Does Duolingo work? We put its free version to the test

Learning a new language means something different to everybody. Some grow up in bilingual households, others travel the world, and some just want to feel the satisfaction of joining a subculture of those who can pull out cool, foreign phrases like magic tricks.

For me, it’s almost a combination of all three. Many years ago now, my family subtly let me know that I was the first generation not to know a lick of German. Mix that with living in a very German-Minnesotan area and having a strong desire to absorb just about every piece of history, and I was eager to remedy the situation as fast as possible.

I had taken French classes in high school, then Spanish in college, and never kept up with it—so I vowed to myself that this time it would be different. I turned to one of the most recognizable names in the language app space: Duolingo. You may know them from their hilarious TikToks or their passive-aggressive reminder notifications.

It’s free to use, fun in a quirky way, and extremely easy to get started. For about a year, I used Duolingo’s language-learning app religiously, cruising my way through 60% of the German courses! I loved how quickly I was covering the materials, and I had technically moved onto the A2 Pre-Intermediate level of language proficiency. But there was a problem with my Duolingo experience.

Once I told my family the good news, they asked me to say something and I froze. I felt like I had been growing so much—picking up verb tenses, dative pronouns, and all kinds of subject matter—yet I couldn’t think of anything besides random vocabulary to say.

While there are many things I love about Duolingo, that moment made me realize that maybe this wasn’t the be-all, end-all way for me to learn—but that may not be the case for everyone! That’s why I want to share my full Duolingo review so you can read all about my experience and opinions.

Jump to:

• Pricing and subscription options
• Language selection and skill levels
• Variety of exercises and activities
• Gamification elements
• Learning methodology
• Progress tracking features
• Community and social features
• Is Duolingo actually good for learning languages?

Pricing and subscription options

Duolingo is probably best known for being one of the best free language-learning apps out there. That was certainly my primary motivation for downloading Duolingo, but I feel that most people don’t know that many of the app’s features are behind a paywall.

If you’re a casual learner, this may not affect you, as everyone gets full access to every available language course in its entirety at no cost. The paywalls factor in with convenience and minimizing irritations.

What’s included in Duolingo Plus

The most frustrating part of being a free user is being limited on how many mistakes you can make—which caps out at five per day. So, if you’re stuck on a lesson and make a ton of errors, you may not even be able to finish without spending some of your XP.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that free users are strictly able to “learn” and not “practice,” as defined on the app. “Learning” is the app’s main content, while “practicing” grants you access to reviewing exercises, like speaking and listening conversation practice, plus a strong focus on rehearsing mistakes. The only thing free users get is “Stories,” which are lessons in story form, so you can review words in real-world contexts.

When you become a Duolingo Plus user, you get access to all learning and practice content, unlimited mistakes, and no ads. As someone who was a free user for over a year, I can see how these added benefits could really improve the experience—particularly with the conversation practice, which is primarily where I felt so frustrated.

Comparison to Babbel

After deciding that Duolingo didn’t meet my personal needs, I’ve since moved to another excellent language-learning app, Babbel. The biggest difference I’ve noticed is that Babbel explains new grammar concepts before giving them to me in lessons, which has simply worked better for my learning style.

The Babbel app moves at a far slower pace that honestly took me a while to get used to, whereas Duolingo speeds right along. If you know your learning style, the choice may be easy. I wrote a full, honest Babbel review if you want to read more about the other app.

Another difference is in the cost. While Duolingo is free or $6.99 a month, depending on which you think you may need, Babbel has a lifetime subscription. Since I know I’m a long-term learner, this larger purchase just made sense. Though, if you’re thinking about picking up some of a new language just for the short term, Duolingo may be the wiser choice.

Language selection and skill levels

This is one area where Duolingo beats out both the Rosetta Stone app and Babbel, offering access to 40 languages. You’ll find the big ones—Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Korean, Italian, Chinese, etc.—but also some that rarely get mentioned in the language-learning space, such as Swahili, Welsh, Navajo, Yiddish, and even Klingon.

Duolingo lets you switch between languages as you please, and I’ve dabbled in Spanish and Navajo.

Each language has varying levels of depth. You’ll find that the more popular courses, like Spanish, go all the way up to B2 proficiency, while those like Navajo only have a handful of lessons. Still, it’s hard to complain when you’re getting this much value from a free language-learning app.

When you select a new language, the app asks you whether you’re new to the language or if you have some experience. That way, you aren’t stuck doing newbie lessons if you already know some terms.

On the “Learn” tab, you also always have the option to jump ahead to sections for any reason. I can see this being helpful if you’re coming from another app, have taken classes previously, or just feel confident and are ready to move on.

Variety of exercises and activities

What does Duolingo teach you? Of course, we all know it teaches languages, but the specifics between this app and its methods differentiate wildly from others.

In Duolingo’s world, the first step is picking up new words by matching them with pictures. Then, you’ll start stringing them together in a short sentence. Something like, “I drink water,” is probably one of the first things you’ll learn. And a lot of food items, nouns, and actions, actually. It takes a few lessons to get into “real” content, in my opinion.

Eventually, the exercises themselves ask you to speak a sentence, and you’ll be evaluated based on accuracy—but don’t worry, you get multiple chances to try before it counts as a mistake. (You can also say, “Can’t speak now” if you’re in a public area and don’t want to look crazy talking to your phone.) Another common request in lessons is to listen to a phrase and figure out the words that were spoken.

An infinitely helpful feature of Duolingo is the universal translation. In any lesson, review, story, or whatever you’re doing, you always have the option to tap (on mobile) or hover (on desktop) over the foreign words and get an English translation. This ensures you’re never stranded and too confused to move on. Although, a tip from me: Try not to “abuse” this; if you use it too often, you may not be learning.

As you complete lessons, you move down a path that consists of new material, personalized practice sessions, and story-based practice. This not only helps add some variety while you’re completing multiple lessons in one sitting (which, believe me, gets addicting, especially when you’re a new learner), but also helps you gain a comprehensive knowledge base.

Ease of use

One of the biggest things that sets Duolingo learning apart from other apps, even my experience with Babbel, is the user experience—and just how simple everything is. Within minutes of installing the app, you’re taking lessons.

New Duolingo users simply need to have which language they want to learn in mind, select it, and answer a few basic questions. The app basically wants to know if you have any prior knowledge of the language (so you don’t have to waste time reviewing what you already know) and what your goals are, so it can help you create a learning plan.

The most unique thing about Duolingo is that it’s so motivating to users, so when it asks about your goals, it really intends to remind you to come back to study—almost aggressively. You can even add widgets to your phone, and the Duolingo owl is pleased when you’re on track with lessons, but angry when you’re ignoring them.

While you may be most interested in using the app on your phone, I also recommend checking it out on desktop. In my Duolingo days, that’s how I primarily used it, as the interface was bigger. Another tip: When you’re doing fill-in-the-blank exercises, you can type the first letter of the word you want to select on your keyboard instead of using your mouse or trackpad to speed up the lessons even more!

Gamification elements

Who doesn’t love games? Especially mobile games. They’re designed to be addictive, so it’s no wonder that the internet has grown so fond of Duolingo and its green owl mascot.

The most well-known thing about Duolingo is probably its learning streak. “Don’t break your streak or else” is kind of the motto or theme, and a prime motivator. At the peak of my Duolingo time, I believe mine was over 300—and yes, it was a sad day when I chose to finally break it. The desire not to break it had me doing lessons in the weirdest of places, so I can attest to the fact that it truly worked.

The gist is that you complete a lesson and gain 10 XP, or redo it for additional practice and get 5 XP. (Duolingo Plus users can do Legendary lessons and earn 40 XP.) XP moves you up within leaderboard leagues—if you’re in the top 11 at the end of a week, you move up to the next board. Once you reach the Diamond League, you’re basically a top-tier player and get bragging rights among your friends.

A final thing that makes Duolingo feel like a game is that you can earn gems, which are in-game currency. You may earn these by completing quests, finishing in those above-mentioned leagues, or finishing achievements, and then spend them in the app’s Shop.

You may even snag “Streak Freezes,” so even if you miss a lesson for a day or two, you won’t lose your streak, or use gems to replenish your hearts if you make too many mistakes in one day. I wish there were more things for free users to try, but that’s currently all that’s available.

Learning methodology

When I first downloaded Duolingo, I wasn’t really thinking about fluency—I just wanted to get started. Looking back now, that’s probably the app’s biggest strength: It removes the barriers and intimidation. But, I’m not sure its methods are great for everyone. I’ll walk you through them, and you can decide what’s best for your situation.

It’s built like a game, not a class

Starting with the bigger picture, the app as a whole has a relaxed nature. For anyone who’s not thinking, “I want to become fluent in German!” this might be your kind of app, since you can open it, get some satisfying clicks and cute visuals, and leave five minutes later with some new words in your brain.

Where I found it lacking, however, was that the lessons were almost too short. Remember: I was and am on this journey for the long run, so simply learning some new vocabulary was not enough for me—and taking 20 in one day was not sustainable (yes, I really would do that).

The lessons start simple…but maybe too simple?

As far as the actual lessons go, their main focus seems to be on repetition within the session, and then you move on. For instance, in some of the new Spanish lessons I dabbled in, I learned the words for “woman” and “water,” then used them in pretty much every variation of a sentence you could think of.

This provided me with a thorough understanding of those specific terms. Duolingo will also continue using that same vocabulary in future lessons and keep building upon it as new nouns and verbs are added.

However, there is one fatal error that I have noticed, and it only gets worse the further you go. The app is not shy with tossing new words your way, but it will never give you a formal introduction to those words—or explain a verb conjugation, or anything else you find confusing for that matter—within the actual lessons.

For those explanations, you must click on the “Guidebook” on the “Learn” homepage, and even then, you may still be left with questions. This personally left me frustrated, as I was often left to fend for myself with the app’s universal translations or waste my precious mistakes (limited to five per day) to figure it out.

Mixed learning path for variety

I know I’ve been a little harsh, so forgive me, but one thing I must give Duolingo is that the content is challenging—and that’s a good thing, of course. If you were just tapping through lessons, you wouldn’t be learning a single thing.

As you follow down the “Learn” path, you’ll encounter regular lessons, reviews, and stories, but at the end, you also have to test out of each unit. It’s intense. You have to review all of the materials covered in that section while making fewer than three total mistakes before you can move on, which really ensures that you’re ready to absorb new material.

Progress tracking features

Duolingo tracks your progress in several different and visually satisfying ways. At the course level, you’ll see your path laid out as a series of units and checkpoints, with each one unlocking more content as you go. Of course, there’s that emphasis on daily streaks and XP milestones, which show up on the right of your screen on desktop, or on a special bottom tab on mobile.

As you move through each unit, the circles fill in once you’ve completed them. Seeing more and more completed icons along your path definitely scratches that progress itch.

You can also zoom out for a larger scale view of your total progress in each course, if you wish. For instance, if you were me, you could see that you completed three of the six German courses and are currently done with five of 51 lessons in the A2 course.

I personally find seeing how advanced the next course is to be my strongest motivator, as in, “Wow, if I keep going through 46 more lessons, I’ll be in the highest-ranking course on the app!” as the last is a review course.

Community and social features

Perhaps Duolingo’s most unique feature is the fact that you can add friends and interact with them on your learning journey. Some of them you may meet through the app’s leaderboard, but it’s even more fun to add real-life friends so you can see each other’s progress, hold one another accountable, or have some friendly competition.

Duolingo even added a feature where you can customize your character icon so you can recognize your friends’ profiles and send them shoutouts when they earn achievements or come back to learn after taking a break. Maybe it sounds kind of silly, but these things are actually pretty motivating when you get into a slump.

Is Duolingo actually good for learning languages?

Now, onto the big question, and I think it's a loaded one, as everyone has different goals, learning styles, and experiences with the app. Even me, who decided not to continue using the app, still grew from it!

My experience

If someone were to ask me, “Does Duolingo work?” I’d have to say “yes,” but it depends on what your ultimate goals are. Hoping to pick up some basic, conversational terms you can use on your next trip? Absolutely. But hoping to work toward complete fluency? I don’t think it’s possible with the app’s limitations in explaining grammar and helping you apply it in real-world scenarios.

Those who sign up for Duolingo Plus may have a greater chance with long-term learning, since they’ll have the app’s enhanced review and conversational tools. Compared to other tools, like Babbel, there is a lower cost to entry to simply try out the app; however, if you’re in the language game for the long haul, you’ll end up paying far more over time.

What others have to say

Even though I no longer use the app, it’s worth considering other perspectives. First, I went to the App Store to see what others had to say about Duolingo.

It makes sense that 5-star reviews are at the top, one of which says,”I’ve been using the App daily for more than five years studying Spanish for work. It has helped a lot, and is easy to use.”

Two of my coworkers are practically obsessed with Duolingo, so I asked them what about the app has kept them coming back after all this time. Alexis, who has Duolingo Plus, shared, “I liked how there was an AI character you could have a real spoken conversation with that would adapt to what you were saying and ask for more information.” She also said that when she makes mistakes, AI analyzes them…I can see why paying extra is worth it.

Michael, with an impressive 100-day-plus streak, says, “I love the gamification of learning a new language, the accessibility of it, and the hilarious animations. Duolingo’s branding is something to marvel. If you download the app and aren’t using the widget window to remind you of your streak, you’re missing out.”

But not everyone has positive things to say—in fact, several lower-star App Store reviews complain that recent updates (from 2023 to the present day) have made the app more difficult to use or have removed beloved features. I remember one major update that changed the main learning path, as you used to be able to pick and choose the next topic, but now, you must follow one set plan.

What research says

The biggest question of all may not necessarily be whether or not any individual likes Duolingo, but whether research has shown that it’s actually effective. I think a lot of this skepticism stems from the fact that Duolingo is a free app, whereas other brand names like Babbel and Rosetta Stone automatically earn their credibility.

But rest assured, several of Duolingo’s methods have been proven by research. One study by the University of Toronto found that English learners who completed the A2 level of Duolingo’s courses actually scored above that level in official standardized testing.

Need more proof? Several studies have found that taking courses with Duolingo is just as effective as classroom instruction. It seems that, no matter your goals, it absolutely cannot hurt to start learning with Duolingo.

The bottom line

Just because Duolingo wasn’t my personal favorite app doesn’t mean it’s not the right choice for you. In fact, since it’s a free app that allows you to get started within minutes of downloading, it’s an excellent option for newbies to see if they’re even interested in language learning or capable of sticking to it before making a larger investment in time and money.

We’ve answered the burning question of whether or not a free language-learning app is any good—absolutely, although there may be restrictions depending on your style. We recommend Duolingo for anyone curious about language learning but not wanting to make a serious commitment. If you love it and hope to get more out of it, you might upgrade to a Duolingo Super subscription. And, if you don’t enjoy it, there’s really no harm done.