• Duolingo

Duolingo

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Overview

Duolingo has a rating of 2.41 stars from 77 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Duolingo ranks 188th among Language Learning sites.

  • Service
    25
  • Value
    29
  • Returns
    7
  • Quality
    30
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 6.3%
Positive
2
Neutral
8
Negative
22
4
See all photos
How would you rate Duolingo?
Top Positive Review

“2016 words learned in the paid version”

C.G W.
2/17/24

Duolingo is a blast as you work your way past he Diamond League - winning 1st place. Now I don't have the paid version anymore. So Duo stopped teaching and left me hanging with the same 5 words like a broken record. No real grammar but enough vocabulary for transitioning to another learning platform. So yes, the paid version is fun and effective up to 2000 words. That is why I recommend Duo and his friends.

Top Critical Review

“Passive aggressive emails”

J M.
2/15/24

I stopped practicing Duolingo for a few days and received ridiculously critical emails? Is this way of motivating people to participate? I found it aggressive and rude. The last message was 'how do you say quitter in Italian?' That's downright bullying. Do better … a lot better Duo Lingo because like others affected by this experience, you've lost me as a participant and I will not recommend as an effective language learning app.

Reviews (77)

Rating

Timeframe

Other

Thumbnail of user aydinn
1 review
0 helpful votes
January 13th, 2024

After reaching a certain level, you keep doing the same set of exercises over and over and over … again. At least this is the case for Arabic. I do not know if it is different in other languages. It is good to reach a certain middle level but after that you are not learning anything new. They should diversify the should the exercise pool. It is quite limited, not good enough for many purposes to learn a language. Also, though it is free, they make it annoying to remain on free version.

Thumbnail of user sandness.karen
1 review
0 helpful votes
December 26th, 2023

Just for fun, I decided to take the Hawaiian course, and the selection of material is strange. There's a heavy emphasis on sports and exercise terminology as well as dated material about pandemic health precautions, but very little about Hawaiian culture or nature. No systematic work on the number system. On the other hand, the Chinese course is a good review for me, since I last took Chinese 30 years ago and am learning vocabulary that has changed since then.

Products used:
Hawaiian and Chinese course

Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user laxmilinda
1 review
0 helpful votes
February 9th, 2024

I find Duolingo to be frustrating much of the time. I don't care about the games, I am looking to learn a language. Hindi, to be specific. I find it very repetitious, with no explanation of why or which rules apply, and the sentences are often ridiculous and have no practical value. My main frustration, however, is that the English translations are often wrong or they will mark you wrong when you translate a sentence into perfectly good English but their translation is not very good English. The program marks you wrong for translating something into proper English...without getting it "right" however you can't move on so you have to become accustomed to responding with incorrect English!

Thumbnail of user pamelap77
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
November 21st, 2023

Very useful, fun & progressive app, except for blasting you with so many loud ads that it teaches you as much to watch ads as it does another language. Duolingo advertises its Super Duolingo so much that that particular ad is starting to make me naseous. There are also occasional grammatical errors such as the following:
We didn't use to write emails
Nous Nous n'ecrivions pas d'emails
So, it should say "used to"

Products used:
Duolingo

Service
Thumbnail of user cc937
1 review
0 helpful votes
November 5th, 2023

Duolingo can be free but you will have tons of adds that interrupt. It is designed to be a highly competive app in which you progress to different levels while competing with others. People can pay to assist with accumulating mega points. You unfortunately cannot choose to forego being dragged in to the levels. It teaches you to read the language but not really to be fluent. They dont adequately explain grammar rules, and you cannot hit a back button to review your previous screens while going through lessons.at least Ive never been able to do so. It does teach vocabulary in the language you choose. They also have many different languages to choose from. You can pay a small monthly fee to eliminate the adds, which is worth it and means the overall cost is reasonable.

Products used:
Service

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user lynnep295
1 review
0 helpful votes
May 31st, 2023

I've learned a lot of words and phrases with Duolingo. The thing I'm most concerned about is the stories are often about « friends » lying to each other and taking advantage of each other. I don't think this is an okay subtext to be teaching especially as the app brags about teaching more kids a language then they would be learning in school. How to lie and bully? Really?

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user garyj725
1 review
1 helpful vote
October 15th, 2022
Verified purchase

I subscribed to Super Duolingo and found it to be a great improvement over the free version. Within a week, however, I suddenly had no access to the Super Duolingo that I had paid for. Then, I was able to use it by signing onto the web, but could not 'speak answers' or access the leader board. Repeated requests for assistance have gone unanswered. VERY DISAPPOINTING!

Tip for consumers:
Once you have passed your free trial, any specific help required will not be available. Only boiler-plate FAQs are there to assist. If they don’t apply to your problem, you’re out of luck.

Products used:
Super Duolingo

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user mciacci
1 review
0 helpful votes
September 8th, 2023

Duolingo used to be very good up to 2021, there were forums were one could discuss learning topics and resources, there was some form of grammar too. Now it's completely brain dead repetition, just sentences you need to learn by heart, no guidance on what is wrong and what you need to learn, no access to forums, only bug reporting. It's like a competitive game where quantity is above quality... much like the trend in education of the last few decades. I now prefer free youtube lessons instead of duolingo. Also duolingo pushes you tons of ads to convince you that if you pay you get something more. That is largely false. You only get infinite lives and infinite chances to learn by heart, yes, ads free, but still without true didactical value. I am rather disappointed by the loss of value which could have been avoided. Add a grammar section to each unit please and bring duolingo back to its original shape!

Since there is no true alternative to duolingo which isn't boring like hell, i am forced sticking with it, but not as a single resource. You won't learn anything without self organized effort from multiple resources, including a good text book.

Tip for consumers:
Duolingo became a merely commercial push. It is no longer user centric.

Thumbnail of user vicw39
1 review
1 helpful vote
April 19th, 2023

Duolingo is a pretty good app for learning the basics of a language, however, they aren't really trying to make it free. They do many things to cause you to use your hearts so that you have to buy them.
First of all, I would suggest the way to get the most out of Duolingo would be to learn a language with a friend. If you and a friend are learning together and are staying on similar levels then you can begin to speak to each other and that will greatly enhance your ability to learn language and recall what you're learning in a conversational manner. Duolingo tries to do that but I don't think it's very successful.
Second, they use this heart system which doesn't work very well, and they say they're trying to keep the app free, but they will do things to make you lose your hearts, like add words that you have never seen before in the answers. I've had many times when I've had a fill in the blank question, and the answer was a word that I have never seen in any of my lessons. They do this so that you lose your hearts and you have to either wait or do something to get more hearts. They hope that you will buy them. I would not suggest that. There are other ways

Products used:
The app

Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user ozmundf
0 reviews
0 helpful votes
June 26th, 2022

I am studying 5 languages on Duolingo and have been with them since 2018. Their approach does have merit so I wouldn't be totally negative by any means. I have learned a great deal consistently from the app having missed less than 10 days of learning and I have memorized over 1500. Words in that time. The reason I don't rate it any higher is for the following: I) lack of customer support, 2) treating language learning as a competitive game exclusively by promoting and demoting people according to changing point structures at their whims. Learning language IS NOT a game, but a serious endeavor! I will be looking elsewhere soon. At the same time I am positive about Duolingo's future and will continue to work on it and support it. They gave me two years for free and I decided to give them money in appreciation. Thanks Duolingo!

Thumbnail of user raelyng1
12 reviews
2 helpful votes
October 17th, 2020

A really great site to learn new language giving just 5 minutes of your day. It helped me to learn Spanish from basics.

Thumbnail of user salvatoreb35
8 reviews
21 helpful votes
May 5th, 2020

Good as introduction to a language, but never expect it to help with speaking skills, of course. Supplementing it with actual conversations with native speakers is still a must.

Thumbnail of user kevinw765
3 reviews
1 helpful vote
July 3rd, 2020

I am learning Spanish and the course has the Spanish Flag to identify it but it is not only the Spanish of Spain it is a mix of Latin American Spanish which I don't want to learn or be confused by.

Thumbnail of user chloer20
21 reviews
35 helpful votes
September 20th, 2018

I've learned German with Dualingo for a while. I must admit that it this experience was ok but not really great. It's better to take courses or hire a tutor. Learning with this online service would mostly appeal to kids as they like listening to music and fill in the gaps, watch videos etc. To sum up, I didn't get the knowledge I've expected.

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About the business

Duolingo is the world's most popular way to learn a language. It's 100% free, fun and science-based. Practice online on duolingo.com or on the apps!

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