Preply vs Duolingo
Overview
Preply is a language learning platform that connects you to language tutors based on your needs and schedule. It’s highly user oriented: you choose your language (from 35 on offer), your teacher, how many lessons you take and whether to learn 1-1 or in groups. You pay for lessons in blocks of hours and can connect with other learners via the community.
Duolingo is the world’s most popular language learning app. You can use it for free to learn as many languages as you want with only a few limitations over the paid version. Duolingo combines bite sized activities with gamification to make education fun and to help you set up a daily learning habit. It also uses an algorithm that adapts to your learning and provides material at just the right difficulty level along with content you need to revisit.
Pros
- Live tutoring from native speakers with real time feedback
- 1-1 tuition enables lessons to be tailored to individual needs
- Learn what, when and where you want at your own pace and with no subscription on desktop or device
- Immersive due to live teaching
- Comprehensive - 35+ languages with varied content and lessons plans for all levels
- Free Preply blog and Q&A community
- 1-1 or group lessons available
- Placement test based on Common European Framework (CEFR) levels and structured curriculum
- It’s free with only a few limitations and there’s no limit on how many languages you can learn at the same time
- Gamification keeps you engaged and motivated
- Uses an algorithm that adapts to your level and learning style and provides personal recommendations to level up your skills
- A Practice Hub for reviewing mistakes, correcting pronunciation (Super Duolingo only)
- Fun to use with well structured exercises that target listening, reading and writing
- You can skip lessons and levels that are too easy
Cons
- No free trial - though trial lessons are heavily discounted and you can get a refund if you are dissatisfied with a lesson
- Classroom software can be glitchy
- Complex pricing system with auto renewal
- Weak focus on speaking activities
- Pronunciation of single words is quite robotic
- Quantity and range of material varies by language
- Not brilliant for grammar or gaining cultural insights
Best for
Best for: Anyone wanting to receive live, individual one to one tuition. Whether this is to learn a brand new language or improve on existing skills. Also, those not wanting to commit to an annual subscription who want to learn on-the-go and by their own schedule.
Best for: Though it’s designed to have a universal appeal, Duolingo is best suited to those wanting to learn a new language from scratch. That said, it could serve as a good refresher for those with some existing knowledge as you can skip lessons and levels that are too easy. Would especially suit those who enjoy a competitive approach to their learning.
Price
From $15 per hour
From $6.99 per month
Number of users
11 million
5 milion active users
Overall
Overall: Preply develops your vocabulary and fluency by connecting you with tutors 1-1. By doing this, you can speed up your learning and get on track with a personalized program. With over 32,000 high-quality teachers, Preply stands out by allowing you to select from a huge pool and filter lessons by availability. Do remember to cancel auto renew if you decide you don’t want any more lessons
To providerOverall: Duolingo is great fun and can definitely help you develop a secure level of knowledge in a variety of languages. It’s also habit forming, thanks to gamification, so it really motivates you to build a daily learning habit and make incremental progress. But, if you want to become fluent, or just hold more than very basic conversations, you’ll likely need to strengthen your understanding of grammar and your speaking skills elsewhere - or at least sample the paid for version which provides more support in these areas.
To providerSupported languages
English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Korean, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Dutch, Ukrainian, Hindi, Hebrew, Greek, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hungarian, Urdu, Thai, Serbian, Latin, Punjabi, Persian (Farsi), Romanian, Tagalog, Danish, Bengali, Sign and Indonesian.
Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Navajo, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, Zulu as well as Esparanto, High Valyrian and Klingon.
About
Preply was launched in 2015 as an online marketplace where learners pay fees to teachers for live online individual or group lessons.
It now has 32k+ teachers of over 200 nationalities who offer personal tuition in 35+ languages. You select the language you want to learn, the level you want to learn at and the teacher that best suits your needs. Discounted trial lessons help you land on the best tutor and once you have made your choice, you pay for monthly blocks of hours (minimum 4) rather than committing to an annual subscription fee.
Placement tests will identify your current proficiency. Levels are based on the Common European Framework and tutors will aim to progress you through these levels.
Duolingo was founded in 2011 with a mission to make language learning accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.
It’s now the most popular way to learn languages with 5 million people using it actively everyday and the mobile app having 500+ million downloads.
Duolingo combines bite sized activities with gamification to make education motivating, easy and fun. You earn rewards (such as gems and badges) for achieving different objectives and gain points to help you scale the rankings on a leaderboard of other randomly selected users. It also uses an algorithm that adapts to your learning and provides material at just the right difficulty level, as well as resurfacing content you need to revisit.
How it works
One of Preply’s selling points is that it’s designed around you. You’re in full control of what and when you learn and can trial different tutors to find your fit.
You simply go to Preply.com, click on ‘Get Started’, choose the language you are hoping to learn and click continue.
You’ll be asked a series of questions about your goals, current level, tutor type (eg native speaker or from a particular country where the language is spoken), when you want your first lesson, the type of lesson you’re looking for and your budget.
Following this you open a free account using your email address, Google or Facebook, and then choose from the filtered tutors who best match your requirements.
You’ll see their star rating, numbers of existing students and lessons and their proficiency in your own native language (which is essential to ensure good communication between you). Plus, you can sort the results by popularity, top picks and pricing
You can then take up to 3 discounted trial lessons, usually around 50m long. You use this time to discuss your level and focus areas and sample a tutor’s teaching style.
Once you find someone you’d like to have lessons with, you commit to a monthly subscription of a number of hours per week (between 1 and 5). You can distribute these hours in whatever way you and your tutor agree upon (eg 1 a week, or two every other week, etc).
Duolingo offers a freemium model and a subscription (Super Duolingo) which provides additional features and does not show ads.
To get started, you simply select the language you want to learn, answer a few questions about your goals, then sign up for a free account using Google, Facebook or an email account.
Duolingo then presents you with a learning path divided into units such as:
- Greeting people and Introducing yourself
- Using the present tense and talking about activities
- Days of the week
Saying what you want, etc.
Each unit contains a series of ‘stepping stones’ that hold a series of fun bite sized lessons and challenges designed to meet the unit objective.
Some languages have a placement test meaning that you can skip the easier units. But you always have the choice to start at the beginning, skip ahead or redo units you’ve already taken.
Units follow a curriculum based on an international standard and activities are designed to make sure that new learning gets embedded in long term memory.
As you progress Duolingo’s algorithm will adjust to your learning and vary the level of challenge. To make sure learning ‘sticks’ you will revisit earlier learning at optimum times. New words are highlighted and you often need to figure out intuitively what these might mean.
You can review what you've learned by clicking on the dumbbell icon which provides a practice test.
What a lesson is like
On Preply, lessons vary according to your current level, your tutor and how far along you are with them.
The Preply classroom is similar to Zoom/Skype but is a built-in feature of Preply’s desktop and app versions. So, you don’t need to download any software.
Within the Preply classroom, you’ll find a note and chat section, interactive whiteboard*, and homework tab. These help to structure your learning and encourage engagement. Tutors can send attachments and lesson plans, which appear in their own area. This means your learning is easily accessible wherever you are.
*Interactive whiteboard not available on the mobile app.
After 2 hours on Preply, I improved my basic German skills by:
- Getting personalized expert teaching from a native speaker
- Conversing with my tutor in the target language
- Reading new words aloud from a shared screen and sharpening my pronunciation
- Highlighting correct answers on the interactive whiteboard
- Engaging in external resources and homework tasks set by my tutor
- Running through grammar tests
Lessons are short and sharp - usually only about 3-5 minutes long. They mainly focus on translating - either from your native into your target language or vice versa.
To do this you might:
- Match spoken or written words with their meanings
- Type words and phrases using the keyboard/keypad
- Place words from a selection in the correct order
- Tap or type what you hear
- Provide missing words
Identify the correct spelling of a word from a choice of four
You will also use flashcards to learn new vocabulary, take quizzes, review content and be given the option to make things harder or easier.
For some languages there are stories with comprehension activities as well as podcasts. In the podcasts, native speakers tell stories but with simplified vocabulary and grammar and at a slower, clearer speed. These are supported with some assistance with unusual words or context.
There’s not a strong focus on speaking activities. Where they are available, AI voice recognition grades your pronunciation. During my two weeks using Duolingo, I came across a few speaking activities in French but none in Welsh, despite completing several units.
Who is it good for?
Preply’s learning style would engage anyone who’s:
- Wants to learn a new language as an absolute beginner
- Eager to improve their language skills (especially grammar and pronunciation)
- Believes they’d benefit more from 1-1 learning
- Busy and unable to commit to fixed time slots
Interested in learning a language for educational reasons or as a hobby
Compared to similar platforms like italki, Preply seems more suitable for beginners. Tutors don’t initially insist on speaking entirely in the target language. And you can ensure that your tutor is proficient in your own language to aid good communication.
With classes for kids as well as businesses, Preply really has something for everyone and doesn’t expect a foundational level of knowledge.
The tutor-contact feature means you and your teacher can discuss your skill level and lesson aims outside of lesson time. This way, Preply ensures you’re fully equipped for your lesson even before it begins.
Duolingo is an appealing, fun language learning platform that would best suit the following learners:
Anyone who’s:
- Learning a new language from scratch
- Wants to refresh or level up existing basic skills
- Appreciates short, sharp bite sized lessons
- Is strongly motivated by gamified features such as leaderboards, streaks, rewards etc
- Needing to learn flexibly on any device
Features
- Personalized 1-1 live tuition
- Direct contact with native speakers
- Immersion
- Flexible learning with no annual subscription
- Desktop- or device-based to best suit your needs
- Free Preply blog and Q&A community
- Gamification
- Personalized approach
- Practice Hub for reinforcing learned content
- Podcast series to aide language immersion
- Flexible learning with offline mode
- Speech recognition technology for pronunciation practice
Is it worth it?
In short, it depends on your learning style.
If you’ve used other app-based programs like Babbel or DuoLingo and found them not to be very helpful, Preply is an outstanding resource for getting individual, live, personalized learning.
Also, if you have a busy timetable and can’t commit to fixed days, you can search tutors by availability and speed up the booking process.
I hit on two excellent tutors and found that after a couple of hours I greatly improved my vocabulary and pronunciation. Plus my understanding of German grammar (which I remember from my school days as terrifying) improved massively. If only it had been taught the Preply way when I was at school!
Getting instant feedback reassured me that I was on the right track, unlike on pre-set apps. Although some see it as complementary to other learning, I think 1-1 tutoring is an invaluable method. And Preply matches you with tutors who are advanced or proficient in your own native language so you can easily express your questions, needs and learning style preferences.
With trial lessons available at reduced prices and a range of tutors to try out, there’s little to lose and a lot to gain with Preply. So, if you’re looking for a learning plan that suits your skills and lifestyle, I think Preply is definitely worth considering.
Just make sure you understand its pricing structure, use up all your hours and cancel your subscription when you decide to stop!
Why not browse the tutors and book a trial lesson?
Well, it depends on your goals.
If you want to develop a solid foundation in a language and enjoy an element of competition in your learning, Duolingo is likely to suit your purposes. It’s super fun and its extensive use of gamification makes it very habit forming - which is great for making steady progress in a language. What’s more, its algorithm learns what works for you and calibrates lessons appropriately.
I found I had committed a good range of words and phrases to memory during my trial of Duolingo and certainly got as far as being able to introduce myself and ask and respond to simple questions like, how are you? What is your name? Etc.
But if you want to become fluent or hold more complex conversations, I don’t think Duolingo will help you achieve that. At least not the free version. Speaking activities are not available in all languages. And even where they are, they do not feature prominently. The Practice Hub in Super Duolingo provides more in the way of speaking opportunities. But if you are willing to commit to a subscription you may find that other apps like Babbel or Mondly are better value.
My advice is to try the free version. If you love it, there is a 14 day free trial for Super Duolingo which gives you a decent amount of time to find out if it’s the right learning platform for you.