Comparison

Duolingo vs Learn Russian

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Duolingo

Learn languages, math, music, and chess through fun, bite-sized lessons. Build vocabulary, grammar, and real-world skills with a science-based methodology. Track progress and stay motivated with a global community.

Highlights
  • Bite-sized language lessons
  • Speaking, reading, listening, writing practice
  • Math skills development
  • Music reading and playing
  • Chess strategy and gameplay
  • Progress tracking and rewards
Features
Read full description

Learn a new language, chess & more with the world's most downloaded education app! Duolingo is the fun, free app for learning 40+ languages through quick, bite-sized lessons. Practice speaking, reading, listening & writing to build your vocabulary & grammar skills. Designed by learning experts & loved by hundreds of millions worldwide, our lessons make learning effective & fun and help you prepare for real conversations in Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Italian, German, English and more. And now, you can learn CHESS on Duolingo! Whether you're a total beginner or looking to level up your game, you'll love learning chess the Duolingo way. Play matches and fun chess lessons for all levels, no matter the language - chess, ajedrez, xadrez, schach, Шахматы, الشطرنج. • Chess: Learn the moves, level up your game & play matches in our Chess course. Learn the basics, solve fun chess puzzles & improve your strategy with guided lessons. Whether you're new to chess or already play, our course is designed to help you have fun and build real skills. Checkmate! • Math: Forget lectures and math worksheets! Built by learning experts, our Math course makes math feel like a game. Boost learning and fight the summer slide with standards-aligned math lessons for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. • Music: Learn how to read music & play songs in our Music course, no instrument needed! Using an on-screen keyboard, you'll learn bit-by-bit. Whether you're learning a language for travel, school, career or your brain health, you'll love learning with Duolingo. Why Duolingo? • Duolingo is fun & effective. Game-like language lessons & fun characters help you build speaking, reading, listening, & writing skills, plus enjoy fun chess & competitive online chess in one app. • Duolingo works. Designed by learning experts, Duolingo has a science-based teaching methodology proven to foster long-term knowledge retention across language lessons & chess lessons alike. • Track your progress. Work toward your learning goals with playful rewards & achievements when you make practicing language lessons or chess online part of your daily habit. • Join millions of learners. Stay motivated with competitive Leaderboards as you learn languages & play chess online alongside our global community. • Every course is free. Learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Esperanto, Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Hebrew, Welsh, Arabic, Latin, Hawaiian, Scottish Gaelic, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, English, & even High Valyrian! And now, learn Math, Music & improve your Chess skills with fun, bite-sized lessons. What the world is saying about Duolingo: "Far & away the best language-learning app." - The Wall Street Journal "This free app & website is among the most effective language-learning methods I've tried… lessons come in the form of brief challenges, speaking, translating, answering multiple-choice questions, that keep me coming back for more." - The New York Times "Duolingo may hold the secret to the future of education." - TIME Magazine "Duolingo is cheerful, lighthearted & fun." - Forbes "I Can't Stop Playing Duolingo Chess." - Wired If you like Duolingo, try Super Duolingo for 14 days free! Learn a language fast with no ads & get fun perks like Unlimited Energy & Monthly Streak Repair. If you choose to purchase Super Duolingo, payment will be charged to your Apple account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Auto-renewal may be turned off at any time by going to your settings in the App Store after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable. Privacy Policy: https://www.duolingo.com/privacy Terms of Service: https://www.duolingo.com/terms

About

Learn Russian

This app offers an engaging way to learn Russian through interactive lessons and games. It covers essential vocabulary, phrases, and grammar for various real-life situations. Features include native speaker audio, adaptive quizzes, and progress tracking.

Highlights
  • 45 real-life situation lessons
  • 2000+ vocabulary words and phrases
  • Hangman and Concentration games
  • Native speaker audio for pronunciation
  • Adaptive multiple-choice quizzes
  • Verb conjugation trainer
  • Alphabet course
Features
Read full description

Privyet ® is the award-winning app that makes learning Russian simple and fun! Quickly learn essential vocabulary, phrases, and grammar concepts. Designed especially for students and tourists as well as business and medical professionals. Vocabulary and Phrases ------------- • Contains 45 lessons based on REAL LIFE situations including flight and hotel reservations, dining out, shopping, exploring and meeting new friends. • Includes more than 2000 VOCABULARY words and phrases for both beginner and advanced learners. • Play while learning with Hangman and Concentration games. • Learn to PRONOUNCE correctly with high-quality audio by NATIVE SPEAKERS. • Addictive verb conjugation trainer • Complete alphabet course Quizzing Features ------------- • Multiple-choice quiz ADAPTS to your skill level. • Memorize words quickly with our DYNAMIC QUIZZING algorithm. • Track LESSON PROGRESS across devices with iCloud syncing. Please note that premium lessons within the app are available with a subscription. The options for a subscription are: Monthly subscription for $US3.99 (or the equivalent in local currency), and Annual subscription for $US9.99 (or the equivalent in local currency). Subscriptions automatically renew, unless auto-renew is turned off in your iTunes App Store preference at least 24-hours before the beginning of the next payment cycle. Upon cancellation of your subscription, access to the premium lessons will terminate at the end of the current payment cycle. ------------ Privacy Policy - https://pollylingu.al/ru/en/privacy Terms and Conditions - https://pollylingu.al/ru/en/terms_and_conditions

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
Learn Russian4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Learn Russian at none against Duolingo's shown. Learn Russian also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 65%) and device support (4 vs 2). Duolingo's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (5.6M vs 351). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Duolingo sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Learn Russian sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Duolingo against 4.7 for Learn Russian. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.6M ratings behind it against 351, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 65% of Duolingo's written reviews are positive against 83% of Learn Russian's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update every 5 days, Learn Russian every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Duolingo versus Learn Russian: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingoLearn Russian
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.6M ratings) — better4.7 (351 ratings)
Positive reviews64.7% of reviews82.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.6M — better351
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 5 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size490 MB236 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingo, IncOnline Language Help

Customer experience

Duolingo

All ratings5,540,071 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews30,718 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral9.6%
Negative25.6%

Learn Russian

All ratings351 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral3.1%
Negative3.7%
Written reviews46 reviews
Positive82.6%
Neutral6.5%
Negative10.9%

User reviews

Duolingo

From 5.6M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤩 Fun and entertaining learning experience
  • 🎉 Motivating streak and league features
  • 🎨 Cute and engaging animations
  • 📚 Effective for learning vocabulary and basics
  • 🤖 Useful AI-powered features like voice lessons

Room to improve

  • 🤖 Issues with voice recognition and pronunciation feedback
  • 🤑 Aggressive monetization tactics and paywall for key features
  • 🤯 Frustrating heart/health system that penalizes mistakes
  • 🤔 Lack of grammar explanations and focus on just memorizing phrases
  • 🤷‍♀️ Inconsistent app experience across platforms

Learn Russian

From 351 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great for beginners
  • 👍 Effective for learning basics
  • 👍 Helps memorize Cyrillic
  • 👍 Good for brushing up
  • 👍 Free lessons are good

Room to improve

  • 💰 Too much paid content
  • 💰 Expensive for intermediate
  • 💰 Difficult for beginners
  • 💰 Disappointing, can't learn
  • 💰 Not enough content

Bugs and requests

Duolingo

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Freezing or crashing during lessons
  • Incorrect translations or answers marked wrong
  • Inconsistent behavior of certain features like leagues

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more languages, especially less common ones
  • Improve grammar lessons and explanations
  • Allow more flexibility in navigating the course content
  • Provide better feedback and corrections for mistakes
  • Sync progress and features consistently across app and web

Learn Russian

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Cannot recover accounts
  • Paid features not taking effect
  • Apple Watch glitch
  • Bar on top of screen hides accents/questions
  • Two dots on ё hidden by screen bar

Requested features

7 requests
  • More intermediate content
  • More advanced content
  • Small test for placement
  • More updates
  • More themes/topics
Show 2 more
  • Make app for Romanian/Moldavian
  • Apple Watch integration

In-app purchases

16 purchases

Duolingo

Subscriptions10
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Super Duolingo14 Days trial$12.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Super Duolingo2 variants$59.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo14 Days trial2 variants$79.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo14 Days trial4 variants$83.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$83.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial4 variants$95.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo1 Month trial$119.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$119.991 Year
One-time6
  • Chest of Gems$0.99
  • Barrel of Gems (1200)$4.99
  • Chest of Gems (1200)$4.99
Show 3 more
  • Cart of Gems (3000)$9.99
  • Barrel of Gems (3000)$9.99
  • Cart of Gems (6500)$19.99
2 purchases

Learn Russian

Subscriptions2
  • Pangaea Passport$2.991 Month
  • Pangaea Passport$9.991 Year

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Learn Russian free?
Learn Russian is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or Learn Russian?
Duolingo is rated higher. Duolingo averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.6M ratings, while Learn Russian averages 4.7 from 351 ratings.
Do Duolingo or Learn Russian have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; Learn Russian does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or Learn Russian?
Duolingo ships an update every 5 days, and Learn Russian every 5 months. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on November 1, 2026 and Learn Russian on October 29, 2026.

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