Disclosure. Geography is our app, and it is one of the seven alternatives below. Seterra is a good product and for some goals the right answer is to keep using it; this page says when.
What Seterra does well
Seterra is a map quiz with more than 400 quizzes: countries, capitals and flags for every region, US states, rivers, mountains and lakes. You click each place as it is named, or type its name, against a timer. GeoGuessr bought it in 2022 and has kept it free on the web, and the full iOS app is listed as free with no ads or in-app purchases, with offline play and a 4.8 rating from about 17,000 reviews. For learning the map quickly, it is hard to beat.
Where it stops
Seterra teaches one skill: location. That is the right first skill, but it is not the same as knowing a country. You can click Kazakhstan in under a second and still not know that it is the largest landlocked country on Earth, that every barrel it exports crosses someone else’s territory, or why that makes Moscow and Beijing matter so much to it. People usually go looking for an alternative for one of three reasons: the timer has started to feel like an exam, they have learned the map and want the next layer, or they want something that fits into a day without effort.
The same country, two ways
A map quiz asks where Kazakhstan is. Here is what Geography shows you about it instead. Read the prompt, reveal the lens, and rate it the way the app would ask you to.
Kazakhstan
The largest landlocked country on Earth
Kazakhstan stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Chinese border, a territory the size of Western Europe with a population of only 20 million. The steppe dominates: vast, flat grassland that historically supported nomadic herders and now supports grain farming and oil extraction. No coastline means every export must cross a neighbor's territory, making Kazakhstan permanently dependent on diplomatic relationships with Russia, China, and the Central Asian states around it.
More on the size of Western Europe
Kazakhstan covers 2.7 million km², making it the ninth-largest country in the world. Its low population density, under 7 people per km², means most of that territory is effectively empty steppe, desert, or mountain.
Bolivia
Sitting on half the world's lithium
Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest salt flat, contains an estimated 21 million tonnes of lithium, the largest known reserves on Earth. As global demand surges for electric vehicle batteries, Bolivia's lithium has become a geopolitical prize. But decades of resource nationalism, challenging extraction conditions at high altitude, and political instability have kept production minimal compared to neighboring Chile and Argentina, which extract lithium from more accessible brine deposits.
More on Salar de Uyuni
A 10,582-square-kilometer salt flat in southwestern Bolivia at 3,656 meters elevation. Beneath the crystalline surface lies a brine rich in lithium, potassium, and magnesium. The site is also Bolivia's most visited tourist destination, known for its mirror-like reflections during the rainy season.
Seterra and Geography, side by side
| Seterra | Geography | |
|---|---|---|
| What you do | Click or type the name of each place on a map, against the clock | Read a short hand written lens, then rate it New, Hazy or Clear |
| What you learn | Where places are | What places are like, why they matter, and how they connect |
| How it decides what is next | You pick a quiz | Spaced repetition picks from your ratings |
| Time per day | As long as a quiz takes | Four to seven minutes for eight lenses |
| Scores and streaks | Timed scores and leaderboards | None |
| Ads | None in the full iOS app | None |
| Platforms | Web, iPhone, Android | iPhone |
| Price | Free | Subscription, with a free trial |
| Best for | Learning the map fast, classrooms, exams | Adults who want the world to make sense |
The seven alternatives
Geography: for understanding, not locating
The only alternative here that is not a quiz. Each day it shows eight short lenses about the world, written and edited by people, across PLACE, STORY, NOW and THREAD, and brings each back on a spaced repetition schedule set by your own New, Hazy or Clear rating. A world map fills in as countries become familiar. It is iPhone only and a subscription after the free trial.
Pick it if you can find the countries and now want to know them.
GeoGuessr: for real places
Made by the company that owns Seterra. Instead of a blank map you get a Street View panorama and have to work out where you are, which teaches roads, scripts, landscapes and architecture. Most of it now needs a Pro subscription.
Pick it if you want a game you will actually look forward to.
JetPunk: for typed recall
Name every country, capital or flag from memory against the clock, from a library of about 613,000 mostly user made quizzes. Typing a name from nothing is harder than clicking it, so it is the better test of what you really know. A website; we found no official app.
Pick it if Seterra’s pins feel too easy.
Sporcle: for variety
Timed trivia on everything, with more than 200,000 quizzes in the geography category alone and apps on iPhone and Android. Free plays are limited; Sporcle Orange removes the limit and the ads.
Pick it if you like geography as part of a wider trivia habit.
Worldle: for a two minute daily habit
One country silhouette a day, six guesses with distance and direction, then bonus rounds on neighbours, capital and flag. Free daily, with ads.
Pick it if you want a tiny ritual rather than a study session.
StudyGe: for more quiz types on a phone
The broadest quiz app: locations, capitals, flags, coats of arms, seas, rivers, mountains and statistics, with multiplayer and synced progress on iPhone and Android.
Pick it if you like Seterra but want more layers in one app.
World Quiz: for beginners
Simple multiple choice and typed quizzes on countries, capitals, flags and maps, with difficulty levels. Free with ads.
Pick it if Seterra’s blank maps feel like too much to start with.
At a glance
| App | Best for | Platforms | Price | Scores and streaks | App Store rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seterra | Free map click drills for any region or layer | Web, iPhone, Android | Free on the web; the full iOS app is free with no ads | Timed, graded quizzes and leaderboards | 4.8 iOS full app, about 17K ratings |
| Geography our app | Adults who want to understand the world, five minutes a day | iPhone | Subscription, with a free trial | None: no quizzes, scores, leaderboards or streaks | 4.9 on the App Store |
| GeoGuessr | A game that teaches you to read real places from Street View | Web, iPhone, Android, Steam | Pro Unlimited $6.99 a month or $47.88 a year since January 2026; free accounts are limited | Points per round, competitive modes and a Streaks mode | 4.5 iOS, about 32K ratings |
| JetPunk | Typed recall against the clock, from a huge user made library | Web | Free with ads; Premium removes ads | Quiz points, levels, badges and streaks | web only, no official app found |
| Sporcle | Variety: timed trivia on every topic, geography included | Web, iPhone, Android | Free with limits and ads; Orange $3.99 a month or $43.99 a year on the web | Timed scores, missions and tournaments | 4.7 iOS, about 4.1K ratings |
| Worldle | A two minute daily puzzle on country shapes | Web, iPhone, Android | Daily game free with ads; the archive needs Premium | Guess statistics and a streak counter | 4.8 official iOS app, about 3K ratings |
| StudyGe | The widest quiz coverage on a phone, from flags to rivers | iPhone, Android | Free with ads; Premium from $24.99 a year | Rankings, achievements and multiplayer | 4.6 iOS, about 5.3K ratings |
| World Quiz | Beginners who want quick multiple choice on a phone | iPhone | Free with ads; $4.99 removes them | Difficulty levels and achievements | 4.8 iOS, about 21K ratings |
Who should stay with Seterra
Stay with Seterra if you have a geography exam, a class to teach or a specific region to learn by a date. Nothing on this list drills locations as efficiently, and nothing else does it free and without ads. Stay with it, too, if you are on Android and want a no cost app: Geography is iPhone only for now.
The best setup for many people is both. Use Seterra until the map is solid, because a country you cannot place has nothing to hang a story on. Then let Geography add the story, a few countries at a time, and keep it there. The method for remembering every country explains why that order works.