Comparison

Duolingo vs SmartHebrewFlashcards

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

SmartHebrewFlashcards

This app makes learning Hebrew vocabulary, prayers, and holiday words engaging for students. It's designed for Bar/Bat Mitzvah preparation and anyone wanting to improve Hebrew reading skills. The app offers a progress tracking feature to monitor learning.

Highlights
  • Learn common Hebrew words
  • Includes Hebrew prayers and holiday words
  • Progress tracking screen
  • Ideal for Bar/Bat Mitzvah prep
  • Easy setup for teachers
  • Engaging for students
Features
Read full description

Smart Hebrew Flashcards is an app written by an experienced Sunday School Hebrew Teacher to make learning Hebrew more fun for all students. It’s great to use on-line – just share screen and just ask students to take turns guessing a flashcard. Smart Hebrew Flashcards is perfect for the prospective bar or bat mitzvah student and anyone who wants to easily improve their Hebrew reading and vocabulary. What’s great about it? You can learn common Hebrew words. It includes Hebrew prayers and holiday words that are hard to find in other apps -- and are much needed by Sunday School teachers preparing bar and bat mitzvah students! No setup required for Hebrew Teachers -- just ask students to install and you are off and running. Just finished testing for three years on a group of 4th graders that all are well into their Bar/Bat Mitzvah Prep now. The entire religious service makes more sense if one knows the Hebrew that is being spoken. This app teaches the words that form the foundation of many prayers, so it fosters a meaningful connection with previous generations. Kids love it so much that a group of 5th grade Sunday School students came to an extra class every Tuesday evening for six months to play the game and help develop it. “Smart Hebrew Flashcards” are “Smart” because the Progress screen shows exactly how students are doing on particular words, and perhaps more importantly, how much time they spend on a particular word. Teachers need to know that to plan what to focus on. Bar/Bat Mitzvah students get a head start by learning some Biblical Hebrew. The app is really a mitzvah – a good deed. The app will be free. How did it develop? During five years of teaching Hebrew, the App’s creator discovered that students LOVED flash cards more than any other part of the class. They worked well for students learning in a group or on their own. The class played a “game” by taking turns reading the words . During this past two years, the class couldn’t play a physical flashcard game, so the Sunday School teacher searched for suitable flashcard games online. But there were none that were both easy to use, and taught both Hebrew prayers and holiday words. He didn’t find a single app. So given that the Sunday School teacher is also a computer science professor, he created an app, and started teaching his Sunday School students online. The app has been used the last six months by a 5th grade class, with no extra setup by the teacher. The Director of Religious Education (who has come to numerous classes where the app has been used) says, “The Sunday School kids need to learn what the prayers and Jewish holiday words mean--and so do I! But there was nothing that suited our needs, so this one was developed. It’s been fun meeting every week to test the app. The kids don’t like to miss--and neither do I. For the last month, I have been practicing 6 days a week for 5-10 minutes, and I know a lot of words in the prayers and songs now. It’s revolutionized my whole experience of Jewish services. Oh, and it does teach a lot of other words too! I’m just a religious educator, so the prayers are what I care about most.” During the testing period, a class of 5th grade students have been relentless with software requirements. They know what an app should do, and they refused to play until the app was not only fun, but behaved as they thought it should. Their feedback has guided the entire development. Version 1 has been in the app store for a couple of years and over time it did not work on newer versions of IOS. All of that has been fixed and numerous features have been added. Enjoy and send us feedback at info@smarthebrewflashcards.com.

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
SmartHebrewFlashcards4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Duolingo at 4.7 against SmartHebrewFlashcards's 4.1. Duolingo also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (5.5M vs 30). SmartHebrewFlashcards's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 28) and ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment, device support and iOS requirement 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. SmartHebrewFlashcards asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Duolingo holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.5M ratings behind it against 30, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 65% and 65% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update weekly, SmartHebrewFlashcards every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Duolingo versus SmartHebrewFlashcards: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingoSmartHebrewFlashcards
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.5M ratings) — better4.1 (30 ratings)
Positive reviews64.6% of reviews64.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.5M — better30
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size489 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingo, IncGrossman Labs

Customer experience

Duolingo

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

SmartHebrewFlashcards

All ratings25 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative16.0%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral5.9%
Negative29.4%

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

SmartHebrewFlashcards

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
None

SmartHebrewFlashcards

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is SmartHebrewFlashcards free?
SmartHebrewFlashcards is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or SmartHebrewFlashcards?
Duolingo is rated higher. Duolingo averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.5M ratings, while SmartHebrewFlashcards averages 4.1 from 30 ratings.
Do Duolingo or SmartHebrewFlashcards have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; SmartHebrewFlashcards does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or SmartHebrewFlashcards?
Duolingo ships an update weekly, and SmartHebrewFlashcards every 2 months. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on September 24, 2026 and SmartHebrewFlashcards on August 12, 2026.

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