Manifesto · 2026
Why we built a language app you can finish.
An honest note from the people behind Lalo — for anyone who has opened Duolingo for 900 straight days and still can't order coffee in Rome.
The problem isn't you.
Most language apps are engagement machines. Their business model demands that you never finish — so the product is quietly designed to keep you coming back, not to get you useful. Streaks that punish missed days. Hearts that run out mid-lesson. Infinite trees with no visible end. A five-year path to A2.
The cruel joke is that the science has been clear for decades. Studies by Paul Nation and the British National Corpus found that the top 1,000 most frequent words account for roughly 85% of everyday speech in almost any language. A committed learner can actually know them — cold — in a matter of weeks.
So if you've been grinding on a green owl for three years and still feel lost in a Barcelona taxi, the problem isn't that you didn't try hard enough. The problem is the app was never built to let you arrive.
Learn 1,000 words. Then you're done.
Lalo exists to do the thing nobody else in this category is willing to say out loud: get you to useful, then let you leave.
The coverage meter on your dashboard is the hero. It counts up. It never counts down. When it hits 100%, the app congratulates you, prints you a certificate, and steps out of the way. You keep the vocabulary. Lalo keeps its dignity.
The math nobody wants you to do.
Here's what three years of the popular apps actually costs, and what Lalo costs for the rest of your life:
| Per year | Over 3 years | Forever | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo Super | €156 | €468 | — |
| Babbel | €168 | €504 | — |
| Memrise | €108 | €324 | — |
| Lalo | €0 | €0 | €49 once |
The free tier is free forever. The 1,000 words, all 12 languages, full FSRS, no daily limits, no locked content, no gated analytics. The €49 Lifetime is for people who want to remove the between- session ads and own every future vocab pack we ship. One payment. Not a subscription. Not a trap.
What we refuse to do.
Some things we decided at the whiteboard and have no plans to walk back:
- ✕No punitive streaks. If you miss a day, nothing bad happens to your progress. Streaks are a tool, not the product.
- ✕No hearts, no energy, no lives. Getting a word wrong is how you learn. We will never make you wait 4 hours or pay us to try again.
- ✕No subscription lock-in. The core vocabulary product is free forever. Take money once, or don't take it at all.
- ✕No account wall at the door. Open the app, pick a language, start learning. Sync is an opt-in upgrade, not a tax.
The full list is on the principles page. If we ever break one of them, call us on it.
Who is building this.
Lalo is a tiny indie project. No venture capital, no growth team, no quarterly engagement OKRs. Just a couple of language nerds who got tired of paying €13 a month to feel stuck. We built the tool we actually wanted to use, and figured others might want it too.
Want to see how close you already are?
Take a 5-minute placement test. We'll check what you already know across the common, medium, and advanced frequency tiers — and point you at the gaps.