Mondly vs Duolingo Review | Ling App

Duolingo is a very old friend of mine when we are talking about language learning platforms. However, Mondly is now coming along to challenge it. And if we compare Mondly vs Duolingo, we can figure out that both language apps are basically built for people who have never seen before the language they want to learn.

Even though many people say that those apps are very similar, in this Mondly vs Duolingo we will talk about how they are actually pretty different. In other words, they’re best suited for very different types of language learners. So, let’s find more about Mondly vs Duolingo battle and see which one of them you should use to start learning a new language from scratch.

Mondly vs Duolingo: How Similar They Really Are?

Most Mondly and Duolingo users learn through mobile phone apps, even though both have the desktop option as well. As I already said, both platforms are obviously meant for beginners with no or modest knowledge of the language they want to learn.

Mondy and Duolingo are game-like apps that teach you through 5-minute lessons. They also send you a reminder to study every day. Both of them keep track of how many days in a row you’ve studied in order to keep you motivated. Also, you get a little map by your username so you can brag about how many languages you’re studying.

Both language learning platforms have free and paid options and are mostly focused on building your vocabulary. And the similarity between Duolingo and Mondly ends here since they each develop their own methods of bringing language learning to their users.

Let’s see what is going to happen when we look into this whole Mondly vs Duolingo thing.

Mondly vs Duolingo: Languages Available

Both platforms support the following languages:

Besides the languages already mentioned above, Mondly is also a resource to learn:

While Duolingo does not cover those languages, you can use it to learn:

Mondly vs Duolingo: How Mobile And Desktop Option Get Along

Both platforms are mostly used as mobile apps, but you can access their content on a desktop as well. I know that 99% of people will go with the mobile app, but let’s talk a bit about the desktop version.

If you are going to Duolingo on your computer you can see that it’s pretty much the same thing as through mobile. However, there are a couple of other features that you won’t find on the app.

When we are talking about Mondly, it’s accessible via desktop as well, but not quite as smoothly as I would like. Unlike Duolingo, it looks just like the app but on a bigger screen. But, there is one serious downside of Mondly- you can’t switch from desktop to mobile seamlessly. So, either your account won’t stay logged in to both devices, or you’ll lose your history for a little bit. Trust me, it’s not nice when you log into Mondly on your computer and your 200+ day streak is just gone. It usually comes back after a while but it definitely can disappoint people.

Mondly vs Duolingo: Development Of Language skills

Now we will talk about how Mondly and Duolingo nurture the basic language skills of their users. Duolingo recently started with challenging their learners’ reading and listening skills by publishing “stories” they walk them through. Basically, you are presented with the text followed by audio, and as the story continues on you should fill in the blanks and complete it. That way you’re practicing reading, listening, and writing.

As for speaking, you can practice it if you keep the speaking lessons enabled. So, technically, you can satisfy the 4 most important language skills for free. It’s pretty shallow practice, though.

Having in mind that Duolingo gives you very minimal chances to practice conversation, Mondly is doing a better job in that department. So, depending on the format of the question you’re working on, you’ll also get the option to use the little microphone option in the bottom right corner.

To be totally honest, sometimes it took me a few hits to get it to record. But when it does work, it’s pretty satisfying. So, you just need to answer this question correctly by speaking it, which is a very good conversation practice.

While talking about Mondly, I just need to tell you how awesome my experience with the Chatbot and Augmented Reality was. Using those two tools, I basically had a real-life conversation in my target language with a robot.

Even though having conversations with real human beings is the best option, I really believe this is the best you can get from the language learning platform. I am aware that the tech isn’t quite perfect, but I can’t wait to see how Mondly will continue to improve this feature.

Mondly vs Duolingo: Free Or Paid Options?

There is no surprise in this department since both platforms have paid options. However, they want to take your money for two completely different reasons.

Duolingo says that it’s a free platform, which is true. It makes a profit from ads. As I already talked about in my Babble vs Duolingo review, the second one gives access to everybody free of charge. But, it recently introduced a $10/month subscription service, Duolingo Plus. So, it allows paid users an ad-free experience as well as offline access. However, other than that, paid members don’t get any other features and Duolingo remains 100% accessible to everyone.

On the other hand, Mondly is a completely different species. You won’t get a whole lot for free, basically just a preview of the app with 6 lessons, 1 conversation, 1 vocab section, a chatbot conversation, and new lessons every day, week, and month. The rest of the content (250 lessons, 33 conversations, 36 vocab sections, and more than 1300 daily lessons) is accessible just to paid members for $10/month and $48/year for one language. Having all mentioned in mind, Mondly isn’t brutally expensive, but Duolingo is a cheaper option.

Mondly vs Duolingo: Which One Better For You?

At the end of this review, we can conclude that neither Mondly nor Duolingo is heavily better than the other one. But, consider these points while deciding which one you want to use.

If you ask me, I vote for Mondly because am I excited to see how will their AR feature blossom in the future. Also, I just love the fact that the Mondly team understands that there are many people that don’t speak English and gives them a chance to learn other languages.

If you love to learn a new language in an interesting and fun way, you can also consider using Ling App.