Three options beside Brilliant, with prices.
Every row below is something an adult can sign up for and use alone. They differ most in who picks the next topic: you, a course you chose, or a placement test followed by a computed route. Read the “who it is for” column first, since most of these are aimed partly at school students and that shows in the material.
| Option | Price | Who it is for | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brilliant | $30 a month; yearly billing is advertised as saving 33%brilliant.org, read 27 October 2026 | Students from elementary school to college, and curious adults | Maths, computer science, science and data analysis, as interactive courses |
| Consiliae (ours) | $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year, after a 7-day free trial; the Knowledge Scan needs no accountconsiliae.com, read 21 September 2026 | Self-learners aged 16 and over | Arithmetic to linear algebra and multivariable calculus |
| Math Academy | $49 a month per studentmathacademy.com, read 26 October 2026 | Gifted learners, homeschool families, adults upskilling | Arithmetic to multivariable calculus and differential equations |
| Khan Academy | Freekhanacademy.org, read 21 September 2026 | Anyone, school-age upward | Early maths to multivariable calculus, plus other subjects |
Consiliae is ours, and it is marked so you can weigh the rest accordingly. Each price names the site it was read on, and the most recent check was on 27 October 2026; check before you buy, because prices move.
The prices are not on the same footing. Brilliant shows a monthly figure and a percentage off for paying yearly, without printing the yearly amount; it also sells a family plan with six seats. One row prices per student, one is free, and ours gives a monthly and a yearly figure. If you are rebuilding calculus or statistics from school level, expect months, so compare what a year would cost.
A quick way to narrow the table: start from your target. If there is a date attached, such as a placement test, a resit, or a course that assumes you can already differentiate, look for an option that places you first, decides the order for you and checks old topics again later, and make sure its coverage reaches the topic you need. If there is no date and you want to explore maths, coding and data for their own sake, an interactive catalogue you can wander through fits better than a placement-driven route.
What Brilliant does between lessons.
Brilliant’s help pages call a lesson a concept and a course a topic. Without Premium, its plan comparison gives you 2 keys a day, each opening one concept or practice set, and you work through each topic in order, with occasional ads between concepts. Premium removes the limit and lets you jump to any concept in any topic. Within the maths curriculum, jumping ahead goes through a level check: new learners take a signup diagnostic, and Brilliant asks for a pass on the level check that gates later material.
The daily rhythm is set by a streak. It grows when you complete 3 problems or one full concept in a day, and if you miss a day an available Streak Charge keeps the count where it was. You can hold at most 2 charges, earned by completing concepts or practice. On top of that sit weekly leagues of 30 learners competing for XP across 10 levels.
When you are stuck, Brilliant has Koji, a tutor that sits inside most topics, nearly all of the maths and coding ones, sees your work and guides you a step at a time rather than handing over the answer. Without Premium you get a limited preview; with it, use is unlimited. Practice comes as practice sets attached to every lesson, and Brilliant’s about page says it tests spaced repetition, especially in weak areas, treats the timing of practice sets as active experimentation, and is rolling out review sets that mix earlier lessons course by course.
Put together, the streak counts days on which you did something, and the practice that would show whether last month’s idea survived is offered rather than required. That suits the audience Brilliant describes: students from elementary school to college and curious adults, with most children ready around age 10. It suits less well an adult who needs to sit down with a blank page and differentiate something by a set date.
One technique, traced back through our map.
Take implicit differentiation, which an interactive calculus course tends to show early and visually. On the prerequisite graph Consiliae runs on, it has 1 direct prerequisite: chain rule. Follow those back and 102 earlier concepts sit underneath, spread across 7 chapters: Foundations of Arithmetic (38), Pre-Algebra (10), Algebra I (11), Geometry (13), Trigonometry (7), Pre-Calculus & Discrete Foundations (8) and Single-Variable Calculus (15). The longest unbroken chain is 24 concepts, starting at counting to 100.
- direct prerequisite
- 1
- concepts underneath
- 102
- in the longest chain
- 24
- Foundations of Arithmetic38
- Pre-Algebra10
- Algebra I11
- Geometry13
- Trigonometry7
- Pre-Calculus & Discrete Foundations8
- Single-Variable Calculus15
- Multivariable Calculus0
- Linear Algebra0
That is the point of the comparison. Watching the technique work on a curve uses almost none of that chain. Producing it on paper uses all of it, and the step that fails can be a long way down, in the algebra or the derivative rules rather than in implicit differentiation itself.
On Consiliae a concept stays locked until every concept directly under it has been passed. Lessons end in problems generated fresh each time, answered without hints. A score below the pass line means the quiz is taken again rather than waved through, and a wrong answer shows the right one with a link back to the lesson. When a wrong answer is on a question built to exercise an earlier concept, that earlier concept’s next review is brought forward.
Reviews are scheduled for every concept you pass. The first comes 2 days later, and for a learner who recalls it well each time the gaps run 2, 4, 8 and 16 days and keep lengthening up to 180 days. The full rule set is on our spaced repetition page.
What you give up is real. Consiliae teaches maths and nothing else, has no videos and no interactive simulations, and some days your route will put a foundation in front of you that you would rather skip. If you are learning for interest across several subjects, Brilliant’s breadth and its interactive design are the reason to keep it.
Test yourself without the hints
The scan asks single questions with no nudges and marks on the map what holds and what does not. The Knowledge Scan is up to 25 questions and needs no account and no card. Sign up to keep your route and take your first lesson; after that comes a 7-day free trial, then the Student plan.
Find my routeNo card needed. Free scan and route.
Brilliant and Consiliae, rule by rule.
Brilliant details are from its subscribe page and help centre, read on 27 October 2026.
| Aspect | Brilliant | Consiliae |
|---|---|---|
| Price as published | $30 a month; yearly billing is advertised as saving 33% | $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year, after the starter lesson and a free trial. |
| How your starting point is set | A signup diagnostic within Brilliant's maths curriculum, plus a level check before later material. | The Knowledge Scan, up to 25 questions, across the whole map; it needs no account. |
| Who chooses the next topic | You do. Without Premium you go through each topic in order; Premium can jump to any concept. | Your route does: it is computed back from your goal through the prerequisites you are missing. |
| When you get one wrong | Koji can guide you through the step; practice sets are attached to every lesson. | No hint button and no tutor. You see the right answer and a link to the lesson, and a quiz below the pass line is taken again. |
| Daily motivation | A streak extended by 3 problems or a concept a day, with up to 2 Streak Charges, plus weekly leagues. | XP, a weekly league and a streak, none of which decides what you study next. |
| Subjects | Maths, computer science, science and data analysis. | Maths only: 1,424 concepts on one prerequisite graph. |
