Preply vs Mondly
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.
Mondly is a language learning platform with 80 million learners. It offers 42 languages and enables you to learn anywhere on any device. It targets all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Mondly provides you with a gamified, interactive learning experience via memory exercises, a very intuitive interface and cutting edge augmented reality (AR) and chatbot technology.
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
- Effective and comprehensive covering speaking, listening, reading and writing
- You can tailor your learning according to your goals and interests
- Engaging and fun - short sharp lessons and gamification to make learning fun and motivating
- Learn anywhere, anytime on any device
- Great user experience with a user friendly, polished interface
- Augmented reality and Interactive chatbot conversations provide an immersive way to practice your skills
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
- Less to offer more advanced learners or those wanting a strong conversational focus
- You always have to start at the basic level
- Bite-sized lessons may be too short for those preferring a more in-depth approach
- Free version is limited
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: Anyone who is looking to learn a brand new language or has a limited grasp of one and wants to improve. Those who love fun, gamified, interactive apps and are intrigued by AR and like to engage with new technological experiences. Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals
Price
From $15 per hour
From $4.99 per month
Number of users
11 million
500,000 active subscribers
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: Mondly is an incredibly popular platform that has over 80 million users. Having used the platform for the past couple of weeks it's easy to see why. Lessons are comprehensive and immensely fun and I found it a really effective way to learn a new language. I was very impressed by how easy it was to use and how fast I was able to introduce myself in a new language.
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.
English (UK), English, (US), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Hebrew, Catalan, Latin, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Romanian, Afrikaans, Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Bengali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai
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.
Mondly is a language e-learning service founded in 2014 designed to meet one aim: to get adults and children speaking a new language - fast..
It’s consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated education apps in the app store and has 80+ million learners.
Mondly is a gamified language learning application that provides you with a guided yet interactive learning experience via memory exercises and a very intuitive interface. It offers learning in 42 languages via desktop and app, using virtual and augmented reality products.
It was acquired in 2022 by Pearson, the world’s leading education company, to boost its existing portfolio of state of the art learning tools and provide a way for students to study languages independently online. For Pearson to select Mondly, out of all the language platforms available is testimony to its effectiveness.
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).
To get started on Mondly you simply select the language you want to learn and click ‘Start Learning’. Mondly works the same way regardless of the language you choose.
You’ll see the Mondly dashboard containing lots of topic icons such as weather, travel, food, etc. You can choose a topic or select ‘daily lesson’ and Mondly will guide you through in a recommended order.
For each topic (or within the daily lesson) you’ll take bite-sized lessons which cover the following:
- Vocabulary (Interactive flashcards)
- Listening (Audio to written and spoken exercises)
- Speaking (Hands-free conversational lessons and thematic lessons)
- Reading and writing (image association and phrase creation)
Conversation (chatbot conversations)
Lessons are self-paced and you complete them in your own time. You can view them on the go, on your computer, mobile, or tablet. Plus, you can track your progress with statistics and leaderboards and compare your score with other learners. Weekly quizzes, and monthly challenges are created according to your progress.
On top of this there are additional resources to optimize your learning, such as the Mondly Augmented Reality (AR) app. The AR app uses a virtual teacher to help you learn new words by showing you interactive worlds and activities.
As an experience, Mondly very much has the feel of a board game, where your objectives, achievements, and progress are visible as you go along a ‘learning path’.
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
Mondly’s lessons are grouped around topics such as weather, food, travel, etc.
The structure is very straightforward. This means that you know exactly how many words and phrases you will learn, the estimated time it will take you to complete the lesson and your overall rating.
For each topic there are:
- 6 vocabulary activities (all are interactive and use different methods to target memory retention)
- 1 conversation exercise (where you practice what you’ve learned with the chatbot function and voice recognition software)
1 vocabulary review in which you swipe the correct translation
You can match your lessons with an intelligent calendar that helps you organize your learning objectives and provides you with a visual record of how your learning progresses over time.
Overall, you can view your progress by navigating through Mondly’s map and using the calendar function and the statistics view.
If you want to extend your learning, it is possible to click on parts of phrases and sentences to get additional information or grammatical explanations. Such as this screen below which conjugated the verb ‘to be’ after I had clicked on ‘is’.
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.
The Mondly learning style would suit anyone who:
- Wants to learn a new language from scratch or has a limited grasp and wants to improve
- Has a busy schedule and needs to fit lessons around their life
- Loves fun, interactive apps
- Likes the flexibility of learning on mobile and desktop
Is intrigued by AR and likes to engage with technological experiences
Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would therefore benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals.
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
- Fun, interactive lessons that touch all learning styles
- Flexible learning
- Chatbot function
- Augmented reality
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?
I found Mondly easy to use, and thought the lessons were well structured, engaging, effective and ‘sticky’.
Together with gamification through points, streaks and leaderboards it makes for a fun learning experience that motivates you to come back for more.
Mondly’s stand out feature is its use of technology such as chatbots and AR that provide a novel and more immersive way to practice your new skills. It’s also comprehensive, helping you to improve all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
That said, there’s always room for improvement. Whilst it is comprehensive it has a fairly narrow focus on grammar. Its approach to this is more intuitive - with constant practice of phrases and sentences you’ll learn the rules without realizing.
Also, if you really want a laser-like focus on conversational skills, you may find the chatbot a bit limited and prefer a platform that offers live lessons with native speaking teachers.
However, if you value a fun yet structured approach that really helps new learning stick then Mondly is definitely worth considering.
You can use the free version to get a flavor of the platform or subscribe and make use of the 7 day free trial to make up your mind. Just remember to cancel before the 7 days is up to avoid payment. The pricing point is very competitive and there are frequent discounts available making it even better value.