Comparison

Drops vs Woodpecker

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

Head to head
About

Drops

Learn new languages through engaging games and visual aids. Practice vocabulary and common phrases in over 55 languages, from beginner to expert levels. Track progress, unlock achievements, and enjoy professionally curated lessons with native speaker pronunciations.

Highlights
  • Gamified vocabulary learning
  • Visual learning aids
  • 55+ language options
  • Progress tracking and rewards
  • Native speaker pronunciations
  • Customizable learning goals
Read full description

Join over 50 million people who use Drops for free language lessons. It’s fast, fun, and easy! Practice vocabulary in Spanish, Japanese, French, Korean, Chinese, German, English. Discover 55+ different new languages with Drops! Learn new languages while playing games. You can become fluent, learn vocabulary and common phrases in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi. Set goals, unlock achievements, and get rewards! • Become fluent in a foreign language with this language learning app • Learn to read characters and scripts from different alphabets like Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and Hindi • Custom illustrations for each vocabulary word makes it easy to remember • From beginner to expert levels, grow your foreign language vocabulary • A professionally curated vocabulary list with more than 3,000 words and phrases • Game-like language lessons that make language learning fun and effective • Level up! Track your progress and get rewards • Professional voice artists and sound design with correct dialect pronunciations • Learn to speak languages like Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English (British), English (American), French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (European), Russian, Spanish (Mexican), Spanish (European), Tagalog, Ainu, Arabic (Egyptian), American Sign Language (ASL), Basque, Bosnian, Cantonese, Catalan, Chti, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, Galician, Greek, Greenlandic, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Maori, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Samoan, Sanskrit, Serbian, Swahili, Swedish, Swiss German, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, and even Yoruba! "By focusing on visually appealing games and vocab, Drops aims to lower the barrier preventing users from exploring a new language and, ultimately, accessing the social and economic benefits knowing that language may provide." - TechCrunch We are featured by CNET, Forbes, VentureBeat and many other places too! Try Drops Premium with a 7 day free trial. Download the app to learn about different membership options, and register to learn all about exclusive discounts. Payment will be charged to your iTunes Account at confirmation of Drops premium. Afterwards 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 iTunes Store after purchase. You can cancel your subscription anytime, and you won't be charged in the next billing cycle. Privacy Policy and Terms of Use: http://languagedrops.com/privacypolicy.html

About

Woodpecker

Learn languages by watching videos in your target language. Touch words in subtitles for instant definitions and save them for review. Explore content from YouTube and Netflix to immerse yourself in native-speaker material.

Highlights
  • Interactive video subtitles
  • Instant word definitions
  • Save vocabulary for review
  • YouTube video discovery
  • Netflix integration (iPad)
  • Offline bilingual dictionaries
  • Flashcard creation
Read full description

Watch and understand thousands of videos in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, or English. When you don’t know a word, simply touch it in the subtitles. Use Woodpecker tools on any subtitled video on Youtube and all videos on Netflix (with a Netflix account and when using Woodpecker on an iPad). Touch any word, see its meaning, and easily save it to your history for review. Woodpecker’s bilingual dictionaries are free to use, work offline, and have no ads. Move on from your textbooks. Immerse and understand videos, shows, and movies meant for native speakers from around the world. Choose your target language: Immerse in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, or English. Discover videos: Woodpecker filters Youtube to show you only videos in your target language with accurate subtitles. Browse videos by category, from popular channels, or made by popular Youtube teachers. Quickly find videos created for native speakers. Watch and improve your language skills. Watch with confidence. Woodpecker tools let you: + Touch any word to look it up while watching + Save any word or phrase to your word history + Touch a timestamp to jump to that section or rehear a phrase easily + Jump back 5 seconds if you missed something in a video + Touch to hear a phrase in the video repeated again and again + Slow down a video to 75% speed + Add multiple subtitle streams (when available) to follow along in your own language + Browse popular news sites in your target language, touch any word to look it up Subscribe to Woodpecker Tools to unlock unlimited web browsing, saved word exports, and flash cards! Make and practice your language skills with flash cards you make from words you saved! Try free today for 7 days. Build confidence with Woodpecker: • Discover videos in the language you’re learning. Explore by topic, channel name, or view videos by popular teachers on Youtube • Woodpecker filters Youtube to show only the videos in the language you’re learning • Have a Netflix account? Subscribe to the Unlimited Player in Woodpecker on your iPad to watch your favorite shows on Netflix. Touch any word in the subtitles to see its meaning and use Woodpecker Tools when you watch Netflix. • Perfect for intermediate to advanced learners, gain confidence as you watch something you love • Touch any word to see its meaning while your video pauses; Woodpecker automatically identifies proper names, popular expressions, idioms, and phrases • See all the words and expressions you’ve looked up in your word history; review them and practice with pronunciations • Browse popular news sites in the language you’re learning with the Woodpecker web browser, touch any word to see its meaning • Upgrade the app with tools to export your word history and browse any web page and create flash cards for review from your saved word history. • Watch videos with two subtitle streams (when available) to follow along in English as well as your target language • Dive deeper in a definition, expand the popup and touch any word in a definition to see its meaning • Browse the Teacher Section to see videos by popular Youtube teachers in your target language • Find all the videos you’ve watched in the video history section (data stored locally on your device) • Woodpecker’s bilingual dictionaries support: English speakers learning French, Mandarin, Spanish, German, and Vietnamese. And also support speakers of Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Vietnamese learning English. • Touch any timestamp in the subtitles to rehear a phrase or jump to that phrase in a video • Discover content easily and dive into what you want to watch without the restrictions of a lesson plan • Improve your language skills while watching Youtube and Netflix with Woodpecker Start watching videos made for native speakers by native speakers. Immerse confidently in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, or English. Try Woodpecker today!

Screenshots

Drops4 screens
Woodpecker4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Woodpecker at none against Drops's shown. Woodpecker also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.6). Drops's advantage is ratings volume (72K vs 1K) and update cadence (weekly vs every 5 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Drops sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Woodpecker sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 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 — 4.7 for Drops against 4.8 for Woodpecker. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drops has 72K ratings behind it against 1K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 82% of Woodpecker's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drops ships an update weekly, Woodpecker every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and September 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Drops versus Woodpecker: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDropsWoodpecker
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (72K ratings)4.8 (1K ratings) — better
Positive reviews74.6% of reviews81.7% of reviews — better
Number of ratings72K — better1K
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#166 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.613.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size191 MB29 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperPLANB LABS OUWoodpecker Learning Limited

Customer experience

Drops

All ratings71,502 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews2,197 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral9.6%
Negative15.8%

Woodpecker

All ratings1,036 ratings
Positive95.3%
Neutral2.3%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews191 reviews
Positive81.7%
Neutral3.7%
Negative14.7%

User reviews

Drops

From 72K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Vocabulary learning
  • 👍 Unique and engaging learning activities
  • 👍 Wide range of languages
  • 👍 Customizable learning experience
  • 👍 Effective for building vocabulary

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inaccurate translations or pronunciations
  • 🔒 Subscription model issues
  • 👎 Limited to vocabulary, lacks grammar/sentence structure
  • 👎 Repetitive and not enough variety in exercises

Woodpecker

From 1K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for learning a new language
  • 👍 Good for practicing speaking and listening
  • 👍 Diverse content selection
  • 👍 Useful for improving vocabulary and reading skills
  • 👍 Enjoyable and engaging learning experience

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Subtitle issues (not working, inconsistent)
  • 💰 Confusing or expensive pricing
  • 🐛 App crashes or doesn't work properly

Bugs and requests

Drops

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Login issues and lost progress
  • Crashes and performance problems

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more grammar and sentence-level learning
  • Improve accuracy of translations and pronunciations
  • Provide more flexibility in time limits and review sessions
  • Integrate more conversational practice
  • Improve user interface and navigation

Woodpecker

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Netflix subtitles not working
  • App crashing or not opening
  • Inconsistent subtitle display

Requested features

4 requests
  • Support for more languages
  • Improved subtitle synchronization
  • Clearer pricing structure
  • Better user interface and navigation

In-app purchases

13 purchases

Drops

Subscriptions12
  • Genius for a month$7.991 Month
  • Premium$9.991 Month
  • Premium$11.991 Month
Show 9 more
  • Premium$14.991 Month
  • Curious for a month$22.991 Month
  • Holiday premium!$39.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$62.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • All Language Learning Plans7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Premium7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Unlimited time for all Languages!$59.99
5 purchases

Woodpecker

Subscriptions3
  • Unlimited Video Player Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Woodpecker Tools Subscription7 Days trial$7.991 Month
  • Unlimited Video Player Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time2
  • Export Word History$0.99
  • Woodpecker Web Browser$14.99

Questions

Is Drops free?
Drops is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Woodpecker free?
Woodpecker is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Drops or Woodpecker?
Woodpecker is rated higher. Drops averages 4.7 out of 5 from 72K ratings, while Woodpecker averages 4.8 from 1K ratings.
Do Drops or Woodpecker have ads?
Drops shows ads; Woodpecker does not.
Which is updated more often, Drops or Woodpecker?
Drops ships an update weekly, and Woodpecker every 5 weeks. Most recently, Drops was updated on September 26, 2026 and Woodpecker on September 13, 2026.

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