Comparison

Duolingo vs Learn Languages with Dr. Moku

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

Head to head
About

Duolingo

This educational app offers fun, bite-sized lessons for learning over 40 languages, plus chess, math, and music. It uses a science-based methodology to build vocabulary and grammar skills, making learning effective and engaging for millions worldwide.

Highlights
  • Learn 40+ languages
  • Bite-sized lessons
  • Practice speaking, reading, listening, writing
  • Learn chess
  • Math courses
  • Music lessons
  • Track progress and achievements
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 Languages with Dr. Moku

Master new languages with animated mnemonic lessons. Learn to read, write, and speak Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Chinese Mandarin quickly and effectively. Features include stroke order animations, audio pronunciation, and various practice modes.

Highlights
  • Animated mnemonic lessons
  • Learn to read, write, and speak
  • Stroke order animations
  • Audio pronunciation samples
  • Reading, Listening, and Combo quizzes
  • Offline mode
Features
Read full description

Learn to read, write and speak Japanese Hiragana & Katakana, Korean Hangul, Arabic and Chinese Mandarin in record time with Dr. Moku's bite-sized animated lessons. Everybody learns differently and visual learners often struggle with new languages. Mnemonics are memory tricks that help you remember and retrieve abstract concepts. Dr. Moku's visual and verbal mnemonics help you to learn auto-magically. You will forever remember the sound and meaning of each character without the pain of rote memorization. How will Dr. Moku work for you? • Mnemonics are a proven language-learning technique. • Learn how to write each character with animated stroke orders. • Sample words with audio to aid pronunciation. • Practice Modes: Reading, Listening, and Combo quiz modes. • Audio Charts: each alphabet has a handy reference chart. • Save favorite characters and phrases to a list and revise them easily with Autoplay. • Phrasebooks • Offline mode • No annoying third-party ads. Nice! Dr. Moku's teaching method is perfect for complete beginners. Learn the Japanese alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana) on your own and in record time. Master the Korean alphabet (Hangul) quickly and slickly with minimal effort. And we’ve just added Mandarin Chinese! --------------------------------- Don’t you hate when companies claim to make learning fun? There really is nothing "fun" about learning languages. There’s definitely satisfaction in impressing friends, passing exams, and using your language skills in the real world but the fun comes in the time you save by finding the right learning method. Dr. Moku strives to make learning languages painless and effective so you have more time to create your own fun. Studying sucks. Memorization stinks. Mnemonics work. The first Dr. Moku app was published way back in 2010, it was primitive and clunky but it helped tens of thousands of people to learn Hiragana and Katakana without the pain of rote memorization. This new app is the start of a whole new chapter. The vision is to gradually add new languages and subjects using the same mnemonic techniques. Download it now and start learning in seconds.

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
Learn Languages with Dr. Moku4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Learn Languages with Dr. Moku at none against Duolingo's shown. Learn Languages with Dr. Moku also leads on review sentiment (75% vs 65%) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). Duolingo's advantage is ratings volume (5.6M vs 300) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks). 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 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Learn Languages with Dr. Moku sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. 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 Languages with Dr. Moku. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.6M ratings behind it against 300, 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 75% of Learn Languages with Dr. Moku's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Duolingo ships an update every 5 days, Learn Languages with Dr. Moku every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Duolingo versus Learn Languages with Dr. Moku: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingoLearn Languages with Dr. Moku
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.6M ratings) — better4.7 (300 ratings)
Positive reviews64.7% of reviews75.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5.6M — better300
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
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 iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size499 MB79 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperDuolingo, IncByrne Bob

Customer experience

Duolingo

All ratings5,554,423 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.5%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews30,720 reviews
Positive64.7%
Neutral9.6%
Negative25.6%

Learn Languages with Dr. Moku

All ratings285 ratings
Positive91.2%
Neutral4.2%
Negative4.6%
Written reviews110 reviews
Positive75.5%
Neutral9.1%
Negative15.5%

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 Languages with Dr. Moku

From 300 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast learning
  • 👍 Helpful mnemonics
  • 💡 Innovative learning approach
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 🚀 Effective for visual learners

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 🔒 Login/account issues
  • 💰 Paywall for full access
  • 🔊 Poor audio quality
  • 📱 Lack of offline mode

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 Languages with Dr. Moku

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login errors
  • Incompatibility with older devices
  • Unreliable sync across devices
  • Incorrect character quizzes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Offline mode
  • More languages
  • Improved audio quality
  • Customizable font size
  • Ability to practice writing

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Duolingo

Subscriptions5
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Super Duolingo14 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Super Duolingo14 Days trial$83.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Super Duolingo7 Days trial$95.991 Year
  • Super Duolingo1 Month trial$119.991 Year
One-time5
  • Chest of Gems$0.99
  • Barrel of Gems (1200)$4.99
  • Chest of Gems (1200)$4.99
Show 2 more
  • Cart of Gems (3000)$9.99
  • Cart of Gems (6500)$19.99
11 purchases

Learn Languages with Dr. Moku

One-time11
  • Arabic$4.99
  • Korean Phrasebook$4.99
  • Japanese Phrasebook$4.99
Show 8 more
  • Hangul Content Pack$4.99
  • Hiragana Content Pack$4.99
  • Katakana Content Pack$4.99
  • Chinese$4.99
  • All Korean Content$8.99
  • Kanji$8.99
  • All Japanese Content$12.99
  • The Complete Bundle$24.99

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Learn Languages with Dr. Moku free?
Learn Languages with Dr. Moku is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Duolingo or Learn Languages with Dr. Moku?
Duolingo is rated higher. Duolingo averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.6M ratings, while Learn Languages with Dr. Moku averages 4.7 from 300 ratings.
Do Duolingo or Learn Languages with Dr. Moku have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; Learn Languages with Dr. Moku does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or Learn Languages with Dr. Moku?
Duolingo ships an update every 5 days, and Learn Languages with Dr. Moku every 3 weeks. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on November 3, 2026 and Learn Languages with Dr. Moku on November 3, 2026.

Other comparisons