Five strong language-learning apps that can replace Duolingo

Duolingo’s change to stricter energy limits for free users has driven many learners elsewhere. The good news is that a few mature apps now provide thicker grammar instruction, meatier speaking practice, or more natural listening than a gamified streak counter. Based on established standards such as the CEFR and the science of memory around spaced repetition, here are five apps that truly stand in for something rather than warming a bench.

Busuu’s structured learning with CEFR-aligned course paths

Busuu’s courses are aligned with the Common European Framework of Reference, a leading proficiency scale adopted by the Council of Europe. That matters if you care about real, measurable progress from A1 to B2 rather than vague notions of “completing a unit.” Lessons mix short dialogues, focused drills, and review cycles without daily punishment for errors.

A standout is the community feature: native speakers can correct your writing or recordings, reinjecting a human feedback element that many learners crave. Busuu claims a community of more than 120 million learners, which keeps the peer review engine running. Free users can follow core paths; the premium tier features custom lesson order and subject areas.

Babbel puts grammar first for serious, structured study

If you’re willing to pay, Babbel is still the platform that treats grammar as a first-class skill, not an afterthought.

Lessons explicitly teach structure and word order, then pressure you to use patterns in writing or speaking tasks. Speech recognition gives instant feedback on pronunciation, and short podcasts develop exposure to real-world listening.

Babbel’s catalog is heavier on European languages, which is a drawback. But for Spanish, French, German, Italian, and others, the mix of scaffolded grammar plus cumulative review plus topic-based drills makes it an acceptable replacement for a beginning classroom. The company has referenced independent evaluations of learner outcomes; methods vary, but course design follows guidance from ACTFL, fitting in with integrated skills.

Memrise features native video clips and real everyday phrases

Memrise offers exposure with immersion lite in exchange for the strict paths. Its short native-speaker clips and colloquial phrases make it perfect if you’re more interested in making sense of everyday speech than turning out tidy sentences. The spaced-repetition engine reiterates what you’ve learned without being punitive about mistakes, and blast review sessions help to combat the forgetting curve — a phenomenon outlined in Ebbinghaus’s seminal memory research.

On the free plan, Memrise emphasizes vocabulary and set phrases; grammar packs and more in-depth practice sit behind premium. Even so, many learners leapfrog from real voices — including regional accents — all the way to a more advanced stage in listening comprehension. And with tens of millions of users and a constant stream of brief videos, it makes for an interesting alternative to Duolingo if you want to focus on more modern, conversational language use.

Drops builds visual vocabulary that sticks through repetition

Drops takes a laser-focused, five-minute visual approach, and it scales up vocabulary rapidly with icons, swipes, and recall reminders. It is particularly effective if you have plateaued when it comes to basic words, and seek breadth across practical topics (travel, food, or hobbies, for instance). The format is frictionless and the daily cap can be a gift of consistency.

And even in the free version, which keeps the time limit intact and gives you just a taste of content, it remains a powerful tool for building daily habits. For languages with distinct scripts, combining Drops and a script-specific focused app speeds up learning. The purchase of the company by Kahoot points to its strength in gamified microlearning, though here the game is a device for retention rather than streak anxiety.

LingoDeer focuses on Asian languages and character systems

LingoDeer is punching above its weight for students of Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. It offers grammar taught with clear explanations, drills stroke order when writing characters, and includes focused practice on scripts, tones, and particles that stump beginners. It’s that concern for writing systems and grammatical rules many generalist software apps lack.

The first sessions and a travel phrasebook are free, so you get a real feel for the approach before paying. If your personal hot list includes reading menus in Tokyo, texting friends in Seoul, or decoding hanzi on a Beijing street corner, LingoDeer’s character drills and sentence-building exercises — few other programs embrace two sets of characters the way this one does — make it an instrument more finely tuned than some one-size-fits-all platform can be.

Bottom line: choosing the right app to replace Duolingo

Choose Busuu if you want CEFR-matched structure and human feedback, Babbel when you’re willing to make an investment in grammar-led progress, Memrise for native video and slang-rich listening, Drops for expanding vocabulary fast in focused bursts (but also at random), and LingoDeer for script-savvy learning in languages of Asia.

Whatever you choose, the evidence-based trade-offs are plain: life can be improved with consistent spaced repetition, active recall, and mixed modality — listening, speaking, reading, and writing that new language. With these five, you can leave energy caps and streak-induced pressure behind, and instead build a routine that will actually move you toward real-world proficiency.