Readlang Alternatives: What to Use Instead (2026)

Prices and features below were checked on October 31, 2026. Apps change, so check the date on anything you read about software, this article included.

Is Readlang good enough?

For a lot of people, yes. Readlang Premium costs $6 a month (October 2026), and the free plan gives you unlimited single-word translations and 10 phrase translations a day. Its Chrome extension and bookmarklets let you read almost any web page with a translation for any word you click, and you can upload whole novels as TXT or DRM-free EPUB.

If that covers what you need, you don't need anything else.

People look for something else for one of three reasons, and each points to a different app:

1. You want your vocabulary tracked more closely. Readlang turns the words you translate into flashcards with spaced repetition. Its pricing, about and features pages don't describe a status on every word you read, the way LingQ keeps one.
2. You want to read on your phone, offline, or listen while you read. Readlang has no phone app, it does not work offline, and voices for whole texts are in Premium Plus, at $15 a month.
3. Everything you read is too hard. That is about the material, and a different format can help.

The options (October 2026)

If you want your vocabulary tracked

LingQ

LingQ gives every word a status: 1 New, 2 Recognized, 3 Familiar, 4 Learned, and then Known. The status follows the word into everything you read in the app. Words you are still learning go into spaced-repetition review, and your known-word count is the main measure of progress.

If that record is what you want, LingQ does it more thoroughly than Readlang, and more thoroughly than Simply Fluent.

It has iPhone and Android apps and browser extensions, and offline access with Premium. The cost is the price: $14.99 a month on the US App Store (October 2026), about two and a half times Readlang. The free plan allows 20 saved words and phrases and 5 lessons from imported content. LingQ's prices vary by region. I compare the two in LingQ vs Readlang.

Anki

If what you want is more review, you may not need to replace Readlang at all. You can add Anki.

Anki is a flashcard app. It has no reader: you add the words yourself, and it schedules each review for when you are most likely to forget. The computer version, AnkiWeb and AnkiDroid are free; the iPhone app costs $24.99 (October 2026). Readlang for the reading and Anki for the review cost $6 a month together on a computer.

If you want to read on your phone and listen

Simply Fluent

This is mine. It is a phone app for iPhone, iPad and Android, and you can read offline.

It reads to you. You can hear a single word, its translation, or the whole page, in Slow, Normal or Fast. Switch on the page-turn button on the audio bar and the reader moves to the next page when the audio reaches the end of one, so you can listen like an audiobook and follow along on the page. It uses your phone's own voice, so it reads any book, including the ones you add yourself, without a connection.

You see the meaning in that sentence. Select a word or phrase to see what it means in that sentence. Every translation you save is shown above that word or phrase in every book you open in that language, so you don't look the same word up twice, and it becomes a flashcard.

You can read your own books, or the library. Add EPUB, TXT or Markdown files, or paste in text; PDF needs Premium. The library has short stories you can filter by level from A1 to C2, and classic novels by writers such as Jane Austen, Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle, rewritten in modern, everyday language. It has books in 45 languages, and translation works in 134.

Everyone starts with a 30-day free trial of Premium; after that it's €7.99 a month or €59.99 a year (October 2026).

Where Readlang is the better tool: Simply Fluent has no web version, so it does not translate web pages. If most of your reading is articles in the browser, stay with Readlang. And at $6 a month, Readlang costs less.

Kindle

If you already read on a Kindle, you may have part of this already. What a Kindle does and does not do for a language learner is in its own article: is a Kindle any good for language learning?

If everything you read is too hard

If the problem is not Readlang's features but that every page is exhausting, the material is too hard for now, and a different app won't change that on its own. Read something easier.

Beelinguapp

Beelinguapp shows a story in two languages side by side, and many of its stories are narrated by native speakers. Long-press a word or phrase for its translation and audio. At the very start, seeing the whole translation next to the text can be easier than looking up one word at a time.

That is a difference in format, not in what there is to read. Simply Fluent has short stories at A1 and A2 as well; the choice is whether you want the whole translation next to the text, or the meaning of the word you selected.

Beelinguapp's FAQ and home page describe its own library of stories, news and books, and neither mentions importing your own. The US App Store lists $7.99 a month and $49.90 a year (October 2026), among several promotional prices. There is a longer comparison in Simply Fluent and Beelinguapp.

Which Readlang alternative should you choose?

• You read web pages, and want it cheap: stay with Readlang.
• You want every word tracked: LingQ, or add Anki to the Readlang you already have.
• You want to read books on your phone, offline, and listen while you read: Simply Fluent.
• You want both languages on the screen at once: Beelinguapp.
• Everything feels too hard: read something easier, whichever app you use.

There is a longer side-by-side of the two apps in Simply Fluent and Readlang.

Related reading

• LingQ vs Readlang, the direct comparison
• The best apps for reading books in another language
• LingQ alternatives
• How to pick your first book in another language

Sources

All checked on October 31, 2026.

• Readlang pricing: readlang.com/pricing
• About Readlang: readlang.com/about
• Readlang features: readlang.com/features
• Uploading novels to Readlang: forum.readlang.com/t/upload-novels-to-read-including-ones-with-drm/39
• Readlang offline: forum.readlang.com/t/anyone-here-use-used-lingq-or-any-other-alternatives/123/24
• Installing Readlang on your home screen: forum.readlang.com/t/install-readlang-on-your-iphone-ipad-or-android-home-screen/45
• A Readlang app: forum.readlang.com/t/readlang-app-possibility/4960/2
• LingQ on the US App Store: apps.apple.com/us/app/lingq-learn-languages/id379385811
• LingQ plans and prices: lingq.com/en/signup
• About LingQ: lingq.com/en/about
• How LingQ statuses work: forum.lingq.com/t/how-lingq-statuses-work/6841
• LingQ statistics: forum.lingq.com/t/lingq-statistics/8184
• Anki: apps.ankiweb.net
• AnkiMobile on the US App Store: apps.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id373493387
• Beelinguapp on the US App Store: apps.apple.com/us/app/beelinguapp-language-learning/id1225056371
• Beelinguapp home page: beelinguapp.com
• Beelinguapp FAQ: beelinguapp.com/faq
• Simply Fluent: FAQ and home page