Feature comparison
| Dimension | LingoDew | LingQ | Takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Listening app: real YouTube videos with tappable, audio-synced subtitles | Reading-first platform: open or import text lessons with audio | Same idea, different skill |
| Languages | English and Japanese | More than 50 languages | LingQ for range |
| Learning material | Unscripted YouTube creator videos, new ones every day | News, e-books, podcasts, imported Netflix and YouTube, shared community lessons | LingQ for reading; LingoDew for listening |
| Difficulty labels | Every video labeled CEFR A1–C2 or JLPT N5–N1 | You choose your own content; difficulty varies lesson to lesson | LingoDew |
| Word tracking | Tap any subtitle word; it moves from new to learning to mastered | Blue, yellow and known word counts across everything you read | Both |
| Review | Built-in FSRS spaced repetition with the original sentence and audio | Flashcard and cloze review of saved LingQs | LingoDew |
| Getting started | No account needed: open the app and play | Account required; the free tier caps saved words and imports | LingoDew |
| Pricing | Free (every video plays, toolkit on recent videos); Pro US$4.99/month | Free tier with caps; Premium US$14.99/month or US$119.99/year | LingoDew costs less |
Same Philosophy, Different Skill
LingoDew and LingQ come from the same belief: fluency grows from large amounts of real, interesting content — not from lesson drills. Both let you meet words in context, track them from unknown to known, and review what you saved. Where they differ is the sense they train:
- LingQ (lingq.com), launched in 2007 by polyglot Steve Kaufmann, is a reading-first platform. You open lessons from its library or import your own — news, e-books, podcasts, Netflix and YouTube — in more than 50 languages, and read with every word clickable.
- LingoDew is a listening app for English and Japanese. It plays real YouTube creator videos — vlogs, cooking, travel, street interviews — each labeled by level, with every subtitle word aligned to the audio.
If you can already read a language but real speech still runs past you, that gap is what LingoDew works on.
What LingQ Does Well
- Read almost anything, in almost any language. With more than 50 languages and a flexible import system, LingQ turns the entire web and your own e-books into lessons.
- A large shared lesson library. Community courses, mini-stories with audio, and thousands of shared lessons mean there is always something new to read.
- Reading is the fastest known-words counter. LingQ makes your “known words” number visibly climb, which is genuine motivation for building reading vocabulary.
- A long track record. Since 2007, LingQ has been one of the main homes of the input-method community, and Steve Kaufmann’s approach is a fair description of what the product does.
What LingoDew Does Differently
- Real speech, new every day. Videos arrive daily from YouTube creators, so the material reflects how people actually talk — contractions, fillers, dropped sounds, natural speed.
- Every video has a level. English videos are labeled CEFR A1–C2 and Japanese videos JLPT N5–N1. You never have to guess whether content is above you before pressing play.
- Tap any word at the moment it is said. Subtitles are aligned to the audio word by word. Tapping a word jumps to that exact moment and shows its meaning, with furigana and romaji for Japanese.
- Review keeps the moment. Saved words come back on an FSRS schedule with the original sentence and its video context, so review rehearses listening, not just recognition.
- Nothing to set up. No account is needed to start watching, tapping and reviewing.
Review: Saved-Word Queue vs FSRS
LingQ’s review is a queue of your saved LingQs: flashcards and cloze tests that resurface words you have not marked known. It works, but the scheduling is simple, and heavy LingQ users often export to Anki for stronger scheduling.
LingoDew builds the modern scheduler in: FSRS adapts each word’s next interval to your actual responses, and each review card carries the sentence and audio it came from. If you want maximum control and do not mind maintaining decks, the Anki path (or Migaku) still offers more knobs — LingoDew’s bet is that a well-scheduled, zero-maintenance review built into listening is what most learners actually finish.
Pricing
- LingQ: the free tier caps how many words you can save and import. Premium is US$14.99/month, or US$119.99/year (about US$10/month), with longer plans cheaper (2026 prices from lingq.com; local prices vary).
- LingoDew: free with no account — every video plays, with the subtitle toolkit on today’s picks, the past two days and fresh releases. Pro is US$4.99/month for the toolkit across the entire library and unlimited AI explanations.
Which One Should You Use?
Choose LingQ if:
- You want to build reading vocabulary through volume, in any of 50+ languages.
- You have your own material — books, articles, podcasts — to learn from.
- Reading comprehension is your bottleneck, not listening speed.
Choose LingoDew if:
- You are learning English or Japanese and textbook audio makes sense but real conversations go by too fast.
- You want listening material at your level chosen for you, with no import or setup work.
- You want spaced repetition that just runs, attached to the audio it came from.
Many immersion learners use both: LingQ for reading days, LingoDew for listening days.