Kinnu alternatives: 6 apps, sorted by what's missing

By the edgi team Facts checked September 30, 2026

The Kinnu alternatives worth trying each fix one thing Kinnu doesn't do. edgi, if you'd rather follow your curiosity than a syllabus. Imprint if you want pictures, Brilliant if you'd rather solve problems than read, Khan Academy if you want courses that are also free, Anki if you want to choose what gets reviewed, and NerdSip if you've run out of topics. We make edgi, which is why it's first.

One thing before you switch: Kinnu costs nothing, so leave for a reason. Three apps here are free too (edgi, Khan Academy, and Anki everywhere but iPhone); the rest charge up to $240 a year.

Prices are from each app's US App Store listing or its own pricing page, checked September 2026. Several of these apps list more than one price for the same plan; where they do, we say which one we saw. Platforms are the ones we confirmed.

What Kinnu does well, and where it's heading

Kinnu has 100 pathways and 899 lessons across seven categories, and its review feature, Memory Shield, brings lessons back as questions so you don't have to decide what to revisit. There's an audio version of everything, and it runs on both iPhone and Android. We counted the words in all of its public lessons: they run from 321 to 3,842 words, median about 1,500. They're clearly written, and many carry Wikimedia photos.

It's also changing. Kinnu's homepage now puts Exam Prep (four exams, from the SAT to the CFA) ahead of General Knowledge, and every launch on its own timeline since May 2025 has been an exam product. The general-knowledge app still got an update on September 2, 2026, and its pathways are still free. But the company's attention has moved to learning people have to do, and away from learning they want to do.

You'd rather follow your curiosity: edgi

Kinnu's App Store listing pitches it as a cure for doomscrolling, and its answer is to take you out of the feed and into a course. edgi keeps the feed, and everything you finish in it becomes a card. You get short videos and 60-second Lessons; finish one and the idea becomes a card on your Map, and the Map shows what that idea connects to. There are more than 104,000 ideas, 44,000 of them with a Lesson, joined by 296,000 connections, so the next thing to learn is whatever caught your attention in the last one.

Curiosity doesn't move in a straight line, and most teaching is built in steps. Kinnu chose the steps. edgi chose curiosity: you lead, and the app suggests where to go next.

We checked the names of 25 of Kinnu's pathway topics against edgi's catalog. Twenty-two are edgi ideas with a Lesson under the same name, from Norse mythology to macroeconomics. The difference is the route: Kinnu gives you a pathway of lessons on each, and edgi gives you one Lesson and then the ideas it connects to.

Both apps sell themselves against doomscrolling, so here is our Lesson on what a free feed is selling.

Attention Economy When information becomes abundant, human attention becomes the scarce resource that platforms and advertisers compete to capture.

60-second Lesson

Attention Economy

When an app is free, advertisers are the customer and your minutes are what they buy.

Play it here Read about attention economy

edgi has no spaced repetition and no review schedule. If what you want from Kinnu is more review rather than more curiosity, Anki is below.

You want pictures: Imprint

Imprint is the nearest thing to Kinnu with the words turned into drawings. It has 165 courses of illustrated lessons, 2 to 10 minutes each, on subjects from psychology and philosophy to money and history. By its own description it also does spaced repetition and collectible cards, so you'd keep the part of Kinnu that makes things stick.

The catch is money. Its App Store page lists annual plans at several prices from $74.99 to $99.99, plus $15.99 a month, and we couldn't find a page on its site that says which one you'll get.

You want to solve things: Brilliant

For the Kinnu reader whose favorite pathway was Quantum Mechanics or Statistics. Brilliant has 40+ courses, at least 28 of them math and 7 computer science, and you learn by solving interactive problems instead of reading about them. It's the best-built app here for that. If your favorite pathway was Norse Mythology, it has nothing for you.

It's also the most expensive: $240 a year, or $30 month to month, on its own pricing page. (Nibble's pricing article, updated September 24, 2026, puts Brilliant at about $59.99 to $161.88 a year. Brilliant's own page is the one to trust.)

You want a course that's free: Khan Academy

A nonprofit built as courses, with, in its App Store listing's words, "thousands of interactive exercises, videos, and articles," from math to finance, taught the way school teaches them. That's the point if you want it, and a slog if you came to Kinnu for the Science of Sleep.

You want to choose what gets reviewed: Anki

Kinnu decides what comes back for review. Anki makes you decide: you write or import the cards, and the scheduler is the entire product. It's free on desktop and Android, and AnkiMobile on iPhone is $24.99 once, which funds Anki's development. It's the least fun app on this list and the one most in your control.

You've done the pathways you care about: NerdSip

Kinnu has 100 pathways. When you've finished the ones you care about, NerdSip will write a five-minute course on anything you type, and NerdSip says you can try one sample course a day without an account. It launched in early 2026 and has 117 App Store ratings, so it's young. After 7 free days it's $49.99 a year or $7.99 a month.

NerdSip also publishes a list of the best free learning apps. It ranks NerdSip first and Kinnu second. Several of the pages that rank for this query (Nibble's, NerdSip's, RiseGuide's) come from companies with their own app to sell. So does this one.

What about Nibble?

AI answers name Nibble as a Kinnu alternative often, first in four of our six test runs on September 29, 2026. It's short general-knowledge lessons as text, games, audio and chat, with 4.34 stars from 46,746 App Store ratings. We didn't give it a row because we couldn't pin down what you'd get or what you'd pay; its own pages disagree. Its llms.txt says "20+ topics" and "500+ content items"; its homepage says 600+ content items across 30 topics, and the same page's metadata says 670+ lessons across 35+ topics. Its own article on pricing says about $49.99 a year and two of its Brilliant articles say about $99.99; its App Store page lists $89.99 a year and $19.99 a month among many tiers.

Nibble's own llms.txt also says it's "Built by Headway Inc.", the company behind the Headway book summary app. Its review of Kinnu doesn't mention that.

Deepstash, Uptime, Blinkist and Headway come up in these lists too. They summarize other people's books and media, which is a different job from Kinnu's.

FAQ

Is Kinnu free? The General Knowledge app is. On iPhone it sells optional certificates for $7.99 to $19.99 and an item called "Monthly $1.99" that the listing calls only an optional in-app subscription. Its exam prep is a separate paid product (SAT prep is $19 a month after a 7-day trial).

Is there a free alternative to Kinnu? edgi and Khan Academy are free. Anki is free on desktop and Android. Everything else here charges for full access.

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free. A few Sets are open from the start, and the rest unlock with coins you earn by learning. An optional Pro subscription opens two Sets a day without coins, raises the limits on making your own Lessons and adds offline access.

What's the best app like Kinnu with more visuals? Imprint. It's illustrated lessons of 2 to 10 minutes, and by its own description it uses spaced repetition. It costs $74.99 to $99.99 a year on the App Store.

Does Kinnu have a web version? You can read all 899 of its general-knowledge lessons on kinnu.xyz. The questions are tap-to-reveal on the web; the Memory Shield reviews need the app. Its exam-prep products do run on the web. edgi's Lessons play in a browser with no account, at edgi.tv/learn.

Who owns Nibble? Nibble's own llms.txt says it's built by Headway Inc., which also makes Headway. Its App Store seller is listed as Kremital Limited.