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

Master over 70 languages with fun, bite-sized lessons. Develop speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills with native speaker audio and cultural insights. Science-backed methods ensure retention, making even difficult languages accessible.

Highlights
  • 70+ languages available
  • Bite-sized lessons
  • Native speaker audio
  • Cultural insights
  • Speaking, reading, listening, writing skills
  • Science-backed learning methodology
Features
Read full description

Finally, a language-learning app that helps beginner to advanced learners speak, read, write, and listen in 70+ languages. Download Ling for FREE and start learning… 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 • German • Georgian • Greek • Gujarati • Hebrew • Hindi • Hokkien • Hungarian • Icelandic • Ilocano • Indonesian • Irish • Italian • Japanese • Javanese • Kannada • Kazakh • Khmer • Korean • Lao • Latvian • Lithuanian • Macedonian • Malaysian • Malayalam • Maori • Marathi • Mongolian • Norwegian • Nepali • Polish • Portuguese • Pashto • Persian • Punjabi • Romanian • Russian • Serbian • Sinhala • Slovak • Slovenian • Somali • Sorbian • Spanish • Sundanese • Swahili • Swedish • Tagalog • Tamil • Telugu • Thai • Turkish • Ukrainian • Urdu • Uzbek • Vietnamese • Yoruba Build speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills all in one place, plus… - Hard languages made easy: Find languages not commonly featured in other apps and enjoy lessons that make learning simple - Cultural insights: Understand the beautiful cultures behind lesser-known languages with our Culture Notes feature - Native speaker guidance: Learn correct pronunciation with audio from native speakers - Science-backed learning: Our methodology ensures you retain what you learn, making even the most difficult languages stick - Motivating: Track your progress, set language goals, and earn rewards as you practice and grow - Daily practice: Turn language learning into a habit with daily lessons that fit into your routine Experience more of Ling... https://ling-app.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ling_app/ https://www.youtube.com/@LingLearnLanguages https://www.tiktok.com/@ling_app?lang=en https://www.facebook.com/Ling.learn.languages/ https://www.quora.com/Ling-Language-Lessons If you have any comments, suggestions, or concerns, please feel free to reach out 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 15K). Ling's advantage is 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 13 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Ling sells 20 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 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 15K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 61% of Ling's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Drops versus Ling: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDropsLing
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (72K ratings) — better4.6 (15K ratings)
Positive reviews74.6% of reviews — better60.8% of reviews
Number of ratings72K — better15K
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#160#66 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.615.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size191 MB176 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPLANB LABS OUSIMYA LABS COMPANY LIMITED

Customer experience

Drops

All ratings71,502 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews2,192 reviews
Positive74.6%
Neutral9.6%
Negative15.8%

Ling

All ratings15,416 ratings
Positive91.4%
Neutral3.7%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews2,112 reviews
Positive60.8%
Neutral12.3%
Negative26.9%

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 15K 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

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
20 purchases

Ling

Subscriptions19
  • Ling Monthly Subscription$7.991 Month
  • Monthly Language Learning Plan$10.991 Month
  • Ling Monthly Subscription2 variants$14.991 Month
Show 16 more
  • Ling Pro 1 Month Subscription$16.991 Month
  • Ling Half Yearly Subscription$39.996 Months
  • Ling 3 Month Subscription$39.993 Months
  • Learn Language Pro Yearly 77 Days trial$48.991 Year
  • Ling Pro Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$54.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription$59.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Black Friday Offer7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial2 variants$79.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription$79.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription14 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Ling Pro 12 Month Subscription7 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$99.991 Year
  • Ling Yearly Subscription7 Days trial$119.991 Year
One-time1
  • Ling Pro Lifetime Plan$199.99

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 15K 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 weekly, and Ling weekly. Most recently, Drops was updated on September 24, 2026 and Ling on September 24, 2026.
Which is more popular, Drops or Ling?
Drops currently peaks at #160 in the App Store charts, and Ling at #66. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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