The 10 best apps to learn Spanish in 2026

2

Duolingo

Gamified all-rounder

A

9.0/10

The default first app for a reason: it’s free, friendly and ruthlessly good at getting you to show up every day. The Spanish tree is huge and the gamified streak keeps a daily habit alive. The trade-off is that it’s strongest at recognition and weakest at production — you can keep a long streak and still freeze when a real person speaks to you.

3

Babbel

Structured conversation course

A-

8.8/10

Babbel feels like a well-made textbook on your phone. Lessons are short, dialogue-driven and aimed squarely at holding a conversation, with clear grammar explanations that Duolingo skips. It’s a subscription, but the structured path is one of the best for going from zero to confident everyday Spanish.

4

Pimsleur

Audio-first speaking method

A-

8.5/10

If your goal is to speak and understand the spoken language, Pimsleur’s 30-minute audio lessons are still the gold standard. You learn by listening and replying out loud, which trains your ear and mouth in a way tapping never will. It’s pricey and audio-only by design, so vocabulary breadth is limited.

5

Busuu

Course + native-speaker feedback

B+

8.2/10

Busuu blends a structured course with a community twist: you submit short writing or speaking exercises and real native speakers correct them. That feedback loop is genuinely useful, and there’s a usable free tier. The lessons themselves are solid if a little less polished than Babbel’s.

6

Memrise

Real native-speaker video clips

B+

8.0/10

Memrise’s edge is thousands of short clips of real natives saying phrases in real accents — so you train on the language people actually speak, not studio narration. It’s strong for vocabulary and listening to authentic speech, though the course structure is looser than Babbel’s.

7

Rosetta Stone

Full-immersion method

B

7.8/10

The original immersion app: no translations, just images paired with the target language so you learn by association. It builds good pronunciation habits and intuition, but the no-translation purity can be slow and frustrating when you simply want to know what a word means.

8

AnkiMobile Flashcards

Customisable spaced-repetition

B

7.6/10

Anki is the power-user’s flashcard engine: an extremely effective spaced-repetition system you can bend to anything. With a good shared Spanish deck it’s unbeatable for raw memorisation. The catch is the steep setup and a plain, do-it-yourself feel that scares off most beginners.

9

Mango Languages

Free via your library

B-

7.3/10

Mango’s lessons are sensible and culture-aware, with a focus on practical conversation. Its real superpower is price: it’s often completely free through your public library. If your library offers it, it’s a no-brainer to add to the mix; if not, rivals offer more for the money.

10

Drops

Visual vocabulary in 5-minute bursts

C+

7.0/10

Drops turns vocabulary into a fast, beautiful, illustration-driven game capped at five minutes a session. It’s a delightful way to soak up nouns and themed words, but it deliberately avoids grammar and full sentences, so it’s a supplement rather than a course.