Comparison

Duolingo vs 101 Alphabets

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

101 Alphabets

Features
Read full description

● Learn Ukrainian, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Greek and Thai alphabets (many more to come). ● Learn characters (practice and learn scripts) or consonants (word reading). ● Learn writing and pronunciation. ______________________________ Want to learn scripts and how to pronounce and write letters in a certain alphabet? Well, 101 Alphabets makes it easy to learn to read, write, and pronounce Cyrillic (Ukrainian, Russian), Hangul (Korean), Hiragana, Katakana (Japanese), Greek and Thai alphabets (many more scripts will be added to 101 Alphabets in near future). Learn to write alphabets and learn to read the fun way with 101 Alphabets – a letter writing and pronunciation app. ■ LEARN CYRLIC ALPHABET The alphabet letter writing app will help you learn the Cyrillic alphabet through Ukrainian script and Russian Script. Our intuitive UI with writing and pronunciation will help you learn 33 Ukrainian letters and 33 Russian letters (Cyrillic script) in one day! The best part? Ukrainian script and Russian Script is almost the same as other versions of Cyrillic, which you can use in more than 50 languages, like Belarusian, Bulgarian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Montenegrin (spoken in Montenegro; also called Serbian), Russian, Serbian, Tajik (a dialect of Persian), Turkmen, Ukrainian, and Uzbek. ■ LEARN THAI ALPHABET Learn Thai alphabet pronunciation and writing. In the latest version of 101 Alphabets, you can learn Thai alphabet with all 44 consonant symbols and 16 vowel symbols. The Thai alphabet is useful to read, write, and pronounce words in the Thai Language (also called Siamese) spoken in Thailand. ■ LEARN THE KOREAN ALPHABET - HANGUL ALPHABET 101 Alphabets now also allows you to learn the Korean alphabet (Hangul). Learn writing, reading, and pronouncing all 24 Korean letters. ■ LEARN THE JAPANESE ALPHABET - HIRAGANA ALPHABET AND KATAKANA ALPHABET 101 Alphabets now also allows you to learn the Japanese alphabet - the Hiragana alphabet and Katakana alphabet. Learn writing, reading, and pronouncing many Japanese letters. ■ LEARN GREEK ALPHABET Besides learning the Cyrillic alphabet and Thai alphabet, 101 Alphabets now also allows you to learn Greek alphabet. Learn writing, reading, and pronouncing all 24 Greek letters. ■ MANY MORE LANGUAGES WILL BE ADDED This writing and pronunciation alphabet app will soon include many more languages such as German, Vietnamese, Burmese, Lao, Khmer, Arabic, Hindi, Hebrew, Urdu, Bengali, Bulgarian, Nepali, Georgian, and Mongolian. ■ 101 ALPHABETS FEATURES ‣ learn to read, write, and pronounce alphabet letters ‣ learn Ukrainian writing, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Greek and Thai (many more to come) ‣ 2 scripts learning modes and more: characters or consonants. ‣ interactive alphabet learning lessons ‣ HQ native speaker voiceover ‣ track and reset alphabet practice progress ‣ change alphabet or language At the end of the day, there is no easier way to learn new characters than with 101 alphabet! Forget about books and learn the fundamentals of handwriting, pronunciation of words, and speaking in a better way! And for free. ►Download 101 Alphabets to learn scripts the fun and effective way!

Screenshots

Duolingo4 screens
101 Alphabets4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: 101 Alphabets at none against Duolingo's 28. 101 Alphabets also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Duolingo's advantage is chart position (#1 vs unranked). On price, update cadence 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. 101 Alphabets asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Duolingo versus 101 Alphabets: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDuolingo101 Alphabets
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (5.5M ratings) — better—
Positive reviews64.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings5.5M — better—
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#1 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size489 MB87 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDuolingo, IncDamian Sowa

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

101 Alphabets

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

101 Alphabets

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Duolingo free?
Duolingo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 101 Alphabets free?
101 Alphabets is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Duolingo or 101 Alphabets have ads?
Duolingo shows ads; 101 Alphabets does not.
Which is updated more often, Duolingo or 101 Alphabets?
Duolingo ships an update weekly, and 101 Alphabets weekly. Most recently, Duolingo was updated on September 25, 2026 and 101 Alphabets on June 11, 2026.

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