Compare

How Verbamor compares.

Four apps, 11 rows, checked against each company's own pages, with the links and dates under the table. I sell one of the four, so the rows Verbamor loses are marked as plainly as the rows it wins.

11 rows · checked September 2026

Feature

Verbamor$10.83/mo

DuolingoFree, or from $9.99

AnkiFree, $24.99 on iOS

Babbel$17.95/mo

What you're studying

Languages taught

Whether the language you want is in there at all.

Verbamor5Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian

Duolingo40+, strongest in this rowplus Chess, Math and Music

AnkiBring your ownan empty engine, you bring the content

Babbel14

Where the words come from

Whether the app decides what you study, or you do.

VerbamorYour lessons, strongest in this rowmined from your own recordings and translations

DuolingoFixed coursea fixed course path

AnkiYou type themwhatever you type in, and you type all of it

BabbelFixed lessonspredefined by the lessons you finish

Publishes a named, adaptive algorithm

Whether the company names the maths that picks your next review, and whether it adapts to you.

VerbamorFSRS, strongest in this row

DuolingoHLRpublished at ACL 2016

AnkiSM-2 or FSRS-6SM-2 by default, FSRS-6 available

BabbelNone nameda fixed 6-step ladder

How the studying works

Native audio, and who made it

Whether a person recorded what you hear, or a voice model generated it in a native accent.

VerbamorGenerated, native accenton every card: the sentence with the answer hidden, then read in full

DuolingoGeneratedtrained on recorded actors

AnkiBring your ownonly if you record or source it yourself

BabbelHuman-recorded, strongest in this rowvoiced by native speakers, all 100,000 hours

You recall the answer before it's shown

Retrieval practice: the answer is hidden until you've committed to one.

VerbamorYes, strongest in this rowthe prompt is audio, so there's nothing to read off

DuolingoNothe sentence is on screen first

AnkiYes, strongest in this rowevery card works this way

BabbelNospeech recognition, on a prompt you can see

Speech recognition on your pronunciation

The app listening to you and scoring how close you got.

VerbamorNonothing scores how you say it

DuolingoYes, strongest in this rowspeaking exercises

AnkiNo

BabbelYes, strongest in this rowfull coverage in the app and in Chrome

Effort, price and getting in

Cards get built without you

Whether keeping the deck fed is a chore you have to do.

VerbamorFully automated, strongest in this rowthe card, the picture and the audio

DuolingoPre-writtenthe course is already written

AnkiYou type themyou type every one, or download someone else's deck

BabbelFrom lessonsauto-added from finished lessons

Streaks and daily reminders

The habit machinery, for readers who want it and readers who don't.

VerbamorStreak, goal, reminders, strongest in this row

DuolingoStreak, reminders

AnkiNone

BabbelRemindersreview reminders only

Runs on Android, desktop and the web

Studying somewhere other than an Apple device.

VerbamorApple onlyiPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch for recording. The iPad app also runs on Apple silicon Macs

DuolingoWeb, iOS, Android

AnkiAll platforms, strongest in this rowWindows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, plus free sync

BabbelWeb, iOS, AndroidiOS, Android, and any recent browser

Taking your cards elsewhere

Whether the words you built up follow you out if you stop paying.

VerbamorFull decks, strongest in this rowevery deck and every word, as a CSV

DuolingoNone

AnkiFull decksdeck files that reopen in Anki, or plain text

BabbelNone

What you get without paying

Whether anything is free. Each app's price sits under its name at the top.

Verbamor7-day trialno free tier. $19.99/mo or $129.99/yr, about $10.83/mo and 46% less billed yearly. Both plans

DuolingoYes, with adsads and an energy cap. Paid plans run $9.99 to $119.99 depending on term and plan

AnkiYes, not on iOS, strongest in this rowfree on desktop and Android, $24.99 once on iOS

BabbelFirst lessonno free tier. $17.95/mo, about $8.95/mo paid yearly, or $299.99 lifetime

A shaded cell is the strongest answer in its row. The company page behind each cell, and the date I read it, is in the sources. Seen something wrong? Tell me and I'll fix it.

One app. Pay each month or each year.

You get every feature and all 5 languages either way.

Native

$10.83/mo

$129.99 billed once a year.

$2.50 a week. Less than a coffee.

Less than an hour with a tutor each month.

Start 7 days free

You pay nothing for 7 days.

Record every lesson and make as many cards as you need.
Cards come from your own lessons. Each card has a picture, native-accent audio and an example sentence.
Turns your own grammar mistakes into cards, with the correct sentence and a one-line rule.
Knows how you speak. It shows the words you overuse and the grammar you often get wrong, so you know where to focus.
Shows when you will review each word, and how much you would forget if you stopped.
Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.
Not liking the app after 30 days? Email support@verbamor.com and get all your money back.

If the rows fit, the trial is 7 days.

Start 7 days free

The 7-day free trial is on the yearly plan.

300+ Hours of lessons recorded

317 Experiments behind the method

1.7 billion Reviews behind the schedule

5 Languages

Read further

The longer versions

Each of these takes one competitor, with the concession up front.

Verbamor vs AnkiA superb engine that ships no language content.
Verbamor vs DuolingoA beginner course against a review tool for people with lessons.
Is Quizlet good for language learning?Mastery with no clock, so nothing picks your next review date.
Clozemaster vs VerbamorThousands of strangers’ sentences on a fixed ladder, or your own on a per-card schedule.
Keeping your italki lessonsThe competitor is a Google Doc, and it works until about week 3.

Roundups

Wider fields, sorted by your situation rather than ranked 1 to 10.

The best spaced repetition appsCompared on the scheduler each one runs.
The best apps for learning Spanish6 apps, sorted by where you're starting.
The best apps for learning FrenchBuilt around the problem that stops people: the sound.
If you already have a tutorWhat's worth running alongside real lessons.

Two other apps, head to head

For when you've narrowed it to two apps that aren't mine. Each one is checked against both companies' own pages.

Guides

Which app or method to pick, and how to keep what a tutor teaches you, are on the guides page.

Sources, company by company

Each line names the rows it backs and the day I read it. Prices move, so the date matters more than the figure.

Duolingo

Duolingo's course directory, read 5 September 2026: the languages, Chess, Math and Music, the fixed course path, and web, iOS and Android. Rows: languages taught, where the words come from, cards built without you, runs on Android, desktop and the web.
Settles, B., & Meeder, B. (2016). A trainable spaced repetition model for language learning. ACL 2016. Row: publishes a named algorithm.
Duolingo, "Giving our characters voices", read 5 September 2026: text to speech built from recorded voice actors. Row: native audio.
Duolingo, how it teaches speaking, read 21 September 2026: repeat, translate aloud, or speak an answer, with the sentence on screen. Rows: recall before the answer, speech recognition.
Duolingo's US App Store listing, read 24 September 2026: Super's price points from $9.99 to $119.99 with no billing term, no ads, Unlimited Energy and Monthly Streak Repair. Rows: streaks, what you get without paying.

Anki

Anki downloads, re-checked 22 August 2026: free on Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, with free AnkiWeb sync. Row: runs on Android, desktop and the web.
AnkiMobile on the US App Store, read 21 September 2026: US$24.99, paid once. Row: what you get without paying.
Anki manual, deck options, re-checked 22 August 2026: SM-2 by default, FSRS switched on by you. Row: publishes a named algorithm.
Anki manual, re-checked 22 August 2026: Anki ships no language content, so you add the cards, the audio and the pictures, and every card hides its answer until you reveal it. Rows: languages taught, where the words come from, native audio, recall before the answer, cards built without you.
Anki manual, exporting, read 5 September 2026: plain text, .apkg deck packages and .colpkg collections. Row: taking your cards elsewhere.

Babbel

Babbel, about us, read 21 September 2026: "60,000 lessons across 14 languages". Row: languages taught.
Babbel help centre, Review, read in a browser 5 September 2026: the 6-step ladder with no algorithm named, and review words "predefined based on the lessons you complete". Rows: where the words come from, publishes a named algorithm, cards built without you.
Babbel help centre, audio, read in a browser 5 September 2026: "all 100,000 hours of our content are voiced by native speakers". Row: native audio.
Babbel help centre, speech recognition, read in a browser 5 September 2026: speech recognition in lessons, with full coverage only in Chrome. Rows: recall before the answer, speech recognition.
Babbel help centre, devices, read in a browser 5 September 2026: iOS, Android and any up-to-date browser. Row: runs on Android, desktop and the web.
Babbel help centre, trying Babbel for free, and Babbel's plan table on my.babbel.com, both read in a browser 5 September 2026: the first lesson of every course free, $17.95 for 1 month, $107.40 billed for 12 months (about $8.95 a month), $299.99 lifetime. Row: what you get without paying.

Cells with no company page behind them

Duolingo's reminders and Babbel's review reminders. Neither company has a page I can link that describes them, so those two cells have no source you can check.
The missing features: no export on Duolingo or Babbel, and no streaks or speech scoring in Anki. Companies don't publish pages about what they don't do, so these rest on the feature being absent from each company's own help pages. If one of them ships it, tell me and the cell changes.
Verbamor's own column comes from the app's source code and plan settings, and its prices are in the plans above.