Is Duolingo Good for Learning Languages? An Honest Review
Duolingo is good for starting and building a habit, but it won't take most learners far by itself. What research shows, where it works, and what to add.
Duolingo is good for starting a language and building a daily habit. It's not enough by itself if you want to read real books or hold real conversations. That's our honest view, and you should know two things about it: we make competing language apps at FluenTech, and our founder got stuck at beginner level on Duolingo while learning Russian. So here's what the evidence says too.
What the research says
The best-known study is Jiang and colleagues (2021), published in the peer-reviewed journal Foreign Language Annals. Learners who finished beginning-level Duolingo courses reached "Intermediate Low" in reading and "Novice High" in listening, comparable to university students at the end of their fourth semester.
That's a good result, with two cautions:
- The researchers worked for Duolingo. A 2022 review by Charlie Taylor points out this conflict of interest, along with selection bias in Duolingo's own reports. It also notes that at least one study passed peer review.
- It measured people who finished. Those are motivated learners, not everyone who started and quit. It also tested reading and listening, not speaking.
Where Duolingo is good
- Getting started. It's one of the easiest ways into a new language, and every course is free.
- Building a habit. Streaks and reminders really do bring people back each day, and that's hard to achieve.
- Trying a language out. You can find out if you enjoy it before you spend anything.
Where it falls short
- Explaining grammar. For things like Russian cases or German articles, seeing the rule directly is often faster than working it out from exercises.
- Reading longer texts. It doesn't get you used to reading a real story, and reading has good research behind it.
- Real conversation. Repeating set sentences isn't the same as talking to a person.
- Getting past the beginner stage. This is where FluenTech's founder got stuck: the streak grew, but real Russian stayed out of reach. That's one person's experience, and yours may differ.
What to do
Use Duolingo if you enjoy it, and give it a real chance to build your habit. Once you have the basics, add these:
- Grammar lessons that explain the rules
- Texts at your level
- Real listening
- Speaking, whenever you can
Our free site has grammar lessons, word lists with audio and bilingual classics for Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Turkish, with no account needed. If you're choosing between apps, see Duolingo vs Babbel vs FluenTech.
That's the path FluenTech is built around. Our apps go from first words through graded reading to full classics with a translation under every line. They're free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.