E-clair vs LinguaCafe
E-clair
e-clair.appLinguaCafe
github.comSide by side
| Figure | E-clair | LinguaCafe |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Language Immersion Apps | 7.9 (#12) | 7.9 (#13) |
| Languages | E-clair transcribes more than 20 languages and offers 16 listed translation target languages in its guide. | The project lists support for Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Welsh. |
| Purpose | E-clair turns podcasts and other audio into language-learning sessions with synchronized transcripts, translations, saved vocabulary and flashcards. | LinguaCafe is a self-hosted web app for learning foreign languages by reading and building vocabulary. |
| Support | The maker lists support by email at [email protected] and says users can request account deletion in the app or by email. | The project lists GitHub, Discord, Reddit, and email as contact channels, and says the maker will try to help with update problems reported on GitHub or Discord. |
Plans
In their own words
E-clair
E-clair turns podcasts, recordings and linked audio into language-learning sessions on Android and iOS. Learners can subscribe to podcasts, upload audio or paste a web audio link, then follow a transcript synchronized to playback word by word. They can replay a chosen word or phrase, tap a word or hold a phrase to see a DeepL-powered translation, and save vocabulary with its position in the audio. Saved words and phrases become flashcards for FSRS spaced-repetition review. E-clair transcribes more than 20 languages; its guide lists 16 translation target languages. Uploads support MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC and AIFF, but not video files. Offline access is listed. The free plan costs nothing and limits collections and the amount and size of users’ own audio transcriptions; podcast transcription is handled separately. The maker describes the app as intended for learners past the beginner stage studying podcasts or recordings they already have.
LinguaCafe
LinguaCafe is a free, open-source web app for learning languages through reading and vocabulary review. It is self-hosted, so users can run it on their own machine or private web server and control their data. Reading material can come from plain text, text files, ebooks, YouTube subtitles, subtitle files, Jellyfin external subtitles, or webpages. Readers can look up words and phrases, save translations, mark items as known or ignored, and track vocabulary by learning level. Spaced-repetition reviews follow an approach similar to the Leitner system, and highlighted cards can be exported to Anki or other SRS software. DeepL translations are available for lookups when enabled. Text-to-speech uses browser SpeechSynthesis, with voices dependent on the browser. The project lists many supported languages and supports Progressive Web App installation on mobile devices; it works in browsers on screens at least 340 pixels wide. Setup uses Docker Compose. The project supports x64, with an additional step for Apple silicon, but other Armv8 devices such as Raspberry Pi 3 and newer do not currently work. One user per server is supported.