Migaku vs lairner
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Migaku
This app helps you learn languages by making content interactive. Click words in subtitles or text to get definitions, create flashcards, and personalize study sessions. It focuses on high-frequency words for efficient learning.
- Interactive subtitles for YouTube
- One-click media-rich flashcard creation
- Personalized study sessions
- Data-driven courses for beginners
- Word frequency-based vocabulary learning
- AI sentence breakdown and explanations
Read full descriptionHide full description
Learning languages is actually pretty simple: if you consume content you enjoy, and you understand that content, you will make progress. Period. Migaku (and its Chrome browser extension) enables you to do that: 1. Our courses take you from zero to 80% comprehension in ~6 months (10 cards/day) 2. We make text interactive: click words in your phone's YouTube subtitles to see what they mean 3. We let you make media-rich flashcards out of those words with one click 4. We make personalized study sessions out of the flashcards you create 5. Repeat! Whether you're learning Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Italian, German, Cantonese, Portuguese, English, French or Vietnamese, Migaku equips you with the tools you need to make real progress. Migaku requires a paid subscription to access its courses, features, and AI tools. Migaku – AI Language Learning Tool ■ How languages are really learned: If you want to watch movies in other languages, then you need to learn languages with movies. If you want to read books in other languages, then you need to learn languages by reading. As you spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing in the language you're learning, you'll build the unique skills you need to more easily do those things. Unfortunately, it's difficult to read books and watch movies in another language as a beginner. And that's where Migaku comes in ■ Data-driven courses for beginners The problem with most apps and textbooks is that they teach you what someone else thinks language learners need to know, and those things may not reflect what you actually need to learn to do the things that are important to you. This matters because not all words are used equally often: while a college-educated native speaker knows ~30,000 words, you only need to know ~1,500 words to recognize 80% of the words in modern media. Our flashcard-based courses teach you these ~1,500 words—the ones that are useful to everyone, no matter their goals—plus a few hundred basic grammar points. What makes our courses special is that every "next" flashcard contains only one new word, making Migaku's learning curve super smooth. You're always learning something new, but never overwhelmed. It's a fluent language learning approach. Migaku courses are currently available for Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean. ■ Turn subtitles and text into interactive language learning opportunities Migaku makes texts interactive: just click on words to see what they mean. You can also hear audio recordings from native speakers, reference images of the term, check example sentences, get an AI explanation of what the word means in context, have AI break sentences down for you word-by-word, or see a translation of the sentence that your word appears in. Basically, Migaku lets you consume content in another language as if you knew as many words as a native speaker. Our mobile app supports YouTube, manually pasted content, and physical content like books or street signs. Our Chrome extension supports web pages and several popular streaming websites. ■ Create custom study cards or import language flashcards Find a useful looking word while consuming content? Turn it into a high-quality flashcard with one button, and Migaku's spaced repetition language practice algorithm will create personalized study sessions for you. You'll be nudged to review these flashcards periodically, ensuring you remember them. Decks designed for the Anki flashcard app can be converted for use with Migaku, too. ■ Study anywhere, even offline Migaku's courses and any flashcards you make are available offline and automatically sync between all of your devices. ■ Learn multiple languages at once A single Migaku subscription gives you access to all of Migaku's languages and lets you use all of Migaku's features and AI language learning tools as much as you want. - - - Immerse → enjoy → improve
lairner
Master a new language with a vast library of over 700 courses and a smart learning engine. Engage in interactive exercises, reinforce vocabulary with flashcards, and enjoy a beautifully redesigned interface with dark mode. Seamless cloud sync keeps your progress updated across devices.
- 700+ language courses
- Smart learning dashboard
- Interactive exercises
- Vocabulary training mode
- Premium design with Dark Mode
- Seamless cloud sync
Read full descriptionHide full description
Learn a new language with lessons that fit into a real day. lairner gives you more than 700 courses across dozens of languages, from Spanish and French to Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. Every course is built by the lairner team and structured so you start speaking in your first session. Short sessions mix listening, speaking, and translation practice, so you train the language the way you'll actually use it. A review system tracks the words you find hard and brings them back just before you'd forget them. Your vocabulary grows through flashcards that adapt to your pace instead of a fixed list everyone gets. The dashboard shows what to do next, whether your streak is safe, and where your weak spots are. Lessons sync across your devices, so you can carry on from your iPad on your phone. What you get: - 700+ courses across dozens of languages - Sessions that build recall and speaking confidence - Adaptive vocabulary review that targets your mistakes - A progress dashboard with streaks and goals - Dark mode - Cloud sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac Free to start. Pro unlocks infinite hearts and removes lesson limits. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Migaku at 4.4 against lairner's 2.9. Migaku also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 36%) and ratings volume (375 vs 7). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Migaku sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $14.00 per month and lairner sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Migaku holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 2.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Migaku has 375 ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 73% of Migaku's written reviews are positive against 36% of lairner's.
Migaku ships an update weekly, lairner every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Migaku | lairner |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (375 ratings) — better | 2.9 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 73.0% of reviews — better | 35.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 375 — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.9 GB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Migaku Inc. | Tim Anthony Alexander |
Customer experience
Migaku
lairner
Bugs and requests
Migaku
Reported bugs
3 issues- Unable to create new accounts in the app
- Broken kanji course with empty cards
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between apps
Requested features
4 requests- Offline mode for learning on the go
- Expanded support for more languages
- Better integration with Anki and other SRS apps
- More customization options for flashcards and reviews
lairner
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Migaku
- Migaku Standard2 variants$14.001 Month
- Migaku Standard7 Days trial$14.001 Month
- Early Access2 variants$21.001 Month
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Early Access7 Days trial$21.001 Month
- Migaku Standard$136.991 Year
- Migaku Standard7 Days trial$136.991 Year
- Early Access$179.991 Year
- Early Access7 Days trial$179.991 Year
- Lifetime$214.99
- Lifetime$289.00
- Lifetime$344.99
Show 2 moreShow fewer
- Lifetime$359.00
- Lifetime$719.00
lairner
- Pro Upgrade7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- Pro Yearly$34.991 Year









