20 shortlists
The best language learning apps
Shortlists by language and by goal. Every entry says what the app is genuinely best at and where it falls short — including ours.
20 shortlists
Shortlists by language and by goal. Every entry says what the app is genuinely best at and where it falls short — including ours.
Speaking, pronunciation, reading, retention, or just getting started.
By goal
Speaking is the skill most apps quietly avoid, because grading it is hard. These are the ones that do not avoid it, split by the k…
By goal
Most apps treat pronunciation as pass or fail, which is close to useless — you need to know which sound was wrong and why. These a…
By goal
"Free" covers everything from genuinely free and open source to a seven-day trial. Here is what each free tier actually gives you,…
By goal
Plenty of apps claim to start from scratch and then assume you can already read the script. If you are starting at genuine zero — …
By goal
The usual reason for leaving Duolingo is not that it is bad but that a long streak has not produced someone who can hold a convers…
By goal
Reading is where vocabulary finally sticks, but only if the text sits just above your level. Too easy teaches nothing; too hard be…
What each app is worth for a specific target language, and what that language actually demands.
By language
One of the easiest for English speakers
By language
Easy to read, harder to hear
By language
Moderate — familiar vocabulary, demanding grammar
By language
One of the easiest for English speakers
By language
One of the easiest for English speakers
By language
Among the hardest for English speakers
By language
Among the hardest for English speakers, despite an easy alphabet
By language
Among the hardest for English speakers
By language
Hard — new script and heavily inflected grammar
By language
Among the hardest for English speakers
By language
One of the easiest for English speakers
By language
Moderate to hard — logical script, unfamiliar grammar
By language
Hard — very regular, but built on completely different logic
By language
Hard — one of the tougher European languages
There is no single answer, because these apps do different jobs. For one app covering reading, vocabulary, pronunciation and speaking at your level, NativePal. For habit, Duolingo. For retention, Anki. For hands-free audio, Pimsleur. For a human teacher, italki. Picking well means naming the gap you are trying to close first.
One main app plus at most one specialist. The common effective pairing is a structured app for daily practice plus either Anki for retention or italki for weekly conversation. Beyond two, none of them gets enough attention to matter.
No. These pages are published by NativePal, so treat them as an interested party rather than a neutral review site. That is also why every shortlist states where each app — including NativePal — falls short, and why several entries recommend a competitor over us for specific needs.
Work out which of five things you are missing: a daily habit, comprehensible input to read, vocabulary that sticks, pronunciation feedback, or conversation with a person. Each of those has a clear best-in-class option, and picking on that basis beats picking on feature-list length.
Levelled reading, vocabulary with spaced repetition, scored pronunciation and conversation in 57 languages.
Free to start. No account needed.