At a glance
- Duolingo is best for beginners building vocabulary and a daily routine. Speakle is best for people who understand English and freeze when they have to speak it.
- Where Duolingo is strong: Building a daily habit at enormous scale.
- Where it puts its weight: Duolingo is built around exercises you complete by choosing: tap the right translation, tap the words into order, match the pairs.
- The research: speaking improves by producing language, not only recognising it; the figures below show what the published studies measured.
- Sources: 9 references, including Duolingo's own public pages, checked 2026-09-26.
Our verdict
The short answer
Speakle is built for the moment that matters most: when someone asks you a question out loud and you need the words to come. Every Speakle session is spoken, scored and turned into one clear thing to fix, with a course, a daily rhythm you will recognise and a weekly League that counts the minutes you speak. Keep Duolingo for a light daily game if you enjoy it; choose Speakle to actually speak.
- Duolingo is best for
- Beginners building vocabulary and a daily routine
- Speakle is best for
- People who understand English and freeze when they have to speak it
Looking for a Duolingo alternative?
Most people who search for a Duolingo alternative already have the vocabulary. What they want is to open their mouth and have it come out. Speakle is free to start, keeps the daily rhythm you are used to, and swaps tapping for talking: a course from A1 to C2 where every step is spoken, 112 word collections, grammar explained in your own language, and a scored speaking session every day on the free plan. On paid plans, a live AI video coach takes you through job interviews, debates and trips, and you can practise with other learners on real video calls.
Duolingo and Speakle side by side
6 things people compare, answered for each.
Not sure which column describes you? The free speaking test takes one answer out loud, needs no account, and shows which of five speaking skills is holding you back.
The research: Duolingo, feature by feature
We read Duolingo's own website, help pages and app listings and wrote down what it publicly offers on each of the lines a speaking learner cares about. Each line links to the page it came from. Where we could not find a public statement the table says so, rather than guessing.
What Duolingo and Speakle each offer, feature by feature
| Feature | Duolingo | Speakle |
|---|---|---|
| How you practise speaking | Lessons include speaking exercises such as repeating words, translating sentences out loud and short dialogues; learners can also tap the microphone to answer aloud. [5] | Every session is spoken: you answer in your own words, and a live AI coach holds whole conversations with you. |
| AI conversation | Offers Video Call (AI conversation with the character Lily) and Roleplay. Video Call began on the Duolingo Max tier; as of Q2 2026 most new Super Duolingo subscribers also have access. [6] | A scored speaking session every day on the free plan; on paid plans, a live AI video coach for interviews, debates, travel, IELTS practice and open conversation. |
| Pronunciation feedback | Offers pronunciation-focused practice including sound drills, minimal pairs and sounds-focused lessons, alongside review of recent speaking exercises. [5] | Every sound scored with rhythm and intonation, on a path ordered by your first language, then checked in your own unplanned speech. |
| Course structure | Courses are organised in units aligned to the CEFR; English is among the courses that now teach content through B2, with newer English units covering B1 and B2. [7] | A course of 109 units from A1 to C2, where every step is a task you say out loud. |
| Human teachers | Not stated publicly | No tutors to book. Schools and teachers can run their classes on Speakle. |
| Other learners | Not stated publicly | Video conversation matches you with another learner at your level for about ten minutes, then coaches you both. |
| Help in your own language | English is taught through 20+ separate English courses (for speakers of different languages); learners can see hints in their own language when they need support. [7] | Hints, corrections and explanations in Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish or Portuguese. |
| Exam preparation | Duolingo runs its own online English proficiency exam, the Duolingo English Test, as a separate product from the learning app. [8] | IELTS speaking practice under exam conditions with the live coach, with a report for each part (an estimate, not an official score). |
| Free access | The app and website are free to use, with optional paid subscriptions for premium features. [8] | A free plan with one scored speaking session every day, with no card. |
| Languages taught | The App Store listing says the app teaches 40+ languages (it also offers non-language subjects such as chess). [9] | English only. |
| Where it runs | Available as a mobile app (iOS and Android) and on the web; Max and its AI features are purchased in the iOS and Android apps. [8] | Web and Android (Google Play), with the iPhone app in early access. |
Duolingo: read on its own public pages, checked 2026-09-26. Features change; the numbered sources show where each line came from. No prices are listed because they vary by country and change often.
The two split the work cleanly, and a lot of learners should use both.On using Duolingo and Speakle together
Which one should you choose?
Choose Duolingo if
You are learning a language casually, for fun rather than for a job, an exam or a conversation you have coming up, and a light daily game is all you want from it. It is also a pleasant way to meet a language you have never studied before.
Choose Speakle if
You want to actually speak. If you have a long streak and still freeze when someone asks you a question out loud, you are not alone, and it is not your fault: you built a large recognition vocabulary and very little production under pressure, because only one of those was being trained. Speakle trains the other one from your very first session, and counts what matters for that: the minutes you actually speak, on a weekly League that starts fresh every Monday.
Start with the free speaking test, which needs no account. Then create a free account: the free plan includes a scored speaking session every day, with no card, and the first one takes five minutes.
What Duolingo is, and what it does well
What Duolingo is
Duolingo is the largest language-learning app in the world, built around short daily lessons, streaks and a free tier that is genuinely generous. Its top subscription tier adds Video Call with Lily, an AI character you can hold a short spoken conversation with, currently a few minutes at the upper levels.
What Duolingo is genuinely better at
Building a daily habit at enormous scale. The streak is one of the most effective retention mechanics anybody in this industry has shipped, the free tier is very generous, and for a first taste of vocabulary, reading and early grammar it is a friendly, well-made place to begin. Millions of people opened their first English lesson there, and that is a real achievement.
Where its design puts its weight
Duolingo is built around exercises you complete by choosing: tap the right translation, tap the words into order, match the pairs. That is a superb way to build a habit and to learn vocabulary, and it is recognition rather than production. Video Call is real speaking practice and a genuine step forward, but it is a few minutes on the most expensive tier, sitting on top of a product whose centre of gravity is still tapping.
What you get with Speakle
- 109course units, A1 to C2
- 112word collections
- 49grammar chapters, explained in your language
- 12world accents to train your ear
- 9native languages for explanations
One course, every level
| Item | Value (h) |
|---|---|
| A1 | 90 to 100 |
| A2 | 180 to 200 |
| B1 | 350 to 400 |
| B2 | 500 to 600 |
| C1 | 700 to 800 |
| C2 | 1,000 to 1,200 |
Cambridge English estimates that each level takes roughly another two hundred hours of guided learning. The hours vary with the learner and with how much they practise between lessons, which is why a little speaking every day matters more than an occasional long session.
Source: Cambridge English (2026) Cambridge describes these as a guideline only.
A Speakle course step is a task you say out loud, such as arranging a meeting, with useful phrases on screen and a microphone button where the tiles would be. A short spoken level check places you on the path, so a long streak elsewhere does not mean starting again at unit one. Every mistake from every session is kept as a rule and brought back on new topics until you have said it right three times without being prompted. On paid plans the live AI video coach goes further: a job interview that ends in a decision, a trip from the airport to the hotel that earns a stamp at each stop, or a free conversation that shows you who carried it. Two strong results in a row and the next call is quietly harder, so the practice keeps pace with you.
Speakle · the English practice app for fluency and confidence
One app for everything that gets you speaking
Most apps train one piece: words, sounds or a chat window. Speakle puts the whole road to fluent, confident English in one place, and every part of it ends with you speaking.
Live coachFace to face with an AI coach, on videoJob interviews, debates, travel, IELTS speaking or an open conversation. The coach stays in role for the whole call and nothing is scripted.
ReportsA report after every callAn interview ends in a hiring decision, a debate is won or lost, a trip earns a stamp at each stop.
Every sessionYour speaking, measuredPronunciation, fluency, grammar, vocabulary and coherence, with a CEFR level and the one thing to fix first.
PronunciationPronunciation from your first languageSounds your language merges come first; sounds it already gives you are skipped.
PeopleReal learners, on videoTen minutes with another learner at your level, then coaching on what you both said.
CourseA course where every step is spoken109 units from A1 to C2. Each step is a real task you say out loud, not tiles to tap.
Using Duolingo and Speakle together
The two split the work cleanly, and a lot of learners should use both. Keep Duolingo for what it is best at: ten minutes of new vocabulary on the bus, and a streak that gets you to open an app every day. Then take one or two of the words you met that morning and use them in a spoken Speakle answer the same day. That second step is the one that moves a word from something you recognise to something you can say, and it takes about a minute. If you only have time for one, the question is simply which problem you have: not enough English, or not enough practice saying the English you already have.
The short version of the argument
Recognising
- Tap the right option
- Match the pairs
- Repeat a sentence you were given
What most practice trains
Producing
- Find the words yourself
- Say them out loud
- While someone waits for you
What speaking needs
Recognising the right answer and producing it are different skills, and most practice trains the first. Tapping the right option, matching pairs and repeating a sentence you were given can all be done without finding a single word yourself, which is why people who understand English well still freeze when they have to speak it. We call this the recognition trap. The way out is spoken practice, short and daily, answered in your own words. The full explanation, with the memory research behind it, is its own page.
| Item | Condition | Value (%) |
|---|---|---|
| After 5 minutes | Read once, recalled 3 times | 71 |
| After 5 minutes | Read 3 times, recalled once | 78 |
| After 5 minutes | Read 4 times | 83 |
| After 1 week | Read once, recalled 3 times | 61 |
| After 1 week | Read 3 times, recalled once | 56 |
| After 1 week | Read 4 times | 40 |
Students who reread a passage four times remembered the most after five minutes, and the least a week later. Students who read it once and then tried to recall it three times forgot far less. Pulling words out of your own memory, which is what speaking asks of you, is what made them last.
Source: Roediger & Karpicke (2006) Experiment 2: university students recalling prose passages; share of idea units recalled.
| Item | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| Read aloud | 76 |
| Read silently | 59.8 |
| Never shown (wrongly recognised) | 21.9 |
The same people read some words aloud and some silently. Afterwards they recognised the words they had said aloud clearly more often. Saying something makes it more memorable than only seeing it, one reason spoken practice beats silent tapping for anything you want to say later.
Source: MacLeod et al. (2010) Experiment 1, 44 university students. The benefit appeared when each person read some words aloud and some silently.
| Item | Value (%) |
|---|---|
| 20 min | 47.2 |
| 1 h | 37.3 |
| 9 h | 27.6 |
| 1 day | 31.7 |
| 2 days | 23 |
| 6 days | 16.8 |
| 31 days | 4.1 |
A modern replication of Ebbinghaus measured how much faster a list could be relearned after each delay. Most of the benefit is gone within a day or two unless the material is used again, which is why a daily return to speaking matters more than a long session once a week.
Source: Murre & Dros (2015) One adult learning nonsense syllables; "savings" is the share of relearning time saved, not the share remembered.
Questions people ask
Is Speakle a Duolingo alternative?
Yes, and for speaking it goes much further. Speakle has its own course from A1 to C2, 112 vocabulary collections and 49 grammar chapters, and every step ends with you speaking out loud, scored, with explanations in your own language. If your goal is to talk rather than to tap, it is built for you.
Does Duolingo have speaking practice?
Yes. Some exercises ask you to say a sentence aloud, and the top tier adds Video Call with Lily for short spoken conversations. The difference is proportion: in Duolingo speaking is one part of a course built mostly on tapping, while in Speakle every session is spoken.
I have a long Duolingo streak but I still cannot speak. Why?
Because recognising the right answer and producing it are different skills, and most of a tap-based course trains the first. It is a very common story and it is not a failure on your part. The guide to why you understand English but freeze explains what is happening and what to practise instead.
More comparisons
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Where to go next
Product names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners, shown only to identify the products compared. Speakle is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
References
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment. (2026). Guided learning hours. Cambridge English Support Site. support.cambridgeenglish.org/hc/en-gb/articles/202838506-Guided-learning-hours Checked 2026-09-26.
- Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x Checked 2026-09-26.
- MacLeod, C. M., Gopie, N., Hourihan, K. L., Neary, K. R., & Ozubko, J. D. (2010). The production effect: Delineation of a phenomenon. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36(3), 671-685. doi.org/10.1037/a0018785 Checked 2026-09-26.
- Murre, J. M. J., & Dros, J. (2015). Replication and analysis of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0120644. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120644 Checked 2026-09-26.
- Duolingo, public page at blog.duolingo.com. blog.duolingo.com/covering-all-the-bases-duolingos-approach-to-speaking-skills Checked 2026-09-26.
- Duolingo, public page at sec.gov. www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026053299/q2fy26duolingo6-30x26share.htm Checked 2026-09-26.
- Duolingo, public page at blog.duolingo.com. blog.duolingo.com/how-duolingo-teaches-english Checked 2026-09-26.
- Duolingo, public page at sec.gov. www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026029976/duol-20260331.htm Checked 2026-09-26.
- Duolingo, public page at apps.apple.com. apps.apple.com/us/app/duolingo-language-lessons/id570060128 Checked 2026-09-26.