Duolingo Review

Thursday, March 27th

2025 Russian Lesson Reviews

Duolingo

• Pricing from $0 to $9.99 per month (when billed annually)
• Sentence-reading and listening approach
• Jump right into the Cyrillic alphabet
• Totally free account available
• 14-day free trial of premium (Super Duolingo)
• Family account available for 2-6 users
• Gamified learning with points and leaderboards
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android
• 4.7-star average rating

If you haven't discovered Duolingo yet, you might be missing out on one of the most popular language platforms out there today. Duolingo has gained widespread popularity among students and educators, particularly on social media, largely due to its charming owl mascot and gamified learning style. Duolingo is renowned for making language learning more fun, and this includes Russian lessons as well as more than 40 other languages. It has emerged as a preferred option for many students who are just getting started because it's free and can help you dive into the fundamentals right away.

Jump right into the Cyrillic alphabet in lesson 1

Starting your Russian language journey with Duolingo begins with a completely free sign-up process, and you can preview a few lessons without even making an account. Duolingo will prompt you with some initial questions like what your learning objectives are, what level of proficiency you already have, and how much time you want to commit to learning. During our trial experience, we observed that Duolingo places a strong emphasis on the Cyrillic alphabet right away. Russian vocab is written in Cyrillic while the answers are written in English. If you're unsure about a particular Cyrillic word, you can click on it to get more detailed information about that word and its components. Even in lesson 1, Duolingo switched to using only Cyrillic words, so you'll be diving right into the Russian alphabet alongside your vocabulary. Your progress is monitored with a helpful bar at the top of the screen, gradually turning green as you answer questions correctly.

Don't lose heart(s)

Mistakes trigger quick review questions, and you lose hearts for errors. While you start with 5 hearts (so you can make 5 mistakes per lesson period), this can be challenging when learning brand-new material. If you lose all your hearts, you can't learn any more until they refill. According to Duolingo, "Each lesson practiced will restore one Heart. Typically, your next Heart will refill every 5 hours, so your total of five Hearts will restore within 25 hours. For those who still want to binge on Duolingo without taking a break or taking the time to review lessons, Hearts can also be refilled with Gems.”

Free or $6.99 per month

Duolingo offers a subscription service for $6.99 per month (when you pay for an annual subscription). You can get a 14-day trial to explore these features before committing, but remember that failing to cancel your premium membership post-trial will result in automatic charges. You can continue using Duolingo for free throughout your entire learning experience, so premium is optional. The difference is that the Super Duolingo subscription grants you unlimited replays (no worries about losing hearts) and access to additional practice tools for mastering challenging aspects of Russian. Recently, Duolingo introduced the Super Duolingo Family Plan, so if you want your entire household to join you on your premium membership, you can put them all on this one subscription. You'll pay about $120/year for a plan that includes 2-6 people (and, PS, they don't have to be family members to join you on your membership).

Outside sources necessary to complete your Russian studies

One limitation of Duolingo is that the path to fluency isn't as easy as with other platforms. Although Duolingo's gamified approach adds an element of enjoyment to learning, language experts often critique it for being excessively addictive, potentially diverting students from more efficient learning strategies. Further, we noticed a few drawbacks during our preview of the platform. First, while the lessons start using Cyrillic right away, these are full words and sentences, leaving you to intuit the letter sounds from context. If you want to learn the alphabet properly, you have to find a separate drill on Duolingo that isn't integrated into the general lesson path. On top of that, you may need to take notes and work on things like grammar outside of Duolingo as it doesn't specifically work on grammar beyond expecting you to figure it out by experience.

No refunds if you miss your trial deadline

One downside is that refunds are not offered for any purchases at Duolingo. So, if you miss the end of your 14-day free trial period, you could end up automatically subscribed to a relatively expensive premium membership. Some students have reported being charged for a full year rather than on a month-to-month basis after the free trial ends. Thus, despite the pricing being promoted as monthly on the website, failing to cancel in time could result in a charge of over $60 for a full year of Super Duolingo.

Students love it, but it has some low scores

Duolingo has received good and bad feedback for its language lessons. On one hand, the Better Business Bureau gives Duolingo an "F" grade, citing over 100 open complaints filed in the last three years. However, app store ratings on platforms like Google Play and the Apple Store paint a different picture. Duolingo currently holds a 4.7-star rating on both platforms and has even received the Editors Choice award on the Apple Store. As a third source of feedback, experts in language forums and blogs say that they don't favor Duolingo as a standalone language program, but rather as an extra study opportunity for students who are already learning a language in school or from another source.

Best used in conjunction with other lessons

In the end, Duolingo presents an enjoyable method for Russian language learning, though it probably won't offer full fluency by itself. According to some students, it's better suited for beginners to get started in a new language or to supplement another language program rather than being solely relied upon as your primary Russian lesson platform. Still, with its budget-friendly pricing and engaging interface, Duolingo maintains its popularity among students. Given its free access, you may want to download Duolingo as a supplementary tool alongside other language programs or coursework. For these reasons, Duolingo earns a decent rating.