Comparison

Drops vs Ling

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

Ling

Learn over 80 languages, including rare ones, with fun, bite-sized lessons and native speaker audio. Develop speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills while exploring cultural insights. Track progress and stay motivated with achievements.

Highlights
  • Learn 80+ languages
  • Bite-sized lessons
  • Native speaker audio
  • Develop all four skills
  • Cultural insights
  • Progress tracking
  • Gamified learning
Features
Read full description

Take the easy path to hard languages with Ling! Learn Tagalog, Serbian, Cebuano, Albanian, and 75+ more languages with bite-sized lessons and real native-speaker audio. Start with 2 free units in any language. One subscription unlocks all 80 languages, and annual plans include a 7-day free trial. WHY LEARNERS CHOOSE LING - Languages others overlook: We specialize in Asian and Eastern European languages, plus rare and endangered ones you won't find in most apps - Real native speakers: Every lesson uses recordings of native speakers talking naturally, so you learn how the language really sounds - Speak, read, write, and listen: Build all four skills in one place, from your first words to real conversations - Learning that feels fun: Bite-sized lessons and exercises that never feel like homework - Culture Notes: Understand the people and traditions behind the language - Stay motivated: Build your streak, unlock achievements, and track your progress across 200+ lessons CHOOSE FROM 80 LANGUAGES Afrikaans • Albanian • Amharic • Arabic • Armenian • Azerbaijani • Bengali • Bosnian • Bulgarian • Burmese • Cantonese • Catalan • Cebuano • Chinese Simplified • Chinese Traditional • Croatian • Czech • Danish • Dutch • English • Estonian • Finnish • French • Georgian • German • Greek • Gujarati • Hebrew • Hindi • Hungarian • Icelandic • Ilocano • Indonesian • Irish • Italian • Japanese • Javanese • Kannada • Kazakh • Khmer • Korean • Lao • Latvian • Lithuanian • Macedonian • Malayalam • Malaysian • Maori • Marathi • Mongolian • Nepali • Norwegian • Pashto • Persian • Polish • Portuguese • Punjabi • Romanian • Russian • Serbian • Sinhala • Slovak • Slovenian • Somali • Sorbian • Spanish • Sundanese • Swahili • Swedish • Tagalog • Taiwanese Hokkien • Tamil • Telugu • Thai • Turkish • Ukrainian • Urdu • Uzbek • Vietnamese • Yoruba SUBSCRIPTIONS Ling offers monthly and annual subscriptions for full access to every language. The 7-day free trial is available on annual plans only. Payment is charged to your Apple ID when you confirm your purchase, or when the free trial ends. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel your subscription anytime in your App Store account settings. FOLLOW LING https://ling-app.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ling_app/ https://www.youtube.com/@LingLearnLanguages https://www.tiktok.com/@ling_app https://www.facebook.com/Ling.learn.languages/ Questions or feedback? Reach us at support@ling-app.com Terms of Use: https://ling-app.com/terms-of-use/ Privacy Policy: https://ling-app.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Drops4 screens
Ling4 screens

Verdict

The call

Drops and Ling both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 61% of Ling's. Drops also leads on ratings volume (72K vs 17K). Ling's advantage is chart position (#58 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.6). 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. Drops sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Ling sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $10.99 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 4.6 for Ling. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 72K and 17K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 61% of Ling's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drops ships an update every 8 days, Ling weekly. Both last shipped on November 7, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Drops versus Ling: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDropsLing
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (72K ratings) — better4.6 (17K ratings)
Positive reviews74.8% of reviews — better61.1% of reviews
Number of ratings72K — better17K
Update frequencyEvery 8 daysWeekly — better
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#58 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size198 MB195 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPLANB LABS OUSIMYA LABS COMPANY LIMITED

Customer experience

Drops

All ratings71,671 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews2,244 reviews
Positive74.8%
Neutral9.5%
Negative15.7%

Ling

All ratings16,785 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral3.6%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews2,194 reviews
Positive61.1%
Neutral12.3%
Negative26.6%

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

Ling

From 17K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Bite-sized lessons
  • 🎮 Gamified learning
  • 📚 Offers rare languages
  • 🗣️ Good pronunciation

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy, glitchy
  • 💰 Expensive, pay to learn
  • 🤖 Robotic voices
  • 🧠 Lessons not in logical order
  • 🔍 Lack of basic vocabulary and grammar

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

Ling

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Progress resets to zero
  • Incorrect translations and pronunciations
  • Lessons skipping ahead unexpectedly
  • Microphone issues, can't record properly
  • Sync issues across devices

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow retry/go back in lessons
  • Improve speech recognition
  • Add grammar explanations
  • Provide more review and practice options
  • Introduce alphabet/writing system first

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Drops

Subscriptions10
  • Genius for a month$7.991 Month
  • Premium$9.991 Month
  • Premium$11.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Premium$14.991 Month
  • Curious for a month$22.991 Month
  • Holiday premium!$39.991 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
8 purchases

Ling

Subscriptions8
  • Monthly Language Learning Plan$10.991 Month
  • Ling Monthly Subscription2 variants$14.991 Month
  • Ling Pro 1 Month Subscription$16.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Learn Language Pro Yearly 77 Days trial$48.991 Year
  • Ling Pro Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$54.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$79.991 Year
  • Ling Pro 12 Month Subscription7 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$99.991 Year

Questions

Is Drops free?
Drops is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ling free?
Ling is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Drops or Ling?
Drops is rated higher. Drops averages 4.7 out of 5 from 72K ratings, while Ling averages 4.6 from 17K ratings.
Do Drops or Ling have ads?
Both Drops and Ling show ads.
Which is updated more often, Drops or Ling?
Drops ships an update every 8 days, and Ling weekly. Most recently, Drops was updated on November 7, 2026 and Ling on November 7, 2026.

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