What app to use after Duolingo Chess depends on which specific gap you have hit, because Duolingo states its own target plainly: take a complete beginner to roughly 1500 Elo, what it calls "a solid intermediate level." We covered what that course teaches and where it stops in full elsewhere; the short version is that 1500 is a genuine, worthwhile milestone and, by Duolingo's own design, a stopping point rather than an open-ended ceiling. If you are there, or the puzzles and matches have started to feel repetitive before you get there, this page is the honest rundown of what to install next.
How to tell you are actually ready to move on
Three signs, in practice. You are consistently winning or holding your own against opponents near the level Duolingo shows you. The lessons feel like repetition rather than new material. And you want something Duolingo was not built to give you: a bigger pool of real opponents, a rating that means something outside one app, or an explanation of a mistake that goes past a short label. If none of those apply yet, there is no reason to leave: Duolingo's own course is still doing the job it was built for.
The honest options, side by side
| What you want | Lichess | Chess.com | Chessdrive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, no paywall on any of it | Free to play; membership unlocks unlimited Game Review and locked bots | Free to start; $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year after a free trial |
| Depth of analysis | Unlimited live board and Opening Explorer, deep Stockfish report capped at 40 games a day | One free Game Review a day, unlimited on paid tiers | Every game reviewed with Stockfish plus an on-device Maia3 model |
| Explains mistakes in words | No, numbers and lines only | Short labels | Yes, in your own language |
| Judges if a move was findable at your level | No | No | Yes, that is what the Maia3 pairing is for |
| Real opponents and structure | Unlimited games, ratings, tournaments | The largest pool, ratings, tournaments, lessons | Practice opponents spanning 600 to 2600, plus live rated play |
We already broke Lichess and Chess.com down individually in more depth: see our Lichess analysis breakdown and our Chess.com app review for what each does best and where each leaves you doing the rest of the work alone.
Matching the app to the specific gap
If you want the deepest free analysis and do not mind reading it yourself: Lichess. Nothing else gives away this much for nothing, and the 40-game daily cap on the deep report is not a real constraint unless you are playing dozens of games a day.
If you want a bigger pool of opponents, a rating that carries social weight, and structure like tournaments: Chess.com. It is the largest chess platform there is, and that scale is a real advantage Duolingo, built for learners rather than competitive players, was never trying to match.
If your tactics are ahead of your opening knowledge, which is common coming out of a puzzle-heavy course, a structured opening resource closes that gap faster than picking it up game by game. See our take on learning openings as plans rather than move lists, and our Chessable review if spaced-repetition opening drilling specifically is what you are after.
Chessdrive is what we build, so read this paragraph as the interested party talking. The gap we built it to close is the one none of the above cover: telling you not just that a move was a mistake, but whether a player at your own rating would realistically have found the better one, and explaining why in a sentence you could repeat to someone else rather than a symbol or a number. It runs Stockfish for the evaluation and an on-device Maia3 model for the human-likelihood question, reviews every game you play or import, and the coach answers in your own language. It is live on iOS and Android, free to start, with a paid tier after the trial.
The honest summary
There is no single correct next app, because "after Duolingo Chess" describes several different gaps, not one. If the gap is depth of free analysis, Lichess wins outright. If the gap is opponents and structure, Chess.com wins outright. If the gap is understanding why a mistake was a mistake at your own level, that is the specific problem we built Chessdrive to solve, and we would not have built it if an existing free option already solved it well.
Last verified 4 September 2026 against the sources cited in our companion Duolingo Chess, Lichess and Chess.com articles, and against Chessdrive's own current pricing and feature set.
Frequently asked
- Do I have to stop using Duolingo Chess?
- No. Duolingo Chess keeps the daily habit going, and its Game Review and PvP modes are still useful even after you move on. The apps below are additions for the parts Duolingo was not built to cover, not replacements you need to delete anything for.
- What is the single best free option?
- It depends what you are missing. If you want the deepest free analysis and do not mind reading the numbers yourself, Lichess. If you want a bigger pool of human opponents, a ratings and tournament system, and one free engine review a day, Chess.com. Both cost nothing to start.
- Does a Duolingo Chess Elo carry over to Chess.com or Lichess?
- No, and do not expect the number to mean the same thing. Every rating system is calibrated against its own player pool and its own game history, so a rating earned against Duolingo's matchmaking is not the same measurement as a rating earned against Chess.com's or Lichess's. Expect your first placement games on a new platform to land somewhere different, and treat that as the new platform correcting for a different population, not as your level changing overnight.
- Do I need to learn openings before moving on?
- Not as a prerequisite. Duolingo's own course is puzzle heavy by design, so most graduates are stronger on tactics than on opening theory. That is normal, and it is a reason to pick a next step that includes some opening structure, not a reason to delay leaving.
Want a coach that explains why, not just what?
Chessdrive pairs Stockfish with an on-device Maia3 model that judges whether a move was findable at your own rating, and a coach that explains each mistake in your own language. Free to start, on iOS and Android.