Brockhaus vs Wikipedia

Brockhaus provides online reference works, courses, student training, and digital teaching materials for private customers, schools, and libraries. Its online encyclopedia offers expert-reviewed information across subject areas and is regularly updated. The School Lexicon supports secondary students doing research and preparing presentations or coursework, while the Children’s Lexicon presents child-oriented content through clickable graphics, images, video, and audio. A reading aid can read text aloud and translate articles into more than 60 languages. Brockhaus says subject experts and trained educators create its reference and course materials, which an independent editorial team checks. The service works on internet-connected digital devices. The company states that its servers are hosted in the EU and that it uses SSL encryption for data sent through its websites. The Children’s Lexicon is described as ad-free, without external links, and GDPR-compliant. Individual plans have a 14-day free trial. Adult encyclopedia plans cost €6.99 a month or €69.99 a year; teen and child plans cost €8.99 a month or €89.99 a year.

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia available on the web and through mobile apps, with editions in hundreds of languages, including editions with over one million articles. Volunteer editors create and revise content, check facts, cite sources, discuss entries, and moderate the encyclopedia. The Wikimedia Foundation hosts and protects Wikipedia, while editorial decisions are made by volunteers. The Foundation says the service is available without advertising or paywalls and is funded mainly by donations, not advertising, subscriptions, or sales of users’ personal data. The official Android app supports searching articles, changing languages, saving reading lists for offline use, and adjusting themes and text size. Its listing says the app has no ads, does not track or collect data, and encrypts data in transit. MediaWiki provides a REST API for interacting with installations including Wikipedia. The Foundation publishes a privacy policy, says it prioritizes speed, reliability, and availability during traffic spikes, and publishes transparency reports twice a year. Its financial statements are independently audited annually. Wikipedia is free at free.