Comparison

Duolingo vs uTalk

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

uTalk

Learn over 150 languages with native speaker audio and interactive games. Build vocabulary and pronunciation skills through useful everyday phrases and 60+ topics. Progress through difficulty levels and track your learning journey.

Highlights
  • Learn from native speakers
  • Interactive games
  • 60+ learning topics
  • Offline content download
  • Progress tracking
  • Pronunciation practice
Features
Read full description

LEARN LANGUAGES FAST: uTalk gets results because every word you hear is in your new language and you speak, listen and understand from the start. With free starter words in 150+ languages, you can try it risk-free. Score 100% in the games and you can unlock an extra topic for free. WHY UTALK WORKS: 1. LEARN FROM THE LOCALS: We record native speakers so you hear every word pronounced clearly. Mimic their pronunciation and compare your intonation with theirs. Practise until you get it right – you can even slow the audio down if it’s too fast. 2. USEFUL EVERYDAY WORDS AND PHRASES. Topics take around two to three hours to complete. But you can dip in for just five minutes at a time or longer. With 60+ topics, that’s a total of 180 hours of learning. 3. KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED: Check your scores on progress bars as you move through five progressively difficult games. To get full marks, you’ll have to know the words as well as your own language. WHO’S IT FOR? uTalk’s tried and trusted way to learn a new language has been developed over 30 years and is perfect for beginners. But its wide-ranging language is also invaluable for intermediates looking to improve their vocabulary and pronunciation. HOW IT WORKS: Subscribe to everything on uTalk or buy individual languages or topics. The app automatically syncs between your devices. Work offline by downloading content. FIND YOUR LANGUAGE: A: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Ancient Greek, Arabic (Egypt, Gulf, Lebanon, Modern Standard, Morocco), Armenian, Assamese, Azerbaijani B: Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Breton, Bulgarian, Burmese C: Cantonese, Catalan, Cebuano, Chibemba, Chichewa, Chinese Mandarin, Cockney, Croatian, Czech D: Danish, Dari, Dutch, Dzongkha E: English (Australia, Canada, India, Scotland, UK, US), Esperanto, Estonian F: Fijian, Filipino, Finnish, Flemish, French (France & Canada) G: Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Greenlandic, Gujarati H: Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian I: Icelandic, Igbo, Ilocano, Indonesian, Irish, Italian J: Japanese, Javanese K: Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kurdish (Kurmanji & Sorani), Kutchi, Kyrgyz L: Ladino, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Lingala, Luganda, Luxembourgish M: Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Manx, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian N: Neapolitan, Nepali, Norwegian O: Odia, Oromo P: Papiamentu, Pashto, Persian, Pidgin (Nigerian), Polish, Portuguese (Portugal & Brazil), Punjabi (India & Pakistan) R: Romanian, Russian S: Sami (Southern), Samoan, Sardinian, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Serbian, Shona, Sicilian, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish (Spain, Argentina & Latin America), Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German T: Tajiki, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tigrinya, Tok Pisin, Tswana, Tumbuka, Turkish, Turkmen U: Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek V: Vietnamese W: Welsh, Wolof, Wu Chinese (Shanghainese) X: Xhosa Y: Yoruba Z: Zulu 60+ TOPICS: Accommodation, Adjectives, Alphabet, Animals, Bathroom, Body, Business, Calendar, Camping, Clothes, Colours, Cooking, Countries, Directions, Doctor, Driving, Emergencies, Family, Farming, Food, Fruit, Golf, Football, Holiday, Illness, Ingredients, Kitchen, Hobbies, Numbers, Occupations, Olympics, Prepositions, Restaurant, Sailing, School, Shopping, Skiing, Social Phrases, Sports, Technology, Transport Any questions? support@utalk.com. Visit us now at utalk.com Information about uTalk subscriptions A subscription to uTalk is £7.99 a month, or the equivalent in local currency. Subscriptions give you access to all of uTalk’s content, in every language Subscriptions last one month, and auto-renew every month unless cancelled Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period Subscriptions can be managed by you and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to your Account Settings after purchase Terms and Conditions - https://utalk.com/termsandconditions.html

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
uTalk4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: uTalk at none against Duolingo's shown. uTalk also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Duolingo's advantage is ratings volume (5.5M vs 987) and update cadence (weekly vs monthly). On price, review sentiment, 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 uTalk sells 89 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Duolingo holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.5M ratings behind it against 987, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Duolingo's written reviews are positive against 63% of uTalk's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update weekly, uTalk monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Duolingo versus uTalk: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingouTalk
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.5M ratings) — better4.4 (987 ratings)
Positive reviews64.6% of reviews — better62.6% of reviews
Number of ratings5.5M — better987
Update frequencyWeekly — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size489 MB287 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingoEuroTalk

Customer experience

Duolingo

All ratings5,464,639 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews29,453 reviews
Positive64.6%
Neutral9.6%
Negative25.7%

uTalk

All ratings987 ratings
Positive84.3%
Neutral4.4%
Negative11.3%
Written reviews374 reviews
Positive62.6%
Neutral7.0%
Negative30.5%

User reviews

Duolingo

From 5.5M 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

uTalk

From 987 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy and fun to use
  • 👍 Variety of languages available
  • 💡 Rare languages like Kurdish and Cebuano
  • 👍 Native speaker audio for pronunciation
  • 🚀 Effective for learning vocabulary

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Expensive subscription and in-app purchases
  • 🤔 Inconsistent translations and pronunciations
  • 🤔 Lack of grammar and sentence structure lessons
  • 🤔 Difficulty cancelling subscription

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

uTalk

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Crashes on launch or during use
  • Syncing and login issues
  • Incorrect translations or pronunciations
  • Compatibility problems on newer devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more grammar and sentence structure lessons
  • Improve user interface for larger screens
  • Allow users to record and compare their own pronunciation
  • Provide more localized content for each language
  • Improve subscription management and cancellation process

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
89 purchases

uTalk

Subscriptions17
  • Learn Latin American Spanish$3.991 Month
  • Learn Hebrew$3.991 Month
  • Learn Neapolitan$7.991 Month
Show 14 more
  • Learn Luganda$7.991 Month
  • Learn Wolof$7.991 Month
  • Learn Amharic$7.991 Month
  • Learn Sesotho (Southern Sotho)$7.991 Month
  • Learn Argentinian Spanish$7.991 Month
  • Learn Canadian French$7.991 Month
  • Learn Swiss German$7.991 Month
  • Learn Cebuano$7.991 Month
  • Learn Flemish$7.991 Month
  • Learn Georgian$7.991 Month
  • Learn Ilocano$7.991 Month
  • uTalk Monthly Subscription$10.991 Month
  • uTalk's 150+ Languages$11.991 Month
  • Learn Kinyarwanda$34.996 Months
One-time72
  • Single Topic Purchase$0.99
  • Taster uCoin Pack$1.99
  • 200 uCoins$8.99
Show 69 more
  • 800 uCoins$32.99
  • Learn Russian$49.99
  • Learn Latin American Spanish$49.99
  • Learn French$54.99
  • Learn Spanish (European)$54.99
  • Learn Modern Standard Arabic$54.99
  • Learn Slovenian$54.99
  • Learn Kazakh$54.99
  • Learn Dari$54.99
  • Learn Luganda$54.99
  • Learn Xhosa$54.99
  • Learn Portuguese$54.99
  • Learn Maltese$54.99
  • Learn Neapolitan$54.99
  • Learn Bosnian$54.99
  • Learn Chinese (Mandarin)$54.99
  • Learn Armenian$54.99
  • Learn Basque$54.99
  • Learn Estonian$54.99
  • Learn Italian$54.99
  • Learn Dutch$54.99
  • Learn Kinyarwanda$54.99
  • Learn Pashto$54.99
  • Learn Dzongkha$54.99
  • Learn Malayalam$54.99
  • Learn Gujarati$54.99
  • Learn Catalan$54.99
  • Learn Latvian$54.99
  • Learn Japanese$54.99
  • Learn Shona$54.99
  • Learn Korean$54.99
  • Learn Tswana$54.99
  • Learn Flemish$54.99
  • Learn Yoruba$54.99
  • Learn Khmer$54.99
  • Learn Greenlandic$54.99
  • Learn Argentinian Spanish$54.99
  • Learn Filipino (Tagalog)$54.99
  • Learn Amharic$54.99
  • Learn Swiss German$54.99
  • Learn Irish$54.99
  • Learn Macedonian$54.99
  • Learn Haitian Creole$54.99
  • Learn Nepali$54.99
  • Learn Egyptian Arabic$54.99
  • Learn Albanian$54.99
  • Learn Kurdish (Sorani)$54.99
  • Learn Georgian$54.99
  • Learn Shanghainese$54.99
  • Learn Urdu$54.99
  • Learn Bengali$54.99
  • Learn Tibetan$54.99
  • Learn Tigrinya$54.99
  • Learn Sicilian$54.99
  • Learn Sinhala$54.99
  • Pack of 2600 uCoins$64.99
  • Learn Croatian$69.99
  • Learn Chichewa$99.99
  • Learn Lao$99.99
  • Learn Scots$99.99
  • Learn Ilocano$99.99
  • Learn Samoan$99.99
  • Arabic (Gulf)$99.99
  • Learn Wolof$99.99
  • Learn Cebuano$99.99
  • Learn Moroccan Arabic$99.99
  • Learn Lebanese Arabic$99.99
  • Learn Canadian French$99.99
  • uTalk's 150+ Languages$199.99

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is uTalk free?
uTalk is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or uTalk?
Duolingo is rated higher. Duolingo averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.5M ratings, while uTalk averages 4.4 from 987 ratings.
Do Duolingo or uTalk have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; uTalk does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or uTalk?
Duolingo ships an update weekly, and uTalk monthly. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on September 24, 2026 and uTalk on September 22, 2026.

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