Comparison

Lingvist vs Migaku

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

Head to head
About

Lingvist

This app uses AI and scientific methods to teach vocabulary efficiently for faster language acquisition. It offers personalized learning plans, speech recognition, and spaced repetition to help users remember words long-term. Learn 16 languages with a focus on practical, high-frequency vocabulary.

Highlights
  • AI-powered vocabulary learning
  • Spaced repetition for long-term memory
  • Speech recognition for pronunciation
  • Learn grammar in context
  • Personalized learning plans
  • Customizable vocabulary lists
Features
Read full description

Lingvist is the language learning app built by scientists and language experts that teaches vocabulary better than anyone else in the world. The depth of our AI-powered courses combined with the latest research in machine learning gets you using a language with high proficiency, fast. GET LEVEL PLACED FOR FREE - TRY LINGVIST LEARN 16 LANGUAGES: English, Spanish, German, French, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Norwegian, Latin American Spanish, Estonian, Polish, Japanese, Korean and Russian. ===== WHY LINGVIST? FOLLOW CONVERSATIONS QUICKLY Learn the vocabulary that appears most often in a language first, allowing you to accelerate your learning. READ, WRITE, SPEAK, AND LISTEN Perfect your pronunciation using sophisticated speech recognition technology or type your answers. Every sentence has audio to ensure you hone your listening skills. FOR SERIOUS LEARNERS Your learning efficiency is our focus. Enjoy a clean UI with no advertising, no unnecessary clicks, and no distractions. REMEMBER A LANGUAGE FOREVER Using scientifically proven spaced repetition methodology, the vocabulary gets fixed in your long-term memory over time. LEARN GRAMMAR IN CONTEXT OR AS A FOCUS Acquire grammar passively like a native with our bite-sized sentences, or practice conjugating French verbs in our French course. SPECIALIST VOCABULARY FOR YOU Submit your own words, images, or text and Lingvist will automatically gather vocabulary related to the theme for you to learn. Whether it’s Harry Potter in German or Spanish colors, you can learn the words most important to you. Our AI works intelligently to provide appropriate context for vocabulary. MOTIVATIONAL STATISTICS Packed with data on your learning progress, you’ll be able to chart your path to success. A MUST-HAVE TOOL IN YOUR BAG Do you live in your target country, use a tutor or language school, or even read books, listen to podcasts, or watch content in your target language? Lingvist works best when used in parallel with other learning methods. It’s the difference between passing your test or acing it. Lingvist is the perfect complement to learn faster and boost your vocabulary. LEARN BY DOING Getting it wrong is one of the fastest ways to learn, and your brain will start to remember very quickly. PERSONALIZED SETTINGS Every learner is different. Personalize your learning to suit you, with various settings allowing you to learn with extra slow speech, strict diacritics, and even grammar tables. PERSONALIZED LEARNING PLAN We'll serve you new words that are most relevant to you. As we measure your memory curves, we ask you to repeat words at the optimal time – just before you forget them. This way, you'll always know what to learn next. LANGUAGE LEARNING MADE EASY Whether you are planning on spending this summer in Italy and need to learn Italian, or your next adventure is taking up a course in Germany and you need an app to learn German, or you're heading to Korea and you need to learn Korean, we have you covered. Our language learning techniques will help you to get fluent in over 16 languages. ===== SUBSCRIPTION You will need a subscription in order to get access to the full learning materials for all languages we offer. Each subscription will be automatically renewed unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current payment period. When a subscription is canceled, access to the app's courses and features will expire at the end of the current payment period. Visit our blog to get tips, tricks, and interesting facts on how to learn languages: ▸▸ Lingvist blog: https://lingvist.com/blog/ Follow us to get interesting facts on how to learn languages: ▸▸ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theLingvist ▸▸ Instagram: instagram.com/thelingvist/ ▸▸ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lingvist ▸▸ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lingvist Privacy Policy: https://lingvist.com/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use: https://lingvist.com/tos/

About

Migaku

This app helps you learn languages by making content interactive. Click words in subtitles or text to get definitions, create flashcards, and personalize study sessions. It focuses on high-frequency words for efficient learning.

Highlights
  • Interactive subtitles for YouTube
  • One-click media-rich flashcard creation
  • Personalized study sessions
  • Data-driven courses for beginners
  • Word frequency-based vocabulary learning
  • AI sentence breakdown and explanations
Features
Read full description

Learning languages is actually pretty simple: if you consume content you enjoy, and you understand that content, you will make progress. Period. Migaku (and its Chrome browser extension) enables you to do that: 1. Our courses take you from zero to 80% comprehension in ~6 months (10 cards/day) 2. We make text interactive: click words in your phone's YouTube subtitles to see what they mean 3. We let you make media-rich flashcards out of those words with one click 4. We make personalized study sessions out of the flashcards you create 5. Repeat! Whether you're learning Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Italian, German, Cantonese, Portuguese, English, French or Vietnamese, Migaku equips you with the tools you need to make real progress. Migaku requires a paid subscription to access its courses, features, and AI tools. Migaku – AI Language Learning Tool ■ How languages are really learned: If you want to watch movies in other languages, then you need to learn languages with movies. If you want to read books in other languages, then you need to learn languages by reading. As you spend more time doing the things you enjoy doing in the language you're learning, you'll build the unique skills you need to more easily do those things. Unfortunately, it's difficult to read books and watch movies in another language as a beginner. And that's where Migaku comes in ■ Data-driven courses for beginners The problem with most apps and textbooks is that they teach you what someone else thinks language learners need to know, and those things may not reflect what you actually need to learn to do the things that are important to you. This matters because not all words are used equally often: while a college-educated native speaker knows ~30,000 words, you only need to know ~1,500 words to recognize 80% of the words in modern media. Our flashcard-based courses teach you these ~1,500 words—the ones that are useful to everyone, no matter their goals—plus a few hundred basic grammar points. What makes our courses special is that every "next" flashcard contains only one new word, making Migaku's learning curve super smooth. You're always learning something new, but never overwhelmed. It's a fluent language learning approach. Migaku courses are currently available for Japanese, Mandarin, and Korean. ■ Turn subtitles and text into interactive language learning opportunities Migaku makes texts interactive: just click on words to see what they mean. You can also hear audio recordings from native speakers, reference images of the term, check example sentences, get an AI explanation of what the word means in context, have AI break sentences down for you word-by-word, or see a translation of the sentence that your word appears in. Basically, Migaku lets you consume content in another language as if you knew as many words as a native speaker. Our mobile app supports YouTube, manually pasted content, and physical content like books or street signs. Our Chrome extension supports web pages and several popular streaming websites. ■ Create custom study cards or import language flashcards Find a useful looking word while consuming content? Turn it into a high-quality flashcard with one button, and Migaku's spaced repetition language practice algorithm will create personalized study sessions for you. You'll be nudged to review these flashcards periodically, ensuring you remember them. Decks designed for the Anki flashcard app can be converted for use with Migaku, too. ■ Study anywhere, even offline Migaku's courses and any flashcards you make are available offline and automatically sync between all of your devices. ■ Learn multiple languages at once A single Migaku subscription gives you access to all of Migaku's languages and lets you use all of Migaku's features and AI language learning tools as much as you want. - - - Immerse → enjoy → improve

Screenshots

Lingvist4 screens
Migaku4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Migaku at weekly against Lingvist's monthly. Migaku also leads on review sentiment (73% vs 59%). Lingvist's advantage is ratings volume (3.7K vs 360). On price, rating, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Lingvist sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month and Migaku sells 13 in-app purchases, starting at $14.00 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Lingvist holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lingvist has 3.7K ratings behind it against 360, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 59% of Lingvist's written reviews are positive against 73% of Migaku's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lingvist ships an update monthly, Migaku weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Lingvist versus Migaku: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLingvistMigaku
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (3.7K ratings) — better4.4 (360 ratings)
Positive reviews59.1% of reviews73.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3.7K — better360
Update frequencyMonthlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB1.9 GB
Age rating9+17+
DeveloperLingvist Technologies OUMigaku Inc.

Customer experience

Lingvist

All ratings3,690 ratings
Positive90.4%
Neutral3.1%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews450 reviews
Positive59.1%
Neutral10.0%
Negative30.9%

Migaku

All ratings360 ratings
Positive84.7%
Neutral1.4%
Negative13.9%
Written reviews232 reviews
Positive73.3%
Neutral3.0%
Negative23.7%

User reviews

Lingvist

From 3.7K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient vocabulary learning
  • 👍 Useful sentence-based learning
  • 📚 Comprehensive vocabulary coverage
  • 📊 Helpful progress tracking
  • 🔊 Good pronunciation examples

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription
  • 🔒 Limited free version
  • 🐛 Bugs and glitches
  • 🤔 Inconsistent word acceptance
  • 🤖 Robotic voice quality

Migaku

From 360 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Effective and convenient language learning
  • 👍 Intuitive and visually appealing interface
  • 🎓 Comprehensive courses and lessons
  • 💡 Seamless integration with streaming platforms
  • 🗣️ Helpful pronunciation and pitch accent features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes and stability issues
  • 🔒 Lack of free trial or free plan options
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🤖 Inconsistent performance of AI-powered features
  • 🔌 High storage and battery consumption on mobile

Bugs and requests

Lingvist

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Progress reset issues
  • Keyboard blocking UI elements
  • Inconsistent audio playback
  • Placement test bugs

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more language options
  • Improve grammar explanations
  • Allow custom word lists
  • Provide more context-based learning
  • Add speech recognition practice

Migaku

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Unable to create new accounts in the app
  • Broken kanji course with empty cards
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between apps

Requested features

4 requests
  • Offline mode for learning on the go
  • Expanded support for more languages
  • Better integration with Anki and other SRS apps
  • More customization options for flashcards and reviews

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Lingvist

Subscriptions10
  • Learn languages: 1-month plan2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Learn languages: 1-month plan7 Days trial$19.991 Month
  • Learn languages: 1-month plan7 Days trial$49.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Learn languages: 1-month plan$49.991 Month
  • Learn languages: 1-month plan3 Days trial$49.991 Month
  • Learn languages: 12-month plan14 Days trial$55.991 Year
  • Learn languages: 12-month plan14 Days trial2 variants$79.991 Year
  • Learn languages: 12-month plan$79.991 Year
  • Learn languages: 12-month plan7 Days trial$79.991 Year
  • Learn languages: 12-month plan14 Days trial$199.991 Year
13 purchases

Migaku

Subscriptions8
  • Migaku Standard2 variants$14.001 Month
  • Migaku Standard7 Days trial$14.001 Month
  • Early Access2 variants$21.001 Month
Show 5 more
  • Early Access7 Days trial$21.001 Month
  • Migaku Standard$136.991 Year
  • Migaku Standard7 Days trial$136.991 Year
  • Early Access$179.991 Year
  • Early Access7 Days trial$179.991 Year
One-time5
  • Lifetime$214.99
  • Lifetime$289.00
  • Lifetime$344.99
Show 2 more
  • Lifetime$359.00
  • Lifetime$719.00

Questions

Is Lingvist free?
Lingvist is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Migaku free?
Migaku is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Lingvist or Migaku?
Lingvist is rated higher. Lingvist averages 4.6 out of 5 from 3.7K ratings, while Migaku averages 4.4 from 360 ratings.
Do Lingvist or Migaku have ads?
Neither Lingvist nor Migaku shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lingvist or Migaku?
Lingvist ships an update monthly, and Migaku weekly. Most recently, Lingvist was updated on September 23, 2026 and Migaku on September 22, 2026.

Other comparisons