The Best Apps to Learn Spanish, and When to Stop Using Them
Start free, then buy a human. Every Duolingo course is free, which makes it the sensible place to build your first few hundred Spanish words and a daily habit at no cost. What no app can do is hear you speak and correct you, so the money question is not which app to buy, it is when to add a person.
When you get there, the three shapes are: a teacher on demand through italki, where the platform quotes tutors at 4 to 60 dollars an hour; scheduled 60-minute classes with Lingoda, which teaches Spanish from A1 to B2 and issues a certificate at each level; or, if you would rather learn from your own native language than through English, Mondly. Prices and course details verified July 23, 2026.
The order that works
Spanish is the most over-served language in the app market, which means the choice looks harder than it is. Rank the options by what they physically do rather than by their marketing and the sequence falls out:
- Free app for vocabulary and habit. You need a few hundred words before conversation is even possible. Paying for that stage is optional.
- A human as soon as you can form sentences. This is the step people delay for years, and it is the one that changes the outcome.
- Keep the app underneath for daily reps between lessons, which is the job it is genuinely good at.
Everything below is sorted into that order rather than by which company we can earn from.
Duolingo, the free starting point
Duolingo states plainly that everyone can access its courses without spending anything, whether you enrol in one course or forty, and that free learners see advertising while paid subscribers get an ad-free experience and extra features. Its paid tiers are Super, which the company describes as an ad-free experience with gamification perks, and Max, which adds AI-powered features including roleplay and tailored grammar explanations.
Why it is on this list first: for the vocabulary-and-habit stage, a free product that you will actually open every day beats a paid one you will not. Streak mechanics are not a substitute for study, but they solve the real problem at the beginning, which is showing up.
Where it stops, and this is the honest part: it cannot hear your Spanish and correct it, and it cannot hold an unscripted conversation. Learners who stay in the app for a year and expect to speak are usually disappointed, and that is a design boundary rather than a failure. Use it to reach the point where a beginner conversation is possible, then add a teacher.
We do not publish a Super or Max price here. The pricing page did not return a readable price when we checked on July 23, 2026, and prices in this category vary by region and purchase channel. Check the figure shown in your own app before subscribing. There is no commercial relationship between Fawnio and Duolingo and no link to it on this page.
italki, the cheapest way to actually speak Spanish
A marketplace where you book one-to-one video lessons with individual Spanish teachers who set their own prices, with no subscription and no schedule imposed on you. italki runs two profile types: professional teachers, who must upload documents showing training and teaching experience, and community tutors, who provide conversation practice. Its published price bands are 10 to 120 dollars per lesson for professional teachers and 5 to 120 dollars for community tutors, and its own pages put tutors at 4 to 60 dollars an hour with professionals commonly at 18 to 32.
For Spanish specifically this is the strongest value in the whole category, because conversation practice with a fluent speaker is exactly what community tutors are for, and the floor is 5 dollars a lesson. A weekly half hour is in the price bracket of a streaming subscription.
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, and how much italki costs turns the ranges into monthly budgets.
Browse Spanish teachers on italki
Lingoda, if the calendar is the problem
An online school rather than a marketplace: 60-minute live classes available around the clock, taught to small groups the company describes as three to five students, following a CEFR-aligned curriculum with downloadable materials and a certificate for each level completed. Spanish runs from A1 to B2, which is worth knowing if your target is C1: English and German go further, Spanish does not.
Published plan totals ran from €44.99 to €290.99 depending on bundle size and class type when we checked, shown in euros with a currency switcher on the site. Plans renew every four weeks and unused credits roll over while the subscription is active.
Two rules to diary before subscribing: the seven-day trial begins when you create the account and converts to a payment automatically, and unused credits stop being usable once your last payment cycle ends. Full detail is in our Lingoda review.
See Lingoda Spanish class plans
Mondly, if English is not your first language
A self-study app covering 41 languages whose genuine differentiator is that it teaches from your own native language rather than routing every course through English. If your household speaks Turkish, Polish, Korean or Portuguese, that removes a translation step that quietly slows Spanish down. The free tier covers daily lessons, challenges and vocabulary review; Premium adds conversation practice, pronunciation lessons, grammar guides, conjugation tables, kids content and augmented-reality lessons.
Two honest limits. The conversation feature is scripted practice rather than an open-ended tutor, so treat it as speaking drills. 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 4.7 out of 5 from 33,000 ratings, while Trustpilot showed 2.6 out of 5 from 779 reviews, both checked July 23, 2026, with the low scores driven by billing rather than teaching. Our Mondly review works through all of it.
See what Mondly Premium includes
Babbel, the named benchmark
Babbel comes up in every Spanish comparison, so here is what we can say with a source. Its help centre states that the cost "can vary depending on several factors, including your location, the duration and type of your subscription, and whether you purchase directly through Babbel, partner websites, Google, or Apple", that each subscription is paid in full in advance for the renewal period, that subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled, and that only the Lifetime subscription and the gift option are one-time payments.
We are not printing a Babbel price, because the company itself says the number depends on where and how you buy, and its price page did not return a readable figure when we checked. That is not a criticism of the product, which is a well-regarded structured self-study course. It is a warning about every article that quotes you one Babbel price as though it were universal. We have no commercial relationship with Babbel and do not link to it.
The five side by side
| What it is | Cost | Corrects your speaking | Best moment to use it | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Free gamified course | Courses free, ads for free users; paid tiers add ad-free and AI features | No | First few hundred words and the daily habit |
| italki | Marketplace of individual teachers | Teacher-set: 5 to 120 dollars per lesson within italki's bands | Yes, one to one | As soon as you can form sentences |
| Lingoda | Live classes on a schedule, Spanish A1 to B2 | Plan totals published €44.99 to €290.99 | Yes, in a small group | When booking is what you never get round to |
| Mondly | Self-study app, 41 languages | Free tier; App Store showed 15.90 dollars monthly, 74.90 dollars yearly | No, software feedback only | Vocabulary, especially from a non-English first language |
| Babbel | Structured self-study course | Company states price varies by location, duration and channel | No | Structured solo study between other steps |
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 Spanish is a third language rather than a second. A scheduled class works better for teenagers who can hold their own in a small group than for a six year old.
What we would do
Spend nothing for the first month and build vocabulary daily on a free tier. Then book two or three trial lessons with different teachers, one community tutor and one professional, and keep the one you would happily meet again. If you never get round to booking, buy a schedule instead and let the calendar do the work. Keep the free app running underneath the whole time. The full comparison of the three shapes, including the credit and renewal mechanics behind each, is on our language learning hub. Learning a language with a different alphabet next? Our best apps to learn Japanese shows how the writing system changes the whole choice, and for a Romance sibling, our best apps to learn Portuguese covers the Brazilian-versus-European trap that catches most learners.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best app to learn Spanish?
It depends on the stage you are at. To build a daily habit and your first few hundred words at no cost, Duolingo is the obvious starting point because every course is free. To actually speak Spanish, a live teacher on italki is the cheapest reliable option, with italki quoting tutors between 4 and 60 dollars an hour. For a fixed schedule and a certificate, Lingoda runs 60-minute live classes in Spanish from A1 to B2. For vocabulary in your own native language rather than through English, Mondly is the better fit.
Is Duolingo good for learning Spanish?
It is good at the job it does: free daily practice that builds vocabulary and keeps a streak going, with every course available at no cost and ads shown to free users. What it cannot do is hear you speak Spanish and correct you, or hold an unscripted conversation. Treat it as the free layer that gets you to the point where a real conversation is possible, then add a human, rather than as the thing that will make you conversational on its own.
How much does it cost to learn Spanish properly?
Free gets you further than people expect for vocabulary and reading. Speaking is where money starts. Using italki's published ranges, a weekly hour with a community tutor works out around 20 to 60 dollars a month and with a professional teacher around 72 to 128 dollars a month, which is our arithmetic rather than a quote. Lingoda publishes plan totals from 44.99 to 290.99 euros depending on bundle size and class type. Verified July 23, 2026.
Can an app alone make you fluent in Spanish?
No. Every app in this list builds vocabulary, patterns and habit, and none of them can hold a real conversation with you or correct your pronunciation the way a person does. The honest sequence is to use a free app to reach the point where you can form sentences, then spend on speaking practice with a human, and keep the app running underneath for daily reps between lessons.
Which option is best for a child learning Spanish?
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, and tells parents to supervise lessons, and it has a Kids lesson category filter. Mondly includes kids content in Premium and teaches from your household's own language. A live class schedule such as Lingoda suits teenagers who can hold their own in a small group.
How we reach these verdicts, and the sources behind them, is on our methodology page. italki's price bands and credit rules, Lingoda's class structure, Spanish CEFR range and plan totals, and Mondly's free and Premium contents and refund terms were read from each company's own pages and verified July 23, 2026; the Duolingo statements come from Duolingo's own blog and the Babbel statements from Babbel's help centre. We publish no Duolingo or Babbel price because neither returned a readable public figure and Babbel states its price varies by location, duration and purchase channel. App store and Trustpilot ratings are attributed to their platforms. We earn a commission if you sign up to italki, Lingoda or Mondly through our links; Duolingo and Babbel are named for comparison only and are not linked.