You have quite the choice of language aids when learning a new language. While you can go the traditional route and enroll in a language school, you can also self-study with the help of a language-learning solution – like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone.
But as we all know, not all apps are equal. Which of these apps do a better job of teaching you a language?
I’m a polyglot, and I speak 8 languages. I love languages, and every few years, I sharpen my language skills so I don’t lose my abilities in a foreign tongue. Plus, if you don’t use it, you lose it, right?
Recently, I dove into the world of language-learning platforms, and of course, I had to check out Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone. Here’s my comprehensive (and honest!) comparison of the two apps so you can choose the right one for your needs.
What Is Duolingo?
Duolingo is one of the most popular online language-learning platforms. It was created in 2012 and is very games-based.
Duolingo is a vibrant language learning platform offering over 30 language courses. It blends engaging, bite-sized lessons with interactive exercises to enhance vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Key features include personalized learning paths, speaking practice with voice recognition, and fun challenges that boost daily engagement, catering to a diverse global community of learners.
The app keeps you motivated to learn your new language with the colorful interface, animated characters, rewards like double points, and other game-like features.
Here are the most important facts about Duolingo:
- It’s a freemium language-learning solution. While you can subscribe to use premium features, you can also learn for free.
- You can choose from 40+ languages (depending on your native language).
- Learn more about the language and culture of your choice with the official Duolingo podcasts.
- Duolingo’s website is available in 25+ languages, making it highly accessible.
- Duolingo had 50+ million monthly users and 14+ million daily users in 2022. (Business of Apps)
- Nearly 700 million people downloaded the app in 2022.
PROs
- Free testing before committing to a subscription.
- Variety in exercises, review features, videos, and so on
- Shorter, assisted exercises
- Lots of review options to target weak areas and improve
CONs
- Not suitable for those who dislike gamified learning
- Bizarre translations for entertainment purposes
- Inaccurate speech recognition
- Consistent daily lessons needed to maintain streaks
What Is Rosetta Stone?
Rosetta Stone is another language-learning solution that pops up when you are looking for a language learning app.
It’s been around for more than three decades (it was created in 1992!).
Rosetta Stone immerses learners in over 25 languages through its distinctive, intuitive learning approach, eschewing translations for image-based learning.
The program emphasizes mastering pronunciation with advanced speech recognition, and offers lessons in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, designed to mimic natural language acquisition for a deeply engaging experience.
But don’t worry, they kept up with the times, and you can learn Spanish, or any other official language, on their website or mobile app.
Here are the most important facts about Rosetta Stone:
- You can only use Rosetta Stone if you sign up for one of its subscription packages (it’s not free).
- The website is available in 12 languages, so it’s relatively accessible.
- During 2023, 2.3 million people (on average) visited the Rosetta Stone website on a monthly basis. (similarweb)
- Most of the visitors are from the U.S. (53.28%), followed by Ecuador (6.41%), Dominican Republic (4.2%), the U.K. (3.63%), and Italy (3.09%).
- The majority of Rosetta Stone users are 25 to 34 year olds (26.61%), followed by the 18 to 24 (22.62%) and 35 to 44 (19.72%) age groups.
- More females use Rosetta Stone to learn a language (at 54.94%).
PROs
- Rich supplemental resources
- Customizable lesson and speech settings
- Variety of activities in each lesson
- Professionally recorded audio by native speakers
CONs
- Absence of explicit grammar instruction
- Lack of feedback on improving speech recognition
- Optimal language learning requires considerable effort
- Costly separate subscription for each language
What Languages Can You Learn on Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone?
Duolingo wins if you want to learn more languages.
Here’s a closer look at the languages can you learn through Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone:
Duolingo
What languages you learn on Duolingo depends on the language(s) you are proficient in. For example, if you are a native English speaker or speak English well, you have access to 39 languages.
But if you only speak Indonesian, Czech, and Polish, for example, you can only learn English. German speakers can access four languages, while Chinese speakers can learn 7 languages.
In total, however, Duolingo offers 42 languages, including:
- Spanish
- French
- German
- Portuguese
- Thai
- Korean
- Japanese
- Telugu
- Haitian Creole
- Hawaiian
Here’s a complete list of the languages Duolingo offers.
Rosetta Stone
You can only learn 25 languages from Rosetta Stone. Of course, this will keep you busy for ages!
On Rosetta Stone, the language being learned isn’t translated into another language as it’s about immersive learning.
Here are some the languages on offer from Rosetta Stone:
- Spanish (Latin America + Spain)
- Japanese
- German
- French
- Korean
- Hebrew
- Farsi
- Tagalog
- Latin
- Turkish
What Prices on Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone?
Here’s how much learning a language on Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone will cost you:
Duolingo
As a freemium language-learning solution, you can learn any language (and multiple ones at that) at no cost on Duolingo. The company is all about making education accessible, but you have to put up with ads after every lesson.
If the ads irritate you (as they did me) and you want to use premium features, you can sign up for:
- Super Duolingo, which costs US$7.99 per month, US$47.99 for a once-off annual subscription, or US$71.99 for the annual family plan
- Duolingo Max, which costs about US$30.00 per month or a yearly US$168
The con is that Duolingo Max is only available in six countries.
Psst … Sign up for a two-week Super Duolingo trial to see if you like it before you commit.
Rosetta Stone
There are no free options with Rosetta Stone. If you want to test out the platform, you have to pick one of three subscription options and pay to try it out.
You can, however, message the customer service team for a refund within 30 days.
The subscription costs for Rosetta Stone are as follows:
- US$15.99 per month for a 3-month subscription
- US$10.50 per month for a 12-month subscription
- US$199.00 for a Lifetime subscription (this is the current discounted amount)
It gets really pricey with Rosetta Stone.
One new language = one subscription.
So if you want to sign up for 3 languages, that’ll set you back nearly US$400. But if you are into languages, rather get the Lifetime subscription because then you can learn all of Rosetta Stone’s 25 languages. It’s just cheaper that way.
Plus, you’ll pay extra if you want to join the live classes. Those aren’t included in any subscription.
The Language-Learning Methods of Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo
Rosetta Stone and Duolingo have two different approaches to teaching a new language. Here are the main similarities:
- Both language-learning apps use science-backed approaches to teach languages.
- Duolingo and Rosetta Stone have interactive lessons you complete with clear learning paths.
And the differences:
- When you learn a new language on Duolingo, it feels like you are playing a game, and when you have fun while learning, you learn more.
- You can also listen to the Duolingo podcasts to immerse yourself more in the language you are learning (and its culture).
- Duolingo also offers personalization features to target your weak areas.
- You mostly focus on developing and improving your listening, reading, and translation skills on Duolingo.
- With the Guidebook for each Unit on Duolingo, you can access some grammar explanations.
- Rosetta Stone is all about immersion (the Dynamic Immersion method) and the new language is learned like you learned your native tongue. So you learn via audio from native speakers, written words, images, and real-world scenarios.
- Rosetta Stone mostly focuses on developing and improving your listening, reading, comprehension, and writing skills.
- You can access live lessons, the language’s alphabet, an audio companion, phrasebooks, interactive stories, and videos to help you learn on Rosetta Stone.
Who Benefits the Most on Duolingo and Rosetta Stone?
The target audience for Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are beginner and intermediate-level learners. Another difference is that children can use Duolingo to learn a language, while the Rosetta Stone platform is best suited for teenagers and adults.
Duolingo's Pros and Cons
Pros
- The free version of Duolingo is its biggest draw. You can properly test out the app before you commit to a subscription.
- You get instant gratification when you complete a lesson or unit, and while critics may point out “Did you really learn anything?” the answer depends on you. Put in the work, make notes, and you can learn on Duolingo.
- Lots of review options so you can target your “weak areas” and improve.
- Shorter, assisted exercises, making it easier and quicker to learn a language.
- Lots of variety in the Units with the exercises, review features, interesting videos, and interactive stories.
- Can start at a Beginner Level, skip ahead to the next Unit, or take a placement test.
Cons
- If you dislike games, the platform may not be right for you. Yes, Duolingo “dumbs down” a language and caters to our ever-dwindling attention spans, but it is entertaining (and why can’t you have fun while learning?).
- Bizarre translations. But Duolingo says that “silly sentences can help you learn.”
- I felt like Section 1 had a comfortable learning pace for me, and then Section 2 amped it up with more vocabulary and phrases, meaning I struggled – at times – to really keep up. I needed to review more as I progressed.
- Complete a minimum of a lesson a day to keep your streak (and every so often, you get rewarded with gems and more).
- Speech recognition isn’t the best. At times, I didn’t even finish saying the sentence and it got flagged as “correct and done.”
Excited to learn more? Explore my reviews listed below:
Rosetta Stone’s Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great supplemental resources like the phrasebooks, videos, and more.
- Can access (paid) live classes to immerse yourself more in the language and get one-on-one guidance.
- If you can’t speak or listen to the exercises, you can tweak the Lesson and Speech Settings in your account.
- Good variety of activities in each lesson to keep it engaging. And you can review the exercises on a case-by-case basis before you finish the lesson and review the whole lesson too.
- Teaches you in the target language, which can be a pro for some and a con for others. But it’s supposed to simulate how you learned your native tongue.
- All the audio is professionally recorded by native speakers.
Cons
- The platform can’t truly mimic a fully immersive experience, even though that’s what they promise.
- No explicit grammar instruction, and while you don’t always need this to learn a language, explanations are useful.
- You need to put in a lot of work to really benefit from learning a language on Rosetta Stone. You must be patient and use your intuition to “connect the dots” as you don’t get immediate answers to your questions.
- Some of the images are culturally inappropriate, and even some of the conversations you learn wouldn’t take place in the real world.
- It’s expensive, especially when you have to buy a subscription per language. Unless you know Rosetta Stone is right for you and you can invest in the Lifetime subscription.
- While the speech recognition software is state-of-the-art, the lack of feedback on how you can improve makes it a con for me (and it’s demotivating too).
- The platform is less intuitive than Duolingo’s, so there’s a learning curve when starting on Rosetta Stone.
The Final Verdict: Which Language-Learning App Is the Best?
No language-learning app can teach you a new language and make you fluent. You need real-world interaction to progress and become fluent.
However, you can start your language-learning journey with an app, and the question of which is better, Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone, is ultimately down to your learning style.
Choose Duolingo if you like games and can’t pay a subscription. It’s a good option for serious learners and dabblers.
Rosetta Stone is better for serious learners, especially considering the hefty price tag.
Use additional resources to fully immerse yourself in the language and culture, and use apps like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone as a part of your adventure.
If you enjoyed my article, please feel free to share it. Have any questions? Don't hesitate to email me!
Disclaimer: I select and review independently. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions that help support my testing at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information.
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