Simply Fluent vs TextLantern: Which Is Better in 2026?

Simply Fluent is a reading app for language learners, on iPhone, iPad and Android. You read the books you want to read in the language you're learning, and you translate any word or phrase on the page and get the meaning it has in that sentence.

Import your own books as EPUB, TXT or Markdown, or as PDF with Premium, or paste a text. Until you're ready for your own books, start with the short stories and classics in the library, graded from A1 to C2. Books can be in any of 45 languages, and translations are in 134.

When you translate a word or phrase, you get all its meanings, with the one it has in that sentence highlighted. If the word is part of an expression or an idiom, the expression is detected and you get the meaning of the whole expression. With the lightbulb you get an insight on the word: pronunciation, grammar, false friends, common word combinations and examples.

When you save the translation of a word or phrase, the translation is shown above that word or phrase every time the word or phrase comes up again, in any book. Every translation you save becomes a flashcard, and every saved translation is in your Dictionary. When you mark a word as learned, the label above the word is hidden.

You can listen to any book read aloud, and read-aloud works offline. Once a book is on your phone, you can read the book offline too, with page turns, chapters and search. If a translation is wrong, give the translation a thumbs down and I fix the translation for everyone.

For Russian, Hebrew, Greek, Ukrainian and Korean there are letters courses, and for 12 language pairs there are the 100 most common words as flashcards. There are also reading stats, daily goals and challenges.

You can try Simply Fluent without making an account. Premium has a 30-day free trial, then costs $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year, and there's also a limited free version.

I'm Marco, and I started building Simply Fluent in 2018, after I tried to read Harry Potter in Dutch with Google Translate on my phone and gave up after a couple of pages.

What problem it solves

Reading a book in the language you're learning means stopping at every word you don't know: unlocking your phone, typing the word, and finding your place on the page again, and a page later you look up the same word again. In Simply Fluent you translate any word or phrase on the page and get the meaning it has in that sentence. When you save the translation, the translation is shown above that word or phrase every time the word or phrase comes up again, in any book.

Alternatives & competitors

LingQ, Readlang, Beelinguapp

TextLantern is a Discord translator bot. For you. For your server. Read and reply across languages privately, or help your whole server join the conversation.

For you: private translation. On Discord desktop, right-click a message, open Apps, and choose Translate privately. Only you see the result, and the original message stays as it was. Use the translation controls to switch the language. To write a reply in another language, type /t, enter your reply in your own language, pick the target language, and check the result. Then copy it and send it yourself. TextLantern never sends a message for you. The /language command sets your default personal translation language. Personal translation is installed to your own Discord account and does not need Manage Server.

For your server: automatic channel translation. Choose a channel and two main languages, for example English and Japanese. Recognized messages in either language are translated into the other. Decide where translations go: a channel reply beside the original message, or a thread. You can also add extra reader languages, up to eight languages per channel in total. Extra languages can be automatic or on request, and can be delivered privately to the reader who asks. Save and enable translation, then send a test message. Members on phones see the same replies and threads with no extra setup.

Server setup requires Manage Server. The bot needs only specific permissions (View Channels, Read Message History, Send Messages, Send Messages in Threads, Embed Links, Manage Threads, Change Nickname) and not Administrator.

Languages: 92 translation languages, including Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and several Arabic dialects, Hindi, Cantonese, French, German, Portuguese and more. The website and app interface are available in 9 languages.

Pricing: eligible Discord accounts get a one-time 300-character free trial. Paid packs start at $8.99 and are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. Purchased characters never expire, and there are no automatic overage charges. Cached, failed, and retried translations cost nothing.

Privacy: private means only you see the result in Discord, although a third-party translation provider still processes the text. TextLantern keeps no permanent message or translation archive and does not use message content to train models. It does not scan message history or auto-translate DMs.

What problem it solves

People in multilingual Discord communities struggle to read and reply across languages without copy-pasting into separate translators.

Alternatives & competitors

iTranslator, Low's Translator, Interaction Bot, Talksy, Majesty Translator, HephBot Translate