Mondly Review

With dozens of language learning apps to choose from, it’s hard to know which one will help you develop real-world language skills. Mondly Languages is backed by Pearson, giving it some serious credibility. But will it actually work for your learning style? In this review, we evaluate the Mondly app’s pricing, features, pros, and cons to help you decide if it’s the right fit.

Mondly

• 40+ Languages
• AR & VR Apps Available

Our Score

4.1

See our testing process

Pros

• Quick and engaging lesson format (lessons take just 5-10 minutes)
• Wide variety of practice exercises and drills
• Affordable subscription plans (as low as $4 per month)
• End of lesson recaps are effective for material retention
• Unique, super fun AR & VR apps available

Cons

• Limited grammar instruction
• Wish the verbal practice exercises were more in-depth

Sale: Extra 10% OFF

Code: TESTPREP10

Claim Discount

Video Review: Is Mondly Worth It?

In the video below, Bianca from the Guide2Fluency team walks you through the major pros and cons of Mondly. 

How The Mondly Program Works

Let me begin this evaluation with an overview of how the Mondly program works. When you first login to the Mondly app, you land on the dashboard, which looks like a giant map covered in geolocation pins.

It looks kind of like a learning path because it seems like the map goes from left to right, but it’s a little less structured than that. Essentially, each pin is a collection of about eight lessons that all cover a specific topic or theme, like travel, romance, and school, just to name a few.

While the dashboard seems path-like from left to right, the truth is that you can jump from pin to pin however you want. There is no true order to them and they don’t really build on one another in terms of difficulty. It’s more about what you learn about.

Regardless of which pin you jump into, you always get a daily lesson. When you finish, it will be marked as complete on your dashboard. From there, a countdown clock will run until the next day’s lesson is ready, which is nice for building a little anticipation.

Daily lessons form the backbone of the Mondly program. The Mondly team wants you working at least one lesson every single day, keeping your streak alive and staying consistent, and then you can work these bonus lessons under the geolocation pins whenever you want. Thus, it’s really just a daily lesson plus supplemental lessons for those overachievers out there.

As for what the lessons themselves are like, they’re basically the same in terms of length, format, and content. This is true whether you’re talking about the daily lesson or a lesson from the map.

Each Mondly lesson takes about 5-10 minutes to complete and includes a series of hands-on, rapid fire drills. You get flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, speaking drills, quick translation exercises, matching pairs, and spelling exercises. There are also a few mock conversations thrown in, although they’re pretty simple. In this respect, Mondly is a lot like Duolingo. It’s an app built on fast-moving, highly diverse exercises.

When each lesson is over, the program gives you a quick recap of the vocab in rapid succession, then takes you to a screen full of stats showing your performance data.

There’s nothing too complicated about Mondly. There are some weekly quizzes and monthly challenges, as well as upgraded features like VR and AR apps, but if you’re looking at the core language program, that’s it.

There are no videos, audio lessons, or grammar modules of any sort. You work your quick lesson, get your review and recap, and then you’re free to knock off other lessons in the pins on the map based on topic. From that perspective, it’s a very straightforward language app.

Mondly Price

Before getting into the strengths and weaknesses of the Mondly program, let’s break down Mondly’s pricing and how they compare to other apps.

There is a free plan available, but it’s really limited. If you’re serious about making significant progress in learning a new language, you’re better off going with one of their premium plans.

Mondly has three different packages. No matter which one you go with, you get access to all 41 languages Mondly covers.

• The monthly subscription, which costs about $10 per month after discounts
• The 12-month subscription, which costs about $62 per year after discounts, or roughly $5 per month
• The Lifetime Access package costs a little over $100 upfront after discounts

Putting these prices in perspective, the $10 monthly subscription makes them a pretty affordable option. That’s right in line with apps including Babbel, Rosetta Stone, and Busuu.

At the same time, their annual plan, which comes out to about $5 per month, is significantly cheaper than most apps. The Lifetime Access package is also a bargain. Mondly is definitely on the affordable end of language learning apps, which is a big reason why many people go for them.

Reasons To Use Mondly

Now that I’ve discussed how the Mondly app works, let’s get into what I like and don’t like about Mondly. Let’s start with the pros.

Diverse Mix of Practice Drills

The first thing I really like about Mondly is the fun, varied mixture of drills. Some language apps use boring and repetitive exercise mixes that hit the same drill types over and over (see Rosetta Stone).

However, Mondly uses a very nice mix that keeps things balanced and engaging. You’re constantly doing something different, and you never spend too long on any one drill. Everything is quick and easy, which helps you really feel like you’re getting somewhere.

It’s a solid blend of hands-on drill types that I really enjoyed. I never felt bored with Mondly.

Short Lesson Format

Another factor to consider here is lesson length. I like that Mondly uses shorter lessons than most.

This can be good or bad, depending on what you’re looking for in your program. But for a lot of people, these short, bite-sized lessons are perfect.

Your daily lesson only takes five to ten minutes, making it easy to squeeze in a couple of quick topical lessons as well.

The Mondly program is very manageable. For me, that’s a big selling point. One of the biggest aspects of language learning is simply building a habit and staying consistent, and short lessons make it easy to actually put the time in.

Valuable Recap Sessions

The third highlight of the Mondly program is how they give you a quick recap at the end of every lesson.

Every time you complete a lesson, they quickly run you through a review session where you recap each word or phrase that you learned. There are usually around 10 to 15 key phrases, and Mondly will run through them in under 30 seconds.

It’s nothing novel, but it is just nice way to drive home what you learned. Plus, they use this cool brain feature where you can go back and review related vocab and phrases whenever you want.

There are these little clusters of related phrases that are grouped together on the brain to make reviewing easier. I was a big fan of that.

Verb Conjugation Charts

Finally, we need to discuss how Mondly handles verbs. To be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with how Mondly does grammar. Let me explain.

Mondly doesn’t give grammar much coverage. There are no dedicated lessons, teaching points, or thorough grammar explanations to help you understand the language on a deeper level.

Instead, Mondly leverages these little verb conjugation charts in each exercise. You can hover over any verb, and it will show you how that verb is conjugated based on who is doing the action, as well as how the verb is conjugated in past, present, and future tense.

These little charts are super useful for seeing how to use verbs, and I like this feature a lot. At the same time, it’s not a substitute for real grammar instruction, which Mondly doesn’t provide.

Where Mondly Falls Short

Having discussed why you should use Mondly to learn a new language, let’s cover the reasons now why you should not use Mondly.

Limited Grammar Instruction

There is a lack of direct grammar instruction in this program. Mondly has some useful verb conjugation charts, which I do like, but there are no dedicated grammar lessons.

It’s 100% on you to learn grammar intuitively, which I didn’t love. Personally, I much prefer how Rocket Languages and Babbel do it with dedicated grammar content.

Difficult For Beginners

The next drawback is how advanced Mondly is from the start. Basically, Mondly just drops you right in to a daily lesson, and you start learning full sentences.

There is a slight warmup with basics in the lessons of the first two or three geolocation pins on the map, but otherwise, you’re just tossed in. Even your first lesson assumes you have some working knowledge of the language you’re learning.

If you have any level of basic understanding of the language you’re learning, you’ll be fine; however, if you’re a complete beginner, I could see how this would be a little overwhelming.

It’s not like typical courses that start with one- and two-word phrases and build up from there. I’d like to see some more beginner-level lessons early on with Mondly.

Speaking Practice Is Limited

Lastly, I would like to note Mondly’s conversational exercises. Mondly sort of hypes up their chat-based conversational practice, which you get in every lesson grouping on the dashboard, but honestly, they’re just alright in my opinion.

I personally think this feature’s usefulness is somewhat limited. Mondly basically markets this tool as the next great AI breakthrough, but I’m not buying it.

They’re fun, but they lack the level of conversation and speaking practice I was expecting. They’re more like quick text message conversations. It’s a cool idea, but kind of an overrated feature in my opinion.

Verdict: Is Mondly Worth It?

My final thoughts: Mondly is an okay language learning tool, especially if you’re just wanting to pick up a little vocab reinforcement here and there. If you’re looking for an approachable, game-based app, Mondly offers a little more substance than Duolingo, Busuu, Memrise, and LingoDeer.

But it can only take you so far. Mondly doesn’t offer the depth of learning you get with Babbel, Pimsleur or Rocket Languages, which do a much better job covering grammar and providing speaking and listening practice. Mondly is fine if you’re just wanting to dabble in a language for 10 or 15 minutes a day. When you need more rapid progress, however, go with a more serious option.