The best app to learn Spanish, depending on where you are
Spanish is the best-served language in every app store, which makes the choice harder rather than easier. The right answer depends on whether you are starting from nothing, restarting after school, or already reading and just short of words.
We make Vocabloot, one of the five compared here. We have been specific about where it does not fit, and for a complete beginner we recommend something else.
Five Spanish apps, and who each suits
Duolingo
- Best for
- A complete beginner who needs a daily habit
- Price
- Free with ads, around $7 a month without
- What it does well
- The Spanish course is its most developed, and it is genuinely good at getting someone from zero to basic sentences without any decisions to make.
- Where it falls short
- Plateaus around the intermediate mark. The streak can quietly replace the goal, and the invented sentences get less useful the further in you go.
Babbel
- Best for
- Someone who wants grammar explained properly
- Price
- Around $15 a month, less on longer plans
- What it does well
- Explains the subjunctive, ser versus estar and the past tenses rather than hoping you absorb them. Dialogues are written around real situations.
- Where it falls short
- No meaningful free tier, and the course has an end. Latin American and European Spanish are separate tracks, so pick carefully at signup.
Anki
- Best for
- Anyone who has hit a vocabulary ceiling
- Price
- Free, except $25 once on iPhone
- What it does well
- Unbeatable for retention at volume. Shared Spanish decks built on frequency lists will take you further than any course app.
- Where it falls short
- Teaches nothing by itself and looks like software from 2005. Most people bounce off it before it starts paying back.
Drops
- Best for
- Vocabulary in five-minute sessions
- Price
- Free for five minutes a day, around $10 a month for more
- What it does well
- Fast, attractive, and honest that it only does vocabulary. Good for topping up nouns while commuting.
- Where it falls short
- No grammar, no sentences and a fixed word list. It will not get you speaking on its own.
Vocabloot ours
- Best for
- Someone with basic grammar who needs the words for daily life
- Price
- Free during early access
- What it does well
- Point the camera at anything and it gives you the Spanish word, with pronunciation and an example sentence. The vocabulary is whatever is actually around you, which is why it sticks better than a generic list, and the mini-games use words you captured yourself.
- Where it falls short
- No grammar teaching at all. If you cannot yet conjugate a regular verb, start with Duolingo or Babbel and come back. It is also in early access, so expect fewer features than apps that have been shipping for ten years.
Pick European or Latin American early
Spanish splits in ways that matter from the first week: vosotros exists in Spain and not in Latin America, c and z are a th sound in most of Spain and an s everywhere else, and everyday words diverge, from coche and carro to ordenador and computadora.
Babbel makes you choose at signup. Duolingo teaches a broadly Latin American standard. Neither choice is wrong, but picking the one that matches where you are going saves relearning later.
The honest recommendation
Starting from zero: Duolingo for the habit, or Babbel if you would rather pay and have grammar explained from the start.
Restarting after school Spanish: Babbel, because it will fill the grammar holes you have forgotten rather than making you redo greetings.
Already reading Spanish and short of vocabulary: Anki if you are disciplined, Vocabloot if you would rather learn the words for things you actually encounter.
Whatever you pick, add a speaking partner within the first month. No app on this list replaces one, and any that says otherwise is overselling.
Try the camera approach
Snap anything and learn the word for it, with pronunciation and an example sentence.
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the App Store
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Google Play
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