Apps like Duolingo, for everything that is not a language
People searching for this usually do not want another language app. They want the thing Duolingo does to their behaviour, applied to something else: a short daily lesson, a streak, and a next step that is already chosen.
Disclosure: Learning Cadence publishes this article and makes Cadence, one of the apps listed. We have a commercial interest in Cadence. Every other app is described from its official pages, linked in each entry, and we say plainly where a different app is the better choice.
Duolingo solved a behavioural problem before it solved a teaching one. The lessons are short, the next one is already decided, the streak makes stopping feel like a loss, and the reminders arrive at the right time. That combination is why people who quit every other learning app stay for years.
So the useful question is which apps reproduce that shape for other subjects. Below, each entry says which parts of the Duolingo formula it actually copies, because several look similar and behave nothing like it.
Start here
Which part of Duolingo you are trying to replace.
Swipe the table to see every column.
Which part of Duolingo you are trying to replace
What you want
Use
What it copies
A different language, done better for grammar
Busuu or Babbel
Short lessons, but with more explicit grammar teaching.
Maths and science with the same daily pull
Brilliant
Short units and a streak, with genuinely harder thinking.
Facts you must recall exactly
Anki
The scheduling and the daily queue, without any of the game.
A work or career skill
Cadence
Short daily lessons, streaks, reminders, and a fixed next step. This is our app.
Free school and university subjects
Khan Academy
The sequence and the practice, without streak pressure.
Book ideas on a daily habit
Headway
Streaks and daily prompts, applied to summaries.
Ideas to listen to, no commitment
TED
Short format only. No sequence, no streak, no progress.
Chess, specifically
Chess.com or Lichess
Daily puzzles and rating progression, which is a streak by another name.
The apps
Every app, with what it is bad at.
Each description comes from the app's official pages, linked in the entry and checked on the review date at the end of this article.
01
Brilliant
Maths, science, and computer science by doing
Brilliant teaches through problems and not lectures. You are given a puzzle, you try it, and the explanation arrives once you have already thought about it. That order is harder work than watching a video and it is why the ideas tend to stay.
Best for
People who want to actually think during a lesson, not watch one.
Not for
Anyone looking for a free option, or for subjects outside maths, science, and computing.
Price
Brilliant's help centre says the free tier unlocks the first chapter of each course. Everything after that is a subscription, and the free trial asks for card details. Check the official site for the current price.
Anki is a flashcard tool that schedules each card for the day you are about to forget it. It is plain, it is powerful, and it does nothing to help you decide what is worth learning. Medical students and language learners rely on it for a reason.
Best for
Facts, vocabulary, and anything you must recall exactly.
Not for
Understanding a subject. Anki assumes you already know what belongs on the card.
Price
Free on desktop and Android. The iPhone app is a one-time purchase that funds the project.
Cadence takes a topic or a practical goal you type in, then builds it into an ordered course of short daily lessons. Each lesson takes about ten minutes, you can read it or listen to it, and the course remembers where you stopped. Lessons include quizzes or other checks, and you can ask a coach for another explanation without leaving the lesson.
Best for
Learning something specific that no fixed catalogue covers closely enough, at one lesson a day.
Not for
Anyone who needs a recognised certificate, a named instructor, or a language course with speaking practice.
Price
Free to start, with one short lesson and quiz a day plus custom courses, audio, progress, and coaching inside the published limits. Plus raises those allowances for US$39.99 a year on the web, with a 7-day trial.
Khan Academy is a nonprofit that publishes full course sequences in maths, science, economics, and test preparation. Every lesson is free, there are no ads, and the practice sets tell you which idea you have not understood yet, not just marking you wrong.
Best for
Rebuilding a foundation you missed at school, especially in maths and science.
Not for
Soft skills, workplace situations, and creative subjects.
Price
Free. It is funded by donations, not subscriptions.
Headway condenses nonfiction books into short text and audio summaries you can finish in a sitting. It is a fast way to decide whether a book is worth your time, and a reasonable way to recall one you have already read.
Best for
Covering a lot of book ideas quickly, or triaging a reading list.
Not for
Learning a skill. A summary tells you what a book argued, not how to do the thing.
Price
A subscription with a free trial. Check the official site.
TED publishes short talks from researchers, writers, and practitioners, with transcripts and subtitles in many languages. A talk is a good way to find a subject worth studying. It is not a course, and treating it as one is the usual mistake.
Best for
Finding your next topic, and listening while you do something else.
Not for
Building a skill. There is no sequence and no practice.
Duolingo teaches languages through short exercises that repeat vocabulary and grammar until they stick. The streak, the daily goal, and the reminders are the reason many people keep going, and they are the most copied idea in the category.
Best for
Building and holding a daily habit while you learn a language.
Not for
Subjects outside languages, or getting to confident conversation on the app alone.
Price
Free with ads. On mobile the free tier meters how many lessons you can do through an energy system, so you wait, watch an ad, or spend gems to continue. The web version is less restricted. Paid tiers remove the ads and the meter. Check the app for the current price where you live.
If you are judging an alternative, these are the parts worth checking. Most apps copy the visual style and miss at least two of them.
The next lesson is already chosen. You open the app and start, with no decision to make. Any app that opens on a library has failed this test, and it is the most commonly missed one.
The unit is genuinely small. Short enough to complete on a bad day, which is what keeps a streak alive through a busy week.
There is a real sequence. Later material depends on earlier material, so progress means something. A feed of unrelated content cannot do this no matter how short each item is.
Something makes you recall, not just read. Duolingo constantly asks you to produce an answer. Apps that only show you content feel similar and produce much less.
A caution
The streak can become the point.
Streaks work, which is why everyone copies them. They also have a failure mode worth naming: people protect the number, not the learning, doing the fastest possible lesson at 11pm to keep it alive.
If you notice you are choosing the easiest available lesson to preserve a streak, the streak has stopped serving you. The honest fix is to let it break once and notice that nothing happens.
This is also worth knowing before you pick an app. If streak pressure makes you anxious rather than consistent, choose something like Khan Academy or MIT OpenCourseWare that has none of it.
Where we fit
What Cadence copies and what it does not.
Fair warning: Cadence is our product.
Cadence takes the daily shape and applies it to a topic you type in: about ten minutes, an ordered course, not a feed, a check inside each lesson, and progress that survives a gap. Streaks and reminders exist because they work.
What it does not copy is the game. There are no leagues, no gems, no characters, and no attempt to make a lesson feel like a mobile game. If the game is the part of Duolingo you enjoy, you will find Cadence plainer, and Brilliant is the closer match.
See it in concrete terms
Open a real Cadence course.
These Cadence courses show the daily format applied to non-language subjects, with the syllabus visible before you start.
Brilliant is the closest for maths, science, and computing, since it keeps the short daily unit and adds real problem solving. Anki reproduces the daily queue for anything you must memorise. Cadence, which is our app, applies the daily lesson and streak format to a work or career topic you choose yourself.
Why does Duolingo work when other learning apps do not?
Mostly because it removes the decision. You open it and the next lesson is already chosen, the unit is small enough to finish on a bad day, the material builds in sequence, and it constantly asks you to produce an answer, not just read. Apps that copy the look but open on a library miss the most important part.
Is there a Duolingo for work skills?
That is roughly what Cadence is built to be, and since we make it you should weigh that accordingly. It turns a topic such as giving feedback or running meetings into an ordered course of ten-minute daily lessons with checks and saved progress. LinkedIn Learning covers similar subjects but in a video catalogue rather than a daily sequence.
Are streaks actually good for learning?
They are good at getting you to return, which is most of the problem. The failure mode is protecting the number instead of the learning, by doing the shortest possible lesson to keep it alive. If streak pressure makes you anxious, pick something without one, such as Khan Academy or MIT OpenCourseWare.
What is the best free alternative to Duolingo?
Khan Academy for school and university subjects, since it is a nonprofit with no paid tier, and Anki for anything you need to memorise, which is free everywhere except its iPhone app. Both drop the game entirely, so they feel plainer than Duolingo.
Last reviewed
How we chose
What we checked, and what we did not.
We started from what Duolingo actually does to behaviour, not what it teaches, then assessed each alternative on whether it reproduces those specific mechanics: a pre-chosen next lesson, a small unit, a real sequence, and a demand for recall. Every product description comes from its official pages, checked on the review date shown on this page.
Direct checks: We opened the current official site or store listing for each app named here and checked its described format, sequence, practice model, and free tier.
Testing limits: We did not subscribe to every paid tier and did not measure retention or habit formation ourselves. Claims about other products stay attributed to their official pages, and no exact competitor prices are quoted because they change by region, platform, and offer.
Disclosure: Learning Cadence publishes this article and makes Cadence, one of the apps listed. We have a commercial interest in Cadence. Every other app is described from its official pages, linked in each entry, and we say plainly where a different app is the better choice.
Learning Cadence is not affiliated with any other product named on this page. Product names belong to their respective owners. Prices and free tiers change, so open the official page before you buy.
