Apps for learning English: Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone (2024)

When it comes to language learning apps, Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are two of the most popular choices, although each of them has its pros and cons. They can both be used on your phone as a mobile app or on desktop. Today, we’re going to discuss and share how these applications work, their prices, main features, and even alternatives to consider.

But before we get to our detailed review, we want you to know that at Preply you can find not only helpful study materials and reviews but also professional tutoring if you want to learn English or any other language online. As one of the leading educational platforms, Preply offers online lessons with private language tutors. The lessons are provided one-on-one via the user-friendly video chat right on our website.

Learning online with a certified expert will help you save your time and budget as well as study regularly and effectively improve your language skills. So why not give it a try!

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone reviews: who’s who

The battle of language learning tools is a fight between two generations with different approaches. In one corner is a relatively young but one of the most popular apps in the industry, whilst in the other, is quite possibly one of the most recognizable brands that has been providing learners worldwide with useful software for more than 25 years.

Duolingo has been continually growing in popularity since Luis von Ahn founded it in 2011. Just four years after being launched, it was valued at over 2.5-times more than the market capitalization of Rosetta Stone.

Nowadays, with over 110 million downloads from around the world, Duolingo attracts new users with an easy-to-use interface, affordability and gamified approach to language learning. The app is available on iOS and Android devices.

Rosetta Stone was founded in 1992, and today is one of the oldest computer-assisted language learning tools in the industry. The company offers a more traditional approach to teaching called Dynamic Immersion.

Compared to Duolingo, it’s less gamified but presents sounds, words, phrases, sentences, and dialogues in a way that is designed to accelerate the learning process. Like its competitor, Rosetta Stone is also available both on iOS and Android. However, when it comes to price, its’ free features are extremely limited.

Both language learning tools can also be used on Mac or PC, depending on what services you choose. But don’t let Rosetta Stone’s price point turn you off. In fact, just because it has plenty of freebies, this doesn’t necessarily guarantee clear victory to Duolingo, as it won’t be perfect for everybody. So, let’s have a closer look at these contenders.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone at a glance

Duolingo review

How Duolingo works

Duolingo’s lessons are based on a gamified approach and focused on the direct translation of words, phrases, and sentences from a target language to your native tongue and vice versa. This means that the learning process remains bilingual and makes studies quicker and easier, but less immersive. This gamification is similar to other language learning apps like Babbel. When it comes to engagement, Duolingo does a great job, as it awards users with badges and levels up as they continue to make progress.

Here are the main steps of learning with Duolingo:

1. Choose the target language and evaluate your skills. Once you download the app and select a preferred language to learn, you can take a test (optional) to find out what your language level is before you get started. If you already know your level, you can skip this section.
2. Learn the basics. No matter what language you choose to learn with Duolingo, you will start by studying basic words like “apple”, “man”, “woman”, etc. It’ll take a few hours or days, depending on your learning schedule, before you proceed to the more advanced levels.
3. Make progress. The higher the level you achieve, the more complicated tasks you’ll get. Pay close attention because you only get three “lives” before you’re forced to start a level all over again.
4. Keep level up. The number of badges you can earn on Duolingo is nearly endless, therefore you’ll likely spend several years before reaching the last level. Will it mean that you’ll achieve the highest level of language proficiency by the end of the game? It is highly unlikely.

Duolingo’s language options

Duolingo provides English speakers with an opportunity to learn more than 30 languages, including German, Spanish, English, Italian, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Greek, Turkish, Hebrew, and more.

How much does Duolingo Plus cost in 2021?

If you love Duolingo and want to try out the premium version, it will cost you $12.99 per month if billed monthly, or $6.99 per month if you pay for a whole year. However, you can also get Duolingo Plus by inviting your friends to the platform.

Most users find they’re perfectly happy with the free version of Duolingo, but Duolingo Plus allows you to download lessons for offline use, or repair your streak when you’ve taken days off of learning. You also won’t have to put up with adverts!

Want more info about Duolingo? Check out our comparison of how it compares to Babbel.

Rosetta Stone review

How Rosetta Stone works

Rosetta Stone immerses you in a language environment from the very beginning, forcing you to put together speech and picture it describes in the language you’re learning. There is, however, no translation to your mother tongue in these language courses. At first, it seems hard, but this approach is the closest to a real-world context, as it motivates you to think logically and find quick solutions in the foreign language. So, you’ll be reading, hearing, speaking and writing on your target language alone.

As a new visitor to Rosetta Stone, you have to:

1. Sign up before exploring the platform. Even though Rosetta Stone is a paid application, it offers a trial version, meaning you can create an account and give it a try.
2. Choose the product. Rosetta Stone provides two language learning solutions: an online subscription plan for both in-browser and mobile version and an instant downloadable CD-Rom option for a computer.

Compared to Duolingo, the Rosetta Stone feature set is richer. Its main benefit is that an app has an adjustable speech recognition engine — TrueAccent, which can test your pronunciation and fine-tune your accent.

Also, the platform offers premium Live Tutoring available for English, Italian, German, and Latin American Spanish only.

Rosetta Stone’s app

Since Rosetta Stone was designed to be used on a desktop computer, its app is something of a secondary feature. It’s very clear and simple to navigate, but it just doesn’t have the range of features that the Rosetta Stone desktop version does. You also have to hold your phone sideways to take the lessons, which isn’t very comfortable if you’re learning on the go.

The Rosetta Stone app isn’t bad, but it’s not the product’s strong point. If you want to use your online language course mostly on mobile, Duolingo is probably a better option.

Rosetta Stone’s language options

Rosetta Stone’s 31 offered languages include: English (American and British), German, French, Italian, Spanish (Latin America and Spain), Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, Dari, Filipino, Hindi, Hebrew, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese (Brazil), Polish, Russian, Turkish, Urdu, etc. Pay attention that the mobile version is limited to 24 languages.

How much does Rosetta Stone cost in 2021?

Rosetta Stone’s cost depends on which language you’d like to learn, and how long you’d like to subscribe for.

For access to the basic software, you can choose between 3-month ($35.97) 6-month ($95.88), and Lifetime ($179) subscription plans. However, if you want to add in live online classes, there’s an additional fee.

What more info about Rosetta Stone? Check out our article on how it compares to the flashcard app, Memrise.

The bottom line: is Duolingo better than Rosetta Stone?

So, which application works better? They are both helpful, interactive and user-friendly. Everything depends on your goals, preferences and how much effort you’re willing to put in to enhance your skills.

In general, Duolingo takes the edge for me. Rosetta Stone’s core offer has changed relatively little since it was launched in the 1990s. By contrast, Duolingo was made for the smartphone age, and is being continually developed and improved by a large team of language experts. New features are tested every month to make the app better at teaching you a language, and it shows. What’s more, Duolingo is completely free. It’s good value for money if you learn anything at all!

That said, if you want an app that feels more like an orthodox language study course, Rosetta Stone is a better choice. You’re expected to invest a lot more time into lessons — at least half an hour, rather than five or ten minutes. Once you’ve paid the substantial subscription fee, you’ll be pretty motivated to develop a regular learning habit, just to get your money’s worth…

Although the tools have some similar features, their approaches to language learning are entirely different. If you’re not sure what approach to prefer, try both and see which one works better for you. Duolingo is free and Rosetta Stone has a free trial, so you have nothing to lose.

An effective alternative to Duolingo and Rosetta Stone

Although language learning apps are convenient and useful, they have their limits. Learning a new language via application is completely different than having a real-time conversation with a native speaker who is a qualified language tutor.

Here at Preply, we offer 1-on-1 lessons with proven experts who can create a personalized learning plan depending on your skill level, individual needs, and interests. Even paid applications can’t do that, as there is no individual approach to every learner. With Preply, you can schedule customized lessons with tutors from all over the world, whenever and wherever you want.

We have thousands of certified teachers on 50+ languages who are ready to help you start learning on a regular basis.