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Solvelingua vs Duolingo
Duolingo is the world's most popular language app: short, game-like lessons with streaks and leagues that make a daily habit easy. Solvelingua is a life sim where you learn by moving to a city and talking with the people who live there. Here's how they differ, honestly, so you can pick what suits you.
| Feature | Solvelingua | Duolingo |
|---|---|---|
| How you learn | A life sim: you move to a city where the language is spoken and live there, one conversation at a time | Short, gamified lessons on a path, with streaks, XP and leagues |
| Speaking and conversation | Open conversation by voice or text with everyone in town. Characters remember you and slow down when you ask | Mostly tap, type and repeat exercises. Max adds short AI video calls with Lily and roleplays in some courses |
| Feedback | Saved for after each conversation: what you got right, what to fix, what to try next, plus a nightly diary | Instant right-or-wrong after each exercise, with explanations |
| Languages | 8 languages in 26 cities, each with its local dialect. Play in English, Spanish or Portuguese | 40+ courses, plus math, music and chess |
| Where it runs | Any modern web browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Nothing to install, internet needed | iPhone, Android and web |
| Free version | Free to sign up and play: unlimited text conversations, one character, 30 voice minutes in your first week | Yes, with ads and limits on mistakes |
| Paid plans | Plus: $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with 600 voice minutes a month and up to 4 characters | Super, roughly $84 to $96 a year. Max, about $30 a month or $168 a year (prices shown in the app) |
Duolingo details checked against public sources in October 2026, US prices before tax. Prices and features change and promotions are common, so check Duolingo's site for the latest.
Where Duolingo shines
- Building a habit. Streaks, reminders and leagues are very good at getting you to open the app every day.
- Breadth. Far more languages than we have, including many we haven't reached yet.
- A big free tier and polished native apps for phones and tablets.
What Solvelingua does differently
- You talk from day one, about anything. There are no menus of answers: you say what you want to the baker, your landlord or a neighbor, and they answer.
- People who remember you. Characters recall what you told them yesterday, so conversations build on each other instead of resetting.
- A reason to talk. You need breakfast, a job and friends, and everything happens in the language, which is closer to how a stay abroad works.
- Local speech. Spanish in Buenos Aires sounds different from Spanish in Mexico City, and the game reflects that.
Which should you pick?
Choose Duolingo if
you want a quick daily habit, a language we don't offer yet, or short drills you can do in two minutes on the bus.
Choose Solvelingua if
you know some basics and want to practice actually talking, or Duolingo lessons have stopped feeling like progress toward a real conversation.
Or use both. Plenty of people use Duolingo for daily vocabulary and Solvelingua to put it to use in conversation. The words you pick up in one show up in the other.
Good to know about Solvelingua
- It's in early preview, so expect new cities and features, and the occasional rough edge.
- It runs in your browser rather than as an app-store app, and it needs an internet connection.
- Conversations are powered by AI. Characters are usually natural and accurate, but like any AI they can sometimes get things wrong.
Questions
Is Solvelingua a Duolingo alternative?
It can be, but it's a different kind of thing. Duolingo teaches with short exercises; Solvelingua is a game where you live in a city and learn by talking with people. Many learners use both.
Does Duolingo have AI conversations too?
Yes. Duolingo Max includes Video Call, short spoken chats with the character Lily, and Roleplay scenarios, in a set of its most popular courses. In Solvelingua, open conversation with a whole town is the core of the game, and text conversations are free.
Which is cheaper?
Both can be played free. Duolingo Max, the tier with AI conversation, is about $168 a year in the US; Solvelingua Plus is $99.99 a year and mainly adds voice minutes, since text conversations are free.
Try it for yourself
Solvelingua is free to sign up and play. No credit card, nothing to install. See what Plus adds.
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