Comparison

Curious vs STEMpump

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Curious

This app offers a personalized daily learning experience with short lessons, puzzles, and fun facts. It helps users reclaim time to learn new skills across a wide range of topics, track progress, and grow their knowledge quotient.

Highlights
  • Personalized daily learning workouts
  • 25,000+ video lessons
  • Daily puzzles (including crossword)
  • Curios (daily fun facts)
  • Progress tracking
  • Customizable learning time (5-30 mins)
  • Recommendations from NPR shows
Features
Read full description

Are you Curious? Get a daily workout of lessons, puzzles(including Crossword), and Curios and grow your Curious Quotient (CQ)! Who knew exercising your brain could be this much fun? “Curious has mastered making learning addictive.” -- PandoDaily “A Netflix For Learning” -- Forbes “Curious stands out from sites like Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, and Lynda.com by focusing on learning 'for learning’s sake.'” -- VentureBeat “Curious Helps Hobbyists Share Their Skills” -- Mashable Curious helps people reclaim between 5 to 30 minutes a day to learn something new! Ready to learn? Here’s how the game of lifelong learning works: - First, we start with a brief interview. - You tell us how much time you want to spend learning a day: 5, 15, or 30 minutes - We customize your learning experience and build you a beautiful CQ wheel. Every wheel is unique! - You receive a daily, personalized learning workout via email and on your Curious dashboard. - You complete your workout by reading Curios (our well-loved daily fun fact), solving puzzles, and watching lessons. - Add lessons and topics to a focus area for longer term learning goals. - Track your progress every time you learn. You’ll be so much more interesting! Learn from over 25,000 video lessons on virtually any topic. Whether you want to learn how to crochet a scarf, plant an organic garden or play guitar, Curious helps you stay happy and healthy with a daily learning workout across eight key knowledge areas: Aesthetic (crafts, photography, sewing, drawing, interior design, crochet, graphic design) Humanities (public speaking, languages, storytelling, political science, history) Mind / Body (cooking, fitness, nutrition, confidence, meditation, yoga, mindfulness) Music (music theory, piano, guitar, singing, drums, ukulele, harmonica, violin, DJ skills) Play (home DIY, sports, travel, games, gardening, camping, puzzles, biking, running) Relationships (psychology, parenting, communication, marriage, dating, pets, leadership) S.T.E.M. (science, web development, math, biology, hardware, computing, engineering) Work (Microsoft Office, entrepreneurship, budgeting, marketing, finance, blogging, analytics) And you get recommendations from your (and our) favorite NPR shows: Science Friday, PRI's The World, BBC World Service, Marketplace, and more! You also get 5 new puzzles every day: classic crossword puzzle, math mayhem with KenKen, and more. Download the Curious app and start for FREE! Daily Curios and intro lessons available to all users; subscribe for full access to the entire lesson library. FREE trial included with each subscription. What have you got to learn? Get addicted to the game of lifelong learning & stay Curious! -- Curious offers the following all-access subscriptions: 1 year: $69.99 These prices are for United States customers. Pricing in other countries may vary and actual charges may be converted to your local currency depending on your country of residence. Your Curious subscription automatically renews at the end of the subscription term unless auto-renewal is turned off. Subscription renewals cost the same amount as the original subscription, and your credit card will be charged through your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. You may turn off auto-renewal at any time after purchase by going to your iTunes Account Settings. Privacy policy: https://curious.com/legal_app#privacy Terms of use: https://curious.com/legal_app#terms

About

STEMpump

Learn STEAM subjects at your own pace through courses or join live online camps. This student-led platform offers a vast library of content, quizzes, and projects to help you master new skills and prepare for tests.

Highlights
  • Expansive course library
  • Live online camps
  • Quizzes and projects
  • Video lessons
  • Offline learning (coming soon)
  • Learning progress tracking
  • Favorites and sharing
Read full description

Why should learning be hard? Answer - it doesn't need to be. With STEMpump, learn whatever you want, however you want. Just like that. How you learn is just as important as what you learn. So join a camp, and learn with us live. Or if you'd instead go at your own pace, maybe a course is a better fit. We can help if you have to study for the test in the morning or if you want to build an app in an hour. STEMpump is 100% student-led, student-built, and student-run. We're taking the ways we learned and giving everyone access. We designed this app to share our passion for STEAM. But, the fact is, educational resources and content on STEAM topics are hard to come by. Some resources are locked behind paywalls. Others are outdated and haven't been updated in forever. And some are just difficult and confusing. Since the founding of STEMpump in September 2019, we have taught over 120,000+ students worldwide. We believe that every student should always have access to the same resources and opportunities. EXPLORE OUR EXPANSIVE COURSE LIBRARY We divide our courses into six subjects, built upon STEAM: • Science • Technology • Engineering • Art • Math • Other (everything else!) Study up for your AP class or learn some of the most incredible skills, such as Swift, React.js, or even Figma. DISCOVER SOMETHING NEW, LIVE Say hello to STEMpump Camps, a free and live online platform for students to explore STEAM. You can register and watch camps for free! Our camps contain content across the STEAM spectrum. We're always teaching something new. In our camps, you'll learn how to do something specific rather than learn everything. There are new camps every month! No camp is the same, and mistakes are a part of our process. LEARN THE WAY YOU WANT TO Now on STEMpump, you can test your knowledge with our new Quizzes and Projects. With quizzes, test what you've learned with multiple choice and text-based questions! And in projects, you can apply what've you learned in open exercises to solve real-world problems. Tired of reading? Select lessons have videos to make things a bit easier. And soon, unplug and play. Download STEMpump content for offline learning. The app even has a few unique features not available on our website, making it the best option for on-the-go learning. TRACK YOUR LEARNING STEMpump can even keep track of your learning, ensuring you stay on task. Find something you want to check out later? Just add it to your Favorites. Then, you can jump back into it whenever. Widgets can show your recently viewed courses to help you continue learning. You can also share courses, camps, and lessons! --- STEMpump is a 501(c)(30 nonprofit organization. Our mission is to provide the world with free education and give students a platform to create and share. For more information, visit our website: https://www.stempump.org

Screenshots

Curious4 screens
STEMpump4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: STEMpump at 4.8 against Curious's 3.8. STEMpump also leads on review sentiment (87% vs 47%) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). Curious's advantage is ratings volume (880 vs 63) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Curious sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. STEMpump asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

STEMpump holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Curious has 880 ratings behind it against 63, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 47% of Curious's written reviews are positive against 87% of STEMpump's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Curious ships an update every 9 days, STEMpump every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Curious versus STEMpump: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCuriousSTEMpump
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.8 (880 ratings)4.8 (63 ratings) — better
Positive reviews47.2% of reviews87.2% of reviews — better
Number of ratings880 — better63
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS14.0.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB32 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperCurious.comRitesh Kanchi

Customer experience

Curious

All ratings880 ratings
Positive68.6%
Neutral5.6%
Negative25.8%
Written reviews318 reviews
Positive47.2%
Neutral8.5%
Negative44.3%

STEMpump

All ratings64 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews47 reviews
Positive87.2%
Neutral8.5%
Negative4.3%

Bugs and requests

Curious

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Login issues and inability to cancel subscription
  • Crashes and freezes, especially on older devices
  • Inconsistent content availability and progression

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add ability to save/favorite content
  • Improve accessibility for hearing/visually impaired
  • Provide more free content and features
  • Localize content for international users

STEMpump

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

9 purchases

Curious

Subscriptions9
  • Curious+1 Month trial$4.991 Month
  • Curious+7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Curious+1 Month trial$8.991 Month
Show 6 more
  • Curious+7 Days trial$8.991 Month
  • Curious+7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Curious+7 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Curious+7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Curious+1 Month trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • Curious+1 Month trial$69.991 Year
None

STEMpump

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Curious free?
Curious is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is STEMpump free?
STEMpump is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Curious or STEMpump?
STEMpump is rated higher. Curious averages 3.8 out of 5 from 880 ratings, while STEMpump averages 4.8 from 63 ratings.
Do Curious or STEMpump have ads?
Neither Curious nor STEMpump shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Curious or STEMpump?
Curious ships an update every 9 days, and STEMpump every 3 weeks. Most recently, Curious was updated on November 1, 2026 and STEMpump on November 3, 2026.

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