Memrise vs. Duolingo: A Detailed Program with a Cost or a Complimentary Introduction to Fundamentals?

Duolingo and Memrise are among the most favored language learning applications in 2024. Here are the key distinctions and commonalities to help you choose the right one based on your objectives, available time, financial plan, and other factors.

What Is Memrise?

Available: iOS | Android

What name would you give an app created to assist with vocabulary retention?

Correct—Memrise appears to be an ideal choice! This seems especially fitting when you learn that one of the app's creators, Ed Cooke, is a memory expert.

The other two founders involved in the project are Ben Whately, who focused on experimental psychology at Oxford:

And Greg Detre, a neuroscientist specializing in memory research:

Memrise provides interactive courses for 22 languages.

The courses are built on spaced repetition and include extensive input from native speakers—from the initial lesson, you view videos with native pronunciation, engage in dialogues with an AI chatbot, revisit vocabulary at ideal intervals determined by the spaced repetition algorithm, among other features.

Memrise employs spaced repetition to aid users in remembering vocabulary. This approach means that challenging words appear more often in exercises, while words you've mastered are gradually replaced by new ones. The app's algorithm identifies words you find difficult based on mistakes made during practice.

If you wish to study a language not covered in the 22 main courses, you can check Memrise's community site for user-created courses on a wide range of languages—including those that are endangered or less commonly studied. This platform also allows you to design your own courses.

A free version is available, but full access to the 22 official Memrise courses requires a reasonably priced premium subscription. The community website is entirely free.

You can read our comprehensive evaluation of Memrise here.

How Memrise Works

Memrise provides multiple mini-courses for each language, allowing you to select the subjects most relevant to you initially. For instance, many languages include a Basics Course, General Course, Activities Course, Opinions Course, Relationships Course, and others.

Prior to a lesson, you can preview the words and phrases you will learn.

As you begin, new vocabulary is introduced step by step. When a new word is first presented, you'll watch a video of a native speaker saying it along with its translation.

Next, you'll practice the word through a variety of activities—translation, multiple-choice questions, listening exercises, etc. After completing enough exercises to demonstrate mastery, a flower icon will appear.

Typically, Memrise introduces five new words per study session—which can be finished in approximately five minutes.

Once you've learned new words, the spaced repetition system will prompt you to complete review sessions in the app to help transfer your new vocabulary into long-term memory.

Memrise Features

The “Build Vocabulary” Feature

Memrise structures language acquisition into three phases: build vocabulary, practice listening, and practice speaking.

The “build vocabulary” phase involves learning new words and phrases within your chosen Memrise course(s).

You acquire new words through the method described earlier, and later reinforce them using the “Review” functions we will discuss shortly.

Memrise encourages you to set a daily target for vocabulary acquisition. My own goal is set at 35 new words per day. You can monitor your advancement in the “weekly progress” summary shown on the main screen.

Most lessons include 10-15 new words, making it simple to fit study time into a hectic schedule.

Review Features

Memrise includes three review functions: Review, Speed Review, and Difficult Words.

The standard “Review” function guides you through translation drills. You are shown an English word and must type its translation in the target language. A typical review session covers about 25 words.

“Speed Review” is a timed exercise involving up to 100 words. You see an English word and four options, and you must select the correct translation before time runs out.

The longer you hesitate, the more the screen fills with red. This speed review serves as a useful measure of how quickly you can recall learned vocabulary, indicating how well the words are stored in your memory.

Lastly, “Difficult Words” is a review session focused only on words you've answered incorrectly or manually marked as challenging. However, this is exclusive to premium subscribers.

The “Practice Listening” Feature

Depending on the daily goal you set, Memrise assigns a target number of videos to watch each week. Since my target is 35 new words daily, my listening practice goal is five videos per week.

The videos are short skits performed by native speakers. They are tailored to your level—even after learning just nine words in Indonesian, I could comprehend the videos provided.

Afterwards, you rate how well you understood the video. If any words were unfamiliar, Memrise teaches them to you using the same method as standard vocabulary lessons.

The “Practice Speaking” Feature

Memrise utilizes an AI chatbot—named “Membot”—to help you practice conversational skills. Similar to the listening practice, you have a weekly speaking practice goal. Mine is set to five conversations.

Each session begins with Memrise starting a conversation (usually with a question). You type a response and submit it. Membot then replies instantly to continue the exchange.

If you are unsure how to respond or don't understand something, you can request suggestions from Memrise.

How Much Does Memrise Cost?

Memrise's Premium version—known as Pro—is priced at $22.99 per month, $71.99 per year, or a one-time payment of $124.99 for lifetime access.

The free version provides access to nearly all the same features, but with restrictions on video and conversation access and no availability of the “Difficult Words” feature. The free version also does not open every lesson in the courses.

What Is Duolingo?

Available: iOS | Android

Duolingo is a highly popular language learning platform, offering instruction in more than 40 languages. The application has been downloaded over 100 million times. It's difficult to explore language learning without encountering or hearing about Duolingo.

Duolingo was created by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker. The former is known for inventing the “Captcha”:

And the latter is a celebrated entrepreneur and accomplished Swiss computer scientist:

Duolingo is a language learning application and website that shares many characteristics with Memrise. This is why the two are often compared. Duolingo provides language exercises and drills that train users in vocabulary and grammar. It involves learners in tasks such as translating between languages, identifying images, listening to audio, and typing responses.

Duolingo describes itself as “the new way to learn a language,” integrating game-like elements into its standard operation. It is also widely appreciated because it offers a substantial amount of content for free. (A Super Duolingo version exists, but it is not heavily promoted.)

You can read our detailed Duolingo review here.

How Duolingo Works

Similar to Memrise, Duolingo can be accessed via its website and mobile app.

The layout is intuitive, so you should have no trouble navigating to where you need to go.

Since gamification is central to Duolingo's approach, it is more playful than Memrise—for example, it uses cartoon-style graphics, leaderboards, and rewards. The Duolingo mascot—a green owl named Duo—is recognized for his unique character and receives considerable attention on social media (you've likely encountered memes about Duolingo reminding you to study).

The app frequently uses audio, meaning that new words and phrases often include a sound component—which is beneficial to repeat aloud. Therefore, it's ideal to be in a private space where you can speak the words.

Duolingo Features

Building Memorable Sentences

Your language course is structured as a long learning “tree” split into many small sections that progress from beginner to intermediate levels (varies by language). Each small section centers on a specific theme, such as sports, recipes, relationships, etc.

These sections follow a fixed sequence, and each one is locked until you finish the prior sections.

Duolingo assigns various simple tasks, like matching words with their translations, pairing images with their foreign language labels, repeating a word or phrase shown on screen, listening to audio, or typing on the keyboard.

They practice the vocabulary repeatedly from English to the target language (and the reverse!) so that what you learn becomes firmly established in your long-term memory.

Duolingo begins with vocabulary and gradually combines words into phrases until you form complete sentences. There is a smooth progression from old words to new ones as they are presented together. Mastered words are slowly phased out while new ones are introduced. Soon enough, you have acquired several new words in your target language by working on brief exercises.

It must be said that Duolingo's example sentences have considerable room for enhancement. Sometimes they can be amusing, or even quite unusual (there's an entire subreddit dedicated to its occasionally absurd example sentences).

Gamified Language Learning

Duolingo claims that spending just five minutes a day can help you learn the language. However, it's clear they aim to keep you engaged with the Duolingo platform over the long term.

Consider how the entire experience is designed: The platform incorporates gaming components into every lesson, making it enjoyable and motivating. Memrise also includes game elements, but Duolingo seems to have an advantage in this area.

Every action you take in Duolingo is tracked. Each correct answer earns a certain number of “Experience Points” (XPs), and the more time you spend on tasks, the more XPs you accumulate.

Accumulating a specific number of XPs rewards you with “lingots.” This virtual currency can be used for purchasing bonus skills and power-ups. You can even give lingots to other users as a gesture of goodwill. You can also spend lingots at the virtual shop to buy different outfits for Duo, the mascot.

In my view, Duolingo has not fully realized the potential of its lingot system. Expanding its uses could significantly enhance the experience.

Another important metric is your “Streak.” This indicates the number of consecutive days you have achieved your daily XP targets. (You can adjust your goals in the “Settings” section.)

Additionally, Duolingo uses “levels” to indicate the complexity of the material and your proficiency in a topic. After finishing each lesson's small section for the first time, the next section becomes available. You can revisit completed sections and advance their levels, with each level increasing the difficulty.

After five “level ups,” the section turns gold, signifying mastery of the skill. These serve as progress indicators, and the gold status eventually diminishes (appearing “broken”) if you do not practice for a while.

Duolingo also features leaderboards that show your ranking compared to other users.

I believe the most crucial metric is the “Streaks” count—the consecutive days you have used Duolingo. Consistency is key in language learning. If you study irregularly, fluency will remain out of reach. So, strive to keep your “Streaks” as high as possible.

Supplementary Duolingo Features

Beyond the core Duolingo courses, some of the more popular languages include extra study tools.

First, Duolingo offers a “Stories” feature, which competes well with Memrise's chatbot. For English speakers, Duolingo “Stories” are currently available for Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian, and Japanese.

The stories are set in a chat format. You are placed in a specific scenario where you must answer comprehension questions to advance the narrative. For instance, in a French story between a married couple, you might need to select the correct word you hear or that fits in the sentence.

Finally, Duolingo has produced podcasts for two of its most popular languages, Spanish, French, and English. These are an excellent resource for learning these languages while on the move.

How Much Does Duolingo Cost?

Duolingo allows free access to all course content. You can also study any number of languages at no cost.

The premium version, called “Super Duolingo,” eliminates advertisements and provides access to specific review tools, such as the ability to revisit previous errors.

Super Duolingo is priced at $12.99 per month or $83.99 per year for individual users. The family plan costs $119.99 per year.

Memrise vs. Duolingo Pros and Cons

So, after considering everything, which platform is better: Memrise or Duolingo?

Memrise Pros and Cons

Pros:

• The courses are well-structured and of high quality, offered in 22 languages
• The interface is intuitive and simple to navigate
• The courses quickly teach highly practical and essential vocabulary
• Multiple vocabulary teaching techniques for enjoyable and efficient learning
• Abundant native content within the courses
• A good range of study and review tools to improve memory retention
• Spaced repetition technology schedules reviews at optimal times for long-term memory

Cons:

• Limited grammar instruction or content for advanced learners
• A subscription is required to unlock all course lessons
• Occasionally, the chatbot conversations exceed your current proficiency level

Duolingo Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Entirely free to complete all courses, with no limit on the number of languages
• The interface is user-friendly and easy to operate
• The courses cover basic grammar and sentence construction
• All learning is gamified—from the reward structure to the activities
• Popular languages include a good selection of additional learning materials (such as podcasts and stories)

Cons:

• The sentence examples could be more practical
• There is limited material for advanced learners—and for many languages, none whatsoever
• Opportunities for speaking practice are restricted
• Less popular languages have substantially fewer resources

Alternatives to Memrise and Duolingo

Lingflix

Lingflix employs real-world videos—such as music videos, movie previews, television clips, advertisements, and more—to teach languages in context. You can study all available languages—currently ten—with a single Lingflix account, and there is content suitable for complete beginners to advanced students.

The languages offered include Spanish, French, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, and others.

Lingflix emphasizes learning words in context. You'll see a vocabulary and grammar list before watching a video, but you can also hover over unfamiliar words in the subtitles to see definitions, example sentences, and pronunciations. You can then save words to your flashcard sets and take customized quizzes.

Like Memrise, Lingflix also uses spaced repetition software to plan your review sessions.

Clozemaster

Clozemaster also introduces new words in context, but through “cloze” exercises (which inspired its name). When you begin a study session, you'll receive sentences one at a time with a missing word. You fill the gap with the new word, either by multiple choice or by typing it in (you choose the method).

Clozemaster offers various “decks” of words to learn, enabling you to select based on your level. Each deck is a set of words organized by frequency. So if you're a beginner, you might learn the top 500 most common words first. Most languages cover up to the 10,000 most common words.

You can study more than 50 languages on Clozemaster—including less common ones like Icelandic, Serbian, and Maori—with one account.

Memrise vs. Duolingo: Which Program Should You Use?

There is no simple answer—only you can determine which program suits you best.

I suggest Duolingo if you can only devote 10-15 minutes per day to study, are uncertain about your commitment level, are a beginner, or want a program that is entirely free.

I would select Memrise if you prefer a more comprehensive language course that teaches grammar and frequently used vocabulary more quickly, offers more review options, and you are willing to pay around $23 per month.

However, if Memrise is within your budget, I believe the optimal approach is to use both. I would use Memrise as my primary resource and Duolingo as a supplementary tool for days when time is limited.

In the end, the choice is yours. But now you have the necessary details to make a well-informed decision.