Are there any free and open source alternatives to duolingo out there? I wouldn't want to use something that could shutdown after an 'incredible journey'.
Basically you get four hearts every few hours. Every mistake takes away a heart. If you lose all your hearts you can no longer play. But, you can do _review_ lessons (that have nothing to do with the content your currently learning) and regain 2 more hearts.
It basically became a grind situation and I stopped using it. I've heard the webapp doesn't use hearts, but I refuse to support them after that.
And, yes, I was planning to buy a program to learn Spanish and had been using duolingo for 2 weeks prior to getting the hearts.
I did some reading on reddit and it appears this is related to some VC funding and attempt to make money. I understand they need to make money, but this felt like a very bait and switch slap in the face kind of thing.
The whole experience kind of soured me on learning for now and I haven't been spending as much time on it since.
I did find clozemaster which seems to be a similar, and honestly better, app. I also have a textbook and workbook pair. And, fortunately, have a lot of native Spanish speakers around me.
Anyway, I've been using Duolingo since ca. 2014 and it didn't shutdown... Plus, it's free - what do you have to lose? Your progress on some language learning app? You won't lose the knowledge gained.
I am quite curious how you figure this. Other than analytics and tracking, Duolingo doesn’t even require a backend.
Anki is useful for spaced repetition, but setting up a deck is going to take effort and requires knowledge (building a deck is useful by itself though).