Free courses, open educational resources, adult education centres and libraries.
Adult education centres run evening classes in languages, computing or cooking for a modest fee, and libraries lend far more than books. Online, open courses and textbooks under free licences can be used and shared without paying.
Gallica is the digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and its partners. It gives free online access to more than 11 million digitised documents (January 2025): books…
Alternative to paid e-book shops and archive services for old books, newspapers and maps
Keywords
Categories
Project Gutenberg is a free online library of books in the public domain: nearly 78,000 e-books in March 2026, to read in the browser or download without an account. It is an alternative to buying…
Alternative to buying classics as e-books from Amazon’s Kindle store and other paid shops
Keywords
Categories
Pl@ntNet is a free app and website that names a plant from a photo of its flower, leaf, fruit or bark. It was built by French public research institutes, and every confirmed photo feeds a public…
Alternative to commercial plant identification apps with subscriptions
Keywords
Categories
FUN MOOC is the French public platform of free online courses made by universities and grandes écoles: videos, quizzes and forums on hundreds of subjects, mostly in French, with about one course in…
Alternative to commercial online course platforms such as Coursera or Udemy
Keywords
Category
Khan Academy is a US non-profit organisation that offers free courses with videos and exercises, mainly in mathematics and science, but also computing, economics, history and test preparation, from…
Alternative to paid tutoring and online course platforms financed by advertising or subscriptions
Keywords
Categories
Lumni is the free, ad-free educational platform of French public broadcasting: videos, quizzes, games, articles and podcasts for learning and revising school subjects, from nursery school to the…
Alternative to paid tutoring and revision books
Keywords
Categories
The Volkshochschulen (vhs) are the public adult education centres in Germany: 815 centres with about 2,630 branches, most run by towns and districts. They offer affordable courses in languages…
Alternative to expensive private courses and coaching, and online course platforms that sell subscriptions
Keywords
Categories
The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) is an environmental charity near Machynlleth in mid-Wales that teaches low-carbon building, eco-renovation and renewable energy through free information…
Alternative to conventional building and renovation that ignores energy and materials
Keywords
Categories
The ANE Elternbriefe are 46 parent letters from the Berlin association Arbeitskreis Neue Erziehung, sent by post from a child’s birth until its eighth birthday, each explaining what parents can…
Alternative to parenting apps and commercial baby magazines full of advertising
Keywords
Categories
Learning for everyone, at every age
Culture: books, music, films and streaming
Garden, seeds and biodiversity
Children, family and toys
Neighbourhood, community spaces and local networks
Housing, building and renovation