I'm using DuoLingo (unpaid) successfully to learn French. It is only good for building vocabulary. My advice:
a) Use the "tips" (not available for all languages) on the DuoLingo website client for every exercise. They are very well written and give you crucial insights.
b) Use Tandem every day to chat with/talk to native speakers as soon as you have some basic vocabulary. Spend some time to find people who are eager to learn. You can often spot them because they only want to learn one language and not seven...
c) Buy a grammar book with exercises. Learn conjugations. Learn the grammar to ask questions. Learn prepositions. DuoLingo will not teach you grammar.
I went from A1.1 to A2.3 in 6 months doing this and I'm super motivated to keep going.
a) Use the "tips" (not available for all languages) on the DuoLingo website client for every exercise. They are very well written and give you crucial insights.
b) Use Tandem every day to chat with/talk to native speakers as soon as you have some basic vocabulary. Spend some time to find people who are eager to learn. You can often spot them because they only want to learn one language and not seven...
c) Buy a grammar book with exercises. Learn conjugations. Learn the grammar to ask questions. Learn prepositions. DuoLingo will not teach you grammar.
I went from A1.1 to A2.3 in 6 months doing this and I'm super motivated to keep going.