BeFluent vs Russio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BeFluent
Master Russian with practical exercises, courses, and vocabulary training. Suitable for all levels, it focuses on real-life situations and confident language use. Learn through engaging tasks and media like movies and TV shows.
- Structured courses
- Vocabulary training
- Engaging tasks
- All levels supported
- Learn through media
- Real-life situations
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Meet the all-new BeFluent — learn Russian the way it's really spoken. BeFluent is rebuilt from the ground up: a fresh design, a personal learning plan and everything you need to go from your first words to confident conversation. Start with a short quiz and a vocabulary test — BeFluent finds your level and builds a plan around your goal and pace. • Structured courses and lessons for every level, from beginner to advanced • Vocabulary training with smart review — words return right before you'd forget them • Learn from Russian movies, TV series, shows and cartoons (Premium) • Varied exercises, from word building to reading • Private coaching sessions with a teacher (Premium) • Perfect for travel, study, work and life in Russia Access to lessons, courses and premium content requires a subscription. Choose a monthly or yearly plan right in the app. Privacy Policy: https://befluent.net/privacy Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Russio
Master Russian from beginner to advanced levels with a structured curriculum focusing on reading, writing, and speaking. Utilizes spaced repetition and active recall to ensure long-term retention of vocabulary and grammar.
- Learn Cyrillic alphabet with stroke guidance
- Spaced repetition for memory retention
- Active recall for speaking practice
- Covers Russian levels A1-C2
- Offline functionality
- No streaks or guilt-based motivation
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Learn Russian from absolute zero, and make it stick. The course starts with the alphabet and runs through six levels, from A1 to C2. Knowing Russian words is only the start. Russian does not work by putting words in a row: nouns change their endings to show the job they do in the sentence, most verbs come in two versions depending on whether the action is finished, and going somewhere on foot uses a different verb from going by car. That is where beginners stall. Russio drills it. FREE TO START The Cyrillic alphabet and the whole A1 level are free, and A1 already teaches all six cases. Learn to read, write and produce your first hundreds of Russian words at your own pace, with no time limit. Russio Pro, an in-app purchase, opens A2 to C2. THE ALPHABET FIRST Every path starts with the Russian alphabet. You watch each letter appear, trace it with your finger, and later reviews test it by ear, next to the letters it is most easily confused with. You skip a letter only by showing you know it. THE CASES, PRACTICED AND NOT JUST EXPLAINED A2 adds over a thousand sentence drills covering accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental and prepositional, plus perfective and imperfective pairs, verbs of motion, past and future, negation, comparatives, questions and reflexive verbs. A short card explains the rule once. Then you meet that same rule again and again, in dozens of different sentences, until choosing the ending stops being a decision. NEVER A SENTENCE YOU CANNOT READ No drill ever contains a word you have not already learned. The single new thing on the screen is the grammar being taught, so you are always working just past what you know instead of guessing. BUILT TO REMEMBER A spaced-repetition engine schedules every letter, word and pattern for the moment you are about to forget it. Your review time goes to what is about to slip, not to what you already know well. PRODUCE, DON'T JUST TAP Active recall by default: you build the answer, you do not pick it from a list. That is the difference between recognizing Russian and being able to use it. AUDIO FOR EVERY WORD Clear audio for every letter and every word, with the stress marked, so you hear where the emphasis really falls from day one. Lessons and audio work offline. RUSSIO PRO Opens A2 to C2: 5,000 more words, over 200 grammar cards (starting with the plural in every case), every sentence drill, and more than 50 graded reader stories with tap-to-translate. Choose Russio Pro monthly, yearly, or as a one-time payment that does not renew. NO STREAKS, NO GUILT Miss a day and nothing punishes you. Your reviews simply reschedule. Progress is measured by what you actually remember, not by a counter. Whether you want to read the Russian alphabet, study Russian for beginners, build vocabulary, or finally understand the cases, Russio is the calm, focused way to learn Russian. Made by iocodo. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://iocodo.com/apps/russio/privacy
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Russio at 5.0 against BeFluent's 4.3. Russio also leads on monetization model (freemium vs subscription) and update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, ratings volume, 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. BeFluent sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $19.99 per month and Russio sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Russio holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 4 respectively.
BeFluent ships an update every 2 weeks, Russio every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BeFluent | Russio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.3 (7 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Freemium — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 305 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | BeFluent | IOCODO LLC |
Customer experience
BeFluent
Russio
In-app purchases
BeFluent
- Basic Plan3 Days trial$19.991 Month
- Premium plan$49.991 Month
- Basic Plan for the year3 Days trial$199.001 Year
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- Premium Plan for the year$499.001 Year
Russio
- Russio Pro Monthly$5.991 Month
- Russio Pro Annual7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Russio Pro Lifetime$74.99









