Comparison

Duolingo vs LetMeSpeak

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

LetMeSpeak

Master English pronunciation and fluency through immersive storytelling and interactive conversations. Learn essential vocabulary and grammar with native speaker audio and real-life scenarios. Practice speaking from day one and improve your accent in just three weeks.

Highlights
  • Immersive story-based learning
  • 6000 common words with illustrations
  • 70 grammar topics with interactive exercises
  • Native speaker audio for pronunciation
  • Real-life conversation scenarios
  • Spaced repetition for vocabulary retention
Features
Read full description

Sound like a native speaker and speak without an accent in just 3 weeks! 70 grammar topics, 6000 most common words covering travel, work, and hobbies, and a fun story with 120+ bite-sized episodes – all in one app. Learn new words, improve your accent and speak from the first minute with Let Me Speak. LEARN ENGLISH IN A SMART WAY You will start speaking English fluently on any topic through language immersion. Immersion is the most effective way to learn a new language. You’ll be speaking English in no time without having to memorize lists of words and out-of-context grammar rules. IMMERSE IN REAL ENGLISH You’ll make your way through an interactive and engaging story that takes place in New York. Lively, colorful, and sometimes surprising characters: an eccentric old lady will help you find a place to live, and a greedy hot-dog vendor who will try to short-change… They (and many more) speak different accents and will help you master street talk. There’s a new surprise around every corner, but Let Me Speak will help you talk your way out of any situation. Everything is in modern, everyday English with a full audio voiceover by native speakers from the United States. So you’ll learn real-world English and practice American pronunciation from the get-go. Each conversation takes no more than 3 minutes and will fit into even the busiest of schedules. IMPROVE YOUR VOCABULARY You’ll learn 6,000 of the most common words everyone needs to travel, work, and communicate in a foreign language. Each new word comes with a translation and a memorable illustration. You’ll learn new words every day. And with the spaced repetition, smart reminders, and clever associations, you won’t forget them. You also get to practice your new vocabulary right away in conversations that recreate real-life situations. Here are some of the scenarios you’ll learn from: - Passport control - Checking in at the hotel - Hailing a cab - Ordering food in a restaurant - Visiting a museum - Shopping at a supermarket - Partying at a bar - Meeting new people - Job interview - and more than 150 other topics PERFECT YOUR GRAMMAR Speak correctly right from the start. You’ll easily master the grammar topics thanks to interactive exercises and easy-to-understand grammar explanations. Built-in games will challenge your skill and speed – you can even compete with other users around the world in real-time! Questions? Send us message at help@letmespeak.org Privacy Policy: https://www.letmespeak.org/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.letmespeak.org/terms

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
LetMeSpeak4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: LetMeSpeak at none against Duolingo's shown. LetMeSpeak also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). Duolingo's advantage is ratings volume (5.5M vs 19K) and chart position (#1 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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 LetMeSpeak sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 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 LetMeSpeak. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.5M ratings behind it against 19K, 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 68% of LetMeSpeak's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update weekly, LetMeSpeak every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Duolingo versus LetMeSpeak: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingoLetMeSpeak
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.5M ratings)4.7 (19K ratings)
Positive reviews64.6% of reviews67.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.5M — better19K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 11 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#1 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size489 MB61 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingoLetMeSpeak.org AG

Customer experience

Duolingo

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

LetMeSpeak

All ratings18,629 ratings
Positive91.2%
Neutral3.5%
Negative5.3%
Written reviews428 reviews
Positive67.5%
Neutral9.8%
Negative22.7%

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

LetMeSpeak

From 19K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient learning
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 💡 Helpful for improving English
  • 👍 Fun and engaging

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Technical issues and bugs
  • 🔒 Concerns about data tracking
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🌐 Limited native language support

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

LetMeSpeak

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Progress loss and account issues
  • Microphone and speech recognition problems
  • Freezing and crashing on certain levels
  • Incorrect sentence/word recognition

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more native language options
  • Improve speech recognition accuracy
  • Implement review/repeat functionality
  • Provide British English accent option

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
7 purchases

LetMeSpeak

Subscriptions3
  • Learn and Earn7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Learn English and Earn7 Days trial2 variants$29.991 Month
  • Learn English and Earn7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time4
  • Uncommon Character$10.99
  • Rare Character$27.99
  • Epic Character$69.99
Show 1 more
  • Legendary Character$239.99

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is LetMeSpeak free?
LetMeSpeak is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or LetMeSpeak?
Duolingo and LetMeSpeak are both rated 4.7 out of 5 on the App Store, from 5.5M and 19K ratings respectively.
Do Duolingo or LetMeSpeak have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; LetMeSpeak does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or LetMeSpeak?
Duolingo ships an update weekly, and LetMeSpeak every 11 days. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on September 24, 2026 and LetMeSpeak on September 23, 2026.

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