How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Language Learning App Like Duolingo?

In our increasingly global world, multilingualism is not just a skill; it's a ticket to career success, international travel, and deep cultural connections. Learning another language is popular whether you want to grow professionally, study abroad, or gain a broader cultural experience. However, old-style tutoring sessions are a thing of the past, as they require a lot of time and preparation, making them less accessible to busy professionals and students.

This is where mobile language learning apps come in to fill this gap. Accessible anytime, anywhere, these apps offer a convenient, engaging, and interactive way to learn new languages without the constraints of a rigid schedule. Duolingo has revolutionized language learning with its game-based approach, bite-sized lessons, and AI-powered personalization.

The app has been installed by over 500 million people worldwide, and according to Statista, Duolingo's total revenue is currently over $33 million, with potential for future growth.

For education entrepreneurs or language course companies, developing an app like Duolingo is a very real option. But why is Duolingo so successful, and how can you create a competitive alternative?

In this article, we'll look at the essential factors behind Duolingo's success, the main features of such an app, and the costs of developing it. So, let's get started!

Why is creating an app like Duolingo a smart business move? 

Mobile apps make learning fast, fun, and accessible. Duolingo has demonstrated how well this works, with over 8 million paid subscribers worldwide. If you are thinking of creating a language-learning app and earning from it, these are why it can be a significant business venture:

1. Huge market demand

The eLearning industry is growing rapidly, and Duolingo alone recently added over 8 million paid subscribers, indicating that people are ready to learn languages through apps. Companies venturing into this space can reach millions of potential customers worldwide.

2. Worldwide access at minimal cost

Unlike traditional language schools, apps do not require classrooms, printed materials, or teachers. A single app can reach users anywhere in the world without significant infrastructure costs. It makes language learning apps a scalable and cost-effective business model. Moreover, due to the large number of users, the profit from such an app can be huge, even if the monthly subscription costs $10.

3. High user retention through gamification

Duolingo uses rewards, leaderboards, mini-games, and fun challenges to keep users interested. The game-based approach encourages users to come back every day with excitement, increasing user retention. The more active the users are, the greater the likelihood of them upgrading to a paid version or interacting with ads.

4. AI-powered personalization for higher engagement

Duolingo adjusts lessons based on how well the users perform on tasks and based on the language proficiency level. AI tracks progress, detects weaknesses, and adapts exercises to fit individual learners. It renders learning effective and fosters motivation. Integrating AI in a language program makes users more content and fosters longer-term engagement.

5. Profitable freemium monetization model

Duolingo attracts customers with free lessons and a paid option (Duolingo Plus) with no ads or additional features. The free one also works well, allowing businesses to gain many customers while earning through ads, subscriptions, or in-app purchases.

6. Multilingualism for increasing the user base

Duolingo boasts more than 40 languages, making it extremely attractive to students from all over the world. With so many courses that the language app has to offer, there is an opportunity to reach users from different parts of the world. Companies can focus on popular and specialty languages to differentiate themselves.

7. Convenience and flexibility

The app's availability allows users to make learning a language part of their busy lifestyle anywhere, at any time. Students can access the app whenever they want, whether in bed at home, over lunch, walking the dog in the park, or meeting friends for coffee - freedom is the watchword. This eliminates the confines of classroom instruction and opens learning to more people.

8. Brand loyalty features in the community

Duolingo encourages socializing, competition, and tweeting about success. Word-of-mouth and sports interest drive app growth without spending too much on advertising. Adding forums, discussion groups, and social challenges to a language app can lead to an active, loyal community.

Factors that affect the cost of the app

Language apps like Duolingo are scalable, profitable, and in high demand. Building language learning apps like Duolingo often involves high development costs, especially for the interface, database customization, and advanced features. So, only with the right approach, engaging content, gamification, AI lessons, and a solid business model will a new app thrive in this growing and competitive market. Here are the main factors that affect the cost of the app development.

1. Features & Functionality

When developing a language learning app like Duolingo, the features you implement are key in ensuring user engagement, practical learning, and long-term retention. The features can be divided into the core - the most important ones that form the basis of the app, and additional ones - improvements that add value and interactivity but, in some cases, are unnecessary. 

For instance, an elementary language learning app should include user registration, core lessons with text and audio, audio pronunciation and listening exercises, and basic user progress tracking. Creating this language learning MVP will cost about $30,000 - $50,000. However, this functionality is insufficient to compete with other apps and retain users. Such features as speech recognition, adaptive learning, and gamification are highly desired in language learning apps. However, offline mode and social sharing are not among the first to be implemented. Striking the right balance between features and budget is key to a successful app.

Features that will make your app an advantage:

Creating a language learning app that stands out in a crowded market demands that the app have features that improve the user experience, increase engagement, and ensure a seamless learning process. The following features, while optional, can give your app a significant edge over competitors like Duolingo by offering personalized, interactive, and affordable learning:

• Speech recognition and voice interaction ($10,000–$30,000)

Speech recognition and voice interaction engage the language learning app by allowing users to practice pronunciation with real-time feedback. This feature seamlessly processes audio as users speak, efficiently supporting various accents and dialects. It seamlessly integrates with powerful third-party APIs such as Google Speech-to-Text or custom solutions to deliver a seamless experience. The high accuracy achieved through advanced AI models offers users instant, accurate information about their speaking skills, making it a dynamic and useful addition to the learning process.

• Adaptive learning (AI-based personalization) ($20,000–$50,000)

Adaptive learning adjusts lessons to the user's progress, weaknesses, and strengths, which requires sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms. Machine learning models process user performance data, predict optimal learning routes, and adjust content in real-time to achieve this. Creating and training such models is a time-consuming task requiring the efforts of data analysts and continuous tuning. You can explore the ML process more here.

• Gamification of the process ($15,000–$40,000)

Gamification is enjoyable, but incorporating dynamic leaderboards, real-time challenges, and a reward badge system requires a scalable server-side to synchronize real-time data for thousands or millions of users. Creating an innovative design that will ensure the game is enjoyable and unique to have maximum user engagement is also necessary. Building these features requires extra development time, skilled engineers, and ongoing maintenance.

This increases costs and resource requirements for the app.

• Offline mode ($5,000–$25,000)

Enabling offline access entails pre-downloading lessons, exercises, and audio files, which requires meticulous data handling and storage optimization. Enabling a seamless switch between offline and online modes without impacting the user experience is more challenging than online app access. However, this feature is worth investing in because the user will access your app offline, increasing the time spent there.

• Push notifications ($3,000–$10,000)

Push notifications play a crucial role in apps like Duolingo. It gives users gentle reminders to stay on track with their courses and keep their momentum going. In addition to reminders, these notifications help maintain motivation by encouraging users to stay engaged and confidently progress toward their learning goals, thus keeping the initiative and excitement of the app users going.

• Third-party integrations (social networks, APIs) ($5,000–$20,000)

Integrating APIs can significantly enhance functionality, streamline development, and improve the user experience for a language-learning app like Duolingo. Valuable add-ons range from simple options like Google Translate to advanced connections to language resources like AI dictionaries, tutors, and robust speech recognition and translation tools. For instance, by integrating social Media APIs, you can increase the interactivity of your app by enabling users to share courses or their progress with friends and family. Incorporating Google Translate API provides real-time translations for words, phrases, or sentences, which are helpful for in-lesson translations or quick reference tools. Google Speech-to-Text API converts spoken input into text for pronunciation. Each integration extends functionality, provides users with a vivid, connected experience, and increases the app's appeal, but requires custom coding to tie into the app’s backend.

• Progress tracking and analytics ($10,000–$30,000)

Detailed analytics with personal recommendations and visual charts require real-time data processing and a user-friendly dashboard. This block can include daily goal setting, a simple level system (beginner, intermediate, advanced), and points or stars for completing lessons. A more advanced variant can consist of detailed progress reports with personal recommendations, adaptive learning depending on performance, and long-term tracking with visual charts.

2. Type of development team

Building an app's price significantly depends on who you hire. There are three main options:

Freelancers ($25 - $150 per hour)

Hiring freelancers can be cheap, especially for small projects or MVPs. However, collaborating with several freelancers (for UI/UX, development, and testing) requires additional effort.

This type of collaboration has pros and cons, with lower hourly prices and more flexible specialists, but they may lack expertise in executing complex operations and coordination challenges of projects.

Development agency ($100 - $300 per hour)

Professional agencies provide end-to-end solutions, from strategy to design, development, and testing. They are known for expertise, reliability, and methodical approach, yet it is costly and less adaptive if there's a last-minute change.

In-house team (variable; $80,000 - $200,000 a year per developer)

Contracting an in-house team for lengthy projects might be a good idea. Yet it involves high spending on wages, equipment, and ongoing training.

The location of professionals also significantly influences the cost per hour. Development of an app per hour costs differently in various parts of the world, i.e., in the US, it is $150-250 per hour; in Western Europe - $80-150; Eastern Europe - $40-100; in India - $20-50; and Latin America - $30-70.

3. Design and user experience (UX/UI )($10,000 - $25,000)

A good-looking and intuitive interface makes interaction better. This could include hiring graphic designers and UX/UI specialists who can create an intuitive interface, stunning animations, and a flawless user experience. Creating an application that stands out may increase the number of users, but it contributes to development expenses. 

Creating wireframes and prototypes forms the basic foundation of the app’s design process and costs about $5,000 - $15,000. They outline the structure, user flow, and functionality before moving into the detailed visual design and development phase. Implementing sophisticated visual design and animations, like custom illustrations, transitions, and additional UI/UX features like dark mode and accessibility options, will enhance engagement and obviously increase the overall cost of the app design.

Here is the breakdown of possible costs based on the development stage:

Frontend development

The decision on the platform, whether to create an iOS or Android-based app, will also affect the cost. Creating an app for both simultaneously can significantly increase costs. While specific components like the backend, APIs, and UI design can be reused, iOS and Android require separate coding and testing, leading to higher development time and expenses. This approach, however, allows you to reach a broad audience and maximize the maximum exposure of your app.

Apart from this, you can build on one platform first and then switch to another as your user population grows. It will save you the upfront development cost but may require additional resources and time to convert the app to another platform.

Web-version frontend development ($15,000 - $40,000)

Focus on creating a responsive, user-friendly interface with high design standards, following the system's recommendations for a highly refined look and feel.

iOS app frontend development ($10,000 - $50,000)

It is characterized by high design standards (Apple UI/UX guidelines) and entails strict App Store compliance and approval.

Android app frontend development ($10,000 - $50,000)

For Android, Google Play Store’s approval process is less strict than Apple’s, but the application must be compatible with more device models, requiring more testing.

Cross-platform frontend development ($30,000 - $70,000)

Although the initial cost of such a platform is higher than that of the iOS or Android platform, in the long run, developing such an app is cheaper than developing separate native apps. It is slightly less optimized than native apps.

Backend development 

Backend development (servers, APIs, databases) ($20 000 - $60 000)

Building a web application like Duolingo requires a secure, scalable backend infrastructure for efficient user management, content delivery, and data storage. Costs include documentation, UI design, design implementation, testing, and application setup/launch. Backend development covering servers, APIs, and databases costs between $20,000 and $60,000, including secure user authentication, cloud storage for progress tracking, and integrated payment processing. Additional fees for supporting multiple resolutions and core logic vary depending on the developer.

Third-party integration that can be included:

• Payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal) - $4000 - $15000

• Analytics (Google Analytics, Firebase) - $2500 - $10000

• Social networks and data exchange - $3,000 - $12,000

Content creation and localization

• Language courses and exercises ($20,000 - $50,000): this might include writing and structuring lessons, news, interactive exercises for different levels of learning, and hiring tutors and writers.

• Multimedia content (audio, video, images) ($10,000 - $30,000): native speaker pronunciation recording, video lessons, and interactive content

• Localization costs ($5,000 - $15,000 per language): interface and lesson content translation, cultural context, and local characteristics adaptation

Testing and quality assurance (QA)

• Application testing and bug fixing ($5,000 - $20,000): unit testing, performance testing, security testing, cross-device compatibility

• Beta testing and user feedback ($5,000 - $10,000): this involves collecting feedback from real users before launch

Support and maintenance

After launch, ongoing support is necessary to keep the app running smoothly and bug-free.

• Maintenance and regular bug fixes ($5,000 - $15,000 monthly)

• Updates and feature growth ($10,000 - $25,000 yearly)

• Customer support ($3,000 - $8,000 monthly)

Approximate total expenses:

The app's sophistication and features determine the price tag. Whether it is a simple app with basic functionality or a sophisticated app with many features, perks, and whistles for the user, the prices will vary accordingly. Here is the breakdown of costs based on the app complexity and features each type expects to include: 

Basic language learning app (MVP): $30,000 - $50,000

• Simple user interface

• Core lessons with flashcards and quizzes, 

• Audio pronunciation & listening exercises

• Basic user progress tracking

Advanced language learning app: $50,000 - $150,000

• AI-powered personalization

• Speech recognition and pronunciation analysis

• Gamification elements such as passes, rewards, and challenges

• Social elements (tutor chat, community forums)

• Multilingual support and localization

Apps with AI-powered features: $150,000+

• Neural network-based voice recognition

• AI-powered content recommendation

• Real-time language translation and chatbot tutor

• AR/VR integration for immersive learning

Annual maintenance: 15-20% of the initial fees

Conclusion

Creating a language learning app is a big task, and the price depends on your requirements, complexity, team composition, and support over time. An MVP with minimal features can cost near $30,000, while a full-fledged app with complex features can exceed $150,000.

Proper planning, well-defined project goals, and the right development team are crucial to balancing quality and cost. To maintain a cost-effective strategy, it is advisable to define the basic requirements for your app and get advice from experienced developers to get a customized estimate. With these steps, your app can compete effectively in the growing eLearning market with the right strategy.