Busuu vs Duolingo, honestly compared

Busuu vs Duolingo is closer than the other Duolingo comparisons, because Busuu is also free to start and also gamified. The difference is what sits underneath: Busuu is a real course mapped to the CEFR levels, with grammar explained and your writing corrected by native speakers; Duolingo is a habit loop with lessons attached. If you have outgrown the owl but do not want to pay Babbel prices, this is the comparison you are looking for.

We make Vocabloot, the third app here. It is a camera vocabulary app and not a course, and we say plainly which readers should skip it.

Updated 2026-09-20

The three, and what each one is for

Duolingo

Best for: Casual daily practice across forty-plus languages
Price: Free with ads and limited hearts; Super is around $8 a month or $84 a year
What it does well: The best habit engine in the category and the widest language list. The free tier is enough for most casual learners, and the lessons never take more than a few minutes.
Where it falls short: No grammar explanations to speak of, sentences made for exercises rather than life, and no one ever reads what you write. Progress past the beginner units is slow, and the streak becomes the point.

Busuu

Best for: A structured course to B2 with feedback from native speakers
Price: Free tier with limits; Premium around $10 a month or $70 a year
What it does well: Courses follow the CEFR levels A1 to B2, so you always know where you are. Grammar is explained, lessons are longer and more sentence-based, and the community feature has native speakers correct your writing and speaking exercises, which no other app on this page offers.
Where it falls short: Fourteen languages, and the free tier is thin: most of the course sits behind Premium. British English by default, which surprises some learners, and the habit mechanics are weaker than Duolingo's, so it suits people who already intend to study.

Vocabloot ours

Best for: The nouns of your own life, alongside either course
Price: Free, with an optional Premium plan
What it does well: Snap an object, get its word with pronunciation and an example sentence, and practise it in games made from your own photos. It covers the vocabulary neither course includes: the things in your own home, office and street.
Where it falls short: Vocabulary only, no grammar, no CEFR path, no corrections from anyone. It is a companion, not a course, and it teaches mostly the words for things you can photograph. Beginners choosing one app should pick Busuu or Duolingo first.

Course or habit

Busuu is a course. Each language runs A1 to B2 with units, grammar tips, a study plan and a certificate at the end of each level. Duolingo is a path of lessons you keep walking; it does not tell you where you are in any recognised scale.

If you need to know your level, for a job, a visa or a university, Busuu is the only one of the two that can tell you.

The thing only Busuu has

In Busuu, writing and speaking exercises go to the community, and native speakers correct them, usually within hours. You correct theirs in your own language in return.

This is the closest an app gets to a teacher for free. It is also why Busuu learners tend to write better sentences than Duolingo learners at the same stage.

What they cost

Both are free to start. Duolingo's free tier is the real product; Busuu's is a sample, with most lessons and all grammar review behind Premium at around $10 a month or $70 a year. Super Duolingo is around $8 a month or $84 a year.

Paid for paid, they cost about the same, and Busuu gives you more course for it.

Where both leave a gap

Both teach the vocabulary of their own course. Neither teaches the word for the thing you are looking at, which is the word you needed at the supermarket.

Vocabloot does that one thing: point the camera, get the word, keep it with games. It is free and works next to either app.

The short version

Want free, easy and daily, in almost any language: Duolingo.

Want a real course with a CEFR level at the end and native speakers correcting you, for about the same price as Super: Busuu.

Want the words for your own surroundings on top of either: Vocabloot.

Learning Japanese, Korean or Chinese: check Busuu's language list first, since it has fourteen languages to Duolingo's forty.