Lingawa vs italki vs Memrise vs Ling: Which Suits You for Learning Yoruba or Igbo? (2026)

If you want to pick your own tutor and pay one lesson at a time, italki fits, though it lists only 5 Yoruba and 4 Igbo tutors. If you want a free, self-paced Yoruba course, Memrise has an official one. If you want a levelled Yoruba app with exams, Ling fits. Neither Memrise nor Ling teaches Igbo. If you want Igbo, lessons for a child, or a tutor and a self-paced app from one provider, Lingawa offers both languages, with live lessons and a standalone app.

We make Lingawa, so read this as a comparison written by an interested party. Every figure below was checked on 5 November 2026, and we say where a competitor does something better.

The comparison at a glance

The four options in detail

italki

italki suits an adult who wants live conversation with a native speaker and wants to choose that person themselves. It is a marketplace: tutors set their own prices and lesson plans, and italki handles booking and payment.

On 5 November 2026, italki listed 5 Yoruba tutors and 4 Igbo tutors. We sampled all 9. Yoruba lessons cost $8 to $15 an hour, with a median of $12. Igbo lessons cost $15 to $23 an hour, with a median of $18.50. Trial lessons cost $5 to $8, and none of the 9 tutors offered a free trial.

The genuine strength is flexibility. You can book a single lesson, choose a length from 30 to 90 minutes, and switch tutors without a contract. The sampled tutors each have between roughly 1,400 and 10,000 completed lessons on the platform.

Vetting has two tiers. Every tutor passes an ID check. Only "Professional Teachers" must show teaching credentials, and 1 of the 9 sampled tutors held that status. The other 8 are "Community Tutors", whom italki describes as conversation partners.

italki supplies no Yoruba or Igbo curriculum of its own. Account holders must be 18 or over, so a parent books and supervises a child's lessons.

Memrise

Memrise suits a self-directed Yoruba learner who wants short, practical phrase lessons and does not need a human teacher.

Yoruba is an official Memrise course, built by Memrise itself, not community content. This matters, because Memrise removed community-made courses from its app on 31 March 2024. The old community Yoruba course now redirects to the official one. The official course claims 110+ lessons across 15 topics, 1,000+ words and 60+ videos of native speakers.

The genuine strength is the scenario-based phrase material. A sample lesson on ordering food taught 18 Yoruba items, most of them written with tone marks. Memrise also offers AI conversation practice.

The limits are real. Memrise has no Igbo course: both Igbo course addresses we tried returned "not found", and the old community Igbo listing is gone. The sample lesson contained no grammar explanation, and its tone marking was inconsistent in places. There are no human tutors. Users must be 13 or over.

The free tier gives limited lessons and videos, with adverts. On the UK App Store, Pro costs £18.99 a month or £61.99 a year. On the US App Store, it costs $24.99 a month or $61.99 a year.

Ling

Ling suits a Yoruba learner who likes short, game-style lessons and wants a clear sense of progression.

Ling teaches Yoruba from beginner to advanced. Each section holds 4 lessons, and an exam closes the section. Ling states that lessons take 5 to 10 minutes. Ling's published list of its languages does not include Igbo.

The genuine strength is structure in a small daily dose. The section exams give a self-taught learner a checkpoint, which a vocabulary-only app does not. The lessons also mix dialogues and flashcards rather than drilling single words.

Ling has no human tutors, so nobody corrects your pronunciation or answers a grammar question. We found no provision for children on its site.

Pricing is published on Ling's own page: $16.99 a month, $64.99 for 6 months, or $89.99 a year. The free tier includes limited lessons and limited dialogue practice, with adverts. A 7-day trial unlocks the rest.

Lingawa

Lingawa suits diaspora families and adults who want Yoruba or Igbo specifically. You can choose live tutoring, self-paced learning in the app, or both.

Live lessons are one-to-one with native-speaking tutors, matched by language, dialect, goals and schedule. A standard lesson lasts 55 minutes. Children can start from age 5, and lessons for under-7s last 25 minutes. Lessons cost £10, $15 or CA$30 each on the monthly plan, falling to £7, $10.50 or CA$21 each in the 50-lesson bundle.

Every tutor passes an interview, an ID check, a teaching test in their language and a training programme. The curriculum is written by Lingawa's own language specialists and runs across 5 levels. All tutors teach from it, so a learner who changes tutor carries on from the same point rather than starting again. Tutors also use the app's matching games, sentence builders and dialogue lines inside lessons, so class work and self-study use the same material.

The app works without a tutor. The free tier gives one full practice session a day, lasting 5 to 10 minutes. Premium unlocks unlimited sessions for £12.99 a month or £59.99 a year in the UK. In the US it costs $14.99 a month or $69.99 a year. In Canada it costs CA$19.99 a month or CA$94.99 a year.

Where Lingawa falls short: it teaches two languages only. Tutoring is sold by subscription or bundle, so you cannot book a single paid lesson the way you can on italki. The cheapest italki Yoruba tutor, at $8 an hour, costs less than Lingawa's lowest lesson price.

What to ask before you choose

Which language, and which variety? Check that the option teaches the exact language you need. Two of the four here have no Igbo. If your family speaks a particular Igbo or Yoruba dialect, ask whether a tutor can match it.

Do you need a person, or practice? An app builds vocabulary cheaply and on your schedule. It cannot hold a real conversation with you or tell you why a tone sounds wrong. A tutor can, at a higher cost per hour.

Who checks the tutor? On marketplaces, vetting often differs by tutor tier. Ask whether teaching credentials were verified or only identity. Read recent reviews, and book a trial before committing to a package.

Is there a curriculum, or only conversation? Conversation practice suits someone who already understands some of the language. A beginner usually progresses faster with a sequence of levels. Ask to see what level two looks like before paying for level one.

Is it built for a child? Check the minimum age, the lesson length for young children, and who holds the account. Several apps are rated for teenagers and above.

What does a month really cost? Compare the price per hour, not per lesson, because lesson lengths differ. Check whether credits expire, whether packages are refundable, and whether you pay in a foreign currency.

Does the option actually exist? Some lists still name services that no longer teach these languages. On 5 November 2026, Live Lingua offered free US government course materials for Yoruba but no live Yoruba or Igbo tutors. Duolingo has no Yoruba course and no Igbo course.

Prices and availability checked 5 November 2026. Marketplace prices change as tutors join, leave and reprice. App store prices vary by country and by store.