Duolingo is a genuinely good product and a great place to start almost any language. baba is not trying to be a better Duolingo. it is a Hebrew app, so it can spend all of its attention on the things Hebrew learners actually get stuck on: the letters, reading without the vowel points, speaking, and getting past the beginner plateau.
Everything we say baba does below is shipped in the app we are building, not a promise. Notes about Duolingo describe the Hebrew course as of mid 2026 and stick to what is widely known.
where Duolingo is strong
We will not pretend otherwise, because it would not be honest and you would notice. If these are what you want, Duolingo is a reasonable choice.
- A free tier with real breadth. You can learn a lot without paying, across an enormous range of languages.
- Polish and reach. Years of design work and a huge catalog. If you also want to dabble in Spanish, French, or Japanese, it is all in one place.
- Habit mechanics that work. Streaks, reminders, and short lessons are genuinely good at getting people to come back daily. That is hard, and Duolingo does it well.
baba borrows the good idea (a small daily habit) and leaves the parts that punish you, which we get to below.
where baba is different
These are the concrete differences, each one a feature that is built into baba today (except where we mark it as rolling out).
it starts with the actual alef bet
baba opens with a full letters track before any words: the print letters and their sounds, the look-alikes and the five final forms, then cursive and the keyboard. A lot of learners come to baba having spent months on an app and still not being able to read a sign on the street. Starting from the letters fixes that at the root.
you learn to read without the vowel points
Real written Hebrew has almost no nikud, the little dots and dashes that mark vowels. Beginners lean on them, then hit a wall the moment they see a menu or a text message. baba fades the vowel points gradually and per word: as you get a word right over time, its points thin out in stages until you are reading it bare, the way Israelis actually write it. It is not an all or nothing switch, so you are never dropped off a cliff.
it is built to go deep, not just to start
baba is seven sections long, from the letters through the upper ulpan levels (aleph, bet, and gimel, the level Israeli ulpanim treat as upper intermediate). The Hebrew course on a general app is usually one of its smaller courses, and learners widely report plateauing while they are still a beginner. baba is designed for the part that comes after the honeymoon.
you actually speak
baba has speaking exercises that listen to you say the word or sentence, using speech recognition that runs on your device. On a phone that supports Hebrew recognition you talk; where it is not supported, the exercise quietly becomes a typing one instead, so you are never blocked.
you type real Hebrew, finals and all
Typing Hebrew is its own hurdle, especially the five letters that change shape at the end of a word. baba gives you an in-app Hebrew keyboard so you never have to install a system one, and it handles the final forms for you: type normally and the last letter of a word becomes its final shape on its own.
no hearts, no energy, review is always free
baba has no hearts and no energy meter. You never run out of tries, and a mistake never sends you to a wait screen or a paywall. Reviewing what you have learned, practicing, stories, and your streak are all free, always. The one thing the free tier limits is how many brand new lessons you take per day, and even that starts with the whole letters section plus your first unit unlocked.
it knows the Jewish week and year
baba's streak treats Saturday as a rest day. Shabbat never breaks your streak and never asks you to study, because the people most likely to keep Shabbat should not be the ones punished for it. Major holidays are handled the same way, and the app marks moments in the Jewish calendar like Tu BiShvat. It uses a real Hebrew calendar, not a guess.
gender-correct Hebrew (rolling out)
Hebrew changes with gender, both the speaker's and the listener's, and most apps teach one default form. baba is rolling out gender-adaptive sentences that show and ask for the right form for you. The engine is in the app now and we are bringing the content online, so we are listing it honestly as in progress rather than done.
side by side
A short summary. Duolingo notes describe its Hebrew course as of mid 2026; baba entries are what ships in the app.
| what you care about | baba | duolingo (hebrew) |
|---|---|---|
| focus | Hebrew only | many languages |
| the alef bet | full track: print, finals, cursive | light |
| reading without nikud | vowel points fade per word | points mostly stay on |
| depth | through upper ulpan (gimel) | plateaus early, learners report |
| speaking | on your device, where supported | varies |
| typing Hebrew | in-app keyboard, finals handled | system keyboard |
| mistakes | no hearts, no energy | hearts limit mistakes |
| review cost | always free | varies by plan |
| Shabbat and holidays | streak-aware, calendar events | not specific to Hebrew |
when Duolingo might suit you better
Honestly, sometimes it is the right pick, and we would rather tell you than have you feel misled.
- You want to dabble in several languages. If Hebrew is one of five things you are poking at, one app with all of them is convenient in a way baba is not trying to be.
- You want the biggest free catalog and the most polish today. baba is in early access and focused. A mature, general app has more finished surface area right now.
- You just want a gentle daily streak and are not chasing real fluency. If the goal is a little exposure, not reading a newspaper, the plateau may never bother you.
If, on the other hand, you want to actually read Hebrew without the vowel points, hold a conversation, and get past the beginner ceiling, that is the exact thing baba is built for. If you are already feeling the wall, the guide to the Duolingo Hebrew plateau walks through what to do about it, whether or not you ever install baba.