Best Duolingo Alternatives to Try in 2026

1. Mondly  

Mondly is a language learning app specially designed for beginners and basic learners rather than for academic purposes. It is a popular app with over 10M downloads, and you can learn 41 languages here.

Key Features Of Mondly 

• It provides 41 languages, including the top learned ones and the most spoken languages in the world, such as Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, English, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, and many more.
• Hands-free learning: If you don’t have time to type or use your hands, Our Session makes it hands-free. This feature allows you to easily follow lessons through audio.
• Chatbot becomes a personal conversation partner that responds through speaking and reading. 
• Track your progress based on time spent, words, and phrases.
• 1000+ Interactive sessions
• Daily new lessons
• Speak and listen to practice 
• Learn through play 

What Makes Mondly Different?

According to Mondly, I liked the idea of using images, voice, and words from both languages together to learn, which helps develop understanding.

I was also very impressed by the chatbot that creates the atmosphere of a real-life conversation and responds to you by speaking.

Price Offered By Mondly

The best part is that you can start with its Free plan. Yes, they offer a free plan also, but obviously, you don’t get all the key features there.

Mondly’s premium pricing plans come in three variants. The first is the monthly pricing, where you can select any language, like I did, Japanese, and the price is $12.90/month.

The annual pricing is cheaper monthly, costing $5.16/month with annual billing. 

There’s a special plan, the lifetime plan, where you get this plan for every language. This unlocks all the features for a one-time payment and costs $5.16/month, which is quite affordable. 

If you look at the free plan, it gives you one chatbot conversation per day with limits and daily practice sessions. So, if you are a student or a user looking for a free plan, then Mondly is the one you should definitely try.

Pros and Cons Of Mondly 

Use Cases and Ease Of Use 

I noticed that Mondly’s interface is very clean and user-friendly, and they make learning interesting by using images, audio, reading, and speaking to create an interactive and engaging experience. 

It works on web browsers, Android, and iOS. I used it on Chrome and started from the basics to learn Japanese, first learning vocabulary like water, grandfather, tea, etc. 

Then, I took these to the next level with sentence framing, like tea, please. These were well-structured lessons.

My Take 

I find Mondly to be a good learning app that offers interactive lessons and affordable pricing. It offers a step-by-step guide with a solid structure, which I personally found to be ideal for beginners. 

But if you’re looking for academic or career enhancement, it doesn’t provide a detailed explanation, so I wouldn’t recommend it for academic work.

2. LingoDeer

Lingodeer is a well-structured learning app that becomes your language learning guide in 19 languages. It will best suit academic purposes as it provides detailed explanations and notes along with grammar-based rules. 

It also provides you with native speaker video and audio, which will make pronunciation clear and accurate, and learning will be better.

Key Features Of LingoDeer

• It offers 19 most learned and popular languages spoken all over the world, such as French, Chinese, Japanese, German, Korean, Italian, and many more.
• Expert Curricula: In-depth explanation of the language grammar rules
• Detailed Explanation: Gain a clear reason behind every word
• Pronunciation Practice: You learn correct pronunciation from videos of native speakers
• Sentences building sessions
• Offline learning mode 
• Engaging Stories

What Makes LingoDeer Different?

The best thing I liked about Lingoeder was the detailed explanation and the seriousness of the grammar rules. It provides lessons in a textbook format, which gives the learner a classroom feel. 

It teaches you a variety of words and sentences by telling you different engaging stories. This way, the learning purpose is not spoiled, and the learning does not become boring.

Price Offered By LingoDeer

LingoDeer offers five three-year pricing plans, starting with a monthly plan priced at $14.99/month. Then comes a quarterly plan, costing $35.99. Annual pricing is cheaper than monthly pricing, costing $95.99.

LingoDeer does offer free content in all courses, but with limits such as Alphabets, unit one, travel fragment, and first lessons for beginners.

If you’re a long-term user looking for a one-time payment option, Lingodeer offers two lifetime plans: a 3-year premium plan costing $189.99 and a 6-year premium plan costing $239.99.

It also offers a 7-day money-back guarantee, so if you’re thinking of trying it, there’s a 7-day trial available for testing.

If you are a serious learner and want lifetime access, then this plan is a value for money.  

Pros and Cons Of LingoDeer 

Use Cases and Ease Of Use 

Lingodeer’s interface is very easy to understand. It took me no time to get used to it, and it’s compatible with all platforms. It supports Mac and Windows on desktops.

For browsers, it works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari. It’s available on Android and iOS on mobile.

I used this app on my mobile and had a great experience. It first started with ‘Hello’ and then ‘How are you‘, and then explained the grammar rules in French, how it will be used, and also mentioned the sentence framing rules.

It explained everything from the basics to sentence structure in detail, and I found it best for serious learners and academic purposes. The only downside is its speed if you don’t want to learn the language in detail.

My Take

In my opinion, if you are a serious learner and want a in depth learning about the languages, then LingoDeer is the best app with such an affordable price. 

You just have to be consistent, and for academic purposes this will be proven asan excellent partner. 

3. Memrise 

Memrise is a smart learning app that offers 35 official languages ​​for learning. Its main focus is on teaching words and phrases that have real-life relevance, helping you build confidence in any language in no time. It will guide you like a personal AI coach and analyze your learning by tracking your performance.

It does focus on the basic but you will be lacking if you want it for academic purposes.

Key Features Of Memrise

• Memrise offers 35 of the most popular and widely spoken languages, including Spanish, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Portuguese, and many more.
• Learning through native speakers’ videos and audios for learning pronunciation
• Daily conversational vocabulary: Prepares you to speak fluently by learning words and sentences used in real-life conversations.
• Community list: The community list is a separate language list created by Memrise users. It focuses on vocabulary. Users and teachers who are experts in that particular language share extra important vocabulary so that nothing is left out.
• An AI coach where you learn to speak repeatedly to get your pronunciation right, without any embarrassment.
• AI Porewerd Tool: Like in Fill in the Blanks, you’ll be given a phrase or sentence, and you’ll have to speak it out, getting live feedback on the correct pronunciation and words, helping you learn faster.
• Short games, exercises, and challenge cards 
• Offline mode available 
• Progress tracking and path analyzer

What Makes Memrise Different?

I personally found AI coaching to be very helpful, as it allows you to learn by speaking. Hearing the correct pronunciation and tone of voice by listening to native speakers’ videos and practicing speaking it privately multiple times without embarrassment quickly builds confidence in a new language.

It also focuses on real-life vocabulary and sentences, which I found beneficial because just learning things like “What’s your name” isn’t enough.

Price Offered By Memrise

The free version of Memrise offers the option to learn all languages and also offers lessons and speaking practice, but with some limitations.

If you’re looking for features like ad-free videos from all native speakers and unlimited practice sessions, you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which is available in three different options. 

Monthly pricing starts at just $24.99/month, and annual pricing is significantly cheaper than the monthly price, at just $61.99/year, which will cost $5.17/month. 

If you opt for the lifetime plan, which offers a one-time payment, it costs $329.99. It will unlock all the premium features for a lifetime, and I can call this plan cost-effective. 

Pros and Cons Of Memrise

Use Cases and Ease Of Use 

Memrise is very easy to use and start. On desktop, just about any browser works, be it Safari, Edge, Chrome, or Firefox. I used Chrome, and I found the interface best for learning on a big screen for a long time.

The Memrise app works on mobile, which supports both Android and iOS. I personally found the mobile app to be much smoother to use as compared to the browser.

I used Memrise to learn Japanese, which has different sections. In Food, you’ll start with food-related words, what dishes and fruits are called, and how to order food in a restaurant. It teaches from basic to advanced sentence framing.

My Take

In my opinion, if you are learning to travel abroad and connect with people, then this app is best for you. But if an academic or career boost is the goal, then this may disappoint you. 

4. Drops

Drops is the best app for basic learning, offering 50 languages and making learning fun. Its short practice sessions and spaced retention technique are highly recommended. It is specially designed for students and kids to make it creative and interesting.

Key Features Of Drops

• Drops offers a long list of 50 languages, the most popular and most learned languages, that include French, German, Chinese (Cantonese & Mandarin), Danish, Dutch, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, and many more, including regional languages.
• Short sessions: It provides you with short, crisp lessons and quizzes daily, allowing you to focus more in less time. 
• Space retention technique: For example, if I studied a lesson today, it assigns it to me the next day for a quick review. Then, the next day, I revise the lesson again through games to strengthen my memory. 
• Offline support available. 
• Gameplay mode: It makes learning interesting through games. I’ve completed several levels and always want to keep playing the next level. Which doesn’t build consistency. 
• Progress tracking: So you can improve your learning by tracking your progress. 
• Private dictionary: This searches for words in your selected language and gives you answers in seconds.

What Makes Drops Different?

I personally enjoyed his memory retention technique. I forget the first day’s lesson, so he revises it himself the next day and sometimes gives a quiz the day after that. This way, you don’t become bored while learning, nor do you forget what you’ve learned.

The second is a personal dictionary, in which I entered English from my dictionary and Dutch as the desired change. Whatever word you want to search, it immediately converts it to Dutch.

Price Offered By Drops

If I talk about pricing, then these plans are available in three variants. Drops offers a free plan in all its languages, where you can play for 5 minutes every 10 hours, and topics are unlocked as you level up.

Monthly pricing is $12.99/month. 

The yearly plan comes with a 7-day free trial, which you can test before purchasing. 

In my opinion, you must use the free trial because the yearly plan is much cheaper than the monthly plan, and you can save a lot of dollars. 

The yearly plan will cost $5.83 per month with annual billing of $69.99. 

There is also a lifetime plan, which gives lifetime access to all the features in a one-time purchase for just $159.99.

Pros and Cons Of Memrise

Use Cases and Ease Of Use 

When I used Drops, it was easy to start. You don’t need to install anything. You just need to log in and use any browser on your desktop, be it Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. 

The interface is quite easy to understand, and the tools are also easy to understand. I selected Beginner to learn core vocabulary, and it introduced easy words like table, bottle, rice, etc. 

You can install its mobile app, which is available for both Android and iOS users.

My Take

According to me, Drops is good for beginners and those who want to learn only basic learning. But it does not give a grammar explanation, which is not useful for academic purposes. 

Also, I found it lacking in real conversation with native speakers and speaking practice, so if you are looking for a career boost, then it will not help with your fluency.

5. CopyCat Cafe 

Copycat Cafe is specially designed for French learners. Its focus is on speaking and correct pronunciation. It prioritizes real-life conversations and uses sentences and phrases based on them, so you can not only master the basics but also become fluent in speaking, understanding, and feel confident.

Key Features Of CopyCat Cafe

• AI Pronunciation Checker: It listens to your pronunciation, scores it based on how accurate it is, and makes you speak in repetition. 
• Practice modes: It provides 5 practice modes per lesson, and an offline mode is also available.
• 90+ Interactive lessons
• Speech to text: Its main focus is on improving the speaking ability and clear pronunciation. 
• Smart Repetition: It makes you practice the same word or sentence by repeating it again and again so that you do not forget it. 
• Everyday situation conversations: Dialogues such as asking directions, ordering food, etc. 
• Hands-Free mode: This makes your learning seamless. You can keep up with all the flashcards and phrases in audio form without having to wait. 

What Makes Copycat Cafe Different?

According to me, the best is their structured speaking method, in which they focus more on speaking and its pronunciation. Also, the pronunciation checker scores your pronunciation. 

Phrases and sentence structure are already based on real-life conversations. Also, they provide practice lessons in offline mode. The best is the hands-free mode, so that all learning is possible through audio only.

Price Offered By Copycat Cafe

Copycat Cafe is affordable, offering a monthly price of $29 and a 30-day money-back guarantee. 

The annual plan is cheaper compared to the monthly price, which will cost $14.50/month if billed annually, for $174, with 6 months completely free.

Both plans also offer a 7-day free trial.

Also, if you want to go on trips with family or an area group that can connect 5 accounts with one subscription, that too with their separate progress score, then you can go for a family plan, which will cost $240/year in an annual plan and $40/month in a monthly plan.

Pros and Cons Of CopyCat Cafe 

Use Cases and Ease Of Use 

I found its usage and features implementation quite easy and user-friendly. It does not have its own dedicated app in Playstore and App Store, but you can use it directly in the browser. 

It works in all browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge. And it supports Android and iOS on the phone. 

You can use it without any interruption wherever you want. The interface is also clean and easy to understand.

I started with the first level to learn French, where I listened to the French language and then said the same words again to check the pronunciation. Accuracy scores are given instantly. And you can practice it even when you’re not listening without feeling embarrassed.

My Take 

In my opinion, Copycat Cafe was created specifically for French learners, so only they should use it. Also, pricing-wise, it seemed a bit costly to me because you can only learn one language. 

The best part is that it focuses on a detailed explanation of grammar rules and pronouncition checker, which will be very beneficial for French learners. If you take the 7-day free trial, you get to test it in real time and make the right choice.