Yoto vs. Toniebox: Which is Better?
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If you’ve been here awhile you may have seen my previous review on the Toniebox vs. the Jooki for my one-year-old. We ended up choosing the Toniebox with zero regrets. However, since then we became interested in the Yoto and ended up purchasing a Yoto mini before our recent travels. I know many people are deciding between these two so I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the pros and cons of the Yoto vs. the Toniebox to help you make a decision about which is right for your family. We purchased both with our own money and none of this is sponsored.
Both the Toniebox and the Yoto are screen free music and audio players for young children. They both have a library of music and audiobooks/stories you can purchase as well as a way to make your own audios. The Yoto uses cards that are similar to credit cards in their weight and the Toniebox uses little figurines.
Figurines vs. Cards
The reason we opted for the Toniebox when my son was turning one was because we believed it would be more accessible to him at that age. Immediately he could take the Tonie on and off and choose to play music or not. With the Yoto he would not have been able to do that until probably closer to 1.5. Buying for a young toddler or older baby I definitely recommend the Tonie for ease of use. I would say even at almost 2.5 he is drawn more to the figurines than the cards though he can easily use both. I think there is something a bit more engaging for him about choosing a figurine that looks like the story than in choosing the cards.
The downside, however, on the figurines is they are harder to store. Yoto cards can be stored in a card booklet whereas the figurines take up considerably more space. For a young toddler though you likely don’t need many figurines.
The price of the cards is lower than the figurines as well. The Yoto cards are generally $7-$13 whereas the figurines for the Toniebox are $15-$20.
Content
Both the Toniebox and the Yoto have a pretty extensive library of music and stories. The Yoto has a larger collection of audiobooks for older children (including things like chapter books). Though both have an extensive library for young children including both more commercial ones like Disney and more classical children’s songs, I would say Yoto provides a lot more content for elementary schoolers and up. Given our main purpose at this point was to play music, this didn’t matter to us either way. One interesting note of difference I found is most of the Tonie figurines are similar lengths of audio. They are usually somewhere between 30 minutes and a bit over an hour with the shortest I’ve seen being 21 minutes. For short board book audiobooks they add in extra stories or songs or other content. The Yoto cards on the other hand vary drastically. We have one audiobook that is 6 minutes long but they also make them that are 10+ hours long. The prices vary too but not necessarily as drastically as the content length. Shorter ones of course are made for younger children and the variance isn’t a bad thing but it is something I am aware of while shopping for cards.
Both have options to make your own cards/figurines. I found making my own to be pretty easy on both websites/apps. I used the website though as my music is on a computer. Make your own cards and figurines can be done with any music or audio file you own (so not from a Libby or Apple Music file). The Yoto allows you to link up to 100 tracks with a limit of an hour per track on each card. We had an album of 100 children’s songs and they all fit on the Yoto make your own card. On the “creative Tonie” we couldn’t fit them all. The creative Tonie allows only 90 minutes of content. In most cases this is plenty as, realistically, my son is not listening to all 100 songs on a single card, but it is worth keeping in mind. One thing we haven’t done but I have seen some do with the make your own cards for the Yoto is put a sticker on that has a picture of the content. That is a cool way for your child to know what is on a particular make your own card if you have multiple out. With the Tonies you can get ones that look different but they won’t necessarily represent the content.
You can also play bluetooth through the Yoto and not through the Toniebox. I previously couldn’t think of a scenario I would want that but recently I wanted to play holiday music. It was great being able to play from the speaker. I find my son is more distracted by background music if I play from my phone so this was a nice way to add some background music to our morning. I’m never a huge fan of playing bluetooth and prefer something like playing from our Alexa since it takes over my phone and gets paused if I film a video but it was great having the option.
The Player Itself
The Toniebox is available for $99 and comes with one Tonie “Playtime Puppy.” Playtime Puppy plays classic children’s songs and for my young toddler we have loved it! The Yoto Mini is $69 and comes with a make your own card. The Yoto original is $120 and comes with a “make your own card.” There are also bundles with the Toniebox available at places like Target that offer different starter Tonies and are sometimes offered for cheaper.
The device itself has several differences as to how it works. Both have the ability to change the volume and skip tracks but they are done quite differently. With the Yoto it is done with dials that turn. With the Toniebox the volume is changed my squeezing the ears and tracks are skipped or returned to using a banging on the side of the device motion. I definitely think the Yoto makes it easier to change tracks. It is worth considering though whether that is providing a feature you really want to a young child. We’ve personally used the Toniebox just as a music player you play through and liked it that way. I have at times wanted to go back to a track and found it a bit frustrating though. I also don’t love that if I am changing tracks I am modeling banging the sides of the device. It’s a motion I’m not a super big fan of him doing in general. On the other hand, we did find the dials a bit distracting on the Yoto which I will get to next.
Though they are branded as “screen free,” there is a small pixelated screen on our Yoto Mini. The full-sized Yotos have a larger one. It has little icons associated with each track. This can definitely be useful for changing tracks as well. When we first introduced the Yoto to my son though we introduced the story “The Little Engine That Could.” This had a train icon in the screen for the beginning. He loves trains and this has majorly distracted him from enjoying the player. He now often looks for the train rather than listening to the music or audio and depending on his mood doesn’t have interest in tracks if there is no train. I don’t think this would have happened if we had introduced a different card first and it is likely more of an us problem but it is something I personally would prefer not to have on the device. It is one of the many things that leads me to prefer the Toniebox for younger children and the Yoto for older children. For an older child this might actually be quite useful in quickly scrubbing through to find the track they are looking for.
I mentioned we have the Yoto mini which is much smaller than our Toniebox. We purchased it for travel so having the mini makes sense. I don’t really personally see a benefit in choosing the larger device though I know some people like it! It has an “okay to wake” light or something similar which I’ve heard people use it for. It also has a room thermometer and a nightlight. Both features are cool but personally not something I would choose the larger device for versus just buying separately. From the website it also seems the speakers are better in the original, though that is something I am no expert on. The original Yoto and the Toniebox are pretty similar in size and while we have taken our Toniebox on the airplane, it is not as good for travel. For us choosing which Yoto the mini was a no-brainer. If they hadn’t had a mini we would not have branched out from our Toniebox which we were perfectly content with.
Both devices have a headphone jack. The bluetooth capabilities on the Yoto also allow for wireless headphones but we have never tried this. These are the headphones we have.
The battery life is significantly longer on the Yoto than the Tonie: 7 hours on the Tonie and 20-24 hours depending which Yoto you purchase. The Toniebox has a charging stand while Yoto uses USB-C. This is a personal preference but I do prefer the charging stand because I find it easier for children to use. We also just keep the Tonie on the stand while at home.
I will also note both devices say they are 3+. The Yoto has a section on their website though with audios for 0-2, signaling they don’t really see it as 3+. In FAQs the Toniebox says independently 3+ but that it can be enjoyed with supervision prior. In my view the age marker is far more a liability thing than an actual safety concern. Buy at your own discretion. You know your child best. I found none of the Toniebox figurines we have failed the toilet paper roll choking test and the Yoto cards definitely do not. Of course, always supervise your child and you know best what they are ready for. In terms of durability, the Yoto has an adventure jacket you can buy to make it stronger. The Toniebox itself is super super durable. Ours at one point fell all the way down the stairs with no issue whatsoever. I would say the Toniebox seems far more durable than the Yoto even with the adventure jacket.
So which would I choose: Toniebox or Yoto?
I have no regrets on getting both devices (though obviously that isn’t the ideal choice from the outset for most people). My plan had been to get Yoto when my second was able to use the Toniebox but the truth is my son still uses his Toniebox every night in his room to play sleepy music. I am more likely to just buy a second for my daughter when she’s around a year. What I do regret is amassing such a large Toniebox audio library. We went a bit overboard purchasing Tonies at first and got some that he will not be ready for for quite some time. In retrospect I would have kept our library very small: playtime puppy, a few creative tonies, and maybe a couple stories (Y loves listening to The Hungry Caterpillar and Elmer on there). I felt we overspent on figurines and now that we have two devices to get audio for it feels like we wasted a bit of money.
As I mentioned, when my daughter is around 1 I will likely get her her own Toniebox for her room. I would choose the Toniebox for her over the Yoto because it is more usable for a baby/young toddler. If I were to wait until 18 months plus I might just get the Yoto but I loved having the option for my son of choosing his music at such a young age. He would not have been able to get the Yoto card into the Yoto at 12 months but was able to use the Tonies on the Toniebox.
If my child was already 2 when buying, however, I would go with the Yoto mini. The mini size is great for travel and portability. For me there is no function lost in the smaller size I would want. It is also the most affordable. The Yoto cards are cheaper than the Tonie figurines, less to store, and have a larger library for older children (though that would still not apply for several years). My one complaint with the Yoto mini is I do wish it didn’t have the small screen. I doubt it is a problem for most people but we have found it a bit distracting to the use of the device.
If you’re looking to buy one device for longevity I would probably go with the Yoto. If you have a young toddler or older baby and looking for something they can use, I would recommend the Toniebox. The Toniebox of course also can be used for several years (that’s why I am going to probably buy a second- my son still loves his!), but the Yoto does have more cards for older children. If you are buying for travel, the Yoto mini is the way to go.
Overall, both are solid devices and you really can’t go wrong with either.
