LingQ Review: A Strong Alternative Just Arrived

I really like this app — I actually started using it after watching this video. It has a lot of potential.

That said, I’ve been experiencing some issues lately, especially with transcripts not working despite having a subscription.

There also doesn’t seem to be much transparency around what you actually get when you upgrade. For example, I only found out after contacting support that there’s a 1000-minute monthly limit.

What’s more frustrating is that this has been happening for the past two months, and despite reaching out several times, I haven’t received any response.

Still, I think it’s a great app overall — it just needs a bit more reliability and clearer communication.

Thank you. I loved your review.

I have been using Lingq for a while, but am now trying Lingua Verbum. The big difference I see is that I can upload ebooks and other items for free into Lingq. But there seems to be a costs (in terms of credits) to import items into LV and generate audio.
Am I missing something?

Does Lingua Verbum have multiple dictionaries when you check the words or is it entirely reliant on AI? I ask because I remember at times looking at the AI translations that LingQ would push and they weren't always right but thankfully the dictionary definitions were there too. Frankly it was annoying that when they had been integrating the AI sometimes those results were near the top.

If you're looking for a reader where you look up words as you read, yeah there are several good alternatives. But with LingQ despite it's flaws, mostly bugs, and a crappy SRS, there's so much more you can do with it.
I only use it in sentence mode. When advanced I just go line by line of a transcript and read. For beginner/intermediate levels I have some audio or video synced with the sentence and go line by line of this piece of media of which I was interested in and uploaded and look up words, read, listen, listen and read, shadow/chorus, repeat the audio/video of the sentence and so on. I use the bare bones SRS as a supplement for no more than 10 minutes a day.
I find it addicting to keep going sentence by sentence intensely.

It's literally the only app I would pay for other than Migaku. Which is superior if you want to do a more SRS based approach over intensive reading (synced with media). Lute in no way is superior to it but it's nice to have free options. Such as whisper.

there is also lute its free local host

Without Steve Kaufmann's backing and also mentioning it every one of his videos. I doubt LingQ would have got anywhere near the traction it's had, but right now it does feel like a complete ripoff and this is echoed all thought out their own forum. A limit of only an hour per day of Audio Transcripts (Used to be unlimited ) is frankly pretty terrible and this is coming from the most expensive option they have available. As you mentioned, having broken YT translations shows its many flaws. I found it to be particularly bad with Japanese vocabulary so would not recommend it for that. Now is a good time as any to replace it because I don't think many would be willing to pay those extortionate prices when it's also a buggy mess.

Let's put that into perspective: a known bug from 2022 still exists in 2026- They have had a whole FOUR YEARS to fix it and done nothing. This is not how to treat your own loyal customers and they also have the audacity to charge (highly) for something that others are doing much better, they're a multitude of open source free alternatives out there. I believe that they really need to up their game before they ruin their reputation completely.

I think I´m more happy with LingQ. It´s not perfect, but it does a lot I use with good success.

Isle of Tenerife,
Spain,
Africa.

What an excellent video, clear and succinct!
But, what's most amazing is Lewis's level of English.
He speaks it perfectly!
And this is me, Patchy, saying it, and I'm known for giving constructive criticism, as anyone who's seen my videos will know.
This guy absolutely nails it!
The only glitch is he still uses a foreign way to spell his own name, which is pretty much no criticism.
We need more information on how he got to be so perfectly fluent in a foreign language.
Yes, and I mean PERFECTLY!
I emphasise that, because I've seen some people allege that his English is something less than perfect,
Of course they only say this once they hear him saying that it's not his native language, trying to appear like they can hear imperfections that are just not there.
And I seem to remember himself saying something to the effect that he's not perfect in English, which is clearly not the case.
Seriously, well done, Lewis.
I officially declare your spoken English as perfect as that of any common and normal native speaker, such as myself.
You've achieved the impossible with your English.
Now I'm just curious to know your level in your other learned languages.
Do you have a video on this subject, breaking down your abilities in different levels?

Best wishes,
Patchy.

Hi, FYI, in case you wanted some feedback: I signed up for Lingu V, and for Japanese it is ABSOLUTE CRAP. You cannot get rid of the Romaji transcription unless you do away with ALL the transcription. This means there is no furigana over the kanji, which is a deal breaker for me. Plus, it seems there is an ongoing issue with their platform being unable to grasp the full word (e.g. when a word consists of more than one kanji), but I haven't even got that far. Plus, glitches with Youtube upload and whatnot. So all in all, I am extremely disappointed. I won't be signing up for the paid version.

Vous êtes excellent! Merci beaucoup.

I tried it. LingQ is much better. It works better and has better tools and AI. It’s worth the money to me.

Nope the instant flashcard generation for learning new words is serious win in my opinion for LingQ, so I'll keep it for another year.

Steve will not be happy😅

Lingua Verbum isn't available for Android yet, but as soon as it is I'll check it out.

thank you so much!!!

I make a Ligua Verbum subscription. Now I want to generate a speach file from a text. I have to buy credits? Right?

I would like to thank you for helping us all! Great job!

Sounds promising, but doesn't seem to be available for android at the moment.

you didn't mention audio. i don't want AI audio (not word pronunciation). i want native speaker pronunciation.

thanks for the review! I'm loinig for a lingq alternative

come on bro, u never smoke shisha or what...

Salut ! LingQ est à 102/an soit 8.50/mois mais il prend pas les vidéos SANS captions, on peut PAS utiliser les News à Taiwan :-((
donc je v essayer LVerbum, merci pr la video

I'm pretty sure LingQ only imports videos that have captions that aren't auto-generated. When I would get that error, that was why.

Lingua Verbum don't have sentence mode and no lifetime option

the best app for me so far is Migaku. my only gripe is that the range of the supported languages is rather small.

HAHA what? i dont get it, so its just lingq but worse? with inifitely less content, and oh! it has the exact same tools 10 other platforms already came up with years ago. Cooooooooool story bro

starting a language from scratch is great for LIngQ. The mini stories including the "who is she?" is great for getting the common words down. It takes quite a bit of time just to get through all those even doing it for a few hours a day. Once I'm done with the beginner level I usually download Mr. Ballen true crime stories into it but sometimes the importer doesn't work so I download the subtitles on a site and do it manually. Occasional errors but it's not enough to be annoying. It doesn't affect my language learning as I'll see the words etc many times.

I think Lingua Verbum still requires a lot of work. I get similar functionality by using using three chrome extensions: ImTranslator, Speak Any Text and Language Reactor. Also, Microsoft Edge immersive reader can read articles for free without spending money on AI credits.
Lingq has flashcards, sentence review and it has some languages that are not covered by chrome extensions. I use it because it has functionality I cannot get otherwise.

Does Lingua Verbum have European Portuguese?

I find the app very good on iPhone. A better experience watching YouTube videos on mobile than LingQ. Clearly lots of work to do such as selecting multiple words but a very good start.

In my case, I enjoy the Lenguia web. It's fantastic. Probably the best in my opinion
My English is very weak but I'll continue trying to improve. Be kind 😂

It's fine for 3.5 a month, I'll decide in 3 weeks if it's worth 7.

Apple only . Poor.

I use for the English studying
I found lingua verbum has a big problem for me, it can only mark a single word,phrases are not included. And the voice for text just got the UK accent.

It's a bit of a shame neither of them has local pricing for 3rd world countries though

When you import Frensh video youtube video with linguaverbum that video has auto subs or human translated subtitles?

It seems Japanese is not really ready for prime time.
The words when clicked are partially selected.
I personally believe the you should never use romanji and that is the only option I can see. It is actually under translation which it is far from that, but in any case furigana is what it should show and that should be optional.
I think it is unusable... It is cheaper but at least in relation to Japanese i have better things to do then read romanji and fight with partial word selection. Japanese is a complicated language and the should use someone who knows it to develop an app for it.

And changing settings in general is non responsive. It seems to get stuck on the mobile browser.

I appreciate a new app brought to my attention, but based on comments and first impression (immediately after sign up my subscription is "expired" - odd messaging) I'm hesitant to try it because it doesn't seem polished.

If you are not going to dabble in many languages but to stick with one or a couple of, there was a lifetime plan on LingQ for 199 USD per language, if I remember the price correctly. Perhaps it's still available. It wasn't heavily advertised (downright hidden, I would say) but I saw it available for years and I took advantage of it for 2 languages.

If all you want to do is read and listen, for any google supported language, keeping stats along the way, exporting to Anki, etc., Language Crush is essentially free now.

Does Lingua Verbum work with PDFs?