Kaplan vs The CE Shop: which should you buy?
The CE Shop’s students pass at a materially higher rate in Texas, at a price we cannot compare because its site blocks verification. Kaplan wins on the one thing that is fully checkable: delivery format.
56.5% Texas first-attempt pass rate against Kaplan's 53.2%, though its pricing and terms are unverified.
Read the full reviewThe only provider here with live classroom teaching, and every price and term independently confirmed.
Read the Kaplan reviewSide by side
| Kaplan | The CE Shop | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $399 – $899, fully verified | Not independently verified |
| Pre-licensing states | About 37 (verified) | Not independently verified |
| Delivery formats | 5, including live classroom | Self-paced online |
| TX first-attempt pass rate | 53.2% | 56.5% |
| TX exam volume behind that rate | 1,280 | 1,077 |
Score breakdown, category by category
The same categories used across every comparison on this site.
Choose Kaplan if…
- You want a fully verifiable price and guarantee before you commit.
- You need live or in-person teaching.
- You would rather have a slightly lower published pass rate with total pricing transparency.
Choose The CE Shop if…
- The Texas pass-rate advantage is enough on its own for you.
- You are comfortable checking its current pricing directly rather than relying on a published comparison.
- You do not need live or in-person instruction.
The bottom line
This is a genuine trade-off between a verified, format-flexible, more expensive-looking option and an unverified one with a better published outcome. We can only fully stand behind Kaplan’s numbers; The CE Shop’s pass rate is real, but its price is whatever you find at checkout, not a figure we can confirm here.
Other comparisons
Common questions
Is a 3.3-point pass-rate gap meaningful here?
It is larger than the Colibri-vs-CE-Shop gap and on comparable volume (1,280 vs 1,077 exams), so it is a real, if moderate, difference — not noise.
Why trust Kaplan's numbers over The CE Shop's?
We could independently verify Kaplan’s pricing and terms directly from its own site. The CE Shop’s site blocks that verification, so its published pass rate is solid but its commercial terms are not something we could confirm.