Comparison

Memrise vs effectLang

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

Head to head
About

Memrise

Learn over 40 languages through immersive lessons that simulate real-life conversations and cultural experiences. Practice vocabulary, listening, and speaking with AI-powered bots and native speaker videos to build confidence and speak like a local.

Highlights
  • Real-life conversation simulation
  • Cultural insights
  • Vocabulary and listening practice
  • Speaking practice with AI
  • Native speaker videos
  • Learn over 40 languages
Features
Read full description

Memrise is a language learning app for people who have a specific reason to learn. Trusted by 80 million learners, Memrise offers specialised courses for your goals: passing an exam, speaking confidently at work, building relationships, or discovering cultures you love. Unlike gamified apps with robotic voices, it's built around real native-speaker videos - so you learn to speak like real people. Learn Spanish, Korean, Japanese or 136 other languages in lessons that teach you vocabulary, listening and speaking as if you were a local living in the country. 15 NEW languages to learn from: Afrikaans, Ancient Greek, Latin, Finnish, Irish, Czech, Hungarian, Cantonese, Romanian, Esperanto, Croatian, Kurdish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Azerbaijani * Showing you how to piece together natural sentences, preparing you for everyday conversation * Giving you a place to practice role-play and gain confidence * Teaching you the cultural nuances you need to feel like a local Memrise is the best language-learning app for beginners that are starting to learn a language from scratch, intermediate learners that want to build on their listening and speaking, and advanced learners who are looking to improve their conversational skills. Download Memrise so that you can confidently: * Connect with your partner and their family * Have a better time while travelling * Sharpen your mind if you’re learning a language for brain health * Prepare for a language exam * Connect with work colleagues * Better understand different cultures How do we help you have conversations in other languages? * Choose from hundreds of real-life scenarios * Practice listening to native speaker videos using what you’ve just learned * Then build confidence speaking with AI Buddies, your personalised language learning bots - Helping 80+ million learners speak confidently - Featured in BBC World Service, Forbes, The Verge, The Financial Times, and more What other learners are saying "I've been using Memrise for about two years, studying European Portuguese. I have the paid version - it's a solid learning tool, and it has been my primary resource ever since got it. I find the Learn with Locals feature to be especially useful, more so as my Portuguese improves. My wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Portugal a few months ago, and we were able to handle all of our transactions - stores, restaurants, markets, car rental, etc!" - Voloúre Need to speak a new language soon? Get the practice you need with Memrise Pro - Unlock all vocab lessons - Unlock all native speaker videos - Unlimited speaking practice - Ad free Compare with our Free Plan - Limited vocab lessons - Limited videos and conversations - Ads Download our app for free and start learning with Memrise today: Learn French, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), German, Korean, Japanese, Japanese (no script), Turkish, Italian, Chinese (simplified), Dutch, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Danish, Slovenian, Icelandic, Yoruba, Mongolian, English (UK) and English (US)! ------ *PLEASE READ: A Memrise Pro subscription are designed for Memrise-approved courses. A subscription is required in order to access all our learning features. These features may vary depending on your device's language and language pair. Once purchased, subscriptions will automatically renew unless cancelled before the end of the current payment period. Subscriptions can be managed or cancelled in your Apple App Store account. In-app Permissions – To enable some of the features of the Memrise app we may need to ask for your permission. For example, we'll ask to access your microphone if you'd like to practice your pronunciation skills. You can change permissions at any time in your settings. Privacy Policy: https://www.memrise.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.memrise.com/terms/

About

effectLang

Master new languages with an effective, free system. Create custom flashcards with images and audio, and utilize spaced repetition for optimal memorization. Learn at your own pace, even offline, with a fun, game-like approach to vocabulary building.

Highlights
  • Custom flashcard creator
  • Spaced repetition algorithm
  • Image and audio integration
  • Offline learning capability
  • Excel import/export
  • Text-to-speech pronunciation
Features
Read full description

Learn different languages in the most effective way for free! A simple and straightforward system will help you practice new languages effectively. You can use spaced repetition algorithm for memorization or just learn and practice at your own pace, even daily! A flexible "card creator" system, the use of modern learning strategies, and ease of use are not all the benefits of the app. A unique flashcard maker application lets you do things that weren't possible before. Your studying process will change thanks to the app. What are the main features of effectLang? - Integration with photo providers to instantly find a photo for your own flashcards, ability to add your pictures from your device if you want to. - Ability to add your own audio file or just use device built-in text to speech (TTS) technology for pronunciation (available languages are dependent on your device). Improve your English pronunciation (or any other language you are learning). - Provide an additional example, hint, or description for each flashcard. - Learn any language you want - English, Spanish, Portuguese German, Dutch, Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Polish, Korean, Japanese and many others. - Import and export flashcards content using Excel files. Flashcards and spaced repetition study app can work offline - without the internet (wi-fi is not required), but additional features, like downloading photos, can be used only online. Choose a study cards strategy, you only need to add new words, phrases, and sentences. Learn vocabulary and practice different languages with easy flashcards and modern active recall (active learning) strategies - image learning, spaced repetition & index cards. The whole learning process is like a fun memory game, you don't need to use boring dictionaries. Works for everyone - students, teachers, adults and beginners. Learning can be simple and fun! Doesn't matter if you want to travel, become a language expert or just get a glance at different languages, become a language learner today! Privacy policy: https://dawidwnukowski.com/dawid-wnukowski-mobile-games-privacy-policy/ Terms of service: https://dawidwnukowski.com/flashcards-terms/

Screenshots

Memrise4 screens
effectLang4 screens

Verdict

The call

Memrise and effectLang both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 68% of Memrise's written reviews are positive against 0% of effectLang's. Memrise also leads on ratings volume (217K vs 7) and chart position (#133 vs unranked). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Memrise sells 14 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days and effectLang sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.49 per month. 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 — 4.8 for Memrise against 4.7 for effectLang. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Memrise has 217K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 68% of Memrise's written reviews are positive against 0% of effectLang's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Memrise ships an update fortnightly, effectLang every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and June 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Memrise versus effectLang: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMemriseeffectLang
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (217K ratings) — better4.7 (7 ratings)
Positive reviews68.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings217K — better7
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#133 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size238 MB93 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperMemrise LimitedDawid Wnukowski

Customer experience

Memrise

All ratings216,707 ratings
Positive96.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative1.4%
Written reviews2,890 reviews
Positive68.0%
Neutral8.8%
Negative23.2%

effectLang

All ratings7 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral14.3%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%

Bugs and requests

Memrise

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes during lessons
  • Inconsistent performance across devices
  • Issues with syncing progress across devices
  • Incorrect translations or pronunciations in some courses

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add more advanced content and courses
  • Improve AI conversation feature
  • Allow more control over review and repetition
  • Provide offline access to courses
  • Improve search and discovery of community courses
Show 1 more
  • Add support for writing practice and handwriting recognition

effectLang

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

14 purchases

Memrise

Subscriptions10
  • Weekly Language Learning Plan$2.997 Days
  • Monthly Language Learning Plan$24.991 Month
  • 3-Month Language Learning Plan$24.993 Months
Show 7 more
  • 30% off Annual Memrise Pro$42.991 Year
  • Memrise Subscription Offer$58.991 Year
  • Memrise Subscription Offer1 Month trial$59.991 Month
  • Annual Language Learning Plan$61.991 Year
  • Memrise Annual Pro$61.991 Year
  • Memrise Subscription Offer1 Year trial$61.991 Year
  • Memrise Subscription Offer$79.991 Year
One-time4
  • Lifetime Plan Offer$98.99
  • Lifetime Plan Offer$131.99
  • Lifetime Plan Offer$164.99
Show 1 more
  • Lifetime Plan$329.99
2 purchases

effectLang

Subscriptions2
  • Premium3 Days trial$3.491 Month
  • Premium3 Days trial$21.491 Year

Questions

Is Memrise free?
Memrise is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is effectLang free?
effectLang is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Memrise or effectLang?
Memrise is rated higher. Memrise averages 4.8 out of 5 from 217K ratings, while effectLang averages 4.7 from 7 ratings.
Do Memrise or effectLang have ads?
Both Memrise and effectLang show ads.
Which is updated more often, Memrise or effectLang?
Memrise ships an update fortnightly, and effectLang every 3 weeks. Most recently, Memrise was updated on September 25, 2026 and effectLang on June 24, 2026.

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