Complete guide to the best Spanish Learning apps in 2025.
Learning Spanish is a popular goal for many, given its global importance and cultural richness. Today there are countless apps that promise its users Spanish fluency. But with so many options, which one is truly the best Spanish learning app? In this complete guide, we will explore the strengths and weaknesses of the popular Spanish language learning apps.
What is Best Spanish Learning App?
Before diving into individual app reviews, it’s important to understand what features are crucial for an effective Spanish learning experience:
- Comprehensive Content: The app should cover a wide range of topics, including vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, listening, and conversation skills
- Interactive Lessons: Engaging, interactive lessons that cater to different learning styles are a must
- User-Friendly Interface: An intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface keeps learners motivated
- Progress Tracking: Features that track progress and provide feedback help learners stay on course
- Cultural Context: Understanding the cultural context behind the language enhances learning
- Offline Access: Availability of offline lessons is a plus for on-the-go learning
- Cost: The app should provide good value for money, balancing cost with the quality of content
Every learner is different and what fits for one person may not be the best choice for another. When trying to find the best Spanish learning app it is important to consider the learner’s goals, motivation, and preferred learning style. Different apps require different time investment, some requiring minutes a day, where others require a long sessions. Their mode of delivering content can vary – some use videos, others strictly text, and even content implemented into games. The best Spanish learning app will be the one that matches the learner’s preferences and goals, and may change with time as they advance or their needs evolve.
Duolingo: Is It the Best Spanish Learning App?
Duolingo is a free, gamified language learning app that offers bite-sized lessons in a variety of languages. Its engaging, game-like structure makes it easy to practice and reinforce new vocabulary and grammar skills.
Strengths
- Gamified Learning: Duolingo’s gamified approach makes learning fun and addictive, with rewards and streaks encouraging daily practice
- Short, Digestible Lessons: Lessons are short, making it easy to fit learning into a busy schedule
- Free Access: The app offers a comprehensive free version, making it accessible to everyone
- Other Languages than Spanish: Duolingo offers over 43 languages to learn from, and now also teaching music and math
Weaknesses
- Limited Depth: Duolingo often provides only a surface-level teaching of Spanish, lacking explanations and penalizes mistakes
- Limited Speaking and Listening: They do offer some speaking and listening exercises, but they are very far and few between, instead opting for primarily reading and ‘writing’ (which do not go beyond spelling and clicking a few prefilled words to form mini-sentences)
- Limited Grammar Explanation: Duolingo does not provide much explanations of grammar rules and concepts. While this may be sufficient for some users, others may struggle to understand how to apply concepts in activities and in the real-world
- Heavy Focus on Just Vocabulary: Duolingo’s lessons are heavily focused on vocabulary acquisition, which is not the most effective way to learn Spanish. While vocabulary is important, learners also need to understand grammar, syntax, listening, and pronunciation
- Doesn’t Teach How to Learn a Language: For some people, they have never learned a language before, and do not understand what the process entails. Duolingo does not help here, not providing any sort of roadmap, expectation setting, or suggesting other activities outside of the app
- No Immersion: Duolingo encourages to simply translate words to/from English, while often uses phrases while technically correct in Spanish, sound more like direct English translations than natural
- Limited Feedback: Duolingo’s feedback is limited to a simple “correct” or “incorrect”, offering no explanations
- It’s a Game: Language learning isn’t just playing a game. The entire strategy is gamified. There is undoubtedly some educational value, but not enough to make retain the information long-term
- Uses Negative Reinforcement: Duolingo has been under a lot of fire recently with how they use negative emotions like shame and guilt to try to get their users back on the app instead of offering positive reinforcement (which science has showed is critical to fluency)
Rosetta Stone: Is It Worth the Investment?
Rosetta Stone uses immersive, contextual learning techniques to help users develop language skills naturally. Its method focuses on intuitive, visual and auditory learning, providing a comprehensive approach to mastering new languages.
Strengths
- Immersive Method: Rosetta Stone uses an immersive method, teaching Spanish without relying on the user having to translate
- Pronunciation Feedback: The app provides feedback on pronunciation exercises, helping learners sound more native
- Structured Courses: Well-structured courses guide learners from beginner to advanced levels
- Proven History: Rosetta Stone was founded in 1992, way before mobile apps were common. Many people have cited their fluency with thanks to RosettaStone years before the modern apps came to market
Weaknesses
- High Cost: Rosetta Stone is one of the more expensive language learning apps, coming in at $126 a year, or $47.97 for 3 months (there are no monthly options)
- Rigid Structure: The structured courses might feel too rigid for some learners who prefer a more flexible approach
- Less Focus on Speaking: While it offers self-audio recording, there is not enough of a focus on spontaneous speaking
- Lacks Explicit Grammar Instruction: The “Grammar” tasks are mostly identification of patterns and recall, but lack any written tutorials that actually explain grammar rules
- With Rosetta Stone users are not given any sort of introduction, and simply guess to find the right answers. For perfectionists and other types of users, this may be a very frustrating experience
Babbel: How Effective Is It for Learning Spanish?
Babbel offers structured language courses designed by linguists, emphasizing practical conversation skills. The app tailors lessons to real-world topics, making it ideal for users looking to quickly gain conversational proficiency.
Strengths
- Focus on Conversation: Babbel emphasizes practical conversation skills and real-life dialogues
- Grammar Explanations: The app provides detailed grammar explanations, aiding a deeper understanding
- Personalized Review Sessions: Babbel offers review sessions tailored to the user’s progress
- Offers Babbel Live: Availability of classes with live people and other options to learn and practice Spanish
- Practical Vocabulary: Each unit is centered around a theme, starting with greetings in the first course. There is an emphasis on teaching words that are practical from the beginning
Weaknesses
- Subscription-Based: While it offers quality content, Babbel is subscription-based and may not suit all budgets, starting at $17.95/month.
- Aimed at beginners: Babbel lacks content and course structure for the intermediate and advanced learners
- Longer Lessons: May not be suitable for all, Babbel lessons can take upward to 20 minutes to complete
- It Lacks Engagement: Although Babbel does provide interactive exercises, it’s not designed to be entertaining. This can make it hard to stay motivated to keep using the app
Memrise: Can It Make Spanish Vocabulary Stick?
One important thing to note is that Memrise recently went through a massive overhaul, and is significantly different than the ‘Old Memrise’ which was just an SRS, like Anki. This review is focused on the new, and not the old. Now, Memrise combines spaced repetition with engaging content to help users retain vocabulary and phrases effectively. The app includes videos of native speakers to provide authentic context and improve listening skills.
Strengths
- Memory Techniques: Memrise uses spaced repetition and mnemonic techniques to enhance vocabulary retention
- Variety of Content: The app offers a wide variety of content, including videos from TikTok and YouTube
- Multimedia Learning: Incorporates videos and audio from native speakers to enhance listening skills
Weaknesses
- Very Expensive: Memrise comes in as the most expensive monthly option, at a whopping $23 /month
- There is a lot of angry users: When Memrise decided to move away from user-generated content, this made many users who relied on this content quite upset
- Too Much Focus on Just Vocabulary: Memrise is heavily focused on vocabulary and less on grammar and conversation skills.
- Very Little Speaking Practice: While their content varies by language, in our experience there is very little speaking in Memrise in the Spanish courses
Busuu: Is It a Comprehensive Spanish Learning App?
Busuu provides interactive language lessons with a focus on speaking and writing practice. Users can receive feedback from native speakers, making it a community-driven platform that supports collaborative learning.
Strengths
- Structured Courses: Busuu offers structured courses with clear progression from beginner to advanced levels
- Immersive Content: Unlike most of apps on this list, Busuu offers content 100% in Spanish, offering an immersive learning experience
- Social Features: The app includes social features allowing users to practice with native speakers and receive feedback
- Offline Mode: Provides the ability to download lessons for offline use
Weaknesses
- Free version is Very Limited: While they offer some content for free, it is considerably small
- Lack of Grammar Explanation: There is a ‘Grammar’ section in the app, but it does not offer feedback that helps explain the correct answers
- Limited Exposure to Conversations in Context: Busuu provides short video clips with native speakers saying words/phrases, but stops short of using these in real two-way conversations
Speak: Can It Boost Your Speaking Skills?
Speak focuses on improving spoken language skills through interactive dialogue practice. The app uses advanced speech recognition technology using AI to help users refine their pronunciation and fluency.
Strengths
- Focus on Speaking: Speak emphasizes improving speaking skills through interactive dialogues
- Practice Real World Scenarios: It offers role-play with the ‘AI Tutor’ to simulate real world scenarios
- Free Talk: Chatting with the ‘AI Tutor’ offers practice of real-life scenarios in any practically any topic
Weaknesses
- Very Expensive: Speak comes in as one of the most expensive options on the list, at $23.49 /month
- Speaking Quality in Spanish is Not Good: Speak’s entire mantra is “Speak from the very beginning.” However, the actual recognition of words and errors tend to be extremely poor, and less accurate than other apps. Even when tested in English the results were also poor, suggesting that there accuracy issue with the recognition and not just with the Spanish course
- Very Little Practical Feedback: Similar to above, the amount of feedback is not always actionable, and it misses a lot of errors
- Very Limited Grammar and Writing Practice: The focus on speaking may leave gaps in listening, reading, and writing
- Only Beginner Content: Despite advertising an ‘Intermediate and more’, Speak today really only offers beginning content
Speakly: Can you really Learn Spanish 5x Faster?
Speakly claims that its users achieve fluency faster through the program compared to its competitors. Founded in 2016 and offering 7 languages including Spanish.
Strengths
- Real-Life Context: Speakly teaches vocabulary and phrases used in real-life situations, making learning practical
- Spaced Repetition: Uses spaced repetition to ensure long-term retention of vocabulary
- Progress Tracking: Offers detailed progress tracking and personalized feedback
- Affordable: Speakly comes in at just $9.99 /month, making it one of the most affordable options on the list
Weaknesses
- Marketing Ploy: Speakly claims reaching fluency in just 100 hours, which is a staggering figure against all research and science that is possible
- No Visual Aides to Help Learning: There is a shocking lack of photos, illustrations, and video content to help accelerate learning
- Not Enough Native Media: Similar to above, there is no video content which makes listening practice much more difficult
- Can Be Repetitive: Compared to apps like Duolingo, Speakly may have fewer interactive elements
Palteca: A Way to Learn Spanish Backed by Science
Being the best Spanish learning app may be based on preference, but Palteca strives to make learning fun, efficient, and easy using methods based on science to help with Spanish language acquisition and retention. To learn more about Palteca’s proven methods and how they teach learners how to learn Spanish visit: Learn the Palteca Method.
Strengths
- Comprehensible Input Method: Palteca uses Spanish comprehensible input, presenting language in context to make it easier to understand and retain. This method aligns with how people naturally acquire languages, making the learning process more intuitive and effective
- Spaced Repetition System (SRS): Utilizes SRS to reinforce learning and ensure long-term retention of vocabulary and phrases. This scientifically proven method helps embed new information in long-term memory, reducing the need for constant review
- Focus on Content: Palteca integrates learning through engaging content such as stories, dialogues, and real-life scenarios, while also reinforcing grammar and offering practical exercises
- Auditory Training: Using native Speakers, Palteca helps learners to train their ears to understand the different sounds in Spanish that doesn’t exist in their native language
- Specialization in Spanish: Unlike many apps that offer multiple languages, Palteca specializes in Spanish, providing a more focused and tailored learning experience. This specialization allows for deeper cultural insights and more relevant content
- Provides a Roadmap to Spanish Fluency: Let’s be frank, no single mobile app is going to make you completely fluent. Palteca is very open with this fact, offering real actionable every-day advice on how learners can become fluent much faster in Spanish, in and out of the app. Tips that include advice on how to overcome anxiety when starting to speak Spanish, to how to-do voice shadowing to improve pronunciation, how to get more natural exposure to Spanish without spending more time studying, and more
Weaknesses
- Limited Language Options: Currently focuses solely on Spanish, which might be a drawback for users looking to learn multiple languages
- New to the Market: As a newer app, it may lack some features and content depth compared to more established competitors, like some of the streak counters, and advanced flashcards
- No Offline Mode Yet: Currently, Palteca does not offer offline access to its lessons, which can be inconvenient for some learners who are eager to learn on their commutes
- Cost: Palteca is subscription-based and requires a subscription for full-access, however it is free to get started with a trial
What is the best free Spanish Learning App for people who likes games?
Duolingo
For beginners or casual learners looking for a fun and free way to start learning Spanish, Duolingo is an excellent choice. Its gamified approach and bite-sized lessons make it easy to stay motivated.
What is the best Free Spanish Learning App for Beginners and Casual Learners?
Memrise
Memrise is perfect for learners who need help with vocabulary retention. Its use of mnemonic techniques and spaced repetition ensures that new words stick.
What is the best Spanish learning app for Immersive Learning?
Palteca
For those who prefer an immersive learning experience and are willing to invest in a premium app, Palteca is a top contender. Its focus on pronunciation, immersion, and comprehensible input sets it apart.
What is the best Spanish learning app for Practical Conversations?
Babbel
Babbel is ideal for learners who want to focus on practical conversation skills and grammar. Its structured lessons and personalized reviews offer a well-rounded approach.
What is the best Spanish Learning app for Social Learning?
Busuu
For those that enjoy social learning and want feedback from native speakers, Busuu’s community features and structured courses make it a strong choice.
What is the best Spanish language app for Speaking Skills?
Speak
Speak is perfect for learners who want to focus on improving their speaking skills with interactive dialogues and advanced voice recognition.
What is the best Spanish app for Real-Life Conversations?
Speakly
Speakly prepares learners for real-life conversations by teaching vocabulary and phrases used in practical situations, backed by spaced repetition for retention.
Conclusion: Finding the Best Spanish Learning App
Choosing the best Spanish learning app depends on your personal learning style, goals, and preferences. Each app has its strengths and weaknesses, and the right choice will vary for each individual. Whether you prefer the gamified approach of Duolingo, the immersive experience of Rosetta Stone, the practical conversations in Babbel, the vocabulary techniques in Memrise, the social features of Busuu, the speaking focus of Speak, the real-life context of Speakly, or the comprehensive and engaging method of Palteca, there is an app out there that can help you achieve your Spanish learning goals.
Want to know more about Palteca?
Palteca: The Proven Way to Learn Spanish
Get Started with Palteca on Android today for free