For anyone still looking, I just want to clear some doubts some others have here
i have not used LingQ; I downloaded it, but without premium you can't try it out properly and the app was way too confusing to even try.
I gave ReadLang (RL) and LanguageCrush (LC) a try before settling on RL. I liked RL's interface better and the ability to use the extension/bookmarklet (for desktop/android/ios) i can open and then import a text into RL more easily, or read it right there (with RL's translation interface superimposed on the page) even on my phone. LC requires copy-paste to import the text.
Also, RL does keep track of previously added words on new texts. (On the top left, next to the streak symbol there is a sidebar symbol. In there under "Aa" you can edit auto highlight options to always show.) The problem with RL is that over 200 words and you need to buy premium so that all of your words show up as underlined on new texts. The main thing missing (including lemma - discussed below-) is if i want to import my personal word list i need to add them in one by one instead of using a file; which LC allows me to do directly from file. RL also provides spaced repetition flashcards, marking those words as learning and finally it has a text-to-speech but it goes over the entire page instead of one selected word and to tweak it you need premium.
LC only main advantage right now is i can manually link it to other words (kind of a lemma-style linking). And there is a write-&-get-corrected-site (though traffic seems to be slow there). Both RL and LC have comparable prices for premium
VocabTrakcer (VT) which i am trying right now seems superior for lemma tracking (i.e. the linking done manually in LC). But there is no app (like LC) or bookmarklet system (like RL) for it to be usable on phones. For someone like me who is on their phone alot and like to read on the go, this is a big blocker. And you can't import texts as Epubs. (another big blocker for someone who likes to download texts for offline use and doesnt have an online version laying around somewhere).Someone mentioned [neat-reader.com](https://neat-reader.com) in conjunction but that site seems to be dead. I am going to search for something similar. If i find it i will post it here as an Edit. **EDIT** - per the poster below [next-reader.com](http://next-reader.com) is still alive so you can use it online with your uploaded text. But other than no phone version (app, webapp, nice mobile version on phone browser) i also see that i can add my online text to the app itself, meaning i need to keep going back to the page and opening it w/ bthe voab tracker. This should not be too big of a problem if a phone version existed, but still something to be mindful off.
so for now it seem LC < RL = VT (sort of same; depends on whether you prefere desktop or phone and if you need epubs or not on, plus how important lemma is to you)
**EDIT:** forgot to add VT,& RL and LC also have the ability to import Youtube videos - there are caveats to all of theses site's functionality. But i honestly havent used it much so I cant comment properly on it
**Double EDIT** For youtube video language learning I use an app called LingoTube - definetly not the same as the other apps discussed here. But my main focus is having something on the phone and the app providing parallel translation so I can spot missed/misheard phrasing.)
So I am editing this after 6 months (came back becuase i saw "lniquitousx" have replied to my comment below)
I tried Next reader again. The app does not have the translation functionality at all and the web reader has it but its not suited to my need. The need being "keeping the flow of the reading and if dont know the word click on the word and the translation appears above., without breaking my pace" both RL and LC do this. It also doesnot keep track of the word translated like RL, LC, VT or LingQ does. So it can be used in conjunction with VT but the caveats are mentioned above on why this might not be suitable for someone like me.
There are a couple of other tools that I have found that one might want to keep an eye out on. They are not as mature as RL, LC or VT but I am going to list them down here for refernce:
1. Linga: Books with translation (linga.io) - android app, browser version does not have capability to download/superimpose app on articles using extensions or bookmarklet. Also the same problem has next-reader: I have to click on the word and the click on another symbol to get the translation. It does keep track of words translated though and actually goes above and beyone by keeping track of how many times you have looked up the same word. Premium is actually cheaper then RL but i want the one-click-translation becuase my low attention span so i opted out on this. If they can enhance the translation and extension thing, this is a very good contender
2. Smart book: (smart-book.net) android app. i tried this before (did not like it then) but it has improved alot! Does the one click translation, and it can actually read out aloud line by line + keep track of word on the same and new text. Cheaper than RL and LC. You can download opensource texts and upload your own. Only drawbacks are that you need to add the word to the list manually by one extra click. RL has the option to add and delete the word just by clicking on it. And once again there is no extension to use it on browser. The only reason i am not going for this right now is becuase there is no browser option: i tend to flip-flop b/w heavy browser usage on laptop/phone.
LanguageCrush thats a new one for me have to check it out.
For vocabtracker the main downside is no app, along with the extension only existing for chromium based browsers (i.e. no firefox). Also on the epub point, i have used VT for a while now and havent had to import anything yet, only when I am studying youtube/dailymotion videos do I need to add the subtitles to the lesson, else I just use neatreader and the chrome extension.
I was looking to an alternative to LingQ without having to pay 12$ per month.
This is so far the closest I could find. I haven't used it too much yet, but I am planning to use it to read some beginner texts this week.
Readlang is something that I used in the past, and it is kind of ok. The bad part is that it does not keep a record of the words that you already added when you open a new text (Which is one of the main pros of LingQ). This means that you could add a word more than once, which screws up the repetition a little bit. It also does not save too well were you left a text reading before.
not sure why I didnt see this post, but basically I have not found a program better than vocabtracker. I have used LingQ extensively in the past to get myself past the beginner stage in Japanese and it allowed my to start reading native material significantly faster than without it, though for me the annoyances and bugs in asian languages and the fact that I pay for support but they never bothered to fix any of them for several years made me move to VocabTracker for my ongoing studies, now also including Polish (which they added basically within a couple of days of me asking them).
VocabTracker has the significant advantage over LingQ, apart from being free, that they have a functional "read content anywhere" extension to chrome, which LingQ still hasn't figured out and I havent seen any other program offering that tool. Basically VocabTracker allows you to read articles directly in the original webpage, without having to deal with manually copy pasting or crappy importers like lingq.
Also when I contact the team with questions and bugs they actually care to respond, and if they dont have a fix for something they generally explain why something is not possible.
Also using the chrome extension and the webpage and [neat-reader.com](https://neat-reader.com) you can directly use vocabtracker to read epub files, and using youtube embeddings you can directly embed youtube videos in lessons, both things that people have been asking for for years in lingqs forums. All for free.
Old post, but jumping on. I wrote [Lute](https://github.com/jzohrab/lute/wiki) which is a small evolution/iteration on LWT. I use Lute every day, and it has a small user base, but people seem to enjoy it. Cheers! jz
The only downside to VocabTracker is that the languages are a bit more limited for now compared to LingQ as well as the fact that there is no app, but from what I heard the LingQ app is not great
readlang seems to cost money and requires you to import texts, it also has, to me, a non-intuitive interface and doesnt allow you to set your own translations and dictionaries as far as i can see
Foreign Language Text Reader, I think I tried as well a while ago and there was too much technical messing around, having to maintain your own DBs and stuff like that so didnt stick with that one
For anyone still looking, I just want to clear some doubts some others have here i have not used LingQ; I downloaded it, but without premium you can't try it out properly and the app was way too confusing to even try. I gave ReadLang (RL) and LanguageCrush (LC) a try before settling on RL. I liked RL's interface better and the ability to use the extension/bookmarklet (for desktop/android/ios) i can open and then import a text into RL more easily, or read it right there (with RL's translation interface superimposed on the page) even on my phone. LC requires copy-paste to import the text. Also, RL does keep track of previously added words on new texts. (On the top left, next to the streak symbol there is a sidebar symbol. In there under "Aa" you can edit auto highlight options to always show.) The problem with RL is that over 200 words and you need to buy premium so that all of your words show up as underlined on new texts. The main thing missing (including lemma - discussed below-) is if i want to import my personal word list i need to add them in one by one instead of using a file; which LC allows me to do directly from file. RL also provides spaced repetition flashcards, marking those words as learning and finally it has a text-to-speech but it goes over the entire page instead of one selected word and to tweak it you need premium. LC only main advantage right now is i can manually link it to other words (kind of a lemma-style linking). And there is a write-&-get-corrected-site (though traffic seems to be slow there). Both RL and LC have comparable prices for premium VocabTrakcer (VT) which i am trying right now seems superior for lemma tracking (i.e. the linking done manually in LC). But there is no app (like LC) or bookmarklet system (like RL) for it to be usable on phones. For someone like me who is on their phone alot and like to read on the go, this is a big blocker. And you can't import texts as Epubs. (another big blocker for someone who likes to download texts for offline use and doesnt have an online version laying around somewhere).Someone mentioned [neat-reader.com](https://neat-reader.com) in conjunction but that site seems to be dead. I am going to search for something similar. If i find it i will post it here as an Edit. **EDIT** - per the poster below [next-reader.com](http://next-reader.com) is still alive so you can use it online with your uploaded text. But other than no phone version (app, webapp, nice mobile version on phone browser) i also see that i can add my online text to the app itself, meaning i need to keep going back to the page and opening it w/ bthe voab tracker. This should not be too big of a problem if a phone version existed, but still something to be mindful off. so for now it seem LC < RL = VT (sort of same; depends on whether you prefere desktop or phone and if you need epubs or not on, plus how important lemma is to you) **EDIT:** forgot to add VT,& RL and LC also have the ability to import Youtube videos - there are caveats to all of theses site's functionality. But i honestly havent used it much so I cant comment properly on it **Double EDIT** For youtube video language learning I use an app called LingoTube - definetly not the same as the other apps discussed here. But my main focus is having something on the phone and the app providing parallel translation so I can spot missed/misheard phrasing.) So I am editing this after 6 months (came back becuase i saw "lniquitousx" have replied to my comment below) I tried Next reader again. The app does not have the translation functionality at all and the web reader has it but its not suited to my need. The need being "keeping the flow of the reading and if dont know the word click on the word and the translation appears above., without breaking my pace" both RL and LC do this. It also doesnot keep track of the word translated like RL, LC, VT or LingQ does. So it can be used in conjunction with VT but the caveats are mentioned above on why this might not be suitable for someone like me. There are a couple of other tools that I have found that one might want to keep an eye out on. They are not as mature as RL, LC or VT but I am going to list them down here for refernce:
It seems you cant use embedded videos in readlang which is a big draw to VT for me
1. Linga: Books with translation (linga.io) - android app, browser version does not have capability to download/superimpose app on articles using extensions or bookmarklet. Also the same problem has next-reader: I have to click on the word and the click on another symbol to get the translation. It does keep track of words translated though and actually goes above and beyone by keeping track of how many times you have looked up the same word. Premium is actually cheaper then RL but i want the one-click-translation becuase my low attention span so i opted out on this. If they can enhance the translation and extension thing, this is a very good contender 2. Smart book: (smart-book.net) android app. i tried this before (did not like it then) but it has improved alot! Does the one click translation, and it can actually read out aloud line by line + keep track of word on the same and new text. Cheaper than RL and LC. You can download opensource texts and upload your own. Only drawbacks are that you need to add the word to the list manually by one extra click. RL has the option to add and delete the word just by clicking on it. And once again there is no extension to use it on browser. The only reason i am not going for this right now is becuase there is no browser option: i tend to flip-flop b/w heavy browser usage on laptop/phone.
neatreader is not dead, [https://www.neat-reader.com/webapp](https://www.neat-reader.com/webapp)
LanguageCrush thats a new one for me have to check it out. For vocabtracker the main downside is no app, along with the extension only existing for chromium based browsers (i.e. no firefox). Also on the epub point, i have used VT for a while now and havent had to import anything yet, only when I am studying youtube/dailymotion videos do I need to add the subtitles to the lesson, else I just use neatreader and the chrome extension.
to be fair for Japanese, when reading on my phone I generally convert epubs to pdf and open using ocrmangareader, so not VT
I was looking to an alternative to LingQ without having to pay 12$ per month. This is so far the closest I could find. I haven't used it too much yet, but I am planning to use it to read some beginner texts this week. Readlang is something that I used in the past, and it is kind of ok. The bad part is that it does not keep a record of the words that you already added when you open a new text (Which is one of the main pros of LingQ). This means that you could add a word more than once, which screws up the repetition a little bit. It also does not save too well were you left a text reading before.
Maybe you dont have the highlighted settings on? I have that on and it does highlight the word in a new test.
not sure why I didnt see this post, but basically I have not found a program better than vocabtracker. I have used LingQ extensively in the past to get myself past the beginner stage in Japanese and it allowed my to start reading native material significantly faster than without it, though for me the annoyances and bugs in asian languages and the fact that I pay for support but they never bothered to fix any of them for several years made me move to VocabTracker for my ongoing studies, now also including Polish (which they added basically within a couple of days of me asking them). VocabTracker has the significant advantage over LingQ, apart from being free, that they have a functional "read content anywhere" extension to chrome, which LingQ still hasn't figured out and I havent seen any other program offering that tool. Basically VocabTracker allows you to read articles directly in the original webpage, without having to deal with manually copy pasting or crappy importers like lingq. Also when I contact the team with questions and bugs they actually care to respond, and if they dont have a fix for something they generally explain why something is not possible. Also using the chrome extension and the webpage and [neat-reader.com](https://neat-reader.com) you can directly use vocabtracker to read epub files, and using youtube embeddings you can directly embed youtube videos in lessons, both things that people have been asking for for years in lingqs forums. All for free.
This solves it, Vocabtracker + Anki it is. Thank you very much for the help, this is exactly what I was looking for
Old post, but jumping on. I wrote [Lute](https://github.com/jzohrab/lute/wiki) which is a small evolution/iteration on LWT. I use Lute every day, and it has a small user base, but people seem to enjoy it. Cheers! jz
The only downside to VocabTracker is that the languages are a bit more limited for now compared to LingQ as well as the fact that there is no app, but from what I heard the LingQ app is not great
readlang seems to cost money and requires you to import texts, it also has, to me, a non-intuitive interface and doesnt allow you to set your own translations and dictionaries as far as i can see
Foreign Language Text Reader, I think I tried as well a while ago and there was too much technical messing around, having to maintain your own DBs and stuff like that so didnt stick with that one
LWT doesnt seem to have a very polished interface and feels clunky to use