Duolingo

What hackers pick instead

• 9M Mandarin tone speech modelPraised for specific feedback on which tones were off and for running in-browser at 11MB; the main caveat is misreading some speech, especially fast or casual talk.14recommend
• Language TransferFree audio courses that teach language concepts and grammar in a calm, non-gamified way, recommended for learning Spanish, Greek and other languages.13recommend
• PimsleurPeople recommend it as an audio-based course that builds pronunciation, vocabulary and conversation through structured repetition. Critics say it does not work well as a complete way to learn a language.9recommend
• Voxel TokyoRecommended for listening practice and vocabulary building while riding a voxel Tokyo. Most common caveat: it is often laggy and the moving background makes text hard to read.9recommend
• italkiPeople recommend it for booking affordable one-on-one lessons and conversation practice with native-speaker tutors. The main caveat raised is the cost and scheduling friction of regular lessons.8recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 184 comments. Each links to the original.

1. Most apps (like Duolingo) are great for vocabulary, but they gamify the process so much that users become addicted to "streaks"

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “I partnered with a 1.5M influencer to build then "Anti-Duolinguo"”

2. Their container is made of every cheap trick in the book -- notifications, streaks, etc -- because they work.

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is building a calm, non-gamified learning app a mistake?”

3. Duolingo claims its courses go a little over B1 - you start B2 content but dont finish it.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign from Meta”

4. it introduces me to new words I'm otherwise not encountering in my regular Spanish usage

   Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe”

5. has correct pronunciation and grammar/words, even if it's not a good way to learn

   Mixed · Feb 2026 · in “Show HN: I speak 5 languages. Duolingo taught me none. So I built lairner”

6. Duolingo it got me just enough Spanish (with zero prior knowledge) to get around

   Mixed · May 2026 · in “The Vatican's Website in Latin”

7. progressively introduces new grammar concepts and uses them in the lessons

   Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Show HN: Lexical - How I learned 3 languages in 3 years”

8. it's still a great app that has helped millions of people learn languages

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in “Why Sal Khan't: On Learning by Making but Teaching by Telling”

9. I've never seen an app be so annoying in a positive way, I appreciate it

   Recommends · Aug 2026 · in ““It works better in the app””

10. One thing you absolutely can't say about Duolingo is that it's ugly.

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)”

11. The first for rote memorization, vocab, and exposure to grammar.

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “What's the best way to learn a new language?”

12. Duolingo does work for those A1-B1 levels it has courses for.

    Recommends · May 2026 · in “The Vatican's Website in Latin”

13. the addictive, clear progress of Duolingo's vertical roadmap

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Show HN: Joy – What if mood tracking felt like Inside Out meets Duolingo?”

14. DuoLingo gives me a guided learning path to explore.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?”

15. I actually learned things on it getting real results

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign from Meta”

16. I use Duo Lingo as a guided learning path

    Recommends · Nov 2025 · in “Ask HN: What do you do while LLM is writing code”

17. I got actual visible measurable results.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?”

18. the broad anecdotal consensus that Duolingo, a gamified language app, famously does not do much if anything to prepare people for conversational fluency

    Criticizes · Jul 2026 · in “Building a real-time AI tutor for 5-year-olds”

19. even after two years on it daily, you'll know plenty of words and I suppose simple sentences, but you can't actually speak or comprehend the language

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “The Whole App is a Blob”

20. Duolingo is worse than doing nothing, because it does a much better job of convincing you that you're learning than it does actually teaching you.

    Criticizes · May 2026 · in “The Vatican's Website in Latin”

21. it's gamification kept me pre-occupied for a while without noticing that I wasn't making any progress learning the language

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is building a calm, non-gamified learning app a mistake?”

22. After all the drilling and gamified lessons I never even started to feel like I was actually _learning_ these languages.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “The Whole App is a Blob”

23. the Duolingo effect of software overall emulating the sensation of learning without actually changing the brain state

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “Dario Amodei – "We are near the end of the exponential"”

24. I already suspect that Duolingo destroyed real people's recording of Spanish conversations and replaced them with AI.

    Criticizes · Nov 2025 · in “End of Japanese community”

25. I cancelled my Duolingo subscription as soon as the imbecile CEO made a big stink about replacing workers with LLMs.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “I'm Sick of This AI Shit [video]”

26. Companies like Wikimedia, Duolingo, IMDB, social media and so on, are taking unpaid labour and making money off it.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Blindsight (Watts Novel)”

27. it can interrupt your progress on your current lesson and will actively block you from making further progress

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe”

28. Duolingo is a shitty company, they don't care about education, only retention mechanics and dark patterns.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe”

29. Duolingo is a game meant to be fun and collect subscription fees, not designed to teach any useful skill.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is building a calm, non-gamified learning app a mistake?”

30. The actual app icon changes to a red faced angry owl if you wait too long to refresh your daily activity.

    Criticizes · Feb 2026 · in “TikTok's 'Addictive Design' Found to Be Illegal in Europe”

31. The problem is duolingo is particularly horrible and is intended to get people addicted, not educate.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is building a calm, non-gamified learning app a mistake?”

32. I am finding some appreciation for some of the techniques that might be considered low-brow or deleterious by that cohort

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Ask HN: Is building a calm, non-gamified learning app a mistake?”

33. those initial stages of learning another language even the enshittified duolingo can help get a basic framework going

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “It's time for Mark Zuckerberg to resign from Meta”

34. I ended up being able to watch some (not all) netflix series in foreign langue and I was in early B1 section.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?”

35. I did notice that I was picking up fragments of what native speakers were saying around me

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “The Whole App is a Blob”

36. duolingo's website functions differently than the app and is just hands down better

    Mixed · Aug 2026 · in ““It works better in the app””

37. Duolingo actually does fairly well. Don't get me wrong, Duolingo has a LOT of flaws

    Mixed · Nov 2025 · in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)”

38. I learned Hebrew in Duolingo and I've in fact spoken many sentences to natives

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “The Whole App is a Blob”

39. It is not as bad as legend has it, it is simply targetted at causual learners.

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “Why migrants come to Germany for work and then leave again”

40. Duolingo goes up to A1 CEFR rating which like to refer to as Duplo level

    Mixed · Oct 2026 · in “Danish children struggle to learn their vowel-filled language, and this changes”