Duolingo Max vs ELSA Speak
A side-by-side look at scores, pricing and features — with RECATOOLS' ASEAN-aware verdict for each.
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ELSA Speak
AI pronunciation coach that scores your English at the phoneme level
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| RECATOOLS Score | 7.8 / 10 | 7.8 / 10 |
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| Value for money | ||
| Ease of use | ||
| ASEAN readiness | ||
| API quality | ||
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| Free tier | Core Duolingo app is free with ads and limited hearts | Limited daily exercises; access to a small subset of lessons; no AI tutor |
| Paid from | ~$14/mo (annual, $168/yr); ~$30/mo (monthly); Family ~$240/yr (US) | Annual ~$159.99/yr list (~$13.33/mo equiv), often ~$74.99-$79.99/yr; monthly ~$11.99-$21.99/mo |
| Has API | ✗ | ✓ |
| Open source | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free to use | ✗ | ✓ |
| Users | Hundreds of millions of registered users; tens of millions of paid subscribers | 90M+ downloads globally as of January 2026; 195 countries |
| Founded | 2011 | 2015 |
| Maker | Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ: DUOL) | ELSA, Corp |
| Verdict | Duolingo Max closes the single biggest gap in app-based language learning: speaking practice. Pairing GPT-4 with Duolingo's proven gamification engine, Roleplay and Video Call are genuinely novel at this price point, and... |
ELSA Speak is the strongest dedicated pronunciation tool for ASEAN learners of English. Its phoneme-level AI, trained on accent data from non-native speakers across 195 countries, surfaces the exact sounds that trip up V... |
| Full review → | Full review → |
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Comparisons cover up to 4 tools. Scores are RECATOOLS editorial assessments; verify current pricing on each vendor's site.