Migaku vs Kototap
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
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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
Kototap
Learn Japanese vocabulary and grammar through engaging stories. Words and grammar points are introduced in context and resurface through spaced repetition until mastered. Features include in-context explanations, automatic deck building, and customizable story difficulty.
- Spaced repetition in context
- In-context explanations
- Automatic vocabulary deck building
- Grammar pattern tracking
- Generated stories at user's level
- Interactive story choices
- Audio narration
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Kototap writes short stories around your spaced-repetition deck. Words and grammar are best learned inside sentences doing real work, so that's where your reviews live. Tap a word you don't know, and it repeats in your next stories — until it sticks. What you look up is what you learn • Instant, in-context explanations as you read • Every word you look up joins your deck automatically Words repeat in new stories until they stick • Spaced repetition schedules each word's return inside future stories • Watch words climb from Learning → Familiar → Comfortable, story by story Grammar gets the same treatment • Grammar patterns (〜てしまう, 〜そうだ, …) are tapped, tracked, and repeated just like vocabulary • One system for everything you're learning — no separate grammar study Connect what you've learned • Sync WaniKani, Bunpro or Renshuu, or import an Anki deck • What you already know is woven into your stories, so it gets reinforced instead of forgotten Stories always at your level • Short, engaging stories generated for you — tuned so you understand about 90% on sight • Nine difficulty steps from beginner to native Japanese; move up whenever you're ready • Made for the intermediate plateau — you know a lot of words, but native material still buries you Reading that stays fun • Story decisions let you choose where each story goes next • Listen along with built-in audio narration Spaced repetition, in context — the way words and grammar actually stick. Questions or feedback? Reach me at gary@kototap.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Kototap at 5.0 against Migaku's 4.4. Kototap also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10). Migaku's advantage is ratings volume (378 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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 9 in-app purchases, starting at $14.00 per month. Kototap asks for nothing beyond the download.
Kototap holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Migaku has 378 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Migaku ships an update weekly, Kototap every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Migaku | Kototap |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (378 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 378 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1.9 GB | 75 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Migaku Inc. | Pounce Studio LLC |
Customer experience
Migaku
Kototap
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
Kototap
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 Access$21.001 Month
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- Migaku Standard$136.991 Year
- Migaku Standard7 Days trial$136.991 Year
- Early Access$179.991 Year
- Lifetime$289.00
- Lifetime$344.99
- Lifetime$359.00
Kototap
No in-app purchases








