Comparison

Drops vs RuneKeys

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

RuneKeys

This app offers custom keyboards for writing in various runic alphabets, including Elder Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhork. It supports transcribing English and German, with additional characters and symbols available through press-and-hold gestures.

Highlights
  • Elder Futhark keyboards
  • Anglo-Saxon Futhork keyboards
  • English and German transcription
  • Extended characters via press-and-hold
  • No user accounts or personal data collection
Features
Read full description

RuneKeys provides keyboards for writing in runes: • Elder Futhark: - Keyboard for transcribing English - Keyboard for transcribing German - Pure Elder Futhark keyboard • Anglo-Saxon Futhork: - Keyboard for transcribing English - Pure Anglo-Saxon Futhork keyboard As the keys of the keyboards provided by the system do, keys of the rune keyboards reveal additional characters and symbols when pressed and hold. Among these are variations (e.g. of the *hagalaz rune), alternative transcriptions, and related characters (e.g. 2 and ²). P R I V A C Y   S T A T E M E N T I design my software following the principle to only collect, process, and store data that is actually needed for the software to serve its purpose. No single bit more than that. In German, the name of this principle is "Datensparsamkeit." A literal translation of this word is "data thrift". In effect, this means: • RuneKeys has no user accounts. RuneKeys will not ask you for personal data. • Data you enter in the RuneKeys app will not leave the app. In case of the provided keyboards, the characters you type will be passed to the operating system which will process them in order, for example, to insert them into a text field. • No personal data is collected or processed. • No user tracking of any kind is used.

Screenshots

Drops4 screens
RuneKeys3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Drops at Free against RuneKeys's $3.99. Drops also leads on rating (4.7 vs 4.0) and update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). RuneKeys's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 13) and ads (none vs shown). On review sentiment and device support 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

Drops is free to download; RuneKeys costs $3.99 up front. Drops sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month. RuneKeys asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drops holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drops has 72K ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of Drops's written reviews are positive against 79% of RuneKeys's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Drops ships an update weekly, RuneKeys every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Drops versus RuneKeys: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDropsRuneKeys
PriceFree — better$3.99
Rating4.7 (72K ratings) — better4.0 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews74.7% of reviews78.9% of reviews — better
Number of ratings72K — better18
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#193 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.613.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size191 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPLANB LABS OUPierre Bongen

Customer experience

Drops

All ratings71,502 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.9%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews2,206 reviews
Positive74.7%
Neutral9.5%
Negative15.8%

RuneKeys

All ratings18 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral5.6%
Negative16.7%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral5.3%
Negative15.8%

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

RuneKeys

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

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
None

RuneKeys

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Drops free?
Drops is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is RuneKeys free?
RuneKeys costs $3.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Drops or RuneKeys?
Drops is rated higher. Drops averages 4.7 out of 5 from 72K ratings, while RuneKeys averages 4.0 from 18 ratings.
Do Drops or RuneKeys have ads?
Drops shows ads; RuneKeys does not.
Which is updated more often, Drops or RuneKeys?
Drops ships an update weekly, and RuneKeys every 2 months. Most recently, Drops was updated on October 1, 2026 and RuneKeys on September 17, 2026.

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