The Best Apps to Learn Korean, and the Two That Cannot Teach It
Korean is not hard because of its alphabet. It is hard because of its grammar and speaking, which is the reverse of what most beginners fear. Hangul, the Korean writing system, is a compact alphabet you can learn to read early, and Duolingo teaches it free in a dedicated tab. The time and money go on what comes after: grammar that works very differently from English, and speaking that no app can correct.
The honest shape: read Hangul free on Duolingo, then add a native teacher on italki earlier than feels comfortable, with community tutors from 5 dollars a lesson and TOPIK exam prep available. Mondly teaches Korean from your own native language if English is not your first. LingoDeer is a grammar-focused self-study option built for Asian languages. And one thing to know before you shop: Babbel and Lingoda, two names people expect here, do not teach Korean at all. Verified July 24, 2026.
Why Korean is a different shopping trip
With Spanish or French, almost every app can teach you, so the choice is about style. Korean narrows the field, and it does so in a way that surprises people.
First, the writing is the easy part. Korean is written in Hangul, an alphabet where letters map to sounds, not the thousands of characters that Japanese and Chinese use. That makes learning to read it a bounded, early task rather than a years-long project, and Duolingo states its course teaches the writing system in its own tab, for free. If an app keeps you reading only the romanised spelling of Korean, you get a fast-feeling first month and then cannot read a sign, a menu or a message.
Second, the grammar is where the work is. Korean grammar is genuinely different from English: the word order is not the same, small particles attached to words mark what each one is doing in the sentence, verbs change their endings, and the language builds in levels of politeness you have to choose correctly. None of that is hard in the way memorising characters is hard; it is hard in the way that needs explanation and, above all, correction. And correction is the one thing an app cannot give you, which is why a teacher matters earlier in Korean than in an easier language.
Third, half the usual apps opt out. Two of the biggest names in language learning simply do not offer Korean, and plenty of comparison articles never mention it. Getting that straight is the first money-saver on this page.
The sequence that works for Korean: read Hangul free, add a human as soon as you can form simple sentences, and use a grammar-focused tool alongside if you learn better with the rules explained. Everything below is sorted into that order rather than by which company we can earn from.
Duolingo, the free way to read Hangul
Duolingo is the right first step because reading the alphabet is the first milestone and a free app you open daily is the right tool for it. On its Korean course specifically, Duolingo states that the writing system has its own tab with alphabet teaching sessions placed along your learning path, that the updated course now teaches up to a B2 level, and that it is available to speakers of 27 different languages, with transliterations you can turn on or off. Everyone can use its courses for free, with ads for free users and paid tiers that add an ad-free experience and AI features.
Where it stops, honestly: it cannot hear your pronunciation and correct it, and it cannot hold an unscripted conversation, so it will not get you past the plateau where Korean grammar and speaking begin. Use it to read Hangul and build vocabulary, then add a teacher. We do not publish a Super or Max price here; prices vary by region and channel, so check the number shown in your own app. There is no commercial relationship between Fawnio and Duolingo, and no link to it.
italki, the cheapest way to actually speak Korean
A marketplace where you book one-to-one video lessons with individual Korean teachers who set their own prices, with no subscription and no schedule imposed on you. italki lists native Korean teachers, splits them into professional teachers, who upload documents showing training and teaching experience, and community tutors, who provide conversation practice, and it offers preparation for the TOPIK, the standard Korean proficiency exam. Its published price bands are 10 to 120 dollars per lesson for professional teachers and 5 to 120 dollars for community tutors.
For Korean this is the highest-value step on the page, because the things an app cannot do, correcting your pronunciation, telling you whether your particles and politeness level are right, and holding a real conversation, are exactly what a native teacher does, and conversation practice with a community tutor starts at 5 dollars a lesson. Given that grammar and speaking are the hard parts of Korean, a teacher earns its fee sooner here than in an easier language.
The trade-off is the money mechanic, and we say it on every italki page: you buy italki Credits rather than lessons, the payment terms state that no refunds are given for credits purchased, credits expire after twelve months of account inactivity, and lesson packages must be used within six months. Top up for the lessons you have scheduled. There is a real protection worth knowing: the satisfaction guarantee covers trial lessons, twice, claimed within 48 hours.
Our italki review covers the tiers and the guarantee in detail, how much italki costs turns the ranges into monthly budgets, and italki vs Preply compares it with the other big tutor marketplace.
Browse Korean teachers on italki
Mondly, if English is not your first language
A self-study app that teaches Korean and whose genuine differentiator is that it teaches from your own native language rather than routing every lesson through English. If your household speaks Turkish, Polish, Spanish or Portuguese, that removes a translation step that quietly slows Korean down. Mondly's own Korean pages describe short daily lessons built around common phrases, native-speaker audio, speech recognition and a verb conjugator. The free tier covers daily lessons, challenges and vocabulary review; Premium adds conversation practice, pronunciation lessons, grammar guides, conjugation tables and kids content.
Two honest limits. The conversation feature is scripted practice rather than an open-ended tutor, so treat it as speaking drills, not a substitute for a person, and it will not make you fluent on its own. And the refund position is regional: Mondly's terms state that amounts are non-refundable unless stated otherwise and grant a 14-day cooling-off right only to subscribers in the UK and EU. On the US App Store the listing showed a 4.7 out of 5 rating while Trustpilot showed 2.6 out of 5, with the low scores driven by billing rather than teaching. Our Mondly review works through the free-versus-Premium split, the current prices and the refund terms.
See what Mondly Premium includes
LingoDeer, for grammar explained
LingoDeer was built for East Asian languages, and its reputation is for explaining grammar, the reasons behind sentence structure, which is exactly the part of Korean that general Western-language apps gloss over. Its own Korean page describes a course for English speakers covering reading, listening and speaking, with detailed grammar tips taught one step at a time, every sentence voiced by native speakers, offline download, and a range from A1, absolute beginner, to B1, intermediate. If you learn better when the rules are spelled out rather than absorbed by guessing, it is a reasonable structured self-study option to run alongside a teacher. We name it as a benchmark, publish no price for it because none was verified, and do not link to it.
The two that do not teach Korean
This matters enough to state on its own, because both come up constantly and both are dead ends for Korean.
- Babbel teaches around a dozen languages, almost all European, and Korean is not one of them. Babbel is a well-regarded structured course for European languages; it is simply not a Korean product.
- Lingoda, the live-class school we cover elsewhere, teaches six languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Business English. It has no Korean classes. For a scheduled-class format in Korean you would need a different provider; on this page the live-teacher role goes to italki instead.
Neither is a criticism of the product. It is a warning about comparison articles that list them for Korean without checking. We name both only as benchmarks and link to neither.
The options side by side
| Teaches Korean? | Best at | Corrects your speaking | Cost | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Yes, free | Reading Hangul and a daily habit | No | Courses free, ads for free users; paid tiers add ad-free and AI features |
| italki | Yes, native teachers | Speaking, grammar, pronunciation, TOPIK | Yes, one to one | Teacher-set: 5 to 120 dollars per lesson within italki's bands |
| Mondly | Yes, self-study | Vocabulary from your own first language | No, software feedback only | Free tier; Premium subscription, prices in our review |
| LingoDeer | Yes, self-study | Grammar explained, A1 to B1 | No | Not verified here; named benchmark |
| Babbel | No Korean | European languages only | n/a | n/a |
| Lingoda | No Korean | Six European languages | n/a | n/a |
If the learner is a child
The same sequence holds with one addition: an adult stays in the loop. italki states that most of its users are adults, asks parents to create and manage the account and to communicate with teachers themselves, warns that not all teachers are prepared to teach kids and points to its Kids category filter, and tells parents to supervise lessons. Mondly includes kids content in Premium and, because it teaches from your own language, suits a household where Korean is a third language. A free Hangul app suits an older child who wants to start reading along with the K-pop lyrics or dramas they already follow, with the alphabet as the first goal rather than conversation.
What we would do
Spend nothing for the first stretch and learn to read Hangul on a free tier until the letters come without effort. Then book two or three trial lessons with native teachers, one community tutor for conversation and one professional if you want structure or TOPIK preparation, and keep the one worth meeting again, because grammar and speaking are where Korean actually gets hard. If you learn better with the rules explained, run a grammar-focused self-study app alongside. And do not spend an afternoon trying to make Babbel or Lingoda teach you Korean, because neither one does. The full comparison of the teaching shapes, and the credit and renewal mechanics behind each, is on our language learning hub. Curious how a character-based language compares? Our best apps to learn Japanese flips the problem: there the writing system is the hard part.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to learn Korean?
There is no single winner, because Korean splits into jobs different tools do best. To read Hangul, the Korean alphabet, and build a free daily habit, Duolingo is the obvious start, and it teaches the writing system in a dedicated tab at no cost. To handle the genuinely hard parts, grammar and speaking, a native teacher on italki is the strongest option, with community tutors from 5 dollars a lesson and TOPIK exam preparation available. Mondly teaches Korean from your own native language if English is not your first, and LingoDeer is a grammar-focused self-study option built for Asian languages. Two apps people expect to see, Babbel and Lingoda, do not teach Korean at all.
Can you learn Korean on Duolingo?
Yes, and it is free. Duolingo states that its Korean writing system has its own tab, with alphabet teaching sessions along the learning path, so it is a good way to learn to read Hangul and build a daily habit at no cost. Duolingo also says the updated course now teaches up to a B2 level and is available to speakers of 27 different languages, with transliterations you can toggle on or off. What it cannot do is hear you speak and correct you, or hold an unscripted conversation, so treat it as the free first layer for reading and vocabulary rather than the whole plan.
Do Babbel or Lingoda teach Korean?
No, neither one does. Babbel's course lineup is fourteen languages that all use the Roman alphabet, and Korean, which uses Hangul, is not among them. Lingoda teaches six European languages, English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and Business English, and has no Korean classes. If an article recommends Babbel or Lingoda for Korean, it is wrong on a basic fact. For Korean, look to Duolingo to read Hangul free, italki for a teacher, Mondly for self-study from your own language, and LingoDeer for grammar.
Is Korean hard to learn?
The writing is the easy part, and the grammar is the hard part, which is the opposite of what most beginners expect. Hangul is an alphabet, not thousands of characters, so learning to read it is a bounded task you can finish early, and Duolingo teaches it free. What takes longer is the grammar, which works very differently from English in word order, in the particles that mark the role of each word, in levels of politeness, and in how verbs change, and above all the speaking, which no app can correct. That is why the honest plan is to read Hangul cheaply and then spend on a teacher sooner than feels comfortable.
Which option is best for a child learning Korean?
For younger children, a parent-run setup works best. italki states that most of its users are adults, asks parents to create and manage the account and communicate with teachers, warns that not all teachers are prepared to teach kids, points to its Kids lesson category filter, and tells parents to supervise lessons. Mondly includes kids content in Premium and teaches from your household's own language, which helps when Korean is a third language at home. A free Hangul app suits an older child who wants to read along with the K-pop or dramas they already follow, with the alphabet as the first goal rather than conversation.
How we reach these verdicts, and the sources behind them, is on our methodology page. Duolingo's Korean course details come from Duolingo's own description of the course; italki's price bands, credit rules, TOPIK and Kids categories, Mondly's Korean lessons, free and Premium contents and refund terms, and LingoDeer's grammar focus and level range were read from each company's own pages and verified July 24, 2026. That Babbel and Lingoda do not offer Korean was confirmed against their own course listings. We publish no price for Duolingo or LingoDeer because neither returned a public figure we verified, and no Mondly price here because it belongs with the current figures in our review. App store and Trustpilot ratings are attributed to their platforms. We earn a commission if you sign up to italki or Mondly through our links; Duolingo, LingoDeer, Babbel and Lingoda are named for comparison only and are not linked.