The best learning apps for adults

Pick by what you want to learn. SUN for any subject you would rather hear than read, Duolingo for a language, Brilliant for math and coding, Khan Academy for school subjects at no cost, Coursera for a certificate employers recognize, Blinkist or Imprint for the ideas in books, and Anki to remember any of it.

I started SUN because after long days at work I found it hard to sit still with a book. I wanted to learn while I moved through my day. That is the one kind of learning on this list SUN is built for; for everything else, one of the apps below is the better choice.

Anything, by listening

SUN

Tell it what you want to learn and how long you have, "a 5-lesson audio course on public speaking, with an exercise after each lesson", and SUN writes the course and voices it, at your level, for the walk, the commute or the dishes, and you can ask it questions as you go. Courses adapt to what you already know, book summaries run 15 to 20 minutes or whatever you ask, some titles come as the whole book, and you pick up on any device where you stopped. It speaks 12 languages, from American and British English to Arabic, Chinese and Hindi. Your first hour of generation is free; SUN Pro is $15 a month or $99 a year. Audio learning app, learn while commuting

A language

Duolingo

More than 40 languages in short daily lessons, and every course is free. Super Duolingo removes the ads and the limit on mistakes, from $83.99 a year in the US after a week's free trial. It builds a habit and a vocabulary well. To hold a conversation, add a person to talk to; no app replaces that.

Math, coding and science

Brilliant

Interactive problems instead of lectures, in math, computer science, science and data analysis, from the basics to college level, with an AI tutor called Koji. Premium opens all 40+ courses, with no ads. It suits an adult who learns by doing and gives up on video courses halfway.

Khan Academy

A nonprofit, and free for everyone: math, science, economics, computing, test prep and life skills, with more than 180 million registered users. If you are going back to a subject you dropped at school, start here before you pay for anything.

A credential

Coursera

Courses, certificates and full degrees from more than 350 universities and companies, Google and IBM among them. Some courses are free; a certificate is paid, per course or through a Coursera Plus subscription, with a 7-day free trial. Choose it when someone else, an employer or a school, will look at what you learned.

Ideas from books

Blinkist

The key ideas of more than 9,000 books and podcasts in 15 minutes each, read or heard. Premium is $79.99 to $99.99 a year. The full comparison is in best book summary apps.

Imprint

Psychology and the ideas in bestselling books, explained in illustrations rather than paragraphs. $15.99 a month, or $74.99 to $99.99 a year. For the reader who remembers what they see better than what they read.

Remembering it

Anki

Flashcards scheduled for the day you are about to forget them. Free on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, with free sync; the iPhone app costs $24.99 once. It pairs with every app above: anything worth learning is worth ten cards.

Where to start

One app for the thing you most want to learn, used every day for a month, beats five used now and then. If you cannot find twenty minutes to sit down, start with the one you can use while moving.