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Kinnu is really two products under one name: a general-knowledge microlearning app, and a separate paid platform for professional exams like the SQE1 and CFA Level I. Which alternative you want depends entirely on which of those you were using, and most comparison pages miss that the split exists.
Editorial note: Iro AI is our app. Where it appears below we say so, and it has to earn its spot by the same criteria as everything else.
Answer the fork first. Kinnu the general-knowledge app and Kinnu's exam-prep platform for the UK SQE1 and CFA Level I are separate products, and swapping one for the other's alternative is the most common mistake on this query.
If you were reading pathways on history, science and philosophy for general interest, you are looking for another curated microlearning app, and the right one depends on the subject: Iro AI if what you actually want is to use AI tools well, Brilliant for maths, logic and computer science, Khan Academy for academic foundations at no cost.
If you were studying for a qualification, none of those replace what you had. A syllabus-aligned question bank with thousands of practice questions is a specialist product, and the alternative to one is another one, not a general knowledge app.
Three reasons come up, and they point in different directions.
Only the second is a criticism, and even then it is a criticism of the category rather than the app. Curated general knowledge does exactly what it says.
Iro AI turns ideas like the ones in this post into 5-minute exercises with feedback. Free tier, Pro from $4.17 a month ($49.99 a year, 7-day free trial).
For the general-knowledge fork. Every cell here is either published by the company or plainly observable in the product; where we could not check something ourselves, we say so instead of guessing.
| App | Best for | What you get | Free tier | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinnu | General knowledge | Curated pathways across subjects like history, science and philosophy | Not verified by us | iOS confirmed. Check the store for your platform. |
| Iro AI (ours) | Using AI tools well | 29 curated paths, 477 lessons, 2,700+ exercises across 24 exercise types | Every path open, paced by a Battery that gives a lesson a day and recharges overnight | iOS and a free web app with no signup. Android in development. |
| Brilliant | Maths, logic, CS foundations | Curated interactive problem sets | Not verified by us | iOS, Android, web |
| Khan Academy | Academic foundations | Curated courses and exercises, from a non-profit | Free, with no paid tier | iOS, Android, web |
About the blank cells. Anything marked "not verified by us" is something we could not confirm from the company's own store listing or website at the time of writing. Most comparison pages fill those cells from affiliate sites, which is how a wrong price ends up repeated on twenty pages. We would rather leave a gap and send you to the listing. Check the renewal price and the cancel path before you enter a card, on any app here, including ours.
Different search entirely. Kinnu's SQE1 product ships a bank of 3,000+ multiple-choice questions, 350+ study notes, 2,000+ flashcards and a context-aware AI tutor called LARA, and that shape, a large syllabus-mapped question bank with analytics, is what you should be comparing against. Ask any candidate replacement three things: how many questions, mapped to which syllabus version, and does it show you a weakness breakdown rather than a score. Nothing on the table above answers those questions, including us.
Iro is the alternative for exactly one goal: getting good at using AI. Same five-minute daily shape you are used to, same curated-rather-than-generated approach, but the subject is narrow and the sessions are hands-on: 29 paths across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, prompt engineering, agents and automation, with 477 lessons and 2,700+ exercises across 24 exercise types.
The difference you will feel immediately is what a lesson asks of you. A knowledge pathway explains a thing and then checks you were paying attention. Iro's Prompt Lab has you write an actual prompt and then tells you which part was weak, scoring it on clarity, specificity, constraints and context. Duels put the same material under time pressure against another learner matched by rating. Six ranks, streaks and XP carry the habit.
Iro runs as a free web app at app.tryiro.com with no signup, so the fastest way to find out whether the format suits you is to open a lesson rather than read about one.
Three questions, in order.
And if the answer to the first question was credential, go back to the exam-prep section above and ignore this whole category.
Iro AI turns ideas like the ones in this post into 5-minute exercises with feedback. Free tier, Pro from $4.17 a month ($49.99 a year, 7-day free trial).
It depends which Kinnu you used. For the general-knowledge app, pick by subject: Iro AI if you want to get good at using AI tools, Brilliant for maths and logic, Khan Academy for academic foundations at no cost. For Kinnu's separate exam-prep platform covering the UK SQE1 and CFA Level I, the alternative is another syllabus-aligned question bank, not a general microlearning app.
We are not going to state Kinnu's pricing, because we could not verify it from Kinnu's own listing at the time of writing and this category is full of pages repeating figures from affiliate sites. Open the App Store listing and read the in-app purchase section, which is authoritative and takes about thirty seconds. The same goes for the exam-prep platform, which is billed separately from the general-knowledge app.
Yes. Kinnu is a UK company founded in 2021, and it runs both the general-knowledge microlearning app and a separate paid exam-prep platform covering the UK SQE1 and CFA Level I, with a 3,000+ question bank, study notes, flashcards and an AI tutor called LARA. They are distinct products with distinct subscriptions, which is why alternatives pages that treat Kinnu as one app tend to give unhelpful answers.
Scope and session type. Kinnu's general-knowledge app spans many subjects; Iro covers one, using AI tools well, across 29 curated paths, 477 lessons and 2,700+ exercises. And where a knowledge pathway explains something and then checks you followed it, Iro's sessions are exercises: writing a prompt and being told which part was weak, spotting a fabricated citation, choosing between two tools and learning why one loses.
Khan Academy is free with no paid tier and covers academic foundations properly. Iro AI is free to start with every learning path open, paced by a Battery that gives you a lesson a day and recharges overnight, and it also runs as a free web app at app.tryiro.com that needs no signup. Free means very different things across this category, so compare what each tier lets you do rather than whether it exists.