-off was in order.
Contender No. 1: Yoto Mini
Yoto makes two different audio players: the original and the mini, both of which I have tested at length. But for this post, I focused on the smaller, cheaper, and much more portable Yoto Mini, which costs $70. In general, this player starts to click for kids at a slightly older age than the Toniebox, around 3 years old, and it appeals to some kids all the way through their tween years.
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Contender No. 2: Toniebox
There is only one style of Toniebox. The most basic starter set gets you the player and a puppy figure, called a Tonie, which features classic children’s songs like “Wheels on the Bus.” You can also buy bigger themed bundles — Disney princesses, National Geographic, Paw Patrol — that come with three, four, or five Tonies. The design of the player and the content skews younger and is easier for very young children to use. My son started playing with his Toniebox independently at around 15 months old, despite the official age recommendation of 3 years old due to small parts. But even before that, he was delighted by it as an object and only needed minimal help to get it to play songs or read stories.
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How do the players compare in size and durability?
The Yoto Mini is a square-ish device about the size of an apple, with two orange dials/buttons and a postage-stamp-size pixelated display that shows the time and a different icon depending on what you are playing. It weighs less than a pound and is just over 2.5 inches tall. Its portability is one of its biggest selling points; it’s easy to carry and doesn’t take up much space in a bag or backpack. The small size also adds to its charm, making it feel nostalgic like a My First Sony Walkman or an iPod.
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The Toniebox is more of a cube and nearly twice the size of the Yoto Mini. It’s a little under five inches tall and weighs just over two pounds. It is still easy enough for children, even very young children, to carry. But it’s more of a sit-and-listen device than something to take in the car or on a plane.
Both the Yoto Mini and the Toniebox are built to withstand rough play. But where the Toniebox has a cushioned outer housing that feels like squishy foam, you have to spend an extra $23 to get Yoto’s protective silicone “adventure jacket” and matching lanyard. Strategist parents who have the Yoto call this a must; in addition to protecting the player from bumps, the lanyard makes it convenient for kids to wear the player as a wristlet as they move around the house. Likewise, the cushioned sides of the Toniebox help protect the device from damage and the kid playing with it from getting hurt if it’s dropped, tripped over, or thrown.
What’s the difference between Tonies and Yoto cards?
A big draw of the Toniebox, especially among younger kids, is that it uses toy-like figures called Tonies (Elsa, Paddington, Spidey, Mirabel, a T. rex, a penguin, etc.) with a magnet at the base to attach to the Toniebox and make the songs and stories play. This adds a collectible appeal to the Toniebox experience, and the 3-D nature of the figures makes it really easy for toddlers to manipulate. The magnets keep the figures from slipping off the player; they also let you store the figures and play with them in innovative ways. I have a metal cabinet in my kitchen and metal hardware on some of the shelves in my son’s room, and we like to line up his Tonies there and hang them sideways or upside-down. The figures are nice-looking and fun to play with even without the audio element; my son loves to play with his Spidey, National Geographic dinosaur, and “Playtime Puppy” Tonies as action figures.
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Yoto uses plastic cards that kids slide into a slot at the top of the player to make them play. The cards are roughly the size of a baseball or Pokémon card and fit into binders made for both, though Yoto also makes its own zip-up card case.
One advantage that Yoto cards have over Tonies is that large collections of cards are much easier to store than the same number of Tonies. Another is that, if you lose a Tonie, you won’t have any way of playing what was on it unless you buy a replacement — but with Yoto cards, you can play any card that is linked to your Yoto account through the Yoto app on your phone, or even through a Bluetooth speaker. So even if you misplace your Beatles card, you can still access the songs from that card via the app. “We often play the cards on Bluetooth in the car,” says Strategist senior editor Ailbhe Malone, who has an almost-3-year-old daughter and owns both the Yoto original player and a Toniebox.
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How does each player work?
Both audio players have only a few controls. The Yoto Mini has a small gray power button on one side and two bigger dials that also work as buttons on the front. To play a Yoto card, you press the power button, insert the card, and wait for it to start playing. While the card is inserted, turning one of the dials will raise or lower the volume, while turning the other will advance or rewind music tracks or story chapters. Pushing the power button while listening to a card will pause the content. If your player is connected to Wi-Fi, you can also use the Yoto Mini without a card to listen to a daily podcast, called Yoto Daily, or to play a radio-style feed of kid-friendly music.
The Toniebox has two tab-like silicone buttons that look like ears and stick up from the top of the player; these control both the volume and the power. To use the Toniebox, you pinch and hold either one until you hear a chime and see the light on top of the box turn green. Then, place a Tonie figure on top of the box. You can pinch the smaller tab to lower the volume or the larger tab to raise it. There is no button to skip to the next song or chapter of a story, which is a common complaint about the Toniebox; skipping around requires hitting the side of the box hard enough to hear a beep. If you want to fast-forward but not skip a whole chapter, you tilt the box instead of hitting it, which also makes the box beep. This isn’t much of an issue in my house, as my son has no real desire to skip to the next song and just listens to each Tonie all the way through. But for Strategist senior editor Jen Trolio, whose 7- and 9-year-old daughters have been listening to some of the audiobook Tonies, including Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, the beeping has grown quite irritating to hear every time the girls fast-forward or rewind. On the Yoto Mini, you can see each track or chapter number change on the display as you turn the dial; plus, there is no annoying sound.
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What can you listen to?
In the same way that adults collect vinyl or purchase digital audiobooks, kids and their families can collect Yoto cards and Tonies. And there are hundreds of them available to buy, usually in the range of $10 to $20 each. Both brands also offer a selection of free content, subscription models that get you discounts on Yoto cards and Tonies, and content in different languages, though there is more free content available for Yoto players, and the Yoto app makes it easier to find the free stuff. Yoto has a whole section of its app dedicated to podcasts for kids, and you can seamlessly add any of them to a blank Yoto card or listen to it directly through the app. There is also a lot of licensed content from popular movies and TV shows like Frozen and Encanto, but the parents I spoke to really like that there are more straight-up music cards — from ABBA and Bob Marley to classical and world music — and more books and nonfiction too. Some of the favorites they mentioned are the Harry Potter series, Frog and Toad, Daniel Tiger, The Magic Treehouse, and Brain Bots nonfiction stories.
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Toniebox is more known for its licensed content from movies and shows like Moana, Toy Story, Frozen, and Sesame Street. And a lot of that content is geared toward preschool-age kids. But many people don’t realize that there are also a lot of Tonies made for older kids. In addition to its nonfiction collections (like the National Geographic Tonies), the brand launched a series of audiobooks in 2024, including The Questioneers, Ramona, Nate the Great, and Captain Underpants. There are also some Roald Dahl Tonies, a Diary of a Wimpy Kid Tonie, a David Bowie reading Peter and the Wolf Tonie, and a very good Beethoven Tonie. As for the free content, you have to add it to a blank “creative” Tonie if you want to listen to it, and the collection is harder to browse and not nearly as vast. But there are lots of classic stories like Anne of Green Gables and Little Red Riding Hood, as well as a handful of nonfiction stories about famous people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor.
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How easy is it to make your own content?
Both Yoto and Toniebox let you add your own music and recordings to blank Yoto cards and Tonies, either by recording directly in the app or by uploading MP3 files. This can be a pain depending on the type of content you want to upload, especially if you only use streaming sites like Spotify to listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. One parent told me about the website LibriVox, where you can find hundreds of public-domain audiobook recordings that are downloadable as MP3s. (One big difference between the two players is that you can also add podcasts that aren’t available in the Yoto app to blank Yoto cards, but I have found that process somewhat complicated.)
In general, there’s more you can do when adding your own audio to a Yoto card to make it feel personalized to you and your kids, like selecting an icon that will show up on the player’s display to go with the audio. Yoto even has a creator program where you can publish and sell your own Yoto cards or offer them for free on the app.
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Recording yourself or your kid’s grandparents directly in the app is the simplest way of adding your own content, and it works the same way for both players. I have done this in both apps and found it to be equally seamless. Some of my friends and family have also recorded themselves (or even audio played out loud from Spotify or YouTube; my son’s current obsession is common bird songs) by using the voice recorder on their phones and uploading the resulting MP3s. Strategist senior editor Simone Kitchens, who has a 3-year-old daughter, says her sister has gotten really into making custom cards with a mix of voice recordings and old-school kids’ albums like Carole King’s Really Rosie. Then she mails them periodically as little gifts. You can do the same thing with creative Tonies figures, which in many cases would make a more exciting and physically substantial gift, especially the Steiff collaboration Tonies and the sheep nightlight Tonie that glows (both come with original stories but also function as creative Tonies).
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It’s worth noting that there are vibrant Facebook and Reddit communities devoted to both Yoto and Tonies where people buy, sell, and trade the cards and Tonies figures, ask questions, and offer each other tips. This is an especially helpful resource if you’re learning how to add different types of content to blank cards and figures.
What kinds of “extras” does each player have?
When it comes to extra features, Yoto wins hands-down. You can use it to play sleep sounds and white noise, set an alarm for kids to wake up for school in the morning, and play non-Yoto audio through it like a traditional Bluetooth speaker. The Yoto Mini charges via USB-C and has a battery life of up to 14 hours, compared to the Toniebox battery that lasts half as long and has a bulkier charger (which is nonetheless easy enough for a toddler to use). Both players can be used with corded headphones via a 3.5-mm. headphone jack. But only the Yoto Mini can be used with Bluetooth headphones. Both brands make headphones designed for kids, but my son prefers the fit and feel of the Yoto headphones. Tonies also offers a bigger variety of cute and colorful accessories like carrying cases and wall shelves to deck out your child’s listening nook. But the cost of these extras really adds up, which is why you’ll also find a wealth of unofficial storage and organization options on Amazon and Etsy.
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What do the actual kids think?
While the Yoto Mini is far from impossible for a 3-year-old to use, children will get the most out of it (and the entire Yoto universe) starting around 4 or 5 years old depending on their interests and maturity level. I can tell my son hasn’t hit the Yoto sweet spot yet because the Yoto Daily podcast still goes over his head. But several parents I spoke to say their kids love the Yoto Daily podcast, have become obsessed with Jake the host, and listen to it every single day. In fact, Yoto Daily is a major reason that Trolio’s daughters ultimately sided with the Yoto Mini when pressed to reveal which player they’d choose if they could only keep one.
By comparison, at almost 2 and a half, my son is just about to hit the sweet spot for the Toniebox. When he plays with his Tonies, he is fully engaged and actually gets annoyed if I try to join in. Strategist senior writer Lauren Ro, whose two sons are almost 3 and 6 years old, says her younger son is very into the Toniebox, particularly the Cookie Monster, Elmo, Daniel Tiger, and Peppa Pig Tonies. He likes it so much that she is able to use it as a dinnertime tool to keep him at the table longer. And New York deputy editor Alexis Swerdloff says it was freeing for her kids, at around 2 and 3 years old, to be in control of their own Toniebox and the Tonies they wanted to play.
The verdict
If I had to choose between buying the Yoto Mini and the Toniebox, I would choose the Yoto — and not just because Vulture senior writer Kathryn VanArendonk, whose kids are now 7 and 10, has written about it so convincingly. I like the portability of the Yoto Mini and the bigger, more educational library of content. I also know that my son will grow out of the Toniebox sooner. But for now, I am certain that he would disagree and be more upset if the Toniebox suddenly disappeared from his play area. He is much more focused and engaged when playing with the Toniebox and uses it more independently, meaning it gives me more of a break from parenting. If you are buying an audio player for a kid who is 1 or 2 years old, the Toniebox is a solid choice, and they won’t grow out of it immediately. Once you hit age 3, it’s more of a “know thy kid” situation. For ages 4 or 5 and up, if you’ve got longevity in mind, you probably want to go with the Yoto Mini.
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