The listed price is rarely what you pay. This compares how each app charges instead of quoting figures that go stale, and names the billing patterns that quietly cost people the most.
Disclosure: Learning Cadence publishes this article and makes Cadence, one of the apps listed. We have a commercial interest in Cadence. Every other app is described from its official pages, linked in each entry, and we say plainly where a different app is the better choice.
Almost every article on this quotes exact prices, and almost all of them are wrong within months. Learning app pricing changes by region, by whether you buy on the web or through an app store, by billing term, and by whatever promotion is running the day you look.
So this compares the shape of the charge instead, which is stable and is what actually determines your cost. Every app links to its own checkout, which is the only number worth trusting.
Start here
How each app charges.
Swipe the table to see every column.
How each app charges
App
How it charges
What that means for you
Khan Academy
Never charges
Nonprofit, donation funded, no paid tier and no ads.
MIT OpenCourseWare
Never charges
No account, no upsell, no certificate.
TED
Never charges
Free talks and transcripts.
Anki
One-time on iPhone
Free on desktop and Android; the iPhone purchase funds the project.
Coursera and edX
Free to learn, pay for proof
Audit many courses free; certificates and graded work are paid.
Udemy
Per course, discounted often
You own what you buy. Never pay the list price, since sales are near constant.
Duolingo
Free tier plus subscription
Full course content free with ads and a lesson meter on mobile.
Brilliant, Blinkist, Headway, MasterClass
Subscription
Recurring until cancelled. Annual is cheaper per month and harder to leave.
Cadence
Free tier plus annual plan
One lesson and quiz a day free; Plus is US$39.99 a year on the web with a 7-day trial. This is our app.
The apps
Every app, with what it is bad at.
Each description comes from the app's official pages, linked in the entry and checked on the review date at the end of this article.
01
Khan Academy
School and university fundamentals
Khan Academy is a nonprofit that publishes full course sequences in maths, science, economics, and test preparation. Every lesson is free, there are no ads, and the practice sets tell you which idea you have not understood yet, not just marking you wrong.
Best for
Rebuilding a foundation you missed at school, especially in maths and science.
Not for
Soft skills, workplace situations, and creative subjects.
Price
Free. It is funded by donations, not subscriptions.
MIT publishes the actual materials from its courses: lecture notes, problem sets, exams, and often video. There is no account, no upsell, and no certificate. It is the raw course, and you supply the discipline.
Best for
Self-directed learners who want depth and do not need a credential.
Not for
Anyone who needs structure, reminders, or someone to tell them what to do next.
Anki is a flashcard tool that schedules each card for the day you are about to forget it. It is plain, it is powerful, and it does nothing to help you decide what is worth learning. Medical students and language learners rely on it for a reason.
Best for
Facts, vocabulary, and anything you must recall exactly.
Not for
Understanding a subject. Anki assumes you already know what belongs on the card.
Price
Free on desktop and Android. The iPhone app is a one-time purchase that funds the project.
Coursera hosts courses from universities and companies, with video lectures, readings, and graded work. Many courses can be audited for free, which means you can watch the material without paying. Graded assignments and the certificate are the paid part.
Best for
Subjects where the name on the certificate matters to an employer or an application.
Not for
A ten-minute daily habit. Most courses expect real study blocks.
Price
Many courses are free to audit. Certificates, some assignments, and the all-access plan are paid. Check the course page for what the free option includes.
Practical and technical skills, bought one course at a time
Udemy is a marketplace, so anyone can publish a course. Quality varies a lot between instructors, which makes the ratings and the free preview lessons worth using before you buy. It is strong for software, tools, and other subjects where you want a specific technique.
Best for
One concrete tool or technique you need soon.
Not for
Consistent quality without doing your own checking, or a daily learning habit.
Price
Courses are bought individually and are discounted often. Check the course page for the current price.
Duolingo teaches languages through short exercises that repeat vocabulary and grammar until they stick. The streak, the daily goal, and the reminders are the reason many people keep going, and they are the most copied idea in the category.
Best for
Building and holding a daily habit while you learn a language.
Not for
Subjects outside languages, or getting to confident conversation on the app alone.
Price
Free with ads. On mobile the free tier meters how many lessons you can do through an energy system, so you wait, watch an ad, or spend gems to continue. The web version is less restricted. Paid tiers remove the ads and the meter. Check the app for the current price where you live.
Cadence takes a topic or a practical goal you type in, then builds it into an ordered course of short daily lessons. Each lesson takes about ten minutes, you can read it or listen to it, and the course remembers where you stopped. Lessons include quizzes or other checks, and you can ask a coach for another explanation without leaving the lesson.
Best for
Learning something specific that no fixed catalogue covers closely enough, at one lesson a day.
Not for
Anyone who needs a recognised certificate, a named instructor, or a language course with speaking practice.
Price
Free to start, with one short lesson and quiz a day plus custom courses, audio, progress, and coaching inside the published limits. Plus raises those allowances for US$39.99 a year on the web, with a 7-day trial.
Blinkist is the longest running app in the book summary category and covers a large nonfiction catalogue in text and audio. The same limit applies as with any summary app: you are getting the argument, not the practice.
Best for
Deciding which nonfiction books deserve the full read.
Not for
Building a skill, or anything you need to be able to do afterwards.
Price
A subscription with a free trial. Check the official site.
MasterClass films well-known practitioners talking about their craft, and the production quality is the point. You get perspective and taste from people at the top of a field. What you rarely get is a graded path that tells you whether you are improving.
Best for
Perspective, motivation, and taste in a creative field.
Not for
Structured skill building with feedback.
Price
A subscription. Check the official site for current plans.
The differences between apps matter less than these, which apply across nearly all of them.
Buying through an app store instead of the web. Platform fees are often reflected in a higher in-app price, so the same subscription can cost noticeably more on your phone than in a browser.
Annual plans billed as one payment. The per-month figure in the marketing is the annual price divided by twelve, and you pay all of it up front. That is fine if you use it, and it is the most common way people pay for a year of something they used for three weeks.
Trials that require a card. A trial you have to cancel is a purchase with an opt-out. Set a reminder for two days before it ends, on the day you sign up.
Region pricing. The figure you see quoted in an article is usually the United States price. Yours may be higher or lower, and currency conversion and local tax are applied at checkout.
Renewal at a different rate. An introductory discount often renews at full price a year later, quietly, on a card you have forgotten about.
Before you pay
Check what you already have access to.
Two sources of free access are consistently overlooked, and both cover paid products.
Public libraries. Many library systems provide LinkedIn Learning free to cardholders, and LinkedIn publishes a help page for library patrons explaining the sign-in. Availability varies by library system, so check your own.
Your employer. A lot of companies hold LinkedIn Learning or Coursera seats that go unused because nobody announced them, and many have a learning budget that will cover a subscription if you ask.
Where we fit
What Cadence charges, stated plainly.
We are the people who make Cadence, so judge this section on the evidence and not on our say-so.
The free plan gives one short lesson and quiz a day, including courses you create on your own topic, plus audio, progress, streaks, reminders, and the in-lesson coach within published limits. Plus raises those allowances at US$39.99 a year on the web with a 7-day trial. We quote our own price because we control it and it is on our pricing page.
If your budget is genuinely zero, Khan Academy and MIT OpenCourseWare cost nothing and always will, and for academic subjects they are better than us. We would rather point you there than take money for the wrong fit.
See it in concrete terms
Open a real Cadence course.
These Cadence courses can be started on the free plan, with the syllabus visible before you sign up.
It depends entirely on the charging model. Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, and TED never charge. Coursera and edX let you learn free and charge for the certificate. Udemy sells individual courses. Duolingo, Brilliant, Blinkist, Headway, MasterClass, and Cadence run free tiers or subscriptions. Any specific figure varies by region, platform, and promotion, so check the checkout.
Why is a learning app more expensive on my phone than on the web?
App store platform fees are commonly reflected in a higher in-app subscription price. If a product offers web checkout, comparing the two before you subscribe is usually worth the two minutes it takes.
Are annual learning app subscriptions worth it?
They are cheaper per month and they are also how people pay for a year of something they used for three weeks. Take the annual plan only if you have already used the product consistently for a month. The advertised monthly figure on an annual plan is the yearly price divided by twelve, charged up front.
How do I avoid being charged after a free trial?
Set a calendar reminder for two days before the trial ends on the same day you sign up, instead of trusting that you will remember. A trial that requires a card is effectively a purchase with an opt-out, and the opt-out is deliberately easy to miss.
Can I get paid learning apps for free?
Often, through a public library or an employer. Many library systems provide LinkedIn Learning free to cardholders, and LinkedIn publishes a help page for library patrons covering the sign-in. Many employers hold unused Coursera or LinkedIn Learning seats, or have a learning budget that covers a subscription if you ask.
Last reviewed
How we chose
What we checked, and what we did not.
We compared how each product charges, not what it charges, because the pricing model is stable while the amount is not. For every app we identified whether it is free permanently, free to audit, a free tier with a limit, a one-time purchase, or a recurring subscription, using its official pages checked on the review date shown on this page.
Direct checks: We opened the current official pricing or store page for each app named here and checked its charging model, its free access, and where the paid boundary sits.
Testing limits: We did not purchase every product and we do not quote competitor prices, because they vary by region, platform, billing term, and promotion, and any figure would be stale quickly. Library and employer access varies, so confirm your own.
Disclosure: Learning Cadence publishes this article and makes Cadence, one of the apps listed. We have a commercial interest in Cadence. Every other app is described from its official pages, linked in each entry, and we say plainly where a different app is the better choice.
Learning Cadence is not affiliated with any other product named on this page. Product names belong to their respective owners. Prices and free tiers change, so open the official page before you buy.
