Alternatives
Alternative to Memrise: Wekos
Memrise teaches words through video clips. Wekos teaches full sentences, then drills them until they stick.
Memrise's pitch is hearing a word the way a real person actually says it, through short video clips rather than a synthesized voice reading a list. That's a real strength early on, and it's also close to where the free version stops.
The short version
What Memrise does well
The video-clip format is good for pronunciation and natural rhythm. You're hearing a real person say the word in a real cadence, not a text-to-speech engine, which is a pleasant way to pick up a first batch of vocabulary in a new language.
The library covers more than 20 languages, and the free tier isn't a one-lesson trial. You get a real slice of the course before anything is asked of you.
Where Memrise's free version stops
- Ads run throughout the free tier.
- The number of lessons you can take for free is capped.
- Words are taught largely in isolation. The course isn't built around drilling full sentences.
- Paid pricing is unusually wide, from around $13 to $40 a month depending on region and promotion.
What Wekos does instead
Wekos also uses real native audio, recorded by a male and a female speaker for every word and sentence, not clips of a single voice. The difference is what happens after you hear it: each sentence is broken into its words, then its chunks, then drilled as a whole, then bent five ways so the underlying pattern is what stays constant.
Speaking cards then have you say it back, scored on whether you were understood, using your device's own recognizer with nothing sent anywhere. A vocabulary library and spaced review sit alongside the course, so words you've actually learned keep coming back on their own schedule.
None of it is metered: no ad-supported cap, no lesson limit, and no tier above the free one to hit later.
Also included, free:
- Three playback modes (auto, semi-manual, manual), with repetitions adjustable from 2 to 15.
- A story every unit, read aloud in character, with comprehension questions and a translation a tap away.
- A twelve-question quiz at the end of every unit, mixing in questions from earlier units.
- Resume exactly where you left off, and save any unit for offline use.
- Streak tracking and a self-issued CEFR badge at A1, A2 and B1.
| Memrise (free) | Wekos | |
|---|---|---|
| Teaching unit | Individual words, via video clips | Full sentences, broken down and rebuilt |
| Native audio | Single-speaker clips | Recorded male and female, adjustable speed |
| Course structure | Loose, by topic | 16 sequenced units, one grammar step each |
| Speaking practice | None | Scored on being understood, on-device |
| Spaced review | Basic | Two modes: scheduled, and weakest-first |
| Ads | Yes | None |
| Free lesson cap | Yes | None |
| Price to remove limits | ~$13–40/mo | No paid tier exists |
Who should still use Memrise
If you specifically want more exposure to native-speaker video clips for pronunciation practice, Memrise still does that well and it's worth keeping around for that alone. It's a reasonable companion to a course rather than a replacement for one.
How to switch
- Pick one of Wekos's eight languages and sign up. No card required.
- Take the placement test if you already know some vocabulary, or start at unit one.
- Use the vocabulary library's search to check any word you already learned elsewhere.
For how Wekos stacks up against everything else, not just Memrise, see the full roundup.
Try Wekos free
The whole course, all 8 languages, unlimited practice, no credit card and no paid tier to hit later.