Duolingo vs LingoLooper
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Bite-sized language lessons
- Speaking, reading, listening, writing practice
- Math skills development
- Music reading and playing
- Chess strategy and gameplay
- Progress tracking and rewards
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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
LingoLooper
Learn over 20 languages through immersive 3D worlds and AI-powered conversations. Practice speaking with diverse characters, receive personalized feedback, and build fluency in a judgment-free environment. Master real-world scenarios and overcome speaking anxiety.
- Learn 20+ languages
- AI avatars for conversation practice
- Immersive 3D worlds
- Personalized AI feedback
- Save new words and phrases
- On-screen conversation suggestions
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Master real-world conversations with fun AI avatars! Learn French, Spanish and 30+ languages. Experience a powerful mix of gamified role-play, interactive chat sessions, and authentic scenarios while naturally learning words and sound patterns you need to become fluent. Discover a virtual 3D world populated by characters with diverse personalities and stories. Turn them into friends, building relationships while speaking about any topic. With LingoLooper, you're not just learning a language, you're living it! YOUR LANGUAGE GOALS, ACHIEVED Whether you're aiming for a career boost, planning to relocate, or simply want to break the language barrier and more, LingoLooper is your key to overcoming common language learning obstacles. Beat speaking anxiety and achieve native-level fluency, all in a judgment-free space to practice, be comfortable, and build stronger language skills at your own pace with continuous support. IDEAL LANGUAGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE • Travel in immersive 3D worlds: Journey through interactive environments. Order breakfast at a café in New York or speak about your favorite activities at the park in Barcelona. Meet new charming people in the center of Paris, and then some! • Advanced feedback that fuels your progress: Get personalized AI-powered feedback on your use of vocabulary, grammar, style, and receive suggestions on what to say next. Your personal tutor monitors your advancement while building authentic speaking skills. • Conversations that feel real: Meet over 1,000 AI avatars, each with unique personality, interests, and flair. Each session simulates real conversations, fostering deeper cultural understanding and helps you engage in communication that matches your needs. • Library of knowledge: Save new words and phrases and track your progression to mastery. • Flexible learning on your schedule: Our bite-sized sessions make it easy to stay on track with your learning goals. These targeted exercises adapt from foundation to advanced levels, expanding your vocabulary and grammar in real-life contexts. TESTED AND LOVED BY 1.3 MILLION PIONEERING LANGUAGE LEARNERS • "Talking to the characters is exactly what I wanted. They seem so life-like and personable. And they actually move, not just a static picture. Recommended for anyone who needs to practice speaking and listening and having fun at the same time." – Jamie O • "Very cool! It is very rich in all parts of speech, synonyms and antonyms... Try it, it's so worth it – Lindelwa • "It's a very interesting concept for language learning. It feels like a real game!" – Aljoscha FEATURES • 1000+ AI avatars with varied personalities and interests. • Playful 3D world with different places to explore like a café, gym, office, park, neighborhood, hospital, downtown. • Automatic conversation transcript. • Personal knowledge hub of saved phrases and words. • On-screen suggestions to support and keep conversations going. • Personalized feedback on vocabulary, grammar, and context. • Adapts difficulty to your skills. • Compete in the LingoLeague with language learners and friends world-wide. • Learn English, Spanish, Swedish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Swahili, Arabic and Hebrew. TRY IT FOR FREE Embark on your language learning journey with LingoLooper. LingoLooper is currently still in early access, so you might experience a few bugs. We are also working on exciting premium features. To learn more about what's coming, check out the roadmap on our website! Discover how LingoLooper can change the way you learn languages. Visit us at http://www.lingolooper.com/ Privacy Policy: http://www.lingolooper.com/privacy Terms of Use: http://www.lingolooper.com/terms
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Duolingo at 5.5M against LingoLooper's 1.1K. Duolingo also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly) and chart position (#1 vs unranked). LingoLooper's advantage is review sentiment (79% vs 65%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Duolingo sells 16 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and LingoLooper sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Duolingo against 4.8 for LingoLooper. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Duolingo has 5.5M ratings behind it against 1.1K, 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 79% of LingoLooper's.
Duolingo ships an update weekly, LingoLooper fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Duolingo | LingoLooper |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (5.5M ratings) | 4.8 (1.1K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 64.6% of reviews | 79.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 5.5M — better | 1.1K |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #1 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 489 MB | 263 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Duolingo | Lumi Labs AB |
Customer experience
Duolingo
LingoLooper
User reviews
Duolingo
From 5.5M App Store ratingsWhat 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
LingoLooper
From 1.1K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great resource for speaking and listening
- 👍 Allows for conversational freedom
- 👍 Useful for giving feedback
- 👍 Continually improving
- 👍 Allows for daily conversation practice
Room to improve
- 🔒 Requires a paid subscription
- 🐛 Occasional speech recognition errors
- 🐛 Slow response times from avatars
- 🐛 Occasional loading issues
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
LingoLooper
Reported bugs
4 issues- Speech recognition errors
- Slow response times
- Loading issues
- Compatibility problems on older devices
Requested features
7 requests- Add formal language options
- Expand to more languages like Croatian
- Add vocabulary and phrase review tools
- Allow users to change their name
- Add instructions and tutorial screens
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- Allow users to listen to their own recordings
- Offer a free version with limited features
In-app purchases
Duolingo
- Super Duolingo7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Super Duolingo7 Days trial$12.991 Month
- Super Duolingo14 Days trial$12.991 Month
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 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
- Chest of Gems$0.99
- Barrel of Gems (1200)$4.99
- Chest of Gems (1200)$4.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Cart of Gems (3000)$9.99
- Barrel of Gems (3000)$9.99
- Cart of Gems (6500)$19.99
LingoLooper
- Early Access$5.997 Days
- Early Access7 Days trial$14.991 Month
- Early Access$14.991 Month
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Early Access3 Days trial$14.991 Month
- Early Access7 Days trial$99.991 Year
- Early Access3 Days trial$99.991 Year







