Brilliant
Khan Academy
| Feature | Brilliant | Khan Academy |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $11.99/mo | Free only |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.6 / 5 | 4.7 / 5 |
| Best For | stem-learners, students, career-changers, lifelong-learners | students, parents, teachers, self-learners |
| Founded | 2012 | 2008 |
| Interactive Lessons | ✓ | ✗ |
| Daily Challenges | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visual Explanations | ✓ | ✗ |
| Progress Tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Offline Access | ✓ | ✗ |
| Community | ✓ | ✗ |
| Video Lessons | ✗ | ✓ |
| Practice Exercises | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ai Tutor | ✗ | ✓ |
| Teacher Dashboard | ✗ | ✓ |
| Mastery Learning | ✗ | ✓ |
| Sat Prep | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Brilliant Pros
- Highly interactive visual learning approach
- Excellent for building mathematical intuition
- Short daily lessons that fit busy schedules
- Covers fundamentals through advanced topics
✗ Brilliant Cons
- Limited free content (only a few lessons per course)
- Focused on STEM only (no humanities/language)
- Can feel too gamified for serious learners
✓ Khan Academy Pros
- Completely free for all learners worldwide
- Comprehensive K-12 math and science curriculum
- Personalized learning with mastery-based progression
- Khanmigo AI tutor for personalized help
- Teacher tools for classroom integration
✗ Khan Academy Cons
- Content depth limited for advanced college topics
- Video-based format not ideal for all learners
- Some subjects have less coverage than others
The Verdict
Brilliant is built for stem learners and students, with a focus on interactive-lessons and daily-challenges. Khan Academy targets students and parents and leads with video-lessons and practice-exercises.
Khan Academy uses custom enterprise pricing, while Brilliant starts at $11.99/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Khan Academy offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Brilliant takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
Both tools are a solid fit for students — in those cases, the decision often comes down to workflow style and how your team prefers to organize work.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.