Skip to content
Liguastic Academy

COMPARE

Liguastic vs ELSA Speak (2026)

ELSA Speak is a speaking app, and it does score speech against exam scales. Its homepage calls it the “#1 AI English Speaking App for Fluency and Confidence” (elsaspeak.com, checked 6 September 2026), and its Speech Analyzer reports pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar and vocabulary from a recording (ELSA Speech Analyzer). In ELSA's own guide to the tool you choose a test type, IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, choose a section, submit recordings, and then see how your score compares with other international tests and where you sit on the CEFR (five ways to practise with Speech Analyzer). What none of the ELSA Speak pages read for this comparison describes is marking an essay you wrote.

Liguastic marks what you write as well as what you say, and its interface is in Arabic. A placement measures you first and a plan is written from it. Essays come back with up to six corrections quoting your own words and a score on four criteria. A recorded answer to a Part 2 cue card comes back scored on pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar. Lessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts stay in English.

Where ELSA Speak is stronger, this page says so first: pronunciation is its whole subject, it covers all three IELTS speaking parts, and ELSA Speak offers a spoken assessment at no cost that its page says takes less than two minutes, plus a 7 days free trial on its subscription page.

Last updated September 2026

Start learningPricing
AreaLiguasticELSA Speak
Writing marked on exam criteriaFree-text essays scored per criterion with correctionsNo essay task and no writing rubric appears on the ELSA Speak homepage, subscription page, store listings or IELTS articles read for this pageYesNo
Speaking scored from a recordingPronunciation, fluency, vocabulary, grammar from audioBoth score a recording; ELSA Speak reports five metrics and compares the score with IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC and places it on the CEFRYesYes
Pronunciation depthFeedback below the level of the whole answerELSA Speak gives feedback on sounds, stress and intonation and has a pronunciation checker for any word; Liguastic returns a pronunciation band with the phrases quotedLimitedYes
IELTS speaking parts coveredParts 1, 2 and 3ELSA Speak describes practice for all three parts or the whole speaking exam; Liguastic practises Part 2, with Part 1 once in the placementLimitedYes
Exam tasks beyond speakingA Task 2 essay, a timed reading mock, an exam day under the clockELSA Speak's exam work on the pages read here is speaking drills for IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC; no reading passage or writing task appearsYesNo
Plan written from a measurementA placement, an ordered plan, spaced reviewELSA Speak has a two-minute spoken assessment and personalised lessons; its pages describe no plan built around a target and a test dateYesLimited
Arabic interfaceChrome in Arabic, lessons in EnglishThe ELSA Speak App Store listing gives English as the app's language and its site navigation is in English; the Arabic path on its site is not a pageYesNo

Quick comparison (TLDR)

ELSA Speak is an AI English speaking coach. Its homepage lists a Speech Analyzer, a How to Pronounce tool, a Quick Evaluation, a bilingual AI tutor and AI role-play with avatar coaches for the workplace, interviews, meetings and presentations (elsaspeak.com, checked 6 September 2026). Its Speech Analyzer takes a recording and reports pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar and vocabulary (Speech Analyzer). Its own guide to that tool says you pick a test type, IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, pick a section, submit recordings, and see how your score compares with other international tests (practising with Speech Analyzer, published 7 December 2022). It sells three IELTS speaking courses, IELTS Band 6, IELTS Band 7 and IELTS Band 9, described in October 2024 as available to all Premium learners (the ELSA IELTS course). ELSA Speak's subscription page lists ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year and ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year, and carries the line “Start your 7 days free trial” (ELSA subscriptions, checked 6 September 2026).

Liguastic is an AI English platform built for Arabic speakers. Its placement returns a CEFR level per skill, names the skills it could not grade, and includes two recorded speaking turns scored from the audio. It marks essays on four criteria, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English, with up to six corrections that quote your own words. It scores a recorded Part 2 answer for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar. Around that it writes a plan, one step open at a time, and brings lesson, practice and placement misses back at 1, 3, 7 and 21 days as a fresh question on the same point.

Key differences at a glance

  • Who marks an essay: on Liguastic, our grader returns a score on each of four criteria and corrections in your own sentences (writing feedback); on the ELSA Speak pages read for this comparison there is no essay task and no writing rubric, and grammar and vocabulary are scored from what you say rather than from what you type.
  • What happens to a recording: both score one. ELSA Speak reports five metrics and compares your score with other international tests (Speech Analyzer); Liguastic reads pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar from the audio and quotes the phrases that cost you (speaking practice).
  • Exam format: ELSA Speak's exam work is the speaking test; Liguastic puts you in Task 2, a Part 2 cue card and a timed reading mock, runs Exam Day under the clock, and tracks an estimated band out of 9 (IELTS preparation).
  • IELTS speaking parts: ELSA Speak is ahead here. It describes working on each part on its own or trying the whole speaking exam in one go (mastering IELTS speaking practice); Liguastic practises Part 2, sets Part 1 once in the placement, and has no Part 3 task.
  • Pronunciation: ELSA Speak is ahead here too. Its own FAQ says it gives detailed feedback on sounds, stress and intonation (how ELSA's pronunciation feedback works); Liguastic returns pronunciation as one of four bands inside an exam answer.
  • Interface language: Liguastic's interface is in Arabic while the material stays in English; the ELSA Speak App Store listing gives English as the app's language (App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026).
  • Price and terms: ELSA Speak lists ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year and ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year, with in-app purchases on the App Store including Monthly at $19.99. Liguastic is General English from 15.00 JOD a month and IELTS at 80.00 JOD a month with every finished add-on included, 15% less paid yearly, a free placement check with no card, a 14-day refund on an unused first payment, and cancelling in two clicks.

Choose ELSA Speak if the sounds are your problem, or if you want all three IELTS speaking parts drilled on a phone. Choose Liguastic if something you write has to be marked as well, in an interface you can read.

Placement and level: where you start and how you move

You open a new app on Monday not knowing whether you are A2 or B1. What does each one do with that?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak starts you with a short spoken assessment and builds lessons around it. Its Quick Evaluation is offered under the heading “Assess Your Speaking Skill with our FREE Test”, says the AI “evaluates your pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary in real-time”, and states that it “takes less than 2 minutes to discover your true level” (ELSA assessment test, checked 6 September 2026). The homepage describes a highly personalised learning experience built on your level, your goals and your accent preference (elsaspeak.com). What the pages read for this comparison do not describe is a level for reading or a level for writing: the assessment is spoken.

  • A spoken assessment at no cost, in under two minutes
  • Lessons personalised to your level, your goal and your accent preference
  • A speaking score placed on the CEFR by Speech Analyzer
  • What is measured is speaking, because the assessment is spoken
  • No level for reading or writing on the pages read for this comparison

Liguastic

Liguastic measures you first, with a level per skill. The placement returns a CEFR level for each skill it graded, on a ladder from A1 to C2. The skills it could not grade are named on the result screen rather than left blank, and a CEFR listening level is given only here. The placement includes two recorded speaking turns, scored from the audio. Your level is set by the placement and does not change because you finished a lesson; only the Advanced Speaking add-on has a level test, and it moves that ladder's own speaking level. See General English and how it works.

  • A placement with a level per skill, and the skills it could not grade named
  • A CEFR ladder from A1 to C2; the Advanced Speaking add-on climbs its own ladder with plus levels such as B1+
  • The plan is written from the placement and, on IELTS, from your target band and any test date you gave
  • Finishing lessons never moves your level
  • Speaking in the placement is two recorded turns scored from the audio; a CEFR listening level comes only from the placement; after that listening is practised from a bank of approved clips at your level, marked on our side, and none of that practice moves your level

Writing: what comes back when you hand in an essay

You have a Task 2 essay and a test in six weeks. Where do you hand it in?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak is a speaking product, and none of its pages read for this comparison describes marking an essay. Its homepage lists Speech Analyzer, How to Pronounce, Quick Evaluation, a bilingual AI tutor and AI role-play (elsaspeak.com). Its subscription page lists unlimited role-plays, access to all certificate courses, thousands of lessons, advanced feedback, progress tracking and access to Speech Analyzer on the web (ELSA subscriptions). Its App Store description offers preparation for “IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, EIKEN, CEFR, and more” and says you learn English with “8,000+ lessons” (App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026). Grammar and vocabulary are scored, and they are scored from what you say.

  • Grammar and vocabulary scored, as two of the five metrics read from your speech
  • Certificate courses and exam preparation named for IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, EIKEN and CEFR
  • Feedback on grammar and vocabulary comes from a recording, not from something you typed
  • No free-text essay task on the pages read for this comparison
  • No score on the four IELTS writing criteria, and no correction quoting a sentence you composed

Liguastic

Liguastic marks the essay you actually wrote, in place, on four criteria. You write a Task 2 answer, and Task 1 is set once, in the placement. It comes back with up to six corrections, each quoting your exact words, setting a better version beside them and giving a one-line reason. Each of the four criteria gets a score, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English. You are given one next focus, and you can rewrite and compare the two versions. Essay corrections go to a notebook to re-read; lesson, practice and placement misses return at 1, 3, 7 and 21 days. See writing feedback.

  • Up to six corrections quoting your own words, with a better version and the reason
  • A score on each of four criteria, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English
  • One next focus, then rewrite and compare
  • Exam Day: a timed reading mock and a timed essay, no pausing, with one combined estimate
  • Practice writing is Task 2 only, and every band is an estimate from our grader rather than a score anyone can submit

Speaking: what a recording comes back as

You record a two-minute answer about a place you remember. What arrives when it finishes?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak scores the recording, and this is the part it was built for. Its Speech Analyzer page says it “analyzes your English speaking with AI feedback on pronunciation, fluency, intonation, and vocabulary in seconds” and names five dimensions: pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar and vocabulary (Speech Analyzer, checked 6 September 2026). ELSA's own guide to the tool says you select a test type, IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, select a section, submit recordings, and get a breakdown of “fluency, grammar, intonation, vocabulary, and pronunciation”, plus a comparison with other international tests and a place on the CEFR (practising with Speech Analyzer, published 7 December 2022). This is not an app that only checks whether you said the right word.

  • A recording scored on five metrics: pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar and vocabulary
  • A test type chosen from IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, and a section within it
  • A comparison with other international tests, and a CEFR placement
  • Role-play conversations with avatar coaches for interviews, meetings and presentations
  • Speech Analyzer on the web is listed as part of the paid plans

Liguastic

Liguastic scores a real recording too, and quotes the phrases that cost you. You get a fresh cue card at your level and for your exam, record in the browser, and pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar come back as bands read from the audio, with corrections that quote phrases from your own answer and are written from the transcript. Your ten most recent recordings are kept with their bands, so you can hear the difference between two attempts; older takes keep the band and lose the audio, because voice data is not archived indefinitely. The Advanced Speaking add-on climbs a nine-rung ladder from single words to academic and professional speech. See speaking practice.

  • A Part 2 cue card, scored from the recording on four bands
  • The phrases that cost you, quoted from your own answer
  • The ten most recent recordings kept with their bands
  • Advanced Speaking: nine rungs and a word ledger with five gates, an add-on on General English and included in IELTS
  • Practice speaking is a Part 2 cue card. Part 1 appears once, in the placement, and there is no Part 3 task
  • If your browser will not open the microphone the page says so and suggests Chrome or Edge on a desktop

Exam format: the speaking test, or the rest of the exam too

Your university or your visa office wants a band for more than speaking. Which tool puts you in the rest of the paper?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak's exam work is the speaking test. Speech Analyzer lets you pick IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC and a section of the speaking exam (practising with Speech Analyzer). Its IELTS courses are named IELTS Band 6, IELTS Band 7 and IELTS Band 9; an article from October 2024 says the IELTS course is available to all Premium learners and describes Band 6 as 17 units and 90 lessons (the ELSA IELTS course). A separate guide walks through Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 and says you can work on each part individually or “try the entire exam in one go” (mastering IELTS speaking practice, published 30 June 2023). Those are speaking pages. The pages read for this comparison describe no timed reading passage, no writing task and no whole exam day under a clock.

  • IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC speaking drills, with a section chosen
  • Three named IELTS speaking courses, Band 6, Band 7 and Band 9, for Premium learners
  • All three IELTS speaking parts, separately or as one run
  • No IELTS Writing Task 1 or Task 2 on the pages read for this comparison
  • No timed reading mock and no combined exam-day estimate on those pages

Liguastic

Liguastic puts you in the written half of the exam as well, and tracks an estimated band beside your CEFR level. Writing is Task 2 in the writing coach, and Task 1 once in the placement, both on the four criteria in half bands. Speaking is a Part 2 cue card, scored from the recording. Reading is a timed mock of one passage, up to ten questions and fifteen minutes, scored off a fixed ratio ladder that runs 2.5 to 9 and is shared by every track, which makes it a reading-accuracy estimate rather than an IELTS score. Exam Day runs the reading mock and a timed essay under the clock with no pausing, and returns one combined estimate. See IELTS preparation and how scoring works.

  • Task 2, a Part 2 cue card, a timed reading mock, Exam Day
  • A plan written with your target band and any test date you gave, projected forward from today
  • An estimated band out of 9 tracked beside your CEFR level
  • Every band is our estimate; no examining body has reviewed a number and nothing can be submitted anywhere
  • There is no full four-section mock, TOEFL is not open to new learners, and listening is never taught as a lesson: the plan writes grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing only, and listening is practised separately from a bank of approved clips

Plan and review: a set of lessons, or a plan written for you

It is Thursday, you have forty minutes, and you got the same tense wrong on Monday. What is in front of you?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak personalises the lessons and tracks the score, and the pages read here describe no plan built around a date. The homepage promises a highly personalised learning experience tuned to your voice, your progress and your goals, and lists progress tracking among its features (elsaspeak.com). The assessment page offers to “discover your true proficiency level and get a roadmap to total fluency” (ELSA assessment test). Speech Analyzer breaks a recording into pacing, pausing, hesitations, pitch variation and grammatical range, so what you did wrong is itemised (practising with Speech Analyzer). What we could not find on those pages is a schedule that returns a specific mistake to you on named days.

  • Lessons tuned to your level, your goals and your accent preference
  • Progress tracking, with the five metrics updated as you go
  • A detailed breakdown of one recording: pacing, pausing, hesitations, pitch, grammatical range
  • A roadmap is offered after the assessment; no target band and no test date are asked for on the pages read here
  • No stated schedule that brings one mistake back on named days

Liguastic

Liguastic writes the plan from the placement and brings each miss back on a schedule. The plan is an order, not a menu: one step is open at a time, and the next opens when you finish it, so the day's work is always at your level. On IELTS it is written from your target band and any test date you gave, it projects forward, and it reports whether it finishes before, on or after that date. Lesson, practice and placement misses come back at 1, 3, 7 and 21 days as a fresh question on the same point. Essay and recording corrections go to the notebook to re-read and are not scheduled. See how it works.

  • A plan written from the placement and, on IELTS, from your target band and any test date
  • One step open at a time, so you cannot skip the step you need
  • Lesson, practice and placement misses back at 1, 3, 7 and 21 days
  • A forward projection that says whether the plan finishes before your test date
  • You can swap a step's skill or add one after it, but you cannot rearrange the plan, and essay and recording corrections are not scheduled

The tutor: role-play coaches against an AI tutor that knows your plan

You want to ask why your answer was wrong and get an exercise on exactly that, now. What does each paid tier give you?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak's conversation practice is role-play with avatar coaches. Its homepage lists AI role-play for real-world language practice and names coaches for the workplace, interviews, meetings, presentations and dating, and it lists a bilingual AI tutor described as a native-language option for beginners (elsaspeak.com, checked 6 September 2026). Its subscription page lists unlimited role-plays on both paid plans (ELSA subscriptions). The scenarios are spoken practice with feedback on how you spoke; the pages read here do not describe a tutor that knows the next step of a study plan or sets a written exercise and marks it in the chat.

  • AI role-play scenarios with avatar coaches for work, interviews and meetings
  • A bilingual AI tutor listed as a native-language option for beginners
  • Unlimited role-plays on both paid plans
  • Which native languages the bilingual tutor covers is on a help page we could not open
  • No tutor described as knowing your plan or setting a written exercise inside the chat

Liguastic

Liguastic's AI tutor knows your level, your goal, the next step in your plan and the points you keep missing, and sets exercises inside the chat. It is asked to keep replies short and at your level. When you ask about a rule, it can hand you word tiles, a gap fill or a choice and mark it on the spot. It can say why the next step is next; it cannot change the plan and it cannot write a review item. It is an add-on on General English at 10.00 JOD a month, and it is included in IELTS at no extra cost. See the AI tutor.

  • Knows your level, goal, next plan step and the points you keep missing
  • Sets word tiles, gap fills and choices in the chat and marks them at once
  • Included in IELTS; an add-on on General English
  • It is a text chat, not a spoken role-play, and it is AI: there is no person behind it
  • It cannot change the plan and it cannot schedule a review item

Arabic interface: what is in Arabic and what stays in English

You read Arabic fluently and English slowly. Which parts of each product are in a language you already read?

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak's own pages are in English, and its App Store listing gives English as the app's language. The listing's Languages field reads English and the seller is Elsa Corp (App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026). The site's navigation at elsaspeak.com is in English (elsaspeak.com), and the Arabic path on that site is not a page, checked the same day. The homepage does list a bilingual AI tutor, described as a native-language option for beginners; the help-centre article naming which native languages that covers sits behind a login, so we cannot say whether Arabic is one of them, and a fact we could not check is not one we will state.

  • A bilingual AI tutor listed on the homepage as a native-language option for beginners
  • Which native languages that covers is on a help page we could not open
  • The App Store listing gives English as the app's language
  • No Arabic version of the site: the Arabic path returns a not-found page, checked 6 September 2026

Liguastic

Liguastic's interface is in Arabic, and lessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts are in English, on purpose. Headlines, buttons, settings and the plan are in Arabic, so a learner at A1 always knows what the product is asking. The lesson, the question, the cue card and the essay prompt stay in English, because that exposure is the point. The platform teaches English only, and it was built for Arabic speakers from the placement to the IELTS course. See about Liguastic.

  • Arabic interface: navigation, settings and the plan
  • English material: lessons, prompts, cue cards and essays
  • Built for Arabic speakers, from the placement to the IELTS course
  • The platform teaches English only, and the marking is IELTS format or CEFR, nothing else

Pronunciation: the area where ELSA Speak is ahead

People keep asking you to repeat yourself. Which tool works on the sounds themselves?

ELSA Speak

Pronunciation is ELSA Speak's whole subject, and it goes further into it than Liguastic does. Its own FAQ says the app “uses advanced speech recognition and AI technology to analyze your pronunciation and provide detailed feedback on sounds, stress, and intonation” (how ELSA's pronunciation feedback works, checked 6 September 2026). Its How to Pronounce tool is headed “How to pronounce anything in American English” and offers to practise “the pronunciation of any English word”, with the phonetic spelling printed beside it (How to Pronounce). Pronunciation is one of the five metrics Speech Analyzer reports, and one of the two ELSA Speak plans is sold as pronunciation coaching on its own (ELSA subscriptions).

  • Detailed feedback on sounds, stress and intonation, in ELSA's own words
  • A pronunciation tool for any English word, on the web, with the phonetic spelling
  • A plan sold for pronunciation alone
  • It is speaking and pronunciation; the essay you have to hand in for a band is somewhere else

Liguastic

Liguastic returns a pronunciation band and the phrases that cost you, inside an exam answer. Pronunciation is one of four scores read from the recording of a Part 2 answer, beside fluency, vocabulary and grammar, and the corrections quote phrases you actually said. The Advanced Speaking add-on works down to the level of single words as it climbs its nine rungs, and its word ledger has a pronunciation gate among its five. The point of the score here is the band, not the sound. See speaking practice.

  • Pronunciation scored from the recording, as one of four bands
  • Corrections quoting phrases from your own answer
  • Advanced Speaking: single words upward across nine rungs, with a pronunciation gate in the word ledger
  • The pronunciation score sits inside an exam answer, and Advanced Speaking is an add-on on General English
  • If you want to drill one sound for an hour, ELSA Speak is built for that and this is not

A week of study: ELSA Speak vs Liguastic

Take one learner, roughly B1, with a target of band 6.5 and a test in eight weeks; Monday looks different in each tool. She reads Arabic fluently, writes English slowly, and people sometimes ask her to repeat herself.

With ELSA Speak:

  1. Monday she takes the free spoken assessment, which its page says takes less than two minutes, and gets a level and a roadmap (ELSA assessment test). The lessons that follow are tuned to her level and her accent preference.
  2. Tuesday she records a two-minute answer in Speech Analyzer, picks IELTS as the test type, and gets pronunciation, intonation, fluency, grammar and vocabulary back with a comparison against other international tests (practising with Speech Analyzer). This is the strongest hour of her week.
  3. Wednesday she works through Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 questions, because ELSA covers all three and lets her try the whole speaking exam in one go (mastering IELTS speaking practice).
  4. Thursday she writes a Task 2 essay. There is nowhere in the app read for this page to hand it in, so she puts it aside.
  5. Friday her pronunciation is measurably clearer and her speaking score has moved. She still does not know what her essay would score, or on which criterion.

With Liguastic:

  1. Monday she takes the placement and gets a CEFR level per skill, with the skills it could not grade named and two recorded speaking turns scored from the audio.
  2. Tuesday the plan is waiting, written from that placement and from band 6.5 with her test date, one step open at a time, and it tells her whether it finishes before the exam.
  3. Wednesday she hands in the Task 2 essay. It comes back with up to six corrections, each quoting her own sentence, a score on each of four criteria in half bands, and one next focus. She records the Part 2 cue card and gets four bands read from the audio with the phrases that cost her quoted back.
  4. Thursday, any lesson, practice or placement miss is back in front of her as a fresh question on the same point, and will return again after 3, 7 and 21 days; Wednesday's corrections wait in her notebook to re-read.
  5. Friday she has an estimated band. She has done no Part 3 practice, because there is no Part 3 task here, and the estimate is ours, not a result she can submit.

ELSA Speak takes the sounds and the speaking test further. Liguastic marks the written half and schedules the return of what you got wrong.

Where the difference is verifiable

These are differences you can check, not opinions.

1. Who marks an essay, and on what

ELSA Speak: the homepage, the subscription page, the App Store listing and the IELTS articles read for this page describe speaking, pronunciation, role-play and courses. None of them names an essay task or a writing rubric.

Liguastic: an essay comes back with up to six corrections quoting your words, a score on each of four criteria, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English, one next focus and a rewrite step; see how scoring works for what runs on it.

The proof: the ELSA subscriptions page lists what a paid plan includes, and it is role-plays, certificate courses, lessons, advanced feedback, progress tracking and Speech Analyzer on the web.

2. Whether a recording is scored

ELSA Speak: yes, and thoroughly. Five metrics from one recording, a test type chosen from IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, a comparison with other international tests and a CEFR placement.

Liguastic: yes. Pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar come back as bands read from the audio, with the phrases that cost you quoted; see speaking practice.

The proof: ELSA's own guide to Speech Analyzer walks through choosing a test, submitting a recording and reading the breakdown. This is the row where the two products actually meet.

3. Whether the exam format goes beyond speaking

ELSA Speak: its exam material is the speaking test, and its three IELTS courses are named for bands 6, 7 and 9.

Liguastic: Task 2, a Part 2 cue card, a timed reading mock of one passage with up to ten questions in fifteen minutes, and Exam Day under the clock with one combined estimate; see IELTS preparation. There is no full four-section mock here either.

The proof: the ELSA IELTS course article describes the courses, and every part of them is speaking.

4. Interface language

ELSA Speak: English, by its own App Store listing, and an English site.

Liguastic: the interface in Arabic, and lessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts in English.

The proof: the App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026, gives English as the app's language.

The gap is not whether a recording gets a score. It is the essay, the rest of the paper, and the language the buttons are written in.

Price, refunds and cancellation

ELSA Speak sells two yearly plans and a monthly one; Liguastic sells a monthly course with a yearly discount. Both sets of terms are below, from each company's own pages.

ELSA Speak's subscription page lists ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year, described as pronunciation coaching only, and ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year, described as everyday English coaching plus pronunciation (ELSA subscriptions, checked 6 September 2026). ELSA Speak's App Store listing shows in-app purchases including Monthly at $19.99, 3 months Elsa Premium at $47.99 and 1 Year Elsa Premium at $99.99 (App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026). ELSA Speak's subscription page carries the line “Start your 7 days free trial” and its App Store description says you can “start for free with a 7-day trial”. ELSA Speak's terms say all charges for purchases made through its website are refundable if the request is submitted within seven days of purchase, and that in-app payments are processed through Apple or Google, so it cannot refund those; to stop a renewal you message its support address at least one business day before the renewal date, or cancel through the store (ELSA terms of use, checked 6 September 2026).

Liguastic's General English course is 15.00 JOD a month and the IELTS course is 80.00 JOD a month with every finished add-on included; paying yearly is 15% less. Prices are set in Jordanian dinars and your card is charged the equivalent in US dollars. A child seat on the Family plan is 13.00 JOD a month. The AI tutor is 10.00 JOD a month as an add-on on General English, and Advanced Speaking is 15.00 JOD a month; both are included in IELTS. A new account starts with a free placement check and no card, and an unused first payment is refundable within 14 days, cancelling is two clicks in Settings, and access runs to the end of the period you paid for. If a renewal went through that you did not mean and you have not used the service since, tell us within 7 days and it is refunded. See pricing and the refund terms.

The difference in the small print is where a refund comes from: on a store purchase it is Apple or Google who decide, and on Liguastic it is us.

When ELSA Speak is the better choice

No tool fits everyone. ELSA Speak is the better choice if:

  • Pronunciation is the thing you actually need to fix. ELSA Speak's own FAQ describes detailed feedback on sounds, stress and intonation, and its How to Pronounce tool takes any English word (pronunciation feedback, How to Pronounce, both checked 6 September 2026).
  • You want all three IELTS speaking parts. ELSA Speak describes working on each part on its own or trying the whole speaking exam in one go (mastering IELTS speaking practice). Liguastic practises Part 2, sets Part 1 once in the placement, and has no Part 3 task at all.
  • You want to try it before you pay. ELSA Speak's spoken assessment costs nothing and takes under two minutes, and its subscription page offers a 7 days free trial (assessment test, subscriptions, both checked 6 September 2026).
  • You want a phone app with a long record. ELSA Speak is rated 4.8 from 112K ratings on the App Store and 4.6 from 1M reviews on Google Play, where more than 10M downloads are listed (App Store, Google Play, both checked 6 September 2026).
  • You want TOEFL or TOEIC. ELSA Speak's App Store description names IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, EIKEN and CEFR. On Liguastic, TOEFL is not open to new learners, and the exam format it prepares for is IELTS.
  • You want conversation rather than marking. ELSA Speak's role-play coaches cover interviews, meetings and presentations, and both paid plans include unlimited role-plays (elsaspeak.com).

But if the thing standing between you and your band is an essay nobody has marked, Liguastic is built for exactly that.

What Liguastic does not do

Before the verdict, the limits.

  • Listening is never taught as a lesson, and never given a band. The plan writes grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing lessons only. Listening is a separate practice loop: an approved clip is dealt at your level, you may play it as many times as you like, the answers are marked on the server against a key your browser never sees, and the script follows afterwards. It is reported as an accuracy percentage, and a run of strong results lifts the level the clips are drawn at without moving your own CEFR level, which comes from the placement. Because every clip is approved by a person rather than generated, the bank can run out.
  • Speaking practice is a Part 2 cue card. Part 1 appears once, in the placement, and there is no Part 3 task. On this row ELSA Speak covers more of the exam than we do. If it is the exam format itself you want more of, our comparison with British Council IELTS Ready covers authentic IELTS papers from a body that owns the exam.
  • Nothing here is an official score. Every band is an estimate from our own grader, and there is nowhere you can submit one. No examining body has reviewed a single number. See how scoring works.
  • TOEFL is not open to new learners. The IELTS course is; General English carries no band at all.
  • Four add-ons are listed as coming soon and cannot be bought. Advanced Grammar and Vocabulary, Advanced Writing, Advanced Reading and Advanced Listening are not on sale today.
  • There is no full four-section mock. Exam Day is the reading mock and a timed essay under the clock, with one combined estimate.

Everything the site says it never does is on the about page, at the same size as the offer.

Verdict

ELSA Speak and Liguastic were built for different jobs: one to make you clearer and more confident when you speak, the other to mark what an Arabic speaker produces in English, spoken and written.

ELSA Speak does its job well, and it does more than people give it credit for. It scores a recording on five metrics, lets you choose IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC and a section within it, compares your score with other international tests and places it on the CEFR (Speech Analyzer, ELSA's guide to it). It covers IELTS speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3 and sells three courses named for bands 6, 7 and 9 (IELTS speaking practice, the IELTS course). Its pronunciation feedback is on sounds, stress and intonation, which is finer-grained than a band. It is rated 4.8 from 112K ratings on the App Store and 4.6 from 1M reviews on Google Play (App Store, Google Play, both checked 6 September 2026).

Its limits for this particular reader are specific rather than general. Nothing on the ELSA Speak pages read for this comparison marks an essay, so the written half of an IELTS paper is not covered. There is no timed reading mock and no exam day under a clock. The App Store listing gives English as the app's language, and we found no Arabic version of its site, so a learner who reads Arabic more comfortably than English is reading the interface in the language being learned. On a store purchase, refunds are Apple's or Google's decision rather than ELSA Speak's (ELSA terms of use).

Liguastic marks the essay you wrote on four criteria with corrections in your own sentences, scores a recording for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar, writes the plan from a placement and a test date, and keeps the interface in Arabic while lessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts stay in English. General English from 15.00 JOD a month, IELTS at 80.00 JOD a month with every finished add-on included, 15% less paid yearly; a free placement check with no card, a 14-day refund on an unused first payment, cancel in two clicks, access to the end of the period paid for. See pricing and the refund terms.

The bottom line: Choose ELSA Speak if the sounds and the speaking test are the work, and you want all three parts on a phone. Choose Liguastic if something you write has to be marked too, and you want the interface in a language you already read.

Moving from ELSA Speak to Liguastic

There is nothing to migrate. Liguastic does not import anything from ELSA Speak, and it does not need to: the first thing it does is measure you.

Step 1: Take the placement. A CEFR level per skill, two recorded speaking turns scored from the audio, and the skills it could not grade named on the result screen rather than left blank.

Step 2: Read the plan it wrote. One step open at a time, built from the placement and, if you chose IELTS, from your target band and any test date you gave, with a forward projection that says whether it finishes in time. See how it works.

Step 3: Hand in the first essay and the first recording. The essay comes back with up to six corrections quoting your words, a score on each of four criteria, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English, and one next focus; the recording comes back with four bands read from the audio and the phrases that cost you.

Step 4: Keep ELSA Speak for what it does better. Its pronunciation work and its Part 1 and Part 3 practice run happily beside Liguastic. Nothing syncs between the two, and nothing needs to.

The switch costs a placement and a first essay, not a data export.

Research and sources

The ELSA Speak claims on this page were read from ELSA's own published pages and from the two store listings on 6 September 2026. Where a page could not be opened, the claim was left out rather than guessed. Nothing here is a rating we made up: Liguastic publishes no ratings, review counts or testimonials of its own, and this page quotes no user reviews of ELSA Speak, because a quote is only worth printing when you can still see it on the page it is linked to.

ELSA Speak sources

  • elsaspeak.com: the line “#1 AI English Speaking App for Fluency and Confidence”, the feature list, the avatar coaches and the bilingual AI tutor. checked 6 September 2026.
  • Speech Analyzer: “analyzes your English speaking with AI feedback on pronunciation, fluency, intonation, and vocabulary in seconds”, the five dimensions, and the reference to IELTS and TOEFL speaking drills. checked 6 September 2026.
  • Five ways to practise speaking with ELSA Speech Analyzer (published 7 December 2022): choosing a test type from IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC and a section, submitting recordings, the breakdown of “fluency, grammar, intonation, vocabulary, and pronunciation”, the pacing and pitch analysis, the comparison with other international tests and the CEFR placement. checked 6 September 2026.
  • How to master IELTS speaking practice on your own (published 30 June 2023): Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 with their timings, and working on each part individually or trying the entire exam in one go. checked 6 September 2026.
  • A secret that helps you ace the IELTS Speaking test (published 4 October 2024): the IELTS Band 6, Band 7 and Band 9 courses, the IELTS course available to all Premium learners, and Band 6 as 17 units and 90 lessons. checked 6 September 2026.
  • ELSA Speak subscriptions: ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year for pronunciation coaching only, ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year for everyday English coaching plus pronunciation, the inclusions listed for both, and the line “Start your 7 days free trial”. Its inclusion list says more than ten thousand lessons while the App Store description says more than eight thousand, so the count depends on where you read it. checked 6 September 2026.
  • ELSA assessment test: “Assess Your Speaking Skill with our FREE Test”, the AI that “evaluates your pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary in real-time”, and “less than 2 minutes to discover your true level”. checked 6 September 2026.
  • How does ELSA's pronunciation feedback work?: “ELSA Speak uses advanced speech recognition and AI technology to analyze your pronunciation and provide detailed feedback on sounds, stress, and intonation.” checked 6 September 2026.
  • How to Pronounce: “How to pronounce anything in American English”, practising “the pronunciation of any English word”, with the phonetic spelling shown. checked 6 September 2026.
  • ELSA terms of use: charges for purchases made through the website refundable if the request is submitted within seven days of purchase; in-app payments processed through Apple or Google and not refundable by ELSA; automatic renewal, and cancelling at least one business day before the renewal or through the store. checked 6 September 2026.
  • ELSA Speak on the App Store: 4.8 from 112K ratings, seller Elsa Corp, the app's language given as English, the description's “8,000+ lessons”, preparation for “IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, EIKEN, CEFR, and more”, the line about starting with a 7-day trial, and in-app purchases including Monthly at $19.99, 3 months Elsa Premium at $47.99 and 1 Year Elsa Premium at $99.99. checked 6 September 2026.
  • Google Play listing: 4.6 from 1M reviews, more than 10M downloads, and the developer name. checked 6 September 2026.

What we could not check

Two things were left out because the pages behind them could not be opened on the day of writing. The ELSA Speak help-centre article listing which native languages the bilingual tutor supports sits behind a login, so this page does not say whether Arabic is one of them. No user review of ELSA Speak is quoted here. That is a choice rather than an obstacle: store reviews are one person’s experience on one day, and this page compares what each product describes itself as doing. The ratings and review counts are given above, each beside the listing they came from.

Liguastic sources

Method

  1. Read ELSA Speak's own product, help and blog pages, not third-party summaries.
  2. Check the store listings for the rating, the review count and the in-app purchase prices, and record the date.
  3. Check every claim about Liguastic against the product itself, not only against its own pages.
  4. Leave out anything that could not be opened, and say so here.
  5. Re-check prices on every refresh and bump dateModified.

If anything here is wrong or out of date, write to hello@liguastic.com and we will check it and correct the page.

IELTS® and TOEFL® are registered trademarks of their respective owners. Liguastic is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Pricing

Start learning by choosing the plan that suits you.

One core plan with everything you need to start. Add advanced modules only if you want them.

Plans and pricing

General English

The base you build on

15.00 JODper month

  • Adaptive placement test
  • A plan built on your result
  • Daily lessons in the core skills
  • Progress tracking
Subscribe

IELTS

Everything switched on

80.00 JODper month

  • Full IELTS placement
  • Practice in the exam's own format
  • Writing and speaking, graded
  • Timed mock tests
Subscribe

Liguastic vs ELSA Speak: feature comparison for 2026

Placement, writing, speaking, pronunciation, exam format, plan and review, the tutor, the interface and the terms.

FeatureLiguasticELSA Speak
Placement with a level per skillThe skills it cannot grade are named on the result screensource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesLimited
Essays marked on four criteriaHalf bands on IELTS, a CEFR level on General English; corrections quote your own wordssource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Speaking scored from a recordingBoth do this; ELSA Speak reports five metrics, Liguastic four bandssource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesYes
Feedback on sounds, stress and intonationBelow the level of the whole answersource for this row (opens in a new tab)LimitedYes
IELTS speaking Parts 1, 2 and 3Liguastic practises Part 2; Part 1 appears once, in the placementsource for this row (opens in a new tab)LimitedYes
IELTS Writing Task 2 marked on the criteriaTask 1 is set once, in the placementsource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Timed reading mockOne passage, up to ten questions, fifteen minutes, on a 2.5 to 9 ratio laddersource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Exam Day under the clockA reading mock and a timed essay with no pausing, one combined estimatesource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Plan built from a measurement and a test dateOne step open at a timesource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesLimited
Spaced review of your own missesAt 1, 3, 7 and 21 days, as a fresh question on the same pointsource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Tutor that knows your next plan stepAdd-on on General English; included in IELTSsource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesLimited
Arabic interfaceLessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts stay in Englishsource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNo
Listening practiceLiguastic: an approved clip dealt at your level, replayed as often as you like and marked on the server, with the script afterwards; never written into the plan, never given a band after the placement, and the bank can run outsource for this row (opens in a new tab)LimitedNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Children's programmeLiguastic: ages 4 to 12, a child seat on the Family plansource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesNot described on the pages read for this comparison
Monthly priceLiguastic prices are set in Jordanian dinars and charged in US dollarssource for this row (opens in a new tab)General English 15.00 JOD; IELTS 80.00 JODELSA Speak lists ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year and ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year; its App Store listing shows Monthly at $19.99
Refund if you change your mindLiguastic: a free placement check with no card; an unused first payment refundable within 14 days; cancel in two clickssource for this row (opens in a new tab)YesWithin seven days for a purchase made on its website; in-app purchases are Apple's or Google's decision
Start learning

QUESTIONS

Liguastic vs ELSA Speak: common questions

Is Liguastic better than ELSA Speak?

Not for every purpose, and not on every row. ELSA Speak is ahead on pronunciation, on IELTS speaking Parts 1 and 3, and on trying the product before you pay. Liguastic is ahead on marking an essay against the four criteria, on the timed reading mock and Exam Day, on a plan written from a placement and a test date, and on having the interface in Arabic. Both score a recording, and both are AI rather than people. Pick the one whose strong row is the row you are stuck on.

Does ELSA Speak score your speaking, or only recognise the words?

It scores it. Its Speech Analyzer page says it analyses your English speaking with feedback on pronunciation, fluency, intonation and vocabulary in seconds, and names five dimensions including grammar (Speech Analyzer, checked 6 September 2026). Its own guide says you choose a test type from IELTS, TOEFL or TOEIC, choose a section, submit recordings, and get a breakdown plus a comparison with other international tests and a place on the CEFR (practising with Speech Analyzer). This is the row where the two products genuinely overlap.

Does ELSA Speak mark essays?

Not on any page read for this comparison. Its homepage, its subscription page, its App Store listing and its IELTS articles describe speaking, pronunciation, role-play, grammar and vocabulary lessons and courses; none of them names a free-text essay task or a writing rubric (ELSA subscriptions, checked 6 September 2026). On Liguastic an essay returns with up to six corrections quoting your words, a score on each of four criteria, in half bands on IELTS and as a CEFR level on General English, one next focus and a rewrite-and-compare step.

Which is better for IELTS, ELSA Speak or Liguastic?

It depends which part of IELTS. For the speaking test alone, ELSA Speak covers all three parts and sells courses named for bands 6, 7 and 9 (the ELSA IELTS course). For the paper as a whole, Liguastic marks Task 2 on the four criteria in half bands, scores a Part 2 cue card from the recording, runs a timed reading mock and Exam Day under the clock, and tracks an estimated band out of 9 beside your CEFR level (IELTS preparation). Every band on Liguastic is an estimate from our own grader, never an official score.

Can Liguastic replace ELSA Speak?

Partly. Liguastic scores a recording for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar, so the speaking measurement is there. What it does not replace is the depth of pronunciation work, IELTS speaking Parts 1 and 3, and a phone app you can open on a bus. It also does not teach listening as a lesson. If the sounds themselves are your problem, keep the specialist and add the marking.

Can I use ELSA Speak and Liguastic together?

Yes, and for many learners that is the sensible split. Use ELSA Speak for pronunciation and for Parts 1 and 3 of the speaking test, and Liguastic for the marked writing, the timed reading mock, Exam Day and the plan written from your placement. Nothing syncs between them and nothing needs to; each keeps its own record, and your progress in one is not affected by the other.

How much does Liguastic cost compared with ELSA Speak?

ELSA Speak's subscription page lists ELSA Pro at $89.99 a year and ELSA Premium at $99.99 a year, and its App Store listing shows in-app purchases including Monthly at $19.99 (ELSA Speak subscriptions, ELSA Speak on the App Store, both checked 6 September 2026). Liguastic's General English course is 15.00 JOD a month, IELTS is 80.00 JOD a month with every finished add-on included, and paying yearly is 15% less. Prices are set in Jordanian dinars and your card is charged the equivalent in US dollars. See pricing. A new account starts with a free placement check and no card, and an unused first payment is refundable within 14 days, cancelling is two clicks in Settings, and access runs to the end of the period you paid for. See the refund terms.

Does ELSA Speak have a free trial?

Yes. ELSA Speak's subscription page carries the line “Start your 7 days free trial”, and its App Store description says you can start for free with a 7-day trial (ELSA Speak subscriptions, ELSA Speak on the App Store, both checked 6 September 2026). ELSA Speak also offers a spoken assessment at no cost that its page says takes less than two minutes. What Liguastic offers before the first payment is set out on its own pricing page, which is the page to read on the day you decide.

Is Liguastic available in Arabic, and is ELSA Speak?

Liguastic's interface is. Headlines, buttons, settings and the plan are in Arabic, so an A1 learner always knows what the product is asking them to do, while lessons, questions, cue cards and essay prompts stay in English on purpose, because that exposure is the point. ELSA Speak's App Store listing gives English as the app's language and its site navigation is in English (App Store listing, checked 6 September 2026). Its homepage lists a bilingual AI tutor as a native-language option for beginners, but the article naming which languages that covers is behind a login, so this page does not claim Arabic either way.

Does ELSA Speak cover all three IELTS speaking parts?

Yes, and this is a row where it is ahead of Liguastic. Its guide to IELTS speaking practice walks through Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 with their timings and says you can work on each part individually or try the entire exam in one go (mastering IELTS speaking practice, published 30 June 2023). Liguastic's speaking practice is a Part 2 cue card; Part 1 appears once, in the placement, and there is no Part 3 task.

Are Liguastic's bands official IELTS scores?

No. Every band, score and level on Liguastic is an estimate produced by our own grader. No examining body has reviewed or approved a single number, and there is nowhere you can submit one. Liguastic has no affiliation with IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge or ETS. Several attempts in a row tell you more than any one of them.

Who marks my work on Liguastic?

Our AI does, and we say so rather than implying a staff room. Our AI writes the coaching and marks essays, and our speech assessment scores pronunciation and fluency from a real recording. Every correction quotes the words you wrote and shows a better version beside them, with a one-line reason.

Does Liguastic teach listening?

Not as a lesson. The plan never writes a listening lesson: it writes grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing. What exists is a separate practice loop. You are dealt an approved clip at your listening level, you play it as many times as you like, you answer questions on it, and the server marks them against a key your browser never sees; the script is released afterwards, never before. Those answers give you an accuracy percentage on the listening skill card, not a band, and a strong run lifts the level the clips are drawn at without moving your own CEFR level, which comes from the placement. Because every clip is approved by a person rather than generated, the bank can run out, and the page says so rather than replaying a clip you have already answered. The Advanced Listening add-on is listed as coming soon and cannot be bought. Everything Liguastic does and does not measure is on how scoring works.

Does Liguastic have a children's programme?

Yes. The children's section is live for ages 4 to 12 on the Family plan: each child has their own seat at 13.00 JOD a month and their own profile, set to an age band from their date of birth, and the lessons are narrated by an AI voice. No children's programme appears on the ELSA Speak pages read for this comparison. See English for children.

How do I cancel Liguastic, and how do I cancel ELSA Speak?

On Liguastic: Settings, then Billing, two clicks. No email, no retention call, no form asking why. Cancelling stops the next renewal and you keep access to the end of the period you already paid for. If a renewal went through that you did not mean and you have not used the service since, tell us within 7 days and it is refunded. On ELSA Speak, its terms say you message its support address at least one business day before the renewal or cancel through the App Store or Google Play; charges for purchases made on its website are refundable if you ask within seven days, while in-app payments are processed by Apple or Google and are their decision to refund (ELSA terms of use, checked 6 September 2026).

Why would someone move from ELSA Speak to Liguastic?

Usually one reason: the exam is not only spoken. Nothing on the ELSA Speak pages read for this comparison marks an essay, there is no timed reading mock and no exam day under a clock, and the interface is in the language being learned rather than in Arabic. What Liguastic does not do is worth reading in the same breath: it never teaches listening as a lesson, its speaking practice is Part 2 only, TOEFL is not open to new learners, and its bands are estimates rather than results anyone will accept.

Is ELSA Speak better than Liguastic for pronunciation?

For pronunciation on its own, yes. Its FAQ describes detailed feedback on sounds, stress and intonation, its How to Pronounce tool takes any English word with the phonetic spelling shown, and one of its two plans is sold as pronunciation coaching alone (pronunciation feedback, How to Pronounce, both checked 6 September 2026). Liguastic reports pronunciation as one of four bands read from a Part 2 recording, with the phrases that cost you quoted, and its Advanced Speaking add-on works down to single words across nine rungs.

READ NEXT

What to read next

Ready when you are.

START

The first thing it does is measure you.

A placement test, then a plan written from what it measured, and every essay and recording after that comes back marked.

Start learningSee pricing

Free placement check, no card · Cancel anytime · 14-day refund on an unused first payment