Busuu vs Duolingo: Which Is Better for Learning and Speaking English?

Busuu vs Duolingo at a glance

There is no overall winner. Pick by the problem you have today: no routine, no structure, nobody checking your English, or no practice at speaking. The sections below take those one at a time.

How each app teaches

Busuu is a course first. Its help center describes lessons of three to five minutes, each built around one topic, such as introducing yourself or ordering food in a restaurant. Language experts write them, and every course follows the CEFR. A placement test sets your starting point, checkpoint quizzes track progress, and you choose study days and times so the app can remind you. Grammar and vocabulary review come with Premium.

Duolingo is a game you come back to every day. Lessons are short exercises along a path, with streaks, leaderboards and rewards that pull you back tomorrow. Your Duolingo Score, out of 160, shows how far through the course you are and maps to CEFR levels: Duolingo’s score guide puts 30–59 at A2 and 100–129 at B2.

Both apps can be set to your own language. Busuu’s App Store listing names 15 app languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Korean; Duolingo’s names 33. If a visible streak is what gets you to open an app, Duolingo has the edge. If you want to know which topic you are on and review it later, Busuu’s course is easier to follow.

English levels and the CEFR

Busuu lists its English course as A1 to C1. Its English course page counts more than 655 lessons and over 200 hours of study in Complete English, plus side courses such as English for Travel, English for Business, English Pronunciation and English Exam Success.

Duolingo’s English course used to stop much earlier. In April 2026, Duolingo said that almost anyone learning English, whatever language they learn from, can now study through B2, a Duolingo Score of 129. Before that, most learners could only reach A2. Busuu goes one level further, to C1; Duolingo’s most advanced courses stop at the end of B2.

Course range describes the material. Finishing the B2 lessons in either app doesn’t mean you can hold a B2 conversation. Our guide to English levels A1–C2 explains what each level means when you speak, and the free English level test estimates your CEFR level from 18 questions in your browser, so you know where to start.

Speaking and pronunciation practice

Busuu: repeat after a speaker, then role-play with AI

Speaking practice lessons are listen-and-repeat exercises inspired by shadowing. You watch a short video of a fluent speaker, record the same word or phrase, and get up to three attempts. In the English course, words you mispronounce are highlighted in red whatever language your app is in. Busuu’s speaking practice page says the longer, AI-written advice on how to fix a sound appears only when the app is set to English or Spanish.

Conversations are AI role-plays inside the course. Each scenario has a goal and a CEFR level. You hold a button to speak, keep talking until you reach the attempt limit, and get vocabulary and grammar feedback at the end, so corrections don’t interrupt you. Busuu says Conversations are available at every level of Complete English. Both features give you a limited number of free tries; after that, they need Premium Plus.

Duolingo: speaking in every lesson, then Video Call

Duolingo’s speaking guide lists exercises from the first lesson where you repeat words, translate sentences out loud or take part in short dialogues. Many writing exercises also let you tap the microphone and say the answer. The Practice tab has sessions made only of speaking exercises, and it is free for all learners. Duolingo’s Q3 2026 letter says the share of exercises you can answer by speaking has doubled since the start of the year.

Video Call is the conversation part. Lily starts the call, and you can talk about anything; according to Duolingo’s launch post, she adapts to your level and doesn’t correct your grammar during the call, and calls last about a minute early in the course and up to three minutes later on. Falstaff runs guided calls for beginners, with coaching on useful phrases. After a call, you can read the transcript.

Who gets Video Call is changing. In its Q3 2026 shareholder letter of November 3, Duolingo says new Super subscribers already get unlimited Video Call and all Super subscribers should have it by the end of 2026. It will stop selling Max this month and move individual Max subscribers to a Super Family plan at the same price. Before you pay for calls, open your English course and check what your plan includes.

Duolingo also made Explain My Answer, a short explanation of why an answer was right or wrong, free in January 2026. Which courses have it depends on the language you learn from, so check your English course.

Community corrections: Busuu’s clearest difference

At the end of a Busuu lesson, you record or write an answer and send it to the community, where learners who speak English at an advanced or native level correct it. An exercise usually stays open until it gets at least five corrections, and Busuu’s Correction Bot may reply while you wait. You can also ask friends on Busuu to check it. The community is part of the free plan.

That makes Busuu the better choice if you want a person to read your sentence or listen to your recording. Corrections come later, when other learners get to your exercise. Duolingo’s social features, such as friends, streaks and leaderboards, are there to keep you motivated; we found no Duolingo feature that sends your answers to other people for correction. Whichever app you use, try a correction once more before moving on: write or record a new sentence with the corrected form.

Certificates: what you can show for your progress

Busuu gives a certificate when you pass the test at the end of a level, for English levels A1 to C1. It shows your name, the CEFR level, your grade, the date and a summary of the skills for that level. Certificates are a Premium benefit. Busuu’s education team stands behind them, but they are Busuu’s own certificates, not results of a standardized exam.

Duolingo gives no certificate for the course. The Duolingo Score shows your progress inside the app. For a certified result, Duolingo sells the Duolingo English Test separately; each test you buy gives you one credit toward a Certified Result. If a school or employer asks for proof of your English, check which tests it accepts before you pay for anything.

What you get free

Busuu: its plan comparison puts the complete courses and the community in the free plan, and you watch a short ad before each lesson. Premium removes the ads and adds grammar and vocabulary review, offline mode, skipping lessons and certificates. Premium Plus adds AI Conversations, pronunciation feedback, Mistake Repair, exclusive courses and streak protection. Some of these depend on language, level or device: Mistake Repair, which builds exercises from your past mistakes, is on iOS only and, for English learners, needs the app in English, Spanish or French.

Duolingo: it says every course is free, paid for by ads and subscriptions. The free plan has a limit. With the older hearts system, each mistake costs a heart. With the newer Energy system, a pink battery drains as you do lessons, refills when you get several answers right in a row and recharges in about a day. Duolingo said in July 2025 that Energy had reached only a small number of users; the US App Store listing now advertises unlimited Energy with Super, while the Spanish, Mexican, Brazilian, Japanese and Korean listings still say unlimited hearts. Either way, Super removes the limit and the ads and adds a monthly streak repair, and it comes with a 14-day free trial.

Our guide to what is free in Duolingo goes through those limits in more detail.

Prices in November 2026

Both apps list several versions of the same plan in the App Store, and the store shows only some of them, often without the billing period. These are the lowest and highest prices that the US App Store listings for Busuu and Duolingo showed on November 12, 2026:

Prices in other countries and on the web are different. Busuu says its pricing varies by platform, promotion and currency, and it offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on the first payment of a Premium plan; if you bought through the App Store, you ask Apple for the refund. Before paying, check the amount charged today, the renewal price and whether the plan includes the speaking feature you want.

Where you can use them: Busuu runs on iOS, Android and, on a Mac or Windows computer, in Chrome, Firefox or Safari, with progress synced across devices. Both apps are in the App Store and on Google Play in every market we checked: the US, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Japan and Korea.

See your speaking level for free

Get the Fluently app and take the free AI speaking assessment: a short conversation that estimates your CEFR level and scores five speaking skills. Then practice with games that build your vocabulary and pronunciation.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play

Which should you choose?

• You are a beginner with no budget: Duolingo. The whole English course is free, and so are the speaking sessions in the Practice tab.
• You are around A2–B1 and want structure: Busuu. Topic lessons up to C1, grammar review with Premium and community corrections on what you write and say.
• You need something to show for it: Busuu Premium for a course certificate at each level. If a school or employer accepts the Duolingo English Test, that is a separate purchase.
• You want AI conversation inside a course: compare Busuu Premium Plus, with Conversations at every level of its English course, and Duolingo Super, which is getting unlimited Video Call.
• You want to talk about your own work and life every day: add Fluently to whichever course you keep.

What neither app is built for

Both apps practice speaking inside a lesson plan. Busuu’s Conversations are scenarios with a goal and an attempt limit, with feedback at the end, and its Speaking practice has you repeat a model phrase. Duolingo’s calls with Lily were designed to last one to three minutes, and she doesn’t correct your grammar as you go. Community corrections arrive when someone gets to them.

What is left out is a long, open conversation about your own life: explaining a problem at work, telling a friend about your weekend, rehearsing a call you are nervous about, with feedback on your own sentences that you can use in the next answer. Try this self-check after a week with either app. It is an example task, not a test we ran in the apps.

Check your sounds the same way. Each first language has its own trouble spots: b and v sounding the same for Spanish speakers, an extra vowel after consonants for Japanese speakers (stress said in four syllables), an extra vowel at the end of words for Brazilians (“internetchi”), and f turning into p for Korean speakers. Record a sentence with yours and see whether the app flags it. Our English pronunciation practice guide lists these sounds with drills.

Where Fluently fits

Fluently is built for that conversation. You talk with an AI tutor by voice, like on a phone call, about whatever you need: your job, a trip, an opinion. You can describe your own scenario for a role-play, and the tutor plays the other role. For example: “You’re my manager. I need to explain why the report will be two days late. Ask me follow-up questions.”

After your turn, a card can show a grammar fix, a more natural way to say your sentence (the way a native speaker would put it) or a better word, and the conversation keeps going. Your scores for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, grammar and coherence update as you practice. In the settings, you can turn off live captions to practice listening by ear, and change the tutor’s speaking pace.

To see where you stand first, the free English speaking test in the app is a conversation of about four minutes that estimates your CEFR level and gives you an overall score out of 100 and scores for five skills. Keep Busuu or Duolingo for grammar and vocabulary, and use Fluently to say things in your own words.

Fluently is free to start. Take a free AI speaking assessment to see your level, then practice with games that build your vocabulary and pronunciation. Conversations with your AI tutor come with Fluently Premium.

Say it out loud, in your own words

Get the Fluently app, take the free AI speaking assessment to see your level, then practice with games that build your vocabulary and pronunciation. Conversations with your AI tutor, where you can role-play your own scenarios and get cards after your turn, come with Fluently Premium.

Download on theApp StoreGet it onGoogle Play