LearnLingo vs Duolingo for Learning English: An Honest Comparison

Key takeaways

• Both are free to start and both are game-style courses with streaks, XP and leagues, so the daily experience feels similar.
• Duolingo's free tier uses an energy system that runs down as you do exercises; LearnLingo uses hearts that you lose only for mistakes, and every lesson is free.
• Duolingo is stronger on scale, polish, app quality and AI speaking practice (Video Call and Roleplay in Duolingo Max, where available).
• LearnLingo is stronger on grammar explanations, English-only focus, CEFR levels A1 to C1 shown openly, Turkish-language support and a free level test.
• Neither gives a certificate for finishing lessons, and neither replaces a human tutor for real conversation.
• Prices change by country and platform. Check both apps for the current offer before you pay for anything.

We checked Duolingo's own pages, blog and US App Store listing on the date shown at the top of this page. Where we could not see something on an official page, we say so instead of guessing. You can read our full method on the compare hub, and the reverse view, a ranked list of other apps, on our page of Duolingo alternatives for English.

At a glance

Feature	LearnLingo	Duolingo
Price model	Free course; optional LearnLingo Plus subscription	Free tier with ads; Super and Max subscriptions
Free tier	Every lesson and the full course	Full course path, with ads and an energy limit
Levels	CEFR A1 to C1, shown as separate courses	Duolingo says its courses follow CEFR; levels shown as sections and units
Teaching method	Short interactive exercises plus grammar tips and unit guides	Short interactive exercises, mostly learning by doing
Speaking practice	Speaking Coach game; browser speech recognition on web, listen and repeat on iOS	Speaking exercises with speech recognition; AI Video Call in Max
Listening practice	Dialogues read aloud, listening exercises, Listening Lab game	Listening exercises, stories and audio content
Grammar explanations	Grammar tips in lessons, unit guides, Sage the Turtle explains answers	Tips in units; Explain My Answer in Max
Native-language support	Turkish interface and explanations; more languages planned	English taught from many base languages
Platforms	Web browser and iOS app	iOS, Android and web
Offline use	No offline mode on web	Offline lessons listed among Super perks by reviewers; check the app
Certificates	None	None for lessons; separate paid Duolingo English Test
Best for	Learners who want structured English with explanations, free	Learners who want a polished habit app, many languages, AI speaking

Method and lesson design

Duolingo's method is learning by doing. A lesson is a quick run of exercises: pick the right translation, build a sentence from word tiles, type what you hear, match pairs, speak a sentence. Explanations are kept light, so you infer most rules from examples. This works well for motivation, because you are always answering something and the feedback is instant. It works less well when you hit a rule that you cannot guess, such as when to use the present perfect, and you keep failing the same exercise without knowing why.

LearnLingo uses the same family of exercises: choice, translate with a word bank, meaning, fill-in-the-gap, matching and listening. The difference is the amount of explanation around them. Each unit has a grammar tip and a unit guide you can read before or after the exercises, and Sage the Turtle, our rule-based helper, explains why an answer is right or wrong. Sage is not an AI chatbot; it is a set of written explanations tied to the grammar point you are practicing. That makes it more predictable and less flexible than an AI tutor.

Verdict: Duolingo is the more refined product, with smoother animation, more exercise variety and years of testing behind every screen. LearnLingo is better if you want to understand the rule, not only repeat the pattern. If you learn best by reading a short explanation first, LearnLingo fits you; if you prefer to jump in and guess, Duolingo does that very well.

Curriculum and levels

Duolingo says it rebuilt its most popular courses, English among them, to follow the CEFR, the Common European Framework of Reference. Inside the app, the course is shown as one long path made of sections and units. Third-party reviewers often point out that finishing the whole path does not automatically mean you can speak at the top level it covers, because the exercises lean toward recognition over free production. That is true of most apps, including ours.

LearnLingo shows the levels openly as separate courses: A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1. You can see which level you are studying and jump to the right place after the free English level test. If you want to know what each level means in real life, our guide to CEFR levels explained gives can-do examples for each one.

Verdict: Duolingo's path is longer and broader, with more content variety. LearnLingo's level structure is easier to read, and you always know which CEFR level a lesson belongs to. For a learner who needs to say "I am working on B1", LearnLingo is clearer; for sheer quantity of practice, Duolingo wins.

Grammar

Grammar is where the two products differ most. Duolingo teaches grammar mostly implicitly. Units have tips, and Duolingo Max adds an AI feature called Explain My Answer, which explains why your answer was wrong. On the free tier you get fewer explanations, and many learners look up grammar elsewhere.

LearnLingo treats grammar as a first-class part of the course. Every unit has a written grammar tip, the English grammar hub gathers the rules in one place, and blog guides go deeper on hard points like the present perfect or articles a, an and the. Sage gives the same rule-based explanation every time, which is useful when you are studying a rule on purpose.

Verdict: LearnLingo is better for grammar on a free plan. Duolingo's paid AI explanations can be more flexible, because they respond to your exact answer, but they cost money and depend on the course and region.

Vocabulary and review

Duolingo brings back old words through practice sessions, personalized review in the paid tiers and the natural repetition of the path. Under the energy system, Duolingo says that reviewing mistakes at the end of a lesson does not cost energy, which is a thoughtful touch.

LearnLingo keeps a list of the exact items you got wrong and brings them back in spaced practice, so you review mistakes at growing intervals rather than repeating everything. Games such as Word Match and Speed Quiz recycle vocabulary in a different format. If you want to understand why spacing works, read our guide to spaced repetition.

Verdict: Roughly even. Duolingo has more vocabulary overall and more polished review screens. LearnLingo's review is more transparent: you know that the practice set is built from your own mistakes.

Speaking and pronunciation

Duolingo has speaking exercises in which you read a sentence aloud and speech recognition checks it. Its paid Max tier adds Video Call, a conversation with an AI character named Lily who, according to Duolingo, remembers past calls and gives you a transcript, and Roleplay, which puts you in everyday scenarios with AI feedback. Duolingo launched these for specific course pairs and has expanded them since, so check whether they are available for English from your language.

LearnLingo's Speaking Coach game uses your browser's speech recognition on the web, where the browser supports it, to check whether you said the target sentence. On iOS, speaking is listen and repeat with a self-check. LearnLingo has no AI conversation partner and no human tutor.

Verdict: Duolingo is clearly better for speaking if you pay for Max, because an AI conversation is closer to real talk than repeating sentences. On free plans, both apps give you short pronunciation drills, not conversation. For real speaking practice in either case, add the habits in our guide to improve English speaking.

Listening

Duolingo has listening exercises in every unit, plus stories and audio content in some courses. LearnLingo reads dialogues and sentences aloud with the device's speech engine and has a Listening Lab game. Our voices come from your browser or phone, so quality depends on your device; Duolingo's audio is more consistent.

Verdict: Duolingo has better audio quality and more listening formats. LearnLingo's dialogues are useful for structured practice, but neither app replaces real listening. Add podcasts or video, as described in how to improve English listening.

Motivation: streaks, XP and leagues

Duolingo invented much of the playbook here: streaks, XP, weekly leagues, friend quests and a famous owl. Its game layer is extremely good at getting people to open the app every day. Some learners find it too good, and end up chasing XP with easy lessons instead of learning.

LearnLingo uses the same ideas in a calmer form: hearts, streaks, XP, levels and weekly leagues, plus 13 games such as Grammar Gap, Writing Studio and Speaking Coach. Our mascot, Sage the Turtle, leans into slow and steady progress.

Verdict: Duolingo is stronger on motivation and social features. LearnLingo is enough to keep a habit and puts more weight on the content. If streaks stress you, read our tips to stay motivated learning English.

Price and value

Duolingo's free tier gives you the full course path with ads. In 2025 Duolingo introduced Energy, which it describes as a learning battery: each lesson uses some energy, a run of correct answers earns some back, and it recharges in about a day; you can refill with a rewarded ad or gems. Duolingo said it was testing this with a group of users, so your app may still show hearts. Super Duolingo removes ads and energy limits, and Duolingo Max adds AI features. The US App Store listing shows several Super prices without saying which period each covers, and we could not see a price on Duolingo's website, so we will not quote one. Check the price inside the app for your country.

LearnLingo is free for every lesson and the whole course. LearnLingo Plus is optional and adds unlimited hearts, more help from Sage and every game unlocked early. On the web, Plus comes as weekly, monthly or yearly plans (current prices on the Plus page); App Store prices can differ. See LearnLingo Plus for the current offer.

Verdict: For a learner who will not pay, LearnLingo gives more uninterrupted study time because there is no per-exercise energy and no ads in lessons. For a learner who will pay, Duolingo Max offers features LearnLingo does not have at any price, mainly AI conversation.

Platforms

Duolingo runs on iOS, Android and the web, and its apps are among the most polished in the category. LearnLingo runs in any modern browser and has an iOS app. There is no Android app at the moment, and no offline mode on the web.

Verdict: Duolingo wins on platforms, especially if you use Android or need offline lessons.

Turkish-speaker support

Duolingo offers English from many base languages, Turkish among them, so Turkish speakers can learn with Turkish instructions. LearnLingo was built with Turkish speakers in mind: the interface and explanations are available in Turkish, and the blog has guides such as English mistakes Turkish speakers make and false friends between English and Turkish.

Verdict: LearnLingo is the better fit if you want grammar explained in Turkish with Turkish-specific traps in mind. Duolingo offers a larger English course from Turkish.

Privacy and ads

Duolingo's free tier shows ads, including rewarded ads to refill energy, and Super removes them. LearnLingo does not run ads inside lessons. Both apps keep a learning record tied to your account. Read each privacy policy before you sign up, especially for children.

Verdict: LearnLingo is lighter on ads. Both collect normal account and progress data.

Practice set: which tense would you choose?

Both apps test grammar like this. Try these ten questions without looking up the answers.

1. She ___ in Ankara since 2019. (lives, has lived, lived)
2. I ___ to the gym yesterday. (go, went, have gone)
3. Look! It ___. (rains, is raining, rained)
4. If it rains tomorrow, we ___ at home. (stay, will stay, would stay)
5. He is ___ honest man. (a, an, the)
6. How ___ water do you drink a day? (many, much, few)
7. We met ___ Monday. (in, on, at)
8. I ___ smoke, but I stopped. (use to, used to, was used to)
9. This is the book ___ I told you about. (who, which, where)
10. She said she ___ tired. (is, was, were)

Answers: 1 has lived, 2 went, 3 is raining, 4 will stay, 5 an, 6 much, 7 on, 8 used to, 9 which, 10 was. If you missed numbers 1, 4 or 8, start with the B1 grammar in either app; if you missed 5, 6 or 7, review A1 and A2 basics first.

A sample week using both apps

Day	Duolingo (10 minutes)	LearnLingo (15 minutes)
Monday	Next path lesson	New unit lesson and its grammar tip
Tuesday	Next path lesson	Practice your mistakes
Wednesday	Stories or listening	Listening Lab game
Thursday	Next path lesson	Grammar Gap game on the week's rule
Friday	Review session	Writing Studio: write five sentences
Saturday	Rest or league push	Speaking Coach
Sunday	Rest	Review the week and take a short quiz

Who should choose Duolingo

• You want a polished, fun app on Android, iOS or web, with offline options in the paid tier.
• You also want to learn other languages, or chess and math, in one place.
• You are willing to pay for Max and want AI conversation practice.
• Friends, leagues and streaks are your strongest motivators.
• You plan to take the Duolingo English Test and like the familiar brand; our guide to the Duolingo English Test explains how it works.

Who should choose LearnLingo

• You only want English and want to see your CEFR level clearly.
• You want grammar explained, not only practiced.
• You do not want to pay and do not want energy limits or ads in lessons.
• You are a Turkish speaker and want explanations in Turkish.
• You like targeted review of your own mistakes and a set of English games.

Using both together

The two apps do not conflict. Keep one as your main course, the one where you follow the level path, and use the other for a different job. A simple rule: use LearnLingo for new grammar and mistake review, and Duolingo as a light daily warm-up or for AI speaking if you have Max. Do not run two full courses at the same speed; that doubles the time and halves the depth. Add real input outside both apps, such as podcasts, reading and conversation, and check your progress with the English level test every two or three months.

People Also Ask

Is LearnLingo better than Duolingo for learning English?

It depends on what you need. LearnLingo is English only, keeps every lesson free without daily energy limits, and adds more grammar explanation and Turkish support. Duolingo has a far bigger app, more polish, AI conversation features in its Max plan and courses in dozens of languages.

Is Duolingo free for English?

Yes, Duolingo has a free tier with ads. Free learners use an energy system that limits how much they can study in a row; Super Duolingo removes ads and energy limits, and Duolingo Max adds AI features such as Video Call.

Does LearnLingo have energy or hearts like Duolingo?

LearnLingo uses hearts, which you lose for mistakes rather than for every exercise. Hearts refill over time, and you can practice old lessons while you wait. LearnLingo Plus gives unlimited hearts, but every lesson stays free.

Can I use LearnLingo and Duolingo at the same time?

Yes, and many learners should. A common setup is Duolingo for a light daily habit and LearnLingo for grammar explanations, targeted mistake review and English-specific games. Keep one of them as your main course so you do not split your time too thin.

Does either app give a certificate?

Neither course gives a certificate for finishing lessons. Duolingo runs a separate paid exam, the Duolingo English Test, which many institutions accept. LearnLingo offers a free level test for self-checking only.

Which is better for Turkish speakers?

Both teach English to Turkish speakers. LearnLingo was built with Turkish speakers in mind, with a Turkish interface, Turkish grammar explanations and blog guides on typical Turkish-speaker mistakes. Duolingo offers a large English course from Turkish with more content variety.