Comparison
Best apps for learning a language by reading
What a reading app needs, how taihaa handles it in 9 languages, and free-plan prices for LingQ, Readlang, LanguageCrush, and Migaku.
If you want to learn from articles and stories, the useful question is whether an app lets you read the text you already want to read, and how far its free plan takes you.
What a reading app has to do
- Take the text you bring: pasted text, a file, a web page, or a YouTube video with subtitles.
- Let you look up a word without leaving the sentence.
- Save that word with the sentence attached.
- Bring the word back for review at the right time.
Free plans and prices compared
List prices and free-plan limits as published by each company (October 2026; LanguageCrush, November 2026). Prices change, so this is a snapshot, not a ranking.
| Tool | Price | Saved words | Imported lessons | Card to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| taihaa | Free; optional Plus $4.99/month or $39/year | Unlimited | Unlimited | No card |
| LingQ | Premium $14.99/month, $119.99/year | 20 on the free plan | 5 on the free plan | Free plan needs no card |
| Readlang | Premium $6/month or $48/year | 200 highlighted words on the free plan; 10 phrase translations a day | Free plan allows text uploads | Free plan needs no card |
| LanguageCrush | Supporter $6.99/month, $60/year, or $120 lifetime | Color-coded words on the free plan; vocab export is paid | Upload passages on the free plan; copying them is paid | Free plan needs no card |
| Migaku | $10/month, $96/year, or $240 lifetime | No free plan; 10-day trial | No free plan; 10-day trial | Paid plan after the trial |
taihaa
- Price
- Free; optional Plus $4.99/month or $39/year
- Saved words
- Unlimited
- Imported lessons
- Unlimited
- Card to start
- No card
LingQ
- Price
- Premium $14.99/month, $119.99/year
- Saved words
- 20 on the free plan
- Imported lessons
- 5 on the free plan
- Card to start
- Free plan needs no card
Readlang
- Price
- Premium $6/month or $48/year
- Saved words
- 200 highlighted words on the free plan; 10 phrase translations a day
- Imported lessons
- Free plan allows text uploads
- Card to start
- Free plan needs no card
LanguageCrush
- Price
- Supporter $6.99/month, $60/year, or $120 lifetime
- Saved words
- Color-coded words on the free plan; vocab export is paid
- Imported lessons
- Upload passages on the free plan; copying them is paid
- Card to start
- Free plan needs no card
Migaku
- Price
- $10/month, $96/year, or $240 lifetime
- Saved words
- No free plan; 10-day trial
- Imported lessons
- No free plan; 10-day trial
- Card to start
- Paid plan after the trial
taihaa: the whole reading loop, free
- Free, no card. Unlimited saved words and text imports (paste, file, or URL).
- YouTube: paste a link with subtitles, or paste a transcript if none are found. 3 new video lessons a week on the free plan.
- Nine languages: Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish.
- Jyutping for Cantonese, pinyin for Mandarin, romanization for Korean, and furigana with romaji for Japanese.
- Mandarin and Cantonese: Split (Fix word split) lets you tap between characters to break a compound into characters or join characters into one word. The fix is saved on that lesson for you.
- Tap one word at a time for an English translation, then save it with its sentence.
- Review at the end of each lesson, with the original sentence, plus a Match 4 game and the taihaa Daily word puzzle.
- A levelled library in every language and a News tab with fresh headlines from public news sites.
- Natural voice for words, sentences and whole lessons: 5 plays a day free.
- Optional Taihaa Plus adds Why? grammar explain, AI lessons, more natural voice and sentence translations, lesson quizzes, and more YouTube video lessons. Buy it on the web or in the Android app through Google Play.
Cantonese is its own language with Jyutping, on the Cantonese Jyutping reader. Japanese gets furigana and romaji, on the Japanese reading guide. Review uses five clear choices: Again, Learning, Known, Easy, and Ignore.
Head-to-head pages
- taihaa vs LingQ
- taihaa vs Readlang
- taihaa vs LanguageCrush
- LanguageCrush alternatives
- A free Du Chinese alternative
- A free Chairman’s Bao alternative
- A free Migaku alternative
- A free Mandarin reading app
- LingQ alternatives
How to choose
- Put one real page through the app. A product tour is not the test.
- Save more than 20 words. Check whether the free plan stops you.
- Check the reading aid: Jyutping for Cantonese, pinyin for Mandarin, furigana for Japanese.
- Finish the lesson and check that review still shows the sentence.
Keep reading
Comparison
Free LingQ alternative for reading (2026)
A free LingQ alternative as of November 2026: taihaa has no card, no cap on saved words or text imports, and 9 languages with Jyutping, pinyin, and furigana.
Comparison
taihaa vs LanguageCrush: a free reading app
LanguageCrush alternative as of November 2026. taihaa is free with unlimited saves and text imports. Plus is $39 a year; Supporter is $60.
Method
How to learn vocabulary while reading
How to save useful words while you read, keep the sentence, and review them later without looking up every word on the page.
Comparison
A free Migaku alternative for reading (2026)
A free Migaku alternative for reading texts you choose. No card and no cap on saved words. Migaku’s public USD prices, checked in November 2026.