Memrise vs Duolingo, honestly compared

Memrise vs Duolingo is really vocabulary versus grammar. Memrise teaches words and phrases, with short clips of native speakers saying them in the street, and leaves grammar to you. Duolingo teaches sentence patterns through exercises and leaves the natural phrasing to chance. People who want to sound like a local pick one; people who want to understand how the sentence works pick the other. Most end up using both at different times.

We make Vocabloot, the third app here. It is a vocabulary app like Memrise, but from your own camera rather than a curated list, and we say plainly where Memrise is the better pick.

Updated 2026-09-20

The three, and what each one is for

Duolingo

Best for: Sentence patterns and a daily habit, free
Price: Free with ads and limited hearts; Super is around $8 a month or $84 a year
What it does well: Teaches structure by repetition: you build hundreds of sentences and the patterns stick. Forty-plus languages, the strongest habit loop in the category, and a free tier that is enough for most people.
Where it falls short: The sentences are famous for being strange, because they exist to drill a pattern rather than to be said. Little explicit grammar, thin pronunciation feedback, and slow going once the beginner units are done.

Memrise

Best for: Real phrases, said by real people, remembered with spaced repetition
Price: Free tier; Pro around $8 to $9 a month or $60 a year on the web, more on the App Store
What it does well: Every phrase comes with clips of native speakers saying it in the wild, so you learn how it actually sounds, and the spaced repetition schedule is good. The official courses cover the useful phrases first, and the AI conversation practice is a decent add-on.
Where it falls short: Almost no grammar, so you can know a thousand phrases and not be able to build a new one. The free tier has shrunk over the years, the community courses were moved to a separate site, and the vocabulary is still someone else's list, however well chosen.

Vocabloot ours

Best for: Vocabulary from your own photos instead of a curated list
Price: Free, with an optional Premium plan
What it does well: Where Memrise gives you the phrases a course author chose, Vocabloot gives you the word for whatever you point the camera at, with pronunciation and an example sentence, and reviews it in games built from your own captures. Free, ten languages, no account to start.
Where it falls short: Mostly single words, mostly nouns, mostly things you can photograph. No phrases, no native-speaker video, no grammar. If you want a curated set of useful phrases with real voices, Memrise does that better; if you want the words for your own life, that is us.

Vocabulary or grammar

Memrise is a vocabulary app that has grown some conversation practice. Duolingo is a pattern-drilling app that teaches vocabulary as a side effect. Neither explains grammar the way Babbel or Busuu does.

If you can already put a sentence together and need words, Memrise. If you cannot yet, Duolingo will give you the patterns, slowly, and Memrise on top will give you something to say with them.

The thing only Memrise has

The Learn with Locals clips. Instead of a synthetic voice reading a phrase, you get several real people saying it, at speed, with their own accents. For listening comprehension this is the best feature on either app.

Duolingo's audio is clean and slow. Good for the first week, less good for the first real conversation.

What they cost

Both are free to start. Super Duolingo is around $8 a month or $84 a year. Memrise Pro is around $8 to $9 a month or $60 a year if you buy on the web; buying inside the iPhone app costs noticeably more, so subscribe on the website.

The Memrise free tier is smaller than it used to be. Expect to hit its limits within a couple of weeks of daily use.

Where both leave a gap

Memrise's lists are well chosen, but they are lists: the phrases a course author expected you to need. Duolingo's vocabulary is whatever the exercises happen to use.

The words you actually reach for are the ones in your own kitchen, on your own commute, in your own job. That is the only thing Vocabloot does: photograph it, learn it, keep it. It sits well next to Memrise in particular, since both are vocabulary-first and neither pretends to teach grammar.

The short version

Want sentence patterns and a habit, free: Duolingo.

Want useful phrases, said by real people, and a spaced repetition schedule: Memrise.

Want the words for your own surroundings, from your own photos: Vocabloot.

Want grammar explained: none of the three; that is Babbel or Busuu.