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Duolingo: Language Lessons

United States App Store · 500 reviews · Sep 17 – Sep 20, 2026
3.9★average rating
22%negative (≤2★)
23%sound ready to leave
500reviews analyzed

The brief

What 500 reviews boil down to.
WHAT FRUSTRATES THEM237 · 47%
Aggressive Super subscription upselling49
Too many ads44
Energy system limits daily lessons44
Too many gamification popups and taps32
Excessive notification frequency27
AI-generated content has errors23
13 more groups · 43 ungrouped in the Frustrations tab
By kind: Content & quality 56 · Pricing & paywall 41 · Ease of use & design 36 · Bugs & glitches 25
21say they are looking at another appquotes ⌄
Please read before getting this app. Duolingo is a good app to get if you’re looking to get a little bit better at a language but if you’re starting from the bottom I wouldn’t suggest it to my friends it’s not the best app in the world because of energy making it so then it really hard to learn. This could just be something that I might not like about …5★ · Sep 17, 2026
Fix your voice recognition. Works when it wants to. Got frustrated enough by it failing enough times to write a review that reflects this frustration. Otherwise a half decent app. Not really learning anything but fun regardless. If you want to learn a language genuinely, use Rosetta Stone.1★ · Sep 19, 2026
Waste of time. Used it for 3+ years and still don’t know Spanish. I had a 1000+ day streak, which is a big deal in this app. It’s a waste of time and money. More akin to candy crush, than a language app. Mango and Rosetta Stone are better apps.1★ · Sep 19, 2026
Pinu vs Duolingo. Hello duo I found a copy cat of you and it’s a blue penguin named pinu1★ · Sep 20, 2026
WHAT THEY LOVE252 · 50%
Effectively teaches languages fast152
Learning feels fun like a game85
Wide selection of languages and subjects41
Chess course is fun and effective33
Music and piano lessons teach well18
Streaks keep you motivated12
4 more groups · 49 ungrouped in the Praise tab

Everything users complain about or ask for, grouped by issue. A review that raises several issues counts in each. Ranked by how many, weighted by how close they sound to leaving.

RANKED BY VOLUME × CHURN RISK
49 reviews · 10% of allchurn risk 3.3 / 52.8★ average
38 complain about it · 2 report it as broken · 9 ask for a fix or a feature
IN THEIR WORDS
Downfall of Duolingo/ Not free anymore. I used to use this back in school to practice Spanish and it was great. Many fun questions, practice sentences, pictures etc. Now?? Everything is behind a pay wall. You can only do 25 questions in a day/sitting for free and if you hit 25 during a lesson— you lose that progress and you have to start that all over a…1★ · Sep 18, 2026
Not a single thing is free. You shouldn’t advertise yourself as a “free way of learning a new language” if you barely give the user enough energy to complete one lesson. Not to mention the very invasive adds that happen after every fail or every time to complete a lesson asking if you want to upgrade to Duolingo super. Speaking of Duolingo sup…1★ · Sep 18, 2026
Honestly, using a FREE app is better🫩. I don't like duolingo because of the energy, Arent we supposed to LEARN? When the hearts were here it was so much better and would actually LET ME LEARN MORE THEN 2 WORDS. And I am NOT gonna spend money on super or max duolingo. Its unfair how we only get limited lessons unless we wanna spend MONEY or GEMS just TO …1★ · Sep 18, 2026
43 frustrations that match no grouplisted in full, never hidden
Language learning shouldn’t be political!!!!. Unfortunately, Duolingo’s decision to restrict access for Iranian users has brought politics into what should be a platform focused on language learning and education. Learning a language should be accessible to everyone،regardless of nationality or political circumstances. I hope Duolingo will reconsider this decis…1★ · Sep 20, 2026
AI use and terrible people.. I’ve heard a lot about Duolingo. They heavily use ai on the levels of open ai. Water source and killing earth itself. Also the company is a heavy trump supporters and fired a lot of Asian and Spanish staff and even more foreign people from different places. If I could give 0 stars I would for people like this.1★ · Sep 18, 2026
yay i like chess but. Please make Oscar less arrogant. Oscar makes excuses for losing and now he remembers the result of the last game. JUST LET ME CHOOSE MY COACH AND I WILL BE HAPPY!! also add an eval bar instead of big advantage small advantage equal chances small disadvantage big disadvantage also add an eval bar3★ · Sep 18, 2026
Glitches but good. OK, so when it tells you to say it in Japanese or like any other languages it says in English, but you have to say in Japanese or any other language. If you just say it in English, it will auto confirm it so that might be a glitch if Duolingo sees this please fix it. but five stars overall.5★ · Sep 19, 2026
for VladTheGATOR. this isn’t for anyone except VladTheGATOR, men can wear dresses if they like, it’s not your body, it’s theirs, and it was probably pride month. this is a language learning app. learn the language and stop paying attention to the pictures, you homophobe. your kids probably don’t even care.1★ · Sep 17, 2026
Duolingo. I love Duolingo but I don’t like when I do a lesson it still counts down the time I have left to do my Duolingo like today I did three lessons and it is still counting down and and worried that it will restart my streak and my streak is 240 so please Duolingo fix this.4★ · Sep 20, 2026
Love program but not the vibration phone makes. Hello, I absolutely love learning languages with your program however I don’t like how much my phone vibrates when clicking through the continue buttons. Can you please add a feature to the settings to turn that off?4★ · Sep 19, 2026
This is genuine trash. I lost connection mid chess match and the game didn’t tell me until 5mins later where it said I quit meanwhile the other guy had 3 PAWNS LEFT and I had 1 ROOK 7 PAWNS and 1 BISHOP MAKING ME LOSE MORE THAN 100 ELO♟️1★ · Sep 17, 2026
DO NOT DOWNLOAD. If I could give this stupid app negative stars I would! It stole $120 from me for a subscription I NEVER signed up for! They will not give me my money back and keep giving me the run around. They will rob you!!!1★ · Sep 18, 2026
Duo. Honestly this app is very very fun but the chess lessons are quite easy even after skipping a lot other than that I’m learning a lot of Hebrew and Yiddish and might start doing Spanish for my Spanish grade.5★ · Sep 17, 2026
Review. I don’t believe that what the game calls checkmate is actually checkmate. Try the app yourselves a few times and see for yourself. I grew up playing chess. I can’t speak on the languages as much.3★ · Sep 17, 2026
What we learn. I love this app BUT I wish we could see the words we learn in like a dictionary with the date of when we learned it! Or redo lessons if we were like half asleep when we do certain lessons4★ · Sep 18, 2026
Annoying bugs. I activate a double exp and then it will auto activate a 3x that I was saving for when I have more time in the day. The old version of words was also better.3★ · Sep 18, 2026
Didn’t work very well. I was trying to learn Japanese,But it told me hardly anything.I might try music on it,But I dislike the language teachings.Going to a native is much better.1★ · Sep 19, 2026
This sucks. I did my lesson morning increase my streak anything but this is better. You could learn better Japanese with one of the other apps the way this app ASAP.1★ · Sep 20, 2026
awesome. Awesome it made me learn Spanish so easily. My only complaint is that I really don’t like how if you miss a few days it resets your streak5★ · Sep 18, 2026
From kemba. Thanks for making this app, can you add hats that show your hair, and can you add free costumes so it’s forever. My friends agree too.5★ · Sep 19, 2026
Pretty good overall!. This is helping me learn Japanese and Spanish so much. I think the pacing could be a tad bit better but that may just be me.4★ · Sep 18, 2026
Rage bait but fun. So when I first started I love it then after couple of years I start to rage bait about it. It’s fun but it’s rage bait.4★ · Sep 19, 2026
I dont consider installing. Im learning japanese but for some reason its so hard to do the mcrophone so i tried to delete it but ofc it wont let me2★ · Sep 19, 2026
Does not help. It does not help i see the reviews it says it helps but it really does not help i woukd rather get a tutor2★ · Sep 18, 2026
I miss the Beta Version. Remember when Duolingo was a community of people all helping each other learn? That was really nice.1★ · Sep 17, 2026
Duolingo. This game is really helping me in chess and music,and I really think they should have more courses!5★ · Sep 19, 2026
Chess. The chess would be a lot better if the digital board had a higher contrast between the squares4★ · Sep 19, 2026
Wtf. The new puzzle feature is a perfect metaphor for how completely useless this app has become.1★ · Sep 17, 2026
App stopped working on 15+. Your app just stopped working on my iPhone 15 Plus. It crashes and would not start1★ · Sep 18, 2026
Hi. It’s good but I think it could be more exciting and fun like games but learning4★ · Sep 19, 2026
I like it. Me and my son do it and it is very cool. But I want a frog in a tux to be added5★ · Sep 20, 2026
Pinu vs Duolingo. Hello duo I found a copy cat of you and it’s a blue penguin named pinu1★ · Sep 20, 2026
Toy hunt and Eddy. Please stop with these useless puzzles and Eddy yelling “Woo hoo!!!”1★ · Sep 18, 2026
I hate it. It will not let me do language. I’m stuck on chess. It’s a bad app.1★ · Sep 18, 2026
App icons. Bring back custom app icons and not this automated nonsense.1★ · Sep 18, 2026
Chess. Oscer kept talking and making the chess game really annoying1★ · Sep 20, 2026
It’s kind of confusing. I’m trying to learn Japanese, but it’s a bit hard to say3★ · Sep 19, 2026
Good app. I love Duolingo but I wish they did gettar5★ · Sep 19, 2026
Bad. New account every day nevee saves1★ · Sep 19, 2026
2 year user. Garbage app focused on streaks1★ · Sep 18, 2026
good, but i dont like the ai. idk i just dont like it4★ · Sep 19, 2026
更新的部分不是很喜欢. 来学鱼法啦,这种谐音梗在学习里不太适合出现4★ · Sep 19, 2026
Gang. This is rage baiting1★ · Sep 20, 2026