Language apps without hearts or energy: 8 apps checked

Each free app with no limit has a catch. Anki has no lessons, Language Transfer is audio only, and Mango needs a card from a library that offers it.

Duolingo's free plan stops you when your energy runs out. Duolingo announced energy in July 2025 as the replacement for hearts. Drops' page for its Welsh course says the free plan gives 5 minutes of study every 10 hours.

Verbamor, which I build, has no hearts, lives or energy. It's paid, with no free plan: US$19.99 a month, or US$129.99 a year with a 7-day trial. Both are US prices.

In October 2026 I collected 51,495 App Store reviews of 30 language apps from the US, UK, Canadian and Australian stores. Of those, 13,183 had 1 or 2 stars. 325 of those mentioned hearts, energy or a time limit, and 302 of the 325 were about Duolingo.

Which language apps have no hearts or energy?

I read each app's own website or App Store listing, and the last column gives the date. All prices are US prices.

Free, with no time limit

Free, with limits I couldn't confirm

A limit on free use

Anki ships no language content of its own, so you build or download every deck. By default it shows 20 new cards a day.

Language Transfer teaches through audio courses, which play in its app. Its course list includes Complete Spanish, Intro to French and Intro to Italian.

Mango is a paid course that many public libraries give their members for free. Its App Store listing says free access comes through "a subscribing organization, like a public library".

Drops' time limit gets the same complaint as Duolingo's energy. A 2-star App Store review of Drops says "5 minutes of free practice is a joke".

I omitted Falou and Mondly. Reviews of both mention a limit, and none of their own pages I read states one.

For a wider list, see apps like Duolingo, checked against each company's own pages.

Why does Duolingo take energy when I answer correctly?

Duolingo's blog post on energy, dated 3 July 2025, says "Each lesson uses a little bit of energy". So a lesson uses some energy whatever your answers are.

A 1-star App Store review of Duolingo puts the surprise plainly: "you lose energy even with a right answer".

The same post explains the rest.

• You regain energy with several right answers in a row, and perfect lessons can earn bonus energy.
• Reviewing your mistakes at the end of a lesson uses no energy.
• Energy refills completely in about a day.
• A rewarded ad returns some energy sooner, and gems buy a refill.

Duolingo publishes no starting amount, no cost per lesson and no size for the bonus. Treat any exact energy figure you read elsewhere as a guess.

Under the old hearts system, only mistakes cost a free learner, at 1 heart each. Duolingo's post says beginners were 2 times as likely to run out of hearts mid-lesson.

How do I keep practicing when my energy runs out?

Try the options inside Duolingo first. The first 3 cost no money.

1. Review your mistakes at the end of each lesson. Duolingo says this uses no energy.
2. Watch a rewarded ad. It returns some energy.
3. Wait about a day for a full refill.
4. Spend gems on an energy refill. The App Store lists gem packs from $0.99 to $19.99.
5. Start the 14-day Super Duolingo trial. Super includes Unlimited Energy.

Outside Duolingo, you can continue in a second app. Anki's desktop app, Language Transfer and Mango through a library cost nothing and have no time limit. Anki has no hearts or energy, and none of the Language Transfer or Mango pages I read mentions either.

Is Super Duolingo worth it just to remove energy?

If energy is your only complaint about Duolingo, I'd try Super before switching apps. Duolingo's US App Store listing says Super includes Unlimited Energy, no ads and Monthly Streak Repair.

The US listing has a 14-day trial. Super's App Store prices run from $9.99 to $119.99. The store doesn't label which price is for which term.

I track every Super price point in how much is Super Duolingo. My page on what Duolingo costs compares the free plan with each paid plan.

On iPhone, Apple charges for Super when the trial ends, unless you cancel first. Apple says to cancel at least 24 hours before a trial ends.

How does Verbamor work without hearts or energy?

Verbamor is the app I build, so read this section as the maker's view. It has no hearts, lives or energy on any plan, and it shows no ads.

You set the size of each day yourself. The settings allow 5 to 60 reviews and 5 to 30 new words a day, and each new word becomes 2 cards.

After your daily goal, a "study 20 more" top-up lets you continue.

You grade each card yourself with 4 buttons: Forgot, Hard, Good and Easy. You type nothing, and the app never marks an answer wrong.

FSRS-6, a spaced repetition scheduler, uses your grades to schedule each card.

Verbamor does have game parts. It keeps a streak and XP, and missing a day resets the streak to 1. You can't freeze it.

Verbamor sends reminders. A daily reminder has an on/off switch and a time picker. The app can send an evening streak reminder, and messages after 3, 7 and 14 days away.

There are no leagues, leaderboards, gems or badges.

Who should pick something else?

Here's who I'd send elsewhere.

You like Duolingo's course. Check Super's price first. Unlimited Energy removes the limit, and you keep a course you already enjoy.

You want free and unlimited. Use Anki's desktop app if you're happy to build or download decks. Use Language Transfer if you want a free audio course.

Ask your library about Mango if you want a full course for free.

You want a course. Verbamor has a starter deck of about 650 common words per language, and no course, grammar lessons or placement test.

After that deck, your cards come from classes and conversations you record, text you paste and words you translate in the app. Ask people before you record them.

You use Android, or want another language. Verbamor has no Android app or web app. It runs on iPhone and iPad, with an Apple Watch app for recording.

It teaches 5 languages: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

You want to try the monthly plan first. The monthly plan has no trial. The 7-day trial is on the yearly plan only.

There's a longer side-by-side in Verbamor vs Duolingo.

Questions people actually ask

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