There are various language learning apps nowadays but there is a common problem, which app is the best for learning a new language? In today’s Preply vs. Duolingo post, we will review the features of these two amazing apps and compare them so that you can easily choose which one best fits your needs as a language learner. If you are ready for that, keep reading below!
Preply: First Look
Preply is an online language learning platform that brings language learners and experienced language tutors together around the world. There are a considerable number of tutors on Preply, and that number is growing constantly. With such a large pool of language tutors, finding a suitable teacher for any language you would ever want is a piece of cake.
The Preply app doesn’t actually teach anything at all. It is just a platform that allows you access to its huge database of online tutors. You can browse each tutor’s profile, watch their introduction videos, as well as filter them by price, rating, specialty, availability, etc.
Features Of Preply
Tutors Available In 27 Languages
Preply offers 27 popular languages with thousands of language teachers. I appreciate this variety with more than 40,000 language tutors registered on the platform also means that you’ll have lots of options when you are looking for a language tutor. Preply’s most outstanding feature can be this language and teacher variety.
Learn Anytime
Since you are able to access teachers all around the world, you can pretty much have an online lesson any time of the day. It is quite easy to find a tutor with this language app. All you need to do is search for the language you would like to learn. There are several different filters you can select.
Filter Tutors
Price Per Hour: Ranges from $4-$40.
Country: You can choose where your tutor lives. This can help you when you need to learn a specific dialect of your target language.
Time of the Day And Day of the Week: Let’s say you are a morning person like me. Well, you can select a filter so that the app will show you tutors that are also up at the crack of dawn.
Expert Areas: This section has a large list with options like business language, lessons for kids and lessons for dyslexic students, etc.
Also Speaks: Let’s say you want to learn German while also practicing your Chinese, you can select a tutor that speaks both of those languages.
Placement Test
If you already know some of your target languages you can take a placement test before meeting with your tutor so that your tutor will be able to know your language level and speak according to your proficiency level. So please don’t skip placement tests!
Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| Experienced language tutors | Limited flexibility on lesson packages |
| Variety of tutors available | No free version |
| Lessons are easy to schedule |
Duolingo: First Look
No doubt that Duolingo is always the first choice to learn a new language because it is one of the most popular online language-learning platforms in the world. It has numerous language choices for you. It is alluring with lively colors and visuals because of its gaming approach to language learning. Perhaps the best part of Duolingo is that it is completely free.
Duolingo offers you about 90 different language courses. It covers fundamental language skills in each lesson. The app focuses on motivation as a learning method because once you lose your motivation to learn a language, you won’t get efficiency. This app aims to protect your motivation with a gamified approach and ranking system.
Features Of Duolingo
Different Learning Styles
It looks like the designers of the Duolingo app are aware of the fact that every language learner has a different learning style. Every person is different so is their learning style. As we know, there are different learning styles: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and reading-writing. So Duolingo has various materials for each learner type except for the kinesthetics (which we can’t expect from an online app). There are plenty of illustrations for visual learners, voiceovers, and podcasts for auditory learners, but reading-writing is the base of activities.
Gamified Teaching Approach
In Duolingo, every language course consists of a tree system. As you finish lessons one by one, you reach a checkpoint. You have to complete all checkpoints in order to finish that language course. Every time you make a mistake a heart goes down and when you don’t have hearts anymore, you will have to wait until they are filled.
Motivational Competition
You can compete with your friends on the Duolingo leaderboard and with 50 random Duolingo users each week. Duolingo Leagues are designed to motivate you to learn your target language. There are ten leagues in total, and only the top 10 learners level up to the next league, while the bottom ten learners are demoted to the previous league.
Short Stories
Duolingo has a short stories section that offers voiced over stories based on your language level. You can listen to them with or without transcription. This feature is also perfect for those who aim to master their listening skills as well as identify how certain letters sound while speaking.
Duolingo Plus
All language courses are already free on Duolingo. However, you encounter unpleasant details like interrupting ads, limited hearts, etc. If you get a Duolingo Plus account with $6.99 per month, you will have unlimited hearts, get rid of ads, and you will have a mastery quiz for each lesson.
Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
| All language courses are free | Lessons are repetitive |
| Suitable for all learner levels and types | Distracting ads |
| It has both free and premium version | No discussion on grammar points |
Preply Vs Duolingo Review
After reviewing both apps we can say that if you are a complete beginner and don’t know much about your target language Duolingo could be a better choice for you. On the other hand, if you already know some about the target language or maybe you want to master your speaking by talking to native speakers or listening-comprehension skills, then Preply is perfect for you.
The Best Alternative: Ling App
The Ling App by Simya Solutions is a language learning app with more than 60 different languages. It is a younger app among other language learning apps, but it has already been featured on many platforms and liked by many language learners. As soon as you log in, you can learn a foreign language and improve your language skills. If you want to learn about a new culture and the language learning secrets, don’t forget to look at our Ling blogs too!
The best part is that you can try it for free! Download the Ling App from App Store or Play Store!
