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App Imp

Language learning apps.

Limits & caps runs in 9 of the 11 apps here — nobody on this shelf has fixed it.

11 apps · 5,209 reviews held · 1,687 negative · 2026-08-24 snapshot

65/100 opportunity

5 of 6 factors · not advice
Nobody's fixed it9 of 11 apps82
How far above typical4.3% vs 2.8% typical38
How angryno deep report yet—
People in the market6,970,470 ratings95
Room to enterleader holds 77% of ratings23
Willingness to pay11 of 11 charge · $7.99 entry100

Mostly solved: sync & data. 8 of 10 apps run below the store’s typical rate on it — while 9 of 11 still carry limits & caps complaints.

How this is scored

Weighted mean of the sub-scores, weights re-normalized over whatever is computable (nobody's fixed it 25 · how far above typical 20 · how angry 15 · people in the market 15 · room to enter 15 · willingness to pay 10). Fixed anchors map each count to 0–100: breadth and willingness-to-pay are straight shares; the gap’s heat tops out at 4times the store’s typical rate; anger scores star3 as 0 and star1.5 as 100; reach runs 104 to 107ratings on a log scale; room to enter is one minus the leader’s share of shelf ratings. A factor that cannot be counted is dropped and named — never imputed. The site’s one composite (#115, owner decision 2026-08-15); cited industry benchmarks are never blended in.

5 gaps.

01

Limits & caps — unfixed in 9 of 11 apps

elevated · 4.3% of this shelf’s 1,687 negative reviews, against 2.8% typical store-wide.

What they said · 73 reviews
  • Core feature locked behind the paywall7 of 73
“You’re screwing us (and yourselves) over — Duolingo has been quite helpful in learning languages and has helped me stay invested in Dutch for the last 230+ days now. But oh my god, it is not what it used to be. First, the AI integration over real humans with real experience. It takes the humanity away and partially diminishes Duolingo’s original goal of providing accurate and accessible language”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 2star · Aug 19, 2026
“It‘s a scam. As long as you register several times, it is easy to be banned. — You can’t get to know more people without spending money. They will repeatedly recommend the same person to you, and even deliberately limit the number of views.”HelloTalk - Language Learning · 1star · Aug 14, 2026
“垃圾软件 — 1 star, do not recommend. The platform has extremely crude and unfair account review rules. My account and device got restricted unexpectedly without any clear violation notice. I submitted appeals to customer support many times, only receiving generic automatic replies with no real human review. Lots of basic features are locked behind VIP paywalls. False reports work easily while legitima”HelloTalk - Language Learning · 1star · Jul 26, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
4.3%
73 of 1,687
store-wide
2.8%
typical
breadth
82%
9 of 11 apps
02

Accuracy — unfixed in 11 of 11 apps

12.9% of this shelf’s 1,687 negative reviews, against 11.5% typical store-wide.

What they said · 218 reviews
“A stunningly awful, AI-slop language app in a sea of awful, AI-slop language apps — I tried Memrise years ago, before the app, and liked it, so a positive experience with the free version of the app was enough for me to pay what I thought was a reasonable price for all-access. Within 6 months, all actual learning content had been swapped out for broken versions: vocabulary lessons with some words”Memrise Easy Language Learning · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
“Incorrect Flash Cards — A lot of the Japanese flash cards are blatantly wrong. Ex: Day (supposed to be “first day of the month”) So, now we have to remember what they meant to ask? Not helpful. I pay a subscription too”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
“WARNING: App glitch forces unauthorized charges. — The app trapped me in a lesson loop, glitched, and automatically enrolled me in a paid trial without my permission. Even though I canceled it immediately in my iPhone settings and deleted the app, I was still charged $16.99. Apple Support confirmed the glitch but couldn't override the billing block. Be extremely careful downloading this app; it ha”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
12.9%
218 of 1,687
store-wide
11.5%
typical
breadth
100%
11 of 11 apps
03

Billing — unfixed in 10 of 11 apps

32.2% of this shelf’s 1,687 negative reviews, against 32.1% typical store-wide.

What they said · 544 reviews
  • Price judged too high for the value51 of 544
  • Trial converted without clear consent30 of 544
  • Cancellation blocked or broken14 of 544
  • Charge the user never authorised4 of 544
“ads — The ads are so interrupting and annoying because you are starting a lesson and in so many ads confirm after finishing just one task and it's so annoying so much annoying and you just want to promote your subscription and I don't like this way. I think you have to control it.”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 2star · Aug 20, 2026
“A stunningly awful, AI-slop language app in a sea of awful, AI-slop language apps — I tried Memrise years ago, before the app, and liked it, so a positive experience with the free version of the app was enough for me to pay what I thought was a reasonable price for all-access. Within 6 months, all actual learning content had been swapped out for broken versions: vocabulary lessons with some words”Memrise Easy Language Learning · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
“Incorrect Flash Cards — A lot of the Japanese flash cards are blatantly wrong. Ex: Day (supposed to be “first day of the month”) So, now we have to remember what they meant to ask? Not helpful. I pay a subscription too”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
32.2%
544 of 1,687
store-wide
32.1%
typical
breadth
91%
10 of 11 apps
04

UX — unfixed in 11 of 11 apps

3.0% of this shelf’s 1,687 negative reviews, against 2.9% typical store-wide.

What they said · 51 reviews
“So pathetic — Good product and the most pathetic and confusing app I have ever seen. They fail at basic software building 101. It feels like it was built by bunch of elementary kids. We subscribed to family plan and shared the link with family members but while trying to set up account, the app keeps taking us to 1 month trial. WTF!!!We’ve already paid for the annual membership! Then we figured ou”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
“Confusing — i couldnt find a library for English for Turkish. also i would ok for plaing english. im so confused how to get benefit out of this app”Pimsleur | Language Learning · 1star · Aug 16, 2026
“Text is too small — This app is hard to use for learning Asian languages. The text won’t adjust according to text size settings. A lot of the questions are a little too stupid as well.”Busuu: Language Learning App · 2star · Aug 15, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
3.0%
51 of 1,687
store-wide
2.9%
typical
breadth
100%
11 of 11 apps
05

Performance — unfixed in 11 of 11 apps

13.5% of this shelf’s 1,687 negative reviews, against 16.9% typical store-wide.

What they said · 228 reviews
“Glitch — There’s a glitch that when you get a 5 lesson combo the text stays on the screen and it is very,like very annoying so it blocks answering questions correctly by blocking the text of the button.”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 3star · Aug 20, 2026
“WARNING: App glitch forces unauthorized charges. — The app trapped me in a lesson loop, glitched, and automatically enrolled me in a paid trial without my permission. Even though I canceled it immediately in my iPhone settings and deleted the app, I was still charged $16.99. Apple Support confirmed the glitch but couldn't override the billing block. Be extremely careful downloading this app; it ha”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 1star · Aug 20, 2026
“Sloppy slop — I have used Duolingo for years because it makes learning a language fun. Even when the sentence it taught were ridiculous and unusable I still found it overall to be useful. I have found in the last year that more and more lessons on the Spanish lessons contain major translation errors. The app will ask me about a word I’ve never learned before, or throw in a different translation fo”Duolingo: Language Lessons · 3star · Aug 20, 2026
How it compares
this shelf
13.5%
228 of 1,687
store-wide
16.9%
typical
breadth
100%
11 of 11 apps

Is there a market for a new language learning app?

11 apps compete on this shelf, holding 5,209 App Store reviews — and the widest unfixed complaint, limits & caps, runs in 9 of 11 of them at 4.3% of negative reviews against 2.8% typical. Those are counts, not a verdict — the page shows what is unfixed, not whether to build.

What do users complain about most in language learning apps?

1. Limits & caps — in 9 of 11 apps, 4.3% of negative reviews; 2. Accuracy — in 11 of 11 apps, 12.9% of negative reviews; 3. Billing — in 10 of 11 apps, 32.2% of negative reviews; 4. UX — in 11 of 11 apps, 3% of negative reviews; 5. Performance — in 11 of 11 apps, 13.5% of negative reviews.

How many language learning app reviews did App Imp count?

5,209 US App Store reviews across 11 apps, 1,687 of them negative — counted on the 2026-08-24 snapshot, never estimated.

Searched on the App Store.

Apple’s own suggestions for language learning apps terms, in their order.

arabic language learning app for beginnersduolingo-language lessonslanguage learninglanguage learning for kidslanguage lessonslearn languageschinese language learning app for kidsduolingo-language lessons free

Searched, but no app on this shelf says it in its name.

Who’s in it

All 11 apps counted on this shelf · 2026-08-24.

App
Duolingo: Language Lessons5,398,1904%15%28%1%
Babbel - Language Learning750,7994%9%33%4%
Rosetta Stone Classic (2024)237,9922%30%36%8%
Memrise Easy Language Learning216,4652%15%24%4%
Busuu: Language Learning App100,2374%6%47%4%
Teuida: Learn Languages57,475—14%—7%
Speak: Language Learning57,42610%14%43%2%
Airlearn - Language Learning45,027—8%16%5%
HelloTalk - Language Learning43,5695%9%32%3%
Innovative Language Learning34,1774%8%36%2%
Pimsleur | Language Learning29,1134%12%46%1%

Each cell: that app’s share of its own negative reviews. Bold from 1.15 times the store’s typical rate for that complaint, and only where an app holds 20+ negative reviews. Click a column to sort.

What they charge, and what it costs them

Prices from Apple’s public pages; the share counts payment-mechanics language only.

AppMoney complaints
Speak: Language Learning$17.99–$164.99 · 6 tiers10.7% of 141
Rosetta Stone Classic (2024)$44.99–$199.99 · 9 tiers6.1% of 132
Babbel - Language Learning$17.99–$107.99 · 9 tiers6% of 247
Duolingo: Language Lessons$0.99–$119.99 · 10 tiers5.6% of 378
Innovative Language Learning$7.99–$24.99 · 10 tiers4.9% of 143
Pimsleur | Language Learning$19.99–$164.99 · 6 tiers4.4% of 68
HelloTalk - Language Learning$0.29–$79.99 · 10 tiers2% of 291
Memrise Easy Language Learning$24.99–$329.99 · 10 tiers1.6% of 187
Busuu: Language Learning App$6.99–$139.99 · 9 tiers0% of 49
Teuida: Learn Languages$1.99–$89.99 · 6 tiers0% of 14
Airlearn - Language Learning$1.99–$79.99 · 10 tiers0% of 37

Browse the apps behind these counts

Every app we count, with the complaint it runs furthest above the store’s typical rate.

Open the app library
How this is counted

Every number is arithmetic over the reviews we hold, re-counted weekly — nothing modelled, nothing scored. Themes come from a frozen pattern classifier rather than a model reading reviews, so the same review always lands in the same bucket. A shelf rate is pooled across every app here; the store rate is the same count across 12,122 apps. A complaint is only called a gap when at least half the shelf carries it and at least 20 reviews are behind it — a problem concentrated in one app is that app’s bug. This shelf has no full report yet, so the per-app notes and the anger axis are absent rather than estimated.