The best app to learn German, and the one thing to check first
German has one feature that decides whether an app is any use: every noun carries der, die or das, and there is no reliable way to guess which. An app that teaches you Tisch instead of der Tisch is teaching you the word twice.
We make Vocabloot, one of the five below. We have said where it falls short as clearly as where it helps, and for a complete beginner we point you elsewhere.
Five German apps, and who each suits
Duolingo
- Best for
- Getting started and staying consistent
- Price
- Free with ads, around $7 a month without
- What it does well
- Good at building the daily habit, and the German course introduces cases gradually rather than dumping them on you.
- Where it falls short
- Genders and cases are largely absorbed rather than explained, which works for some people and leaves others guessing for months.
Babbel
- Best for
- Anyone who wants the grammar taught, not implied
- Price
- Around $15 a month, less on longer plans
- What it does well
- The strongest of these for German specifically. Cases, word order and the gender system are explained directly, which is exactly where German beginners get stuck.
- Where it falls short
- Paid only, and the course finishes. You will outgrow it and need something else for vocabulary depth.
Anki
- Best for
- Drilling genders and vocabulary at volume
- Price
- Free, except $25 once on iPhone
- What it does well
- The standard tool for German nouns, because you can put der, die or das on the front of the card and force yourself to recall it with the word.
- Where it falls short
- No teaching and a dated interface. It rewards discipline and punishes everyone else.
Drops
- Best for
- Short vocabulary sessions
- Price
- Free for five minutes a day, around $10 a month for more
- What it does well
- Quick and visual, and useful for building noun stock alongside a course.
- Where it falls short
- No grammar and no cases, which in German is a bigger gap than in most languages.
Vocabloot ours
- Best for
- Someone with basic grammar who needs everyday nouns
- Price
- Free during early access
- What it does well
- Point the camera at something and it gives you the German word with its article, pronunciation and an example sentence. Because German nouns must be learned with der, die or das, learning them attached to a real object you photographed helps the article stick with the word.
- Where it falls short
- It does not teach cases, word order or verb conjugation, which is most of what makes German hard. Use it alongside a course rather than instead of one, and expect early-access rough edges.
The gender problem, and what to look for
Every German noun is der, die or das, and the article changes again depending on the case. Learning Tisch without der means learning it a second time later.
So the test for any German app is simple: does it show you the article every time the noun appears? Babbel does. Anki does if you build the cards that way. Duolingo shows it in context but does not drill it directly.
There are patterns worth knowing, since most nouns ending in -ung, -heit, -keit and -schaft are die, and most ending in -chen are das. They cover a useful minority, not the majority.
The honest recommendation
Starting from zero: Babbel. For German specifically the explained-grammar approach is worth paying for, because the case system is where self-taught learners stall.
On a budget: Duolingo for structure plus Anki for genders. That combination costs nothing and covers more than either alone.
Already past the basics: Anki or Vocabloot for vocabulary depth. Choose Vocabloot if you would rather learn the words for things around you than work through someone else's frequency list.
Whichever you pick, find someone to speak with early. German word order only becomes automatic through use.
Try the camera approach
Snap anything and learn the word for it, with pronunciation and an example sentence.
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