Best Duolingo Welsh Alternatives (2026) — What to Use Now

In November 2023, Duolingo mothballed its Welsh course. No more updates, no more bug fixes, no more contributor access. A final update introduced errors — misspelled words, Northern dialect forms rejected, correct answers marked wrong — that will never be corrected. The course had 675,000 active learners growing at 38% year-on-year.

If you were learning Welsh on Duolingo, you need somewhere else to go. This guide covers the six best alternatives, what each one is good for, and how to combine them. For more on what happened to the course, see the full Duolingo Welsh post-mortem.

1. blas. — Grammar, Mutations, and Structured Learning

Best for: Learners who want a comprehensive replacement that covers grammar, mutations, vocabulary, reading, and conversation in one app.

blas. is built specifically for Celtic languages. It teaches Welsh grammar explicitly, has dedicated mutation drilling (treiglad meddal, trwynol, and llaes) with spaced repetition, graded reading passages from A1 to C1, conversation practice, and writing exercises. It's the closest thing to an all-in-one Duolingo replacement for Welsh, but built for adults, not gamified.

Free tier: First two stages of grammar and mutations with unlimited sessions. Premium: All content including advanced grammar, reading, conversation, and exam prep.

See how blas. compares to SSiW →

2. SaySomethingInWelsh (SSiW) — Speaking Confidence

Best for: Learners who want to speak Welsh as quickly as possible.

SSiW is the most respected Welsh learning tool for speaking. Its audio-only method (listen, pause, produce) gets you speaking full sentences from lesson one. The community is large, welcoming, and active — with forums, online hangouts, and annual bootcamps. It deliberately avoids grammar explanation, which is a strength for some learners and a limitation for others.

Free: First few challenges. Full access: ~£13/month or ~£99/year.

Limitation: No grammar, no reading, no writing. If you need to understand why mutations happen or pass a Welsh exam, you need a grammar tool alongside SSiW.

3. Dysgu Cymraeg — Structured Classroom Courses

Best for: Learners who prefer a classroom environment with a teacher and other students.

The National Centre for Learning Welsh offers courses from absolute beginner to proficiency level. Courses run in person across Wales and online (accessible worldwide). Many are subsidised or free. The structured curriculum, regular homework, and human teacher make this the most thorough option — but it's a significant time commitment.

Cost: Varies — many courses are free or heavily subsidised by the Welsh Government.

4. Glossika — Free Sentence Repetition

Best for: Learners who want free sentence-level practice.

Glossika offers Welsh for free (part of their endangered languages initiative). It uses mass sentence repetition — you hear and repeat sentences at increasing complexity. There are no grammar explanations, but the sentence-level exposure is more contextual than pure vocabulary apps. Good as a supplement, less effective as a primary tool.

5. Clozemaster — Fill-in-the-Blank Practice

Best for: Intermediate learners who want vocabulary-in-context practice.

Clozemaster presents Welsh sentences with one word blanked out. You guess the missing word from context. It's more contextual than isolated vocabulary apps and uses spaced repetition. The free tier covers a good amount of content. It's best for learners who already have some grammar foundation and want to expand their vocabulary in sentence context.

6. S4C and Welsh-Language Media — Immersion

Best for: Supplementing structured learning with native content.

S4C (the Welsh-language TV channel) is available worldwide via s4c.cymru. BBC Radio Cymru streams free online. Welsh-language podcasts, YouTube channels, and social media accounts provide hours of free immersion. This isn't a replacement for structured learning, but it's essential for developing listening comprehension and natural language feel.

Recommended Combinations

No single tool replaces everything Duolingo offered. Here are the combinations most Welsh learners settle on:

For a detailed comparison of every Welsh tool, see the Best Apps to Learn Welsh (2026) comparison.

What Duolingo Got Right — and What to Look For

Duolingo's Welsh course, at its best, offered zero-friction daily practice with gamification that kept people coming back. That daily habit mattered. Whatever tool you switch to, the most important thing is that you use it consistently. A worse tool used daily beats a better tool used weekly.

The tools listed above are all better than Duolingo's frozen course for Welsh specifically — they cover more, they're maintained, and they're built (or adapted) for how Welsh actually works. Pick one, start using it, and add others when you find gaps.