Pimsleur vs Duolingo: Which App Should You Choose?

The Pimsleur Vs Duolingo debate is a waste of time because both websites promise something different.

Pimsleur claims to teach you a language the way you learned your native language. So, it focuses on your listening and speaking skills, whereas Duolingo focuses on improving your reading, writing, and listening skills. It won’t be much help to improve your speaking skills until it improves its speech recognition software.

Anyway, comparing the two websites is bizarre. Instead, you can try using Pimsleur with Duolingo, as they complement each other well. You will understand why I am suggesting this once you finish reading this analysis.

About Pimsleur and Duolingo

Pimsleur has been around for decades and remains popular for good reasons. It claims you can speak a new language in merely 30 days. That doesn’t mean you can master a language in thirty days; it means you will have a basic grasp of the language. You don’t need to memorize grammar rules or build extensive vocabulary to communicate using a language.

Pimsleur is proof of that. Even though the learning method became popular decades ago, it is still relevant. Is Pimsleur better than Duolingo? When comparing the focus on listening and speaking skills, yes, Pimsleur is better. It helps you understand what is being in a conversation and respond naturally.

Duolingo is the best option to improve your writing and reading skills in any language, especially if you are a beginner. Its fun and captivating bite-sized lessons make you more enthusiastic about learning a language. Similar to Pimsleur, Duolingo doesn’t rely on you memorizing grammar rules. You simply learn by practicing.

So, you can improve your writing, reading, listening, and speaking skills a whole lot by using the websites together. That is why I said using Pimsleur plus Duolingo is a good idea. Using one website alone isn’t as effective as using them in tandem.

Key Features Comparison

Let’s compare the key features of both websites to see how well they will work together. You will also know which website or app is better for you if you need to improve only a specific skill area.

Content Quality

Pimsleur has excellent content to help you hone your speaking skills. You simply have to complete a 30-minute lesson every day in sequence. Ensure you speak aloud and not in your mind when asked to repeat a word or sentence. Otherwise, Pimsleur can’t help you even with its stellar content.

Duolingo has comprehensive content for almost all languages. That is why it is the most popular learning website for beginners. Duolingo’s users have been steadily increasing because of its high-quality content and fun learning environment. 

✅ Winner – Both

Learning Methods

Pimsleur has tested and proven learning methods. You don’t have to do much. Listen to conversations that Pimsleur plays and pay attention when the conversation is explained. The audio of native speakers conversing is slowed down for you to follow along. They even break down the syllables and teach them in reverse order.

For example, the Italian word capisce will be broken down and taught to you as sce, piche, and capisce. This method is effective even though it may seem bizarre. Objectively speaking, Pimsleur’s learning methods are awesome. However, I couldn’t listen to the audio for more than 12 minutes in a 30-minute lesson. 

But that is because of my incredibly short attention span. I can’t pay attention to anything for more than 7- 10 minutes. Therefore, it is a miracle that Pimsleur made me listen for 12 minutes with only audio content. You learn to make polite conversations right off the bat. That is not something any other language-learning website can claim.

Duolingo is excellent for learning to read and write in a new language. You always feel entertained and focused when using the app to learn. I learn for hours sometimes using Duolingo. My notoriously short attention span isn’t a problem because Duolingo excels at keeping you interested through various means.

It also teaches you clear pronunciation. However, you can’t test whether you are pronouncing it the right way because of its poor-performing speech recognition software; it’s much too lenient. 

So, if you ask how much better is Pimsleur than Duolingo in improving your conversational skills, I would say it is loads better than Duolingo. Pimsleur managed to exceed my expectations.

✅ Winner – Pimsleur

Practice Exercises

Pimsleur Graduated Interval Recall; words and phrases are repeated at certain intervals to help you store them in your long-term memory. The voice coach – the voice recognition software provides feedback on how good your pronunciation is. Pimsleur teaches you cultural and historical facts when you are learning. 

You can download the lessons to learn uninterrupted whenever and wherever you want. It also provides digital flashcards for you to practice vocabulary. Duolingo has several types of practice exercises, and you will never be in want of entertainment. You will realize learning can be thrilling. Sometimes, I get an adrenaline rush powering through consequent levels.

Moreover, people underestimate the importance of improving writing and reading skills when learning a new language. While learning to converse is brilliant, what good will that be if you want to read a novel or a mere short story? 

Duolingo isn’t rubbish at teaching you to converse. It merely needs improvement. Overall, it does a great job of teaching you all aspects of a language.

✅ Winner – Duolingo

Customer Support

Pimsleur has good customer support. You can chat with an agent, email them, or call them to resolve any issue you face. If you are like me, the chat option will be a huge relief. I hate speaking to people. Emails are better but you don’t always get a fast response, do you? So, the chat option is a lifesaver for me. 

Duolingo doesn’t have good customer support. Sure, you can call, send an email, or submit a form. But that doesn’t mean you will get a satisfactory response. Their AI will assign your form a priority score if you report a bug. If you are lucky, the score is high and your issue gets resolved. If not, oh well, it’s swept under a rug.

✅ Winner – Pimsleur

Pricing and Value for Money

Pimsleur complete course for a language costs around $550 and $575 depending on whether you purchase a classic course or premium course. Alternatively, you can subscribe to the various monthly and annual plans ranging from $19.95/month to $165/year. Depending on the plan you get access to one language or all languages.

Pimsleur can teach you 50 languages. However, it can only get you to an intermediate fluency level. Therefore, deciding whether the pricing is worth it is difficult. Pimsleur isn’t suitable for everyone. So, use the free trial to determine whether Pimsleur or Duolingo is worth paying for.

Duolingo courses are completely free. However, if you want unlimited hearts and access to the ‘Practice’ feature, you need to subscribe to Super Duolingo. You must pay $12.99 /month if you unsubscribe to the monthly plan and $6.99/month if you choose the annual plan. Most Super Duolingo users are satisfied because they try the 14-day free trial before subscribing.

✅ Winner – Duolingo

Community

Pimsleur has an online forum for learners to interact and learn from each other. Duolingo’s forums were closed. A move that outraged long-time users of Duolingo. Several users opt for other alternatives. You can connect with other Duolingo users in Discord. But, it isn’t the same as having an official forum, is it?

✅ Winner – Pimsleur

User Interface

Pimsleur has a simple but elegant user interface, whereas Duolingo has a stunning and entertaining user interface. Asking which website has a better user interface is like asking someone whether classical music is better than contemporary music.

✅ Winner – Both

Device Compatibility

You can access Pimsleur and Duolingo via desktops, Android, iOS, and tabs. Similar to other language-learning websites, you need to use the same login method on all your devices to sync data and save progress.

✅ Winner – Both

User Feedback

People are often at a loss when asked to pick Duolingo or Pimsleur. Why? Because Pimsleur needs to focus more on improving learner’s reading and writing skills. And, Duolingo needs to improve its speech recognition software and tone down the gamification. Ultimately, the choice depends on the goal set and personal preference.

✅ Winner – Both

Who Should Use Pimsleur?

Anyone who wants to learn a language without having to deal with dreaded grammar rules and drilling. Learning the same useless phrase over and over again to understand the grammar rules is not going to help anyone. Pimsleur helps you learn naturally and teaches you essential words and phrases using the spaced repetition technique. 

Therefore, you gradually understand the grammar, build your vocabulary, and start speaking like a native by listening to conversational audio. It’s exactly how we learned our native language, right? We weren’t taught boring lessons before we started to speak. We just picked it up over the years.

Who Should Use Duolingo?

You should use Duolingo if you love playing games and like a casual but effective approach to learning. It perfectly balances learning and having fun. Moreover, it constantly looks for ways to improve learner experience. It also has a variety of languages to learn. I have been itching to learn Klingon since I came to know that Duolingo teaches it.

Trekkies forever! Anyway, think how much effort goes into creating a course for real languages if an app spends so much time developing a course for a fictional language. Duolingo is a whirlwind; it will turn your world upside down by making you see how easy and fun it is to learn a language.

Alternatives

OpenSesame, Mango Languages, Lingoda, Glossika, Mondly, and Memrise are excellent alternatives to Pimsleur and Duolingo. Itchy Feet, Shannon Kennedy, Speaking Fluently, and the Polyglot Dream are fantastic blogs that help you learn multiple languages with ease. You can also learn languages by listening to podcasts.

Survival Phrases, The Actual Fluency Podcast, Coffee Break Languages, and LanguagePod101 are awesome podcasts that inspire you to learn various languages. You can also purchase a suitable textbook depending on your learning level. However, watching movies in the target language with subtitles is the most fun but slow way of learning.

Final Verdict: Pimsleur vs Duolingo

In conclusion, using Pimsleur and Duolingo together is the most effective way of learning your target language. If you are, for some reason, convinced Pimsleur and Duolingo together won’t help you attain your goal, opt for one or a mix of the alternative resources I mentioned. Just remember, stress-free learning is the key to successfully mastering a language.