NoaLingua Recommended
The best way to build vocabulary from your own content, with NoaLingua
A word you met in something you chose to watch is a word with a hook on it. A word from a stock list is not.
Save words where you meet them — in a subtitle, on a web page, inside a PDF — and let the sentence, the source and the timestamp come with them. NoaLingua does this across all four surfaces into one deck, then schedules the review and generates practice from your own saved words.
Free, and every feature works on the free plan. No account, no sign-up — the extension installs and works. What the paid plans change.
Why this one
Why we put NoaLingua first here
We make it, so read this as the argument it is — and then check it against what it cannot do, which is on the site for the same reason.
- Four surfaces, one deck: YouTube, Netflix, any web page and PDFs all feed the same list with the same dictionary behind it.
- A saved card carries the sentence, its translation, the source title and the timestamp — so review shows the word doing its job in the scene you met it in.
- Thirty practice formats are generated from your own saved words, not from a stock catalogue, so practice is always about your material.
- Export is free on every plan: Anki packages with the video still and the speaker's own audio, Anki-compatible CSV, an editable spreadsheet, or the whole profile as JSON. Nothing you save is trapped.
The shortlist
What to use
Every entry carries a reason not to pick it, including ours. Descriptions of other tools come from those tools' own pages, dated below each one.
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NoaLingua Our pick
A Chrome extension that turns YouTube, Netflix, any web page and PDFs into study material: dual subtitles, click any word for its meaning in that sentence, and a spaced schedule that brings it back.
Best for. Collecting vocabulary from everything you already watch and read, into one deck you own and can export at any time.
Not for. It is a 0.2 release with a very small user base, and it is built by one person. If you want something mature and widely used, that is a real reason to pick something else. Where it does and does not run is below.
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Anki
The open-source spaced-repetition program, free on desktop and Android.
Best for. Total control over card design and scheduling, for people who enjoy building their own system.
Not for. It does not collect anything for you. Anki reviews the cards you make; making them from what you watch and read is the part it leaves to you and to whatever tool you pair it with.
Anki website · Described from Anki, official site, read 2026-09-10
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Migaku
A subscription toolkit built around sentence mining and Anki, aimed at serious immersion learners.
Best for. Sentence mining as a first-class workflow, for learners already committed to Anki.
Not for. It is a paid subscription, and it expects you to be willing to run an Anki workflow.
Migaku website · Described from Migaku, official FAQ, read 2026-08-10
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LingQ
A platform built around importing content and tracking known words across it, with a free tier and premium on subscription.
Best for. Readers who want an explicit known-word count and content on desktop and phone.
Not for. Content is imported into its reader rather than studied where it lives, and the full set is a subscription.
LingQ website · Described from LingQ, official site, read 2026-09-10
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Toucan
A free browser extension that swaps words on pages you are already reading into your target language, described as immersion while you browse.
Best for. Passive exposure with no change to your habits at all.
Not for. It works on the pages you happen to visit rather than material you chose to study, and swapping single words does not give you sentences.
Toucan website · Described from Toucan, official site, read 2026-09-10
Where this recommendation stops
Anyone who wants a curriculum. This builds a deck out of what you happen to meet, which is excellent for retention and haphazard for coverage — you will learn the words your material uses and miss the ones it does not. Desktop Chrome only, and the free plan caps how large the deck can grow.
The full list is on what NoaLingua cannot do, and the per-language detail is on supported languages.
Questions about best vocabulary app that uses your own content
Is a personal deck better than a frequency list?
For retention, clearly — context and a memory of where you met the word do most of the work. For coverage, a frequency list is more systematic. The honest answer is to run a personal deck and check it against a frequency list occasionally.
Can I get my words out again?
Yes, on every plan. Anki packages with video stills and original audio, Anki-compatible CSV, a spreadsheet, or the entire profile as one JSON file.
Where is my deck stored?
In your own Chrome profile. There is no account and no sync. One endpoint is contacted once a day to check a paid licence, and it stores only a licence key, a status and a plan name.
Read next
Install it and try this on the next thing you watch
Free, with every feature. No account, nothing to cancel, and your deck stays on your machine.
Add to Chrome — Free Add to Chrome Opens the Chrome Web Store listing NoaLingua — beyond dual subs: video, web, PDF — free, no account, Chrome 138 or newer.- Free, and not a trial Every feature on the free plan — both PDF modes, shadowing, all 30 practice formats.
- No account, no email Nothing to sign up for and nothing to cancel. There is no login screen at all.
- Two dropdowns to set up Pick what you are learning and what you want translations in. That is the whole setup.
- Your words stay yours Export to Anki, CSV, a spreadsheet or a full JSON profile — free on every plan.