LingQ Alternatives for Learning by Reading and Listening

LingQ is a reading and listening app. You pick or import a text with audio, click the words you do not know, and save them as LingQs for review. It is alive and still updated. On the US App Store it is at version 6.0.31, rated 4.7 from 10K ratings, with Premium at $14.99 a month, $80.99 for 6 months or $119.99 for 12 months.

Most people look elsewhere for one of two reasons. The free plan stops at 20 saved LingQs and 5 imported lessons, according to LingQ's own free vs premium post from August 2026. And a monthly fee close to a streaming subscription feels steep for what is, at heart, a reader with a dictionary. The tools below keep the same method, learning from text and audio you mostly understand, but split it up differently: a click-to-translate reader, a free self-hosted clone, three video tools, a sentence drill and a flashcard app for review.

Prices are from vendor pages, the Chrome Web Store or the US App Store as of November 6, 2026. If you want to speak rather than read, see our Tandem alternatives. For hearing how single words sound, see Forvo alternatives.

Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Readlang

Readlang is the nearest thing to LingQ's reader without LingQ's bill. You open an article or a pasted text, click a word for its translation, and drag across a phrase to translate the whole chunk. Each lookup turns into a flashcard. The pricing page says it covers 100+ languages on readlang.com, works on any web page through a Chrome extension or a bookmarklet, and can be added to iOS and Android home screens.

The free plan gives unlimited single-word translations, which covers most of what a reader needs. Phrase lookups are capped at 10 a day, up to 6 words each, and context explanations at 10 a day. Premium raises phrase length to 12 words, removes the daily caps and adds 10 hours of audio storage, so you can pair a text and its recording much as LingQ does. One subscription covers every language you study.

Best for: Learners who read web articles and want click-to-translate plus flashcards at well under half of LingQ's monthly price.

Pricing:

• Free: unlimited word translations, 10 phrase translations and 10 context explanations a day
• Premium: $6 a month or $48 a year
• Premium Plus: $15 a month or $120 a year, with 200 hours of audio storage and high-quality voices for whole texts

Watch out for:

• There is no store app. The pricing page says you install Readlang on iOS and Android home screens, so on a phone it is a web app.
• Practising or exporting flashcards from one specific book is Premium only. Free users review a single mixed pile.

Official site: Readlang.

LUTE

LUTE, short for Learning Using Texts, copies the LingQ reading loop and costs nothing. You import a text, unknown words are highlighted, and you give each word a status as you learn it. Everything stays on your own machine. The PyPI page lists version 3.10.3 from July 7, 2026, asks for Python 3.8 or later, installs with pip install lute3 and opens in your browser at localhost:5001. The code is MIT-licensed on GitHub.

LUTE comes from the same family as Learning With Texts (LWT), the free reader first released in 2011. LWT also lives on as a community fork under the Unlicense. That fork needs PHP 8.2 or newer and MySQL or MariaDB, recommends Docker, and has a companion Android app called Lukaisu. Choose LUTE if Python is already on your computer, and the LWT fork if you run a PHP server or prefer Docker.

Best for: Readers who want LingQ's word-status system for free and do not mind running a small app on their own computer.

Pricing:

• Free and open source under the MIT licence
• No accounts, subscriptions or paid tiers
• The LWT fork is free too, released under the Unlicense

Watch out for:

• There is no hosted version and no one-tap install. You set it up from a terminal, and Japanese learners also need MeCab, per the install notes.
• The GitHub repo shows 198 open issues. Help comes from volunteers and the docs, not a support desk.

Official site: LUTE.

Migaku

Migaku turns real shows and websites into study material, and its language list starts with Japanese, Mandarin and Korean. Its browser extension adds clickable subtitles and word lookups, and the words you save go to Migaku Memory, its own flashcard system. The pricing page names 11 languages: Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Cantonese, English, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Italian and French.

Compared with LingQ, Migaku puts video and spaced repetition first and has no big lesson library. It runs as a Chrome extension, an iOS app, an Android app and Migaku Memory on the web. The iOS app is at version 2.70.0 on the US App Store, with 4.4 stars from 377 ratings and a 16+ age rating.

Best for: Japanese, Chinese and Korean learners who want anime, dramas and web pages turned into flashcards inside one tool.

Pricing:

• Migaku Standard listed at $14.00 and $136.99 on the US App Store (billing period not stated)
• Early Access tier listed at $21.00 and $179.99
• Lifetime listed at $289.00 to $359.00
• The website offers monthly, yearly and lifetime plans but loads its figures with JavaScript

Watch out for:

• The extension's Chrome Web Store reviews average 3.5 out of 5. Reviews from 2023 and 2024 describe it stopping mid-session, a subtitle toolbar that fails to load, and one user losing 7,000 saved words.
• Only 11 languages are supported, against the 50+ that LingQ's App Store description claims.

Official site: Migaku.

Language Reactor

If your input is Netflix and YouTube, Language Reactor does inside the player what LingQ's video import tries to do with transcripts. The Chrome Web Store listing describes dual-language subtitles, a popup dictionary and fine-grained playback controls on Netflix, plus text import from books and websites with machine translation and text-to-speech.

About 2 million people use it, according to the Chrome Web Store. Version 6.0.1 came out on October 19, 2026, and it holds 3.8 stars from 4.5K ratings. You can pause after each subtitle line, replay it, and save words for later. The core extension is free, and the listing flags in-app purchases for the paid Pro tier.

Best for: Learners who already watch Netflix or YouTube and want dual subtitles and word lookups on top of what they watch.

Pricing:

• Free core extension
• Pro is a paid upgrade sold inside the extension; price not published

Watch out for:

• It is desktop only. The listing says it runs in Chrome on Windows and macOS, so there is nothing for phones or smart TVs.
• Video support is named for Netflix and YouTube only. Other streaming services are not listed.

Official site: Language Reactor.

Lingopie

Lingopie replaces LingQ's lesson library with a streaming catalogue of TV series and films that carry interactive subtitles. You tap a word in the subtitles to see its meaning and keep it for review. The US App Store listing names 12 languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, English, Chinese, Dutch and Turkish.

Version 1.109 shipped on October 16, and the app holds 4.4 stars from 2.2K ratings. The free tier is thin: the listing offers 8 minutes of learning a week. The Lingopie pricing page gives a 7-day full-access trial covering all languages and features.

Best for: Learners who want a ready library of native TV in one app instead of hunting for content on other services.

Pricing:

• Free: 8 minutes a week
• Monthly listed at $11.99 and $13.99, 3 months at $34.99, yearly at $59.99 to $83.99 (US App Store)
• 7-day free trial on the website

Watch out for:

• An App Store review describes charges after cancelling, on a second account created by an email typo. The developer replied that the account had been refunded.
• Another reviewer says the in-app signup showed only paid plans, not the 7-day trial offered on the website. Start the trial on the web if you want it.

Official site: Lingopie.

Dreaming Spanish

Dreaming Spanish is pure listening. There are no texts to click and no word lists. You watch videos pitched at your level, from beginner to advanced, and count hours of input instead of known words. The brand now runs as Dreaming, which lists Spanish and French.

LingQ users who found they mostly played the audio will feel at home. The Dreaming app on the US App Store, sold by Dreaming Languages, Inc., shows version 1.79.3 from October 25, 4.8 stars from 236 ratings and a 13+ age rating. A web version runs at app.dreaming.com.

Best for: Spanish or French learners who want graded video input and no reading or flashcards at all.

Pricing:

• Free download, with a free tier mentioned in App Store reviews
• Premium listed at $9.99 and Premium Double at $14.99 on the US App Store

Watch out for:

• Two languages only. Anyone learning German, Japanese or Russian needs another tool.
• Dreaming Spanish does not say how much is free or what period the $9.99 covers. Check the plan screen before you pay.

Official site: Dreaming Spanish.

Clozemaster

Clozemaster drills words in context instead of handing you long texts. Each round shows a sentence with one word blanked out, and you pick or type the missing word. The US App Store listing claims 50+ languages and over 170 language pairings, so you can often learn from a base language other than English.

Treat it as a side dish to a reader. Reading builds comprehension, while Clozemaster gives quick daily reps on frequent words. The Pro page says Pro adds listening practice in over 30 languages and offline play in the mobile apps. It runs on the web, iOS and Android.

Best for: Learners who want short daily sessions that teach common words inside real sentences.

Pricing:

• Free tier on web and mobile
• Pro Monthly listed at $8.99 and $12.99; Pro Yearly at $69.99 and $79.99 (US App Store)

Watch out for:

• Pro is sold at two price points for each billing period on the App Store, under the same names and with no explanation, so compare the offer on each screen before you subscribe.
• No long texts or audio stories. It cannot replace a LingQ-style reader on its own.

Official site: Clozemaster.

Anki

Anki is not an input tool at all. It is the review half that many input learners pair with a reader: you make or download decks, and Anki schedules each card by how well you remembered it last time. The download page lists version 26.09.4 for Windows 10 and 11, macOS 13 or later, and Linux, with the source on GitHub.

Desktop Anki and AnkiDroid on Android are free, and so is AnkiWeb sync between devices. The iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is a one-time purchase and is at version 26.10. A common setup is to look words up in Readlang or LUTE while reading, then review the hard ones in Anki.

Best for: Anyone who wants to remember the words found while reading, on every device, without a subscription.

Pricing:

• Desktop app: free
• AnkiDroid on Android: free
• AnkiMobile on iOS: $24.99 one-time
• AnkiWeb sync: free

Watch out for:

• It ships with no content. You build or find decks yourself, setup time a LingQ user never had to spend.
• The iPhone app is the one paid version, and it holds 4.0 stars from 2.4K ratings on the App Store, well below LingQ's 4.7.

Official site: Anki. Our listing: Anki.

How to choose

When to stay with LingQ

Stay with LingQ if you study several languages from one account and use its lesson library as much as your own imports. Its App Store description claims more than 50 languages, which none of the readers here matches with a full library of lessons and audio. LingQ also keeps text, audio and saved words synced across web and mobile with no setup. If you read every day, the 12-month plan works out to about $10 a month, close to Readlang Premium Plus.

Frequently asked questions