edgi vs Brilliant: which learning app is better?

By the edgi team

edgi is the better app for learning whatever you're curious about, and it's free. A Lesson takes 60 seconds, you collect a card for every idea, and the cards build a Map of what you know, from probability to why red wine dries your mouth. Brilliant teaches math and code in courses you take in order, and its free plan stops you at two lessons a day.

Both apps teach by making you do something instead of reading about it. The difference is who decides what comes next. On Brilliant, the course does. On edgi, you do: the Map shows what connects to the idea you just learned, and you tap whichever one grabs you.

We make edgi, and we built it to be the most fun way to learn anything.

Brilliant's facts come from its website, Help Center, llms.txt and US App Store listing, checked September 30, 2026. We didn't make an account, so anything here about the inside of Brilliant's app is Brilliant's own description.

Who decides what you learn next

Brilliant's Help Center spells out the free plan. You get two "keys" a day, and each one opens one lesson or one practice set. You "must work through courses sequentially," with no skipping ahead, and once both keys are spent "you'll need to wait until the next day to continue." Premium removes the cap and lets you "jump to any lesson in any course" and "learn in whatever order works for you."

That design suits what Brilliant teaches. You can't do derivatives before functions. But curiosity almost never arrives in steps. It shows up in the middle of something else, as a question you want answered now, and it's gone if the answer is six lessons away.

edgi is built for that moment. You get the answer in a minute. You keep it as a card. The card lights up on your Map, and right next to it are the ideas it connects to, 296,000 connections in all, so there's always a next thing and you're the one who picks it. Nobody makes you wait until tomorrow.

Same idea, two formats: the Monty Hall problem

Three doors, one car, two goats. You pick a door, the host (who knows where the car is) opens another one to show a goat, and offers you the switch. Most people say it doesn't matter. Switching wins two times in three.

Brilliant teaches this in its Bayesian Probability course, as lesson 11 of 13. Ten lessons come first (Guess Who, a counterfeit coin, entropy, compression, a medical test and Bayes' rule among them), and the course suggests knowing some probability before you start. At two lessons a day in order, a free user would reach Monty Hall on day six. The version Brilliant shows the public is an archived wiki page that it no longer maintains: a good written explanation with an outcome table and Bayes' theorem.

On edgi you can play it right now. You pick a door, the host opens a goat, and you choose. Five fast rounds, then the computer plays 150 games, one player staying and one switching in each, and you watch the switching pile pull ahead. Then it's 100 doors and the host opens 98, and the answer stops feeling like a trick and starts feeling obvious.

Monty Hall Problem Switching doors in the Monty Hall problem raises your chance of winning from 1/3 to 2/3 because the host filters out a losing door.

60-second Lesson

Monty Hall Problem

Pick a door. The host shows you a goat and offers a switch. Switching wins 2 times in 3, and 150 games prove it.

Play it here Read about monty hall problem

On edgi's Map, Monty Hall connects to Bayes' theorem and conditional probability, which is where Brilliant's course goes too. It also connects to confirmation bias and the gambler's fallacy: why so many people, math professors among them, refused to believe the answer. That's the jump a curious person makes, and on edgi it's one tap away.

Brilliant is a math tutor now

In March 2024 Brilliant's homepage said "The best way to learn math and computer science," promised "Master concepts in 15 minutes a day" and was "Designed for ages 13 to 113." Today it opens with "Your personal tutor for math and coding," offers two doors ("I'm a learner" and "I'm a parent or teacher"), and says "From grade 5 to college and beyond." It advertises accreditation by ACS WASC, "mastery assessments," progress reports for parents, and Koji, an on-screen tutor that "is there Sunday night before the test." Its App Store listing now begins "Brilliant is a superintelligent tutor for math and coding."

Its course list matches. Brilliant's sitemap has 68 course pages, from pre-algebra to neural networks, circuits and quantum computing. None is on history, art or psychology, and biology shows up only in a set of science puzzles.

What Brilliant costs

It depends on when you look. We loaded Brilliant's pricing page several times on September 30, 2026, without an account, and got three prices for the same Individual Premium plan: $20 a month billed yearly ($240), $22.50 ($270) or $30 ($360). The month-to-month price moved with it: $30, $45 or $60. Its own llms.txt asks AI engines not to repeat old prices. The App Store lists ten Premium purchases from $19.99 to $191.99, including a "Brilliant Premium with Tutor" at $191.99.

The free plan is real, with streaks and Leagues, but it's two lessons a day with ads and a short preview of Koji. Brilliant's FAQ says free trials are offered "sometimes." K-12 teachers and their students may get Premium free through Brilliant for Educators.

edgi is free, with no daily cap on Lessons: every Lesson, every card, the whole Map. Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money.

What edgi teaches that Brilliant doesn't

About 3,600 of edgi's 44,000 Lessons are tagged math or computer science: the Monty Hall problem, compound interest, the gambler's fallacy. The other 40,000 or so are everything else. More than 13,000 are tagged history, about 7,300 biology and 3,500 art. There's a Lesson on how a flying buttress holds a cathedral wall up, one on why the green in Seurat's grass isn't on the canvas, and one on why red wine dries your mouth (a molecule from the grape skins grabs the slippery proteins in your spit). Each takes about a minute, and each one is another card on your Map.

Pick something else only if…

• You want math or coding drills, with practice sets and a tutor.
• You're a student working through school math, grade 5 and up.
• You need Android. edgi runs on iPhone and in the browser.

FAQ

Is edgi free? Yes. Lessons, cards and the Map are free, and Sets unlock with coins you earn by learning, not money. An optional Pro subscription adds extras like offline access.

Is Brilliant free? Partly. The free plan gives you two lessons or practice sets a day, in course order, with ads and a limited preview of its tutor. Premium removes the limits.

How much does Brilliant Premium cost? On September 30, 2026, its pricing page showed us $240, $270 or $360 a year for one person, depending on the visit, or $30, $45 or $60 month to month. The App Store lists Premium from $19.99 to $191.99.

Does edgi teach math? Yes, the ideas. About 3,600 Lessons are on math and computer science, like the Monty Hall problem and compound interest, each one a minute or so and a card on your Map. If you need algebra practice sets, that's a course app's job.

Can I use edgi on Android? Not as an app. edgi runs on iPhone (iOS 16 or later) and in a browser at app.edgi.tv, and its Lessons play without an account at edgi.tv/learn.

Can I try Brilliant without an account? You can read its course outlines and its archived wiki, and it has free, account-free math practice for kindergarten through grade 5. Its lessons need an account. edgi's Lessons play in a browser with no account, like the one on this page.