LikeSo is one of the more focused apps in the speech coaching space. It does one thing with conviction: track your filler words, show you the count, and motivate you to bring it down. Wellspoken takes a different approach entirely, treating filler words as one signal inside a much larger picture of how you think, organize ideas, and express yourself in any conversation.
TL;DR: LikeSo counts 14+ filler words across FreeStyle and TalkAbout modes, tracks pace, and gamifies progress through a rolling 30-day Speech Conditioning Score. Wellspoken measures six dimensions of communication, including structure, conciseness, confidence, pronunciation, filler rate, and pace, across 12 sub-metrics on a 1000-point scale. It pairs that analysis with a 10-unit curriculum, dozens of drills, AI voice conversations, and meeting recording with speaker isolation on iOS, Android, and Desktop. Pick LikeSo for dedicated filler word tracking. Pick Wellspoken if you want to understand why you use fillers and train the skills that eliminate them across every conversation you have.
What Each App Focuses On
Wellspoken starts from a different premise than most filler word tools: fillers are usually a symptom, not the root problem. You say "um" because you lost the thread of your argument. You say "like" because you're hedging instead of committing to a statement. You say "you know" because you're buying time while your brain catches up. These patterns show up everywhere, from explaining an idea to a colleague in the hallway to responding to a question you didn't expect in a one-on-one. Wellspoken's scoring system, the Wellspoken Index, measures six categories of communication: structure, conciseness, confidence, pronunciation, filler rate, and pace, broken into 12 sub-metrics scored on a 1000-point scale. When your filler rate spikes, the surrounding metrics tell you why. A low structure score alongside high filler rate points to disorganized thinking. A low confidence score alongside high filler rate suggests uncertainty and hedging. That diagnostic layer turns a simple count into an actionable training plan. Beyond scoring, Wellspoken includes a 10-unit structured curriculum, dozens of practice drills isolating specific skills, AI voice conversations for coaching and roleplay, meeting recording with multi-speaker isolation, and a Personal Lexicon system that maps your vocabulary growth over time.
LikeSo is a filler word awareness tool with a speech fitness angle. It listens to you speak, counts your filler words (like, so, actually, basically, you know, and others), calculates your pace, and gives you a score. It offers two modes: FreeStyle, an open mic where you practice speaking for up to 30 minutes, and TalkAbout, a conversation game that prompts you with topics like "The Job Interview," "Debate Team," or "Speed Dating" to practice spontaneous speech. The premium LikeSo Pro version adds detection of "um" and "uh," a RapidFire mode, and a desktop practice tool. The app tracks your Speech Quality Points over a rolling 30-day window to produce a Speech Conditioning Score, encouraging regular practice through a fitness-style metaphor.
LikeSo tracks 14+ filler words and calculates a filler-to-word ratio with FreeStyle and TalkAbout modes. Wellspoken tracks filler frequency as one of 12 sub-metrics alongside structure, conciseness, confidence, pronunciation, and pace, and provides targeted drills like Filler Eliminator to address root causes.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Wellspoken | LikeSo |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | iOS, Android, and Desktop | iOS (Pro also available on desktop) |
| Analysis dimensions | 6 categories, 12 sub-metrics on a 1000-point scale (structure, conciseness, confidence, pronunciation, filler rate, pace) | 2 (filler word count, pace) |
| Content/structure analysis | Yes. Evaluates logical organization, argument quality, and idea sequencing | No |
| Filler word detection | Yes, as part of six-dimension analysis | Core focus. Tracks 14+ filler words including "um" and "uh" in Pro |
| Pronunciation assessment | Phoneme-level analysis with specific sound identification | No |
| Practice modes | Dozens of drills (Speed Breakdown, Three Channels, Bridge Builder, Active Swap, Tongue Twisters, Filler Eliminator, and more) | FreeStyle (open mic) and TalkAbout (topic prompts) |
| Structured curriculum | 10 units from foundations through advanced persuasion | No curriculum. Practice is self-directed |
| AI voice conversations | Coach chat, thought partner, mock interviews, 19 roleplay scenarios | No AI conversations. Topic prompts only |
| Meeting recording | Records real calls with multi-speaker isolation. Extracts your voice and analyzes just you | No |
| Vocabulary tracking | Personal Lexicon system tracking vocabulary and phrase mastery | No |
| Scoring system | Wellspoken Index (1000-point scale across 6 dimensions) | Speech Quality Points and Speech Conditioning Score based on filler percentage and pace |
| Gamification | XP, streaks, achievements, leaderboard | Speech fitness scores, goals, and reminders |
Where the Depth Gap Shows Up
Diagnosing the reason behind your fillers
LikeSo does its core job well. It makes you viscerally aware of how many filler words you use. For many speakers, that awareness alone produces improvement, because once you hear yourself saying "like" or "you know" dozens of times in a two-minute stretch, you naturally start catching yourself.
The limitation is that filler words rarely exist in isolation. People use filler words because they're searching for the next thought, struggling to organize a complex idea on the fly, or feeling uncertain about what to say next. Reducing filler count without addressing those root causes can lead to simply replacing "um" with awkward pauses. The problem shows up in daily moments just as much as high-stakes ones: explaining your reasoning in a team sync, giving someone directions, answering a question at dinner. Whenever your brain races ahead of your mouth, fillers fill the gap.
Wellspoken's multi-dimensional scoring reveals the underlying pattern. Structure alone contains five sub-metrics: Logical Sequence, Transitions, Signposting, Opening Quality, and Closing Quality. Confidence measures Hedging Frequency, Uptalk, and Assertiveness. Conciseness breaks into Word Choice and Word Economy. When your filler rate is high and your structure scores are lagging, the diagnosis writes itself: your brain is stalling because it hasn't organized the idea yet. When structure is strong but fillers persist, you know it's a mechanical habit you can target directly. That distinction changes the entire training approach.
The drill that directly competes, and the ones that go deeper
Wellspoken's Filler Eliminator drill is the closest head-to-head comparison with LikeSo. It puts you on the spot with a topic and a timer, and your goal is zero filler words. Every "um," "like," or "you know" gets flagged in real time. If filler elimination through focused repetition is your goal, this single drill covers LikeSo's core use case.
The difference is what surrounds it. Speed Breakdown trains you to distill your thinking into progressively tighter windows, 60 seconds, then 30, then 15, which forces the kind of structural clarity that prevents fillers from appearing in the first place. Bridge Builder develops smooth transitions between unrelated ideas, eliminating the gap-filling moments where "so" and "um" tend to sneak in. Active Swap builds verbal flexibility by having you argue the opposite of your own position, strengthening the mental agility that keeps you speaking fluidly even when the topic shifts unexpectedly. The drill library includes dozens of exercises, each isolating a specific communication skill, and continues to grow.
LikeSo offers two practice modes (FreeStyle and TalkAbout). Wellspoken offers dozens of targeted drills, each isolating a specific communication skill: Filler Eliminator for direct filler reduction, Speed Breakdown for structural conciseness, Bridge Builder for topic transitions, Active Swap for perspective flexibility, and Three Channels for audience adaptation.
No curriculum vs. guided progression
LikeSo is entirely self-directed. You open the app, pick a mode, and practice. There's no structured path, no progressive skill building, and no sequence that takes you from beginner concepts to advanced techniques.
Wellspoken's 10-unit curriculum moves you through a deliberate progression: from foundational delivery skills (pace, filler reduction, vocal confidence) through intermediate communication concepts (storytelling, analogies, active listening) to advanced skills like persuasion frameworks, leadership presence, and navigating difficult conversations. Each unit builds on what came before.
This matters because filler words often mask deeper skill gaps. Someone who thinks they just need to "stop saying um" might actually need to learn how to organize a thought under pressure, whether they're responding to a surprise question in a standup, articulating feedback to a direct report, or explaining a decision to a skeptical stakeholder. A curriculum surfaces those gaps and addresses them in sequence, so the filler reduction sticks because the underlying skills have caught up.
Real conversations vs. solo practice
LikeSo is a solo tool. You talk, the app listens, and you get your filler count and pace. This is valuable for building awareness, and the convenience of quick solo sessions makes it easy to practice regularly.
Wellspoken includes AI voice conversations where you interact with an AI coach in real time. You can use the coach for direct feedback, a thought partner to workshop ideas out loud, mock interviews to rehearse under realistic pressure, or any of 19 roleplay scenarios covering salary negotiations, giving feedback, handling objections, leading conversations, and more. These conversations create practice conditions much closer to the real situations where communication skills surface: the moments when someone asks you a question you haven't prepared for, or when you need to think on your feet and respond clearly.
Meeting recording adds another dimension entirely. Wellspoken records your actual work calls, isolates your voice from other speakers using multi-speaker separation, and runs the full Wellspoken Index analysis on just your speaking segments. You get scored on real professional conversations with real stakes, and that data feeds into your long-term growth tracking.
Vocabulary and language growth
Wellspoken's Personal Lexicon tracks every notable word and phrase you use across all your practice sessions, building a living vocabulary profile. It shows which words are entering your active vocabulary, which phrases you're mastering, and how your language sophistication evolves over time.
LikeSo counts total words spoken and calculates a filler-to-total-words ratio. It doesn't track vocabulary quality, phrase mastery, or language growth as a dimension of improvement.
Who Should Use What
Choose LikeSo if:
LikeSo is a solid choice if filler word awareness is your primary goal. It's specialized, straightforward, and effective at what it does: surfacing exactly how many fillers you use and giving you a clear number to improve on. The TalkAbout conversation game adds variety, and the rolling 30-day Speech Conditioning Score creates a lightweight habit loop. If you want a focused tool to start cleaning up verbal clutter, LikeSo delivers.
Choose Wellspoken if:
Wellspoken is the right fit if you want to go beyond counting fillers and actually train the skills that produce cleaner, sharper speech. If your goals include organizing your thoughts more clearly when put on the spot, being more concise and deliberate, expanding your vocabulary, refining your pronunciation, and building the kind of communication ability that shows up in every conversation, from a quick hallway check-in to a client call to a team brainstorm, Wellspoken provides the diagnostic depth and guided training to get you there on iOS, Android, and Desktop.
The Bottom Line
LikeSo is an awareness tool. Wellspoken is a training system. Both have value, and they serve different stages of the improvement journey.
LikeSo excels at the first step: making you conscious of a habit you probably underestimate. Seeing your filler count in black and white is genuinely powerful, and for speakers who just need that wake-up call, it can be enough. The app is focused, accessible, and easy to fit into a few spare minutes.
Wellspoken picks up where awareness leaves off. It tells you how many fillers you used, why they showed up, and whether the cause is structural disorganization, shaky confidence, or pure mechanical habit. Then it gives you the specific drills, curriculum, AI conversations, and real-meeting analysis to address each cause individually. The result is someone who thinks faster on their feet, articulates ideas with precision, and communicates with clarity whether they're giving a status update, fielding an unexpected question, or walking a friend through something complicated.
LikeSo is the better choice for speakers who want a simple, gamified filler word counter with FreeStyle and TalkAbout modes to build awareness of verbal clutter. Wellspoken is the better choice for anyone who wants structured communication training across six measurable categories with a 10-unit curriculum, dozens of targeted drills, AI voice conversations, and meeting recording with speaker isolation on iOS, Android, and Desktop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Wellspoken better than LikeSo for reducing filler words?
Both Wellspoken and LikeSo track filler words, but Wellspoken provides more context. LikeSo counts 14+ filler words and calculates a filler-to-word ratio. Wellspoken analyzes filler rate as one of 12 sub-metrics alongside structure, conciseness, and confidence, helping you diagnose root causes and providing targeted drills like Filler Eliminator.
Does Wellspoken work on Android and Desktop?
Yes. Wellspoken is available on iOS, Android, and Desktop. LikeSo is available on iOS, with LikeSo Pro also available on desktop.
Does LikeSo or Wellspoken have a structured curriculum?
Wellspoken has a 10-unit structured curriculum progressing from foundational delivery skills through storytelling, persuasion, and difficult conversations. LikeSo is entirely self-directed with two practice modes (FreeStyle and TalkAbout) and no progressive curriculum.
Can Wellspoken analyze real meetings?
Yes. Wellspoken records real work calls, isolates your voice with multi-speaker separation, and scores your speech across 6 categories on a 1000-point scale. LikeSo is a solo practice tool and does not offer meeting recording or analysis.
What does Wellspoken measure that LikeSo does not?
Wellspoken measures 6 categories with 12 sub-metrics: structure (Logical Sequence, Transitions, Signposting, Opening Quality, Closing Quality), conciseness (Word Choice, Word Economy), confidence (Hedging Frequency, Uptalk, Assertiveness), pronunciation (Pronunciation Clarity), filler rate (Filler Frequency), and pace (Pause Timing, Words per Minute). LikeSo measures filler word count and pace only.
Ready to think faster on your feet and say exactly what you mean? Download Wellspoken