The table
Best language learning apps, compared on what they publish
Every consumer language app and tutor marketplace in the dataset, in one table: what it costs per month at annual billing, what the monthly plan costs, whether there is a lifetime plan, what is free, whether it states speech recognition, live tutoring, offline mode and a CEFR range, and what its refund or trial terms are. Every cell was read from the vendor's own page on the date shown, and "not published" means the vendor did not say.
Sort any column. Filter by the things that decide it for you. Then read the verdicts below, which are written per kind of learner because there is no best app, only a best app for a job.
24 apps, 23 with a published price; sorted by price per month at annual billing, unpriced last. Newest read 2026-09-06. Sort any column, filter by what matters to you.
Links to apps on this page are plain, untracked links to the vendor. This site is funded by affiliate links: if an app's programme is joined, its link will earn a commission at no cost to you and will be listed on the affiliate disclosure page. Commercial relationships never affect order or inclusion; tables sort by price. Affiliate disclosure and how the data is collected.
| Type | Lifetime | Free tier | Speech | Tutor | Offline | CEFR stated | Refund or trial | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| uTalkPhrase and vocabulary games with native-speaker audio in many languages | Vocabulary and flashcards | 160 | $2.50annual total not printed | $4.99 | none | Starter Words, a free 26-word pack in every language, plus an online demo at demo.utalk.com | No | No | Yes | not stated | 28-day money-back guarantee |
| TandemLanguage exchange with native speakers; the paid tier adds translation and visibility | Language exchange | 300 | $3.33$39.99 a year | not published | none | Free account with many features; Tandem Pro unlocks the rest | No | No | Not stated | not stated | Google Play purchases refundable within 14 days of a 1-month subscription or 30 days of a 3-month or 12-month subscription; iOS refunds requested from iTunes within 14 days |
| MondlyShort daily lessons across many languages, with a chatbot | Course app | 41 | $4$47.99 a year | $9.99 | none | Free version with Daily Lessons, the Hello category and a chatbot lesson. | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | not stated | 7-day free trial |
| MemriseShort video clips of native speakers plus spaced-repetition review | Vocabulary and flashcards | 149 | $5.17$61.99 a year | $24.99 | $329.99 | Limited free version of the app; the paid plan unlocks the rest. | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | not stated | not stated |
| DropsFive-minute visual vocabulary sessions | Vocabulary and flashcards | 55 | $5.83$69.99 a year | $12.99 | $159.99 | Free access capped at 5 minutes of play every 10 hours, with topics unlocked one at a time through gameplay | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | not stated | 7-day free trial on the Yearly plan; affiliate terms reference a 14-day refund period |
| BusuuCourse app with corrections from native speakers and CEFR-labelled levels | Course app | 14 | $6.08$72.99 a year | not published | none | Free account with limited features; paid tiers remove ads and add review tools. | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | not stated | not stated |
| ClozemasterFill-in-the-blank sentences for vocabulary in context | Vocabulary and flashcards | 71 | $6.67$79.99 a year | $12.99 | none | Free account with unlimited play; Pro unlocks advanced features | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | not stated | 30-day money back guarantee on the Yearly plan; no refunds on Monthly plans |
| HelloTalkChat and call with native speakers; the paid tier lifts limits | Language exchange | 260 | $6.67$79.99 a year | $12.99 | none | Free account with ads and daily limits (for example ten translations a day); occasional randomly offered 3-day VIP trials | Yes | No | Yes | not stated | Occasional randomly offered 3-day free VIP trial; refunds handled by Apple or Google for in-app purchases |
| LingvistAdaptive vocabulary drilling in sentence context | Vocabulary and flashcards | 16 | $6.67$79.99 a year | $9.99 | none | Free level placement before subscribing, and a 14-day free trial on the annual plan; the monthly plan has no trial | Yes | No | Not stated | not stated | 14-day free trial on the annual plan; cancel before it ends and you are not charged |
| SpeakAI-led speaking practice with feedback on what you said | AI conversation practice | 6 | $7$83.99 a year | $17.99 | none | 7-day free trial; no permanently free tier is published | Yes | No | Not stated | not stated | 7-day free trial; refunds for App Store and Google Play purchases go through Apple or Google, and website purchases through Speak support |
| BabbelShort structured lessons with grammar notes and review sessions | Course app | 14 | $8.95$107.40 a year | $17.99 | $299.99 | Free account; the first lesson of every course is free, and up to 80 free lessons depending on the language. | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | A1 to C1 | not stated |
| LingQRead and listen to real content, save words, review them | Immersion (video, reading) | 52 | $10$119.99 a year | $14.99 | none | Free account capped at 20 saved words and phrases, 5 lessons created from imported content, and 1 audio playlist | Not stated | Not stated | Yes | not stated | not stated |
| Mango LanguagesConversation-based courses, often free through a library card | Course app | 73 | $10annual total not printed | $13.99 | none | Free trial on both personal plans; the first lesson of any language is free; 10 endangered and indigenous language courses are free; free full access through participating public libraries | No | No | Yes | not stated | Free trial on Individual and Family plans; cancel before it ends and you are not charged |
| CamblyOn-demand English conversation with native-speaker tutors | Tutor marketplace | 1 | $12$144 a year | $24 | none | No | Not stated | Cambly (the whole product is live 1-on-1 or small-group tutoring) | Not stated | not stated | $1 trial lesson; 7-day money-back guarantee on a first plan; after that, cancel any time and pay only for days used, with long-term discounts forfeited on early cancellation |
| LingCourse app with a focus on Asian and less-taught languages | Course app | 80 | $12.50$149.99 a year | $16.99 | none | Free tier with limited lessons and limited dialogue practice, with ads | Yes | Ling Live Online Tutor | Not stated | not stated | 7-day free trial on the 12-month plan; 30-day money-back refund for yearly and lifetime subscriptions bought via Ling web (app-store purchases follow Apple's or Google's refund policy) |
| Rosetta StoneImmersion-style lessons without translation, with speech scoring | Course app | 25 | $13.25$159 a year | $19.99 | none | Free sample lessons from the site (TRY A LESSON); no ongoing free plan is described on the pricing page. | Yes | Tutoring | Yes | not stated | 14-day money-back guarantee |
| PimsleurHalf-hour audio lessons built on spoken recall, made for commutes | Audio course | 51 | $13.75$164.95 a year | $19.95 | $150 | No | Yes | Not stated | Yes | not stated | 7-day free trial on subscriptions; 30 Day money back guarantee on purchases |
| LingopieTV and film with interactive subtitles and flashcards | Immersion (video, reading) | 15 | $13.98$167.80 a year | not published | $763 | No | Not stated | Lingopie Lessons | Not stated | not stated | 7-day free trial; yearly subscription is charged after the trial and cannot be refunded |
| GlossikaSentence-pattern audio drills with spaced repetition | Audio course | 63 | $16.58annual total not printed | $19.99 | none | 7-day full access with no credit card, plus a permanent Freemium tier covering nine minoritized languages | No | No | Yes | not stated | 7-day free trial with no credit card; monthly payments are non-refundable, annual plans refundable pro rata within 60 days of purchase |
| FluentUReal-world videos with interactive captions and quizzes | Immersion (video, reading) | 10 | $20$239.99 a year | $29.99 | none | No | Yes | Group classes (select languages) | Yes | not stated | 14-day free trial with no payment up front, plus a 20-day money-back guarantee |
| DuolingoGamified free lessons; paid tiers remove ads and add practice features | Course app | 40 | not published | not published | none | Full free tier with ads and limits; paid tiers remove ads and limits. | Not stated | No | Not stated | A1 to B2 | 1 week free trial on Super |
| italkiMarketplace of professional and community tutors, priced per lesson | Tutor marketplace | 104 | not publishedper lesson | sold differently | none | No | Not stated | italki (the whole product is 1-on-1 lessons; Group Class also sold) | Not stated | not stated | Discounted trial lesson with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee: up to two credit refunds on trial lessons if the teacher did not show up or did not meet expectations, requested within 48 hours |
| LingodaLive online classes with teachers, structured by CEFR level | Tutor marketplace | 6 | €54.99Group classes, 4 classes | sold differently | none | Not stated | Not stated | Group classes and Private classes | Not stated | not stated | Free 7-day trial |
| PreplyMarketplace of private tutors, booked and paid per lesson | Tutor marketplace | 90 | $3 to $50per lesson | sold differently | none | No | Not stated | Preply (the whole product is 1-to-1 tutoring) | Not stated | not stated | Paid trial lesson; up to 2 free trial replacements per account if the trial did not meet expectations or the tutor did not attend |
Which one, for whom
You want the cheapest published price for a real course
Busuu, Babbel and Mondly at annual billing
On the read date the lowest published annual per-month figures among course apps were Mondly's "starts at" yearly price of $47.99 ($4 a month, for one language), Busuu's Premium 12-month plan at $72.99 ($6.08 a month, one language) and Babbel's 12-month plan at $107.40 ($8.95 a month, all 14 languages). Busuu's and Babbel's were shown as sale prices against a struck-through reference; Mondly's is a floor. The monthly plans of the same apps cost two to three times as much per month, which is why the table sorts on the annual figure.
You want to speak, and you want a person involved
Lingoda for classes, Preply or italki per lesson, Rosetta Stone or Ling as a course with tutoring
Lingoda sells live group and private classes structured by CEFR level as packages (from €54.99 for four group classes in a four-week cycle on the page read). Preply publishes a per-lesson filter of $3 to $50+; italki prices each teacher separately and states a placement test. Rosetta Stone and Ling are course apps that also state a tutoring product. For English only, Cambly publishes a full matrix from $12 a month at annual billing for one small-group lesson a week.
You want to learn without paying
Duolingo, Mango through a library, Clozemaster, and the exchange apps
Duolingo's free tier is its full course set with ads. Mango Languages states that public libraries provide it free with a card. Clozemaster states unlimited free play. HelloTalk and Tandem are free to join and pair you with native speakers. Most other free tiers in the table are trials in all but name: the first lesson, a capped word count, five minutes every ten hours.
You want it to work on a plane
Filter by offline mode
Tick "Works offline" above. The vendors that state it on their pages include Rosetta Stone, Busuu, Pimsleur, Drops, LingQ, Clozemaster, Mango Languages, uTalk, Glossika and HelloTalk. "Not stated" is not "no": several vendors simply do not mention it, and this site does not guess.
You want to reach a named CEFR level
Filter by "States CEFR levels"
An exam is set at a level, so a course that names its levels is the one you can plan around. The CEFR column shows the range each vendor states for its own courses; the level bars on each app's page show the same thing. Where a vendor states nothing, the table says so rather than inferring a level from marketing words.
You want many languages for one price
uTalk, Mondly's unlimited tier, Memrise, Drops, Pimsleur All Access
The "covers" column on each app's page says whether a plan is one language or all. uTalk lists 160 languages and prices per language from $4.99 a month. Memrise states 149 languages on one plan at $5.17 a month annual (a flash-sale price on the read date). Drops covers all its languages at $5.83 a month annual. Pimsleur's All Access annual plan is $13.75 a month for all 51 of its languages. Mondly's iOS Unlimited Access plan is $6.24 a month annual for all 41.
You want one payment and no renewals
Lifetime plans, with the arithmetic
The lifetime column lists the vendors that publish one: Babbel at $299.99, Memrise at $329.99, Drops at $159.99, Lingopie at $763 (a promotional $229 was showing), and Pimsleur at $798 for All Access (a promotional $399 was showing). Divide by the years you honestly expect to use the app; a lifetime plan beats the annual plan only past that number of years.
What is the best language learning app? Questions people ask
What is the best language learning app?
There is no single best one, and this site does not rank apps by opinion. The table above puts every app's published price, free tier and stated features side by side; the verdicts pick per kind of learner: cheapest real course (Mondly, Busuu, Babbel at annual billing), speaking with a person (Lingoda, Preply, italki), free (Duolingo, Mango through a library, Clozemaster), offline, a named CEFR level, many languages, or a lifetime plan.
Which language app is the cheapest?
Sort the table by price per month. On the read date the lowest published figures were per-language plans from uTalk ($2.50 a month at annual billing), Tandem's introductory Pro plan ($3.33 a month for a year) and Mondly's "starts at" yearly price ($4 a month), followed by Memrise's sale price ($5.17), Drops ($5.83) and Busuu ($6.08). Each is a different kind of product; the type column says which.
Are language apps worth paying for?
The free tiers in the table tell you what you get for nothing: a full course with ads on Duolingo, a first lesson on Babbel, five minutes every ten hours on Drops. Paying buys the removal of those limits, or a person. Whether that is worth it depends on the job; the guide on free vs paid walks through it.
Do these prices change?
Yes, often. Several vendors showed sale prices on the read date (Busuu, Memrise, Lingopie, Pimsleur, Babbel's lifetime plan), which is recorded in the notes on each app's page. Every price on this site carries the date it was read, and the vendor's page is linked from every row.
Does this site test the apps?
No. It reads and organises what each vendor publishes about its own product, with the source and date beside every figure, and says so on every page. That is a different and more checkable thing than a review.