Father's Ed vs MANtenatal: two dad-focused options compared

Focus on dads

MANtenatal and Father's Ed are unusually similar on this dimension: both are built dad-first, both treat fathers as the primary audience rather than an add-on, and both take dad mental health seriously rather than as an aside. That is rare and worth saying out loud — if you have been frustrated by content that says "parents" but means "mums", either of these will feel like the conversation finally finding its way to you.

The flavour is slightly different. MANtenatal leans heavily on a live, conversational format — Gordon's voice and a small group of dads sharing notes. Father's Ed leans on a curriculum and a framework (the Five-Star Fathers Framework) you can move through at your own pace. Whether you prefer chat-room energy or a quiet structured library is more a personality fit than a quality judgement.

Price and value for money

MANtenatal publishes its prices openly. At the time of writing the On Demand course is £50, the Dad Group Live is £125, and the Personal 1:1 is £450. Paid tiers also include access to a private Discord community of dads. Each tier is reasonable for what it offers — particularly the 1:1, which is essentially a private session with the founder.

Father's Ed is free. There is no equivalent of the 1:1 (Father's Ed is a library, not a coach), and there is no paid community tier. If your priority is zero cost and self-direction, Father's Ed wins on price. If you want a live human and a paid community, MANtenatal is the right home for that.

Accessibility and flexibility

MANtenatal's strongest accessibility move is offering three formats so you can match the one that suits your budget and learning style: downloadable On Demand, a live group of dads, or 1:1 with the founder. That gives you a genuine choice, and the On Demand tier travels with you on any device.

Father's Ed is on-demand only, by design. There is one consistent format, no scheduling, and no waiting list. If you sign up tonight, you can watch tonight. The trade-off is that there is no equivalent of MANtenatal's live group dynamic.

Comprehensiveness

MANtenatal's curriculum is structured around four phases: Discuss & Share, Before Birth, Birth & Beyond, and Ready, Set, Dad — the last of which is explicitly about bonding and dad mental health, which most antenatal providers under-cover. The On Demand course runs about 90 minutes; the live and 1:1 formats are around four hours.

Father's Ed is broader in time horizon. Alongside the antenatal phase, the library carries you into the first year — sleep, weaning, partnership, returning to work, paternity leave. If you are looking for one resource that keeps being useful past month two, the breadth is the headline difference.

Who each is best for

Pick MANtenatal if you want the option of a live group of dads or a 1:1 with the founder, and you are happy to pay for that.

Pick Father's Ed if you want a free, broad, on-demand library that runs from pregnancy into the first year, with a clear framework rather than live sessions.

Use both if you want the live community of MANtenatal and the long-tail breadth of Father's Ed. They are genuinely complementary — both are pro-dad, both are evidence-led, and they cover different jobs.

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Try Father's Ed for yourself

Father's Ed is free and self-paced. You can sign up at app.fathercraft.co.uk, work through the bits that matter to you tonight, and come back whenever the next stage hits — pregnancy, newborn, weaning, sleep regressions, the lot.

If you want to read more before you sign up, our Insights library is open, and the Five-Star Fathers Framework is a free PDF you can download.