Comparison

Duolingo vs Match Lingo Language Learning

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

Match Lingo Language Learning

This app uses a fun card-matching game to help children learn to speak, read, and write new languages like Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese. It offers customizable learning experiences with a vast card collection, writing practice, and adjustable difficulty levels.

Highlights
  • Card matching game for language learning
  • Learn Spanish, Japanese, Chinese
  • Hundreds of curated words and phrases
  • Create custom cards
  • Introduction to writing characters
  • Adjustable difficulty levels
  • Multiplayer mode
Read full description

MATCH LINGO BY SMUSHY DUSHY STUDIOS An entertaining card matching game that teaches your child to speak, read and write a new language. Learning a new language can be daunting task for anyone let alone a child, but it doesn’t have to be. Learning to speak, read and write Spanish, Japanese or Chinese (Traditional or Simplified) can be a blast with Match Lingo! You’ll quickly forget you're learning a new language as you’ll be having too much fun playing an exciting, yet educational game.  LEARN HUNDREDS OF WORDS WITH OUR CAREFULLY CURATED CARD COLLECTION Learn to say and recognize hundreds of words and phrases using our carefully curated card categories, such as Animals, Body Parts, Colors, Fruits & Veggies, Nature, Numbers, Occupations, Shapes, Vehicles, Verbs, Food, Home Items and Questions. We constantly update and add new categories so there’s always something new to learn. CREATE YOUR OWN CARDS FOR A CUSTOM LEARNING EXPERIENCE Personalize your child’s learning experience by creating your own cards. For example, you can add a custom category called Friends and Family and add cards featuring relatives, parents, friends and pets. The learning opportunities are endless. Simply type in the English word or phrase, tap the translate button, and choose a picture from your device. Record yourself saying the word or use our automated voice. It’s that easy! AN INTRODUCTION TO WRITING Introduce your child to writing a new language using the proper stroke order. (Available for some Japanese and Chinese characters) CUSTOMIZE THE DIFFICULTY LEVELS TO KEEP YOUR CHILD CHALLENGED As your child progresses, the games become more challenging and the learning accelerates. Match Mode is a traditional card matching game for word recognition. List Mode is a more challenging game requiring the player to match a word with the picture. Achievements and leaderboards help track progress of your child's development. Game sizes and the number of cards can be increased for a more challenging learning experience.   PERSONALIZED FEATURES All of the features within the game are customizable including whether you wish to learn Japanese, Spanish, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese. You can choose whether you want to show pronunciations, English definitions or not. Use our recommended settings or customize the experience for you and your child. MULTIPLAYER: FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY Have your child play with you, their siblings or friends for a fun and competitive learning experience. MENUS AND INSTRUCTIONS AVAILABLE IN MULTIPLE LANGUAGES For those learning English as a second language, we offer instructions and menus in Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) and Spanish. We are constantly adding new languages! Download MatchLingo today! MatchLingo®, Smushy Dushy Studios are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of Smushy Dushy Studios LLC. © 2022 Smushy Dushy Studios LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy http://smushydushy.com/privacy-policy/ User agreement https://smushydushy.com/terms-of-use/ Frequently Asked Questions / Support http://smushydushy.com/support/ Suggestions http://smushydushy.com/suggestionbox/

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
Match Lingo Language Learning4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Match Lingo Language Learning at 100% against Duolingo's 65%. Match Lingo Language Learning also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Duolingo's advantage is ratings volume (5.5M vs 7) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Duolingo sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Match Lingo Language Learning sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 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 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of Duolingo's written reviews are positive against 100% of Match Lingo Language Learning's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update weekly, Match Lingo Language Learning fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Duolingo versus Match Lingo Language Learning: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingoMatch Lingo Language Learning
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.5M ratings) — better4.4 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews64.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.5M — better7
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
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 iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size489 MB202 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingo, IncSmushy Dushy Studios LLC

Customer experience

Duolingo

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

Match Lingo Language Learning

All ratings7 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral28.6%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Match Lingo Language Learning

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
1 purchases

Match Lingo Language Learning

Subscriptions1
  • Monthly Subscription$1.991 Month

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Match Lingo Language Learning free?
Match Lingo Language Learning is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or Match Lingo Language Learning?
Duolingo is rated higher. Duolingo averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.5M ratings, while Match Lingo Language Learning averages 4.4 from 7 ratings.
Do Duolingo or Match Lingo Language Learning have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; Match Lingo Language Learning does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or Match Lingo Language Learning?
Duolingo ships an update weekly, and Match Lingo Language Learning fortnightly. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on September 25, 2026 and Match Lingo Language Learning on June 3, 2026.

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