The Best Apps to Learn Spanish

With more than 500 million worldwide speakers, Spanish is the world’s second-most spoken native language. You might be an exchange student or may simply want to learn Spanish to add to your linguistic arsenal.

featured image best apps to learn spanish

Although textbooks and video lessons can prove to be helpful, language-learning apps are always handy tools to help you learn. Apps like Duolingo and Babbel can help you learn, memorize and practice a new language and expand your vocabulary.

To save you the trouble, we’ve tried and tested 11 different language-learning apps. Suitable for both beginners and intermediates, these apps will have you speaking Spanish in no time. Ranging across Android and iOS, here’s our list of the Best Apps for Learning Spanish!

1. Babbel

babbel icon

With a great mix of useful tools and a clean interface, Babbel is our top choice for learning Spanish.

Babbel is a beginner-friendly app with a great UI that is easy to use and navigate. The app features hundreds of lessons, podcasts, quizzes, and more for every level of learning.

Babbel currently supports 14 languages that you can learn from scratch. Once you download the app and begin, you can select the language you want to learn.

After clicking on “Spanish,” you answer some basic questions to help customize your learning experience. These include information on why you want to learn the language, how much Spanish you already speak (if any), and the daily time commitment you want to make. You can get started with just 15 minutes a day.

This app features an advanced algorithm that adapts the course’s difficulty based on your performance. This makes it suitable for everyone, no matter their skill level.

All the courses Babbel offers are created by native language experts and are unique to each language. There is no copy-pasting of translated courses from other languages. So when you want to learn Spanish, this app ensures you get the most authentic lessons to speak fluently.

Apart from the courses that you complete daily, you also have review sessions to help revise past topics. You can scroll through all your past lessons and see detailed summaries to help you recall.

The app provides live sessions that give users a hands-on experience where they can have live conversations with native speakers.

Both repetition and real-world conversational practice are the core features of Babbel. With its short but informative lessons, you can even learn some Spanish on a busy day. You can try your first lesson for free, after which you’ll have to buy the Premium subscription.

Babbel interface

The Good:
  • Short lessons with regular review sessions
  • Live conversation practice, podcasts, and games
  • Focus on clear grammar and real-world Spanish skills
The Not-so-good:
  • Only one free lesson is available before users must upgrade to the Premium version

Available on: iOS, Android

Other Spanish learning apps you should try:

2. Rosetta Stone

rosetta stone icon

Rosetta Stone is an app focused on learning through exposure. It uses audio lessons and stories to help users develop proficiency in 24 different languages.

After you finish answering some basic questions, you can begin your Spanish course. Rosetta offers Spanish courses corresponding to both Latin America and Spain.

The app has short daily lessons to help you grasp the basics, and users can continue at the pace that best suits them. The courses span from basics like greetings to more advanced topics like business and academics.

The voice-recognition software works very well and makes the learning process interactive. This helps users practice real-world conversations and makes them intuitively learn the language. You also get instant feedback based on your pronunciation.

The Extended Learning tab gives users alternate ways to learn and practice Spanish. They can read stories and access downloaded audio lessons that are available offline. Apart from these, there is also a handy Phrasebook with pictorial explanations and common words and phrases.

Users can also watch hundreds of hours of recorded video content by native speakers. These include conversational tips, grammar rules, and real-world interactive Spanish skills.

Another great feature is offline accessibility; you can download and sync your courses across devices to learn anytime, anywhere.

The free version allows you access to limited content, and after three days, you must subscribe to access the entire course. Overall, Rosetta Stone is a comprehensive app that allows beginners to learn Spanish immersively.

Rosetta Stone interface

The Good:
  • Immersive learning experience
  • Live tutoring and one-on-one conversation practice
The Not-so-good:
  • Needs a premium subscription for full access
  • Content may get repetitive for proficient speakers
  • Relies on users to intuitively grasp grammar rules and lacks in-depth explanations

Available on: iOS, Android

3. Pimsleur

pimsleur icon

The excellent audio-learning tools offered by Pimsleur are its key selling point. Beginners and intermediates alike can start learning from one of the 20 languages offered by Pimsleur.

Once you start the Spanish course, you get daily 30-minute audio courses along with a transcript. These transcripts are concise, and interactive and can help you find useful words and phrases.

The main focus of this app is to centralize the learning experience around short audio dialogues. Students are prompted to listen and repeat as well as pronounce different words and phrases. You’ll get help with grammar tips and pronunciation as you continue.

As you progress, newer courses build on your pre-existing knowledge. This way, you can constantly revise and review your past lessons while learning new words. All the audio lessons are recorded by native speakers and feel authentic. They’re a great way for beginners to familiarise themselves with a new language like Spanish.

If audio lessons aren’t enough for you, don’t worry! Pimsleur also encourages its users to complete daily quizzes, flashcards, and reading exercises.

What’s more, you can easily download and sync all your lessons to study wherever you go. If you’re at home, you can also pair the app with Amazon’s Alexa.

Overall, we recommend this app to people who want to start learning Spanish right away without wasting time on tedious repetition or the nuances of grammar.

You can try a free seven-day trial, after which you must buy a monthly subscription. Alternatively, you can purchase the entire course for a fixed fee.

Pimsleur interface

The Good:
  • Start speaking Spanish right away
  • Audio lessons are available for download for offline study
The Not-so-good:
  • The full course is quite expensive, prompting users to take the monthly subscription
  • Transcript details are in English

Available on: iOS, Android

4. Duolingo

Duolingo icon

Easily the most-well known language learning app on our list, Duolingo is both easy to use and comprehensive. This app features a gamified learning process that helps keep you motivated and learn daily.

Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation are made fun through games and quizzes. Users can answer multiple choice questions, translate text and also get their pronunciations checked live by speech recognition software.

Spanish lessons also cover basic grammar, like tenses, subjunctives, and conditionals. You also get over 60,000 interactive exercises and 6400 practical words and phrases. You can get started with just 3 minutes per day, all the way up to 30 minutes.

Speaking, reading, listening, and even writing Spanish can be practiced with this app. Duolingo also takes feedback from users after every lesson to adjust the course difficulty accordingly.

You can also add your friends on the app to see their progress. As you complete tasks, you receive badges and rewards that you can share with friends. This app definitely does a great job of keeping users engaged in their lessons.

Best of all, this app is completely free to use. If you’d like, you can subscribe monthly to remove ads, download lessons for offline use, and personalize your lessons.

Duolingo interface

The Good:
  • Bite-sized lessons for quick daily learning
  • Gamification makes learning fun
  • The free version is complete with all features
The Not-so-good:
  • Audio recordings don’t sound authentic enough
  • Lack of grammar tips
  • Some sample sentences are nonsensical and impractical.

Available on: iOS, Android

5. Beelinguapp

beelinguapp

Beelinguapp strives to help you learn Spanish by using a reading-based method. Users can read Spanish text with a side-by-side translation in their native language.

The app takes you through a comprehensive tutorial where you can preview all its features and customize your learning experience.

You can read and listen to stories, news, articles, or even song lyrics. Another way to hone your Spanish-speaking skills is to use the app’s large library of audiobooks and music. It features excellent audio resources recorded by native speakers.

The app allows you to create and add words to your own glossary and helps you with their pronunciation. You can highlight words and save them to your glossary as you go through stories. You can also make use of flashcards to revise important lessons.

You can view detailed insights and analytics to review your progress. As you complete tasks, the app rewards you with badges to encourage learning.

While the free version is useful, users can gain full access with a premium subscription. This removes all ads, allows you to track progress, unlocks all languages, and gives you access to unlimited songs.

Beelinguapp interface

The Good:
  • Immersive learning with parallel-text stories
  • Personal glossary to save and review phrases
The Not-so-good:
  • Need the premium version for full functionality
  • May be too advanced for complete beginners

Available on: iOS, Android

6. SpanishDict

SpanishDict

SpanishDict’s primary focus is providing users with high-quality translations. Unlike free online translating services, SpanishDict uses three separate translation tools at once to produce authentic Spanish text.

The app also features beginner-friendly lessons, quizzes, and daily exercises to hone your Spanish skills. It also has a separate section for learning Grammar that covers all the rules in great detail. Articles, conditionals, subjunctives, pronouns, and more; whatever you want to learn about, you can find them here!

The Vocabulary tool allows you to add your own words and create personalized lists. This is very useful for beginners who might want to save and review useful words and phrases.

The Spanish-English dictionary lets users search for new words, find their translations, and view example sentences. The “Conjugation Drill” is yet another useful grammar feature that allows users to create personal quizzes to help revise verb conjugations.

And to add to all of that, there’s another handy feature called “Word of the Day.” Users can view these daily as popup notifications and listen to their pronunciation.

While most features are free, the premium version removes all ads, supports offline learning, and includes phrasebooks.

SpanishDict interface

The Good:
  • Authentic Spanish translations
  • Extensive and accurate Spanish-English dictionary
The Not-so-good:
  • Annoying ads in the free version
  • Less emphasis on

Available on: iOS, Android

7. Busuu

Busuu

Busuu features an expressive user interface that is easy to use and allows for learning Spanish efficiently. It follows CEFR-certified courses to ensure you achieve fluency.

Busuu promises to make learning Spanish a stress-free affair. It does this by helping you create a learning plan starting with just 5 minutes daily. You will get daily reminders as per your schedule to help you continue learning.

The interactive lessons allow you to practice reading, speaking, and writing. You can also listen to audio and record your own via voice-recognition software.

The vocabulary and grammar sections are especially useful. They allow you to add saved words and phrases and analyze your pronunciation. The grammar section goes in-depth into all aspects of Spanish subjunctives, conditionals, pronouns, and tenses.

A unique feature of this app is its Community page. Here, native Spanish and English speakers can interact and help each other learn. This makes learning a new language really interesting, and you get a native’s perspective on the nuances.

You can record mock conversations and get feedback from native speakers. You can also help them learn English or provide feedback on their recorded messages! Oral practice, speech-recognition-based learning, and a focus on Community-connect are Busuu’s strengths.

The premium subscription starts after a 7-day trial. This unlocks all lessons and grammar training. You can also get feedback from native speakers and get a personalized study plan. Finally, once you complete a course, you can get official certificates as proof!

Busuu interface

The Good:
  • Large and active community for live feedback
  • Comprehensive and CEFR-approved learning levels
The Not-so-good:
  • The free version lacks in-depth grammar tools

Available on: iOS, Android

8. HelloTalk

HelloTalk

HelloTalk is a global language exchange app that allows you to practice over 150 different languages with 30 million native speakers worldwide.

The app allows users to find native Spanish-speaking partners and learn through conversations and interactions. This one is for you if you want to boost your speaking skills and converse confidently.

Once you find a partner, you can start chatting via text or video. The chat bar has a number of useful tools that will allow you to have a conversation in Spanish. You can send handy phrases, use an in-built translator, and even add images and doodles.

This community-connect feature also includes Live sessions where multiple users can join an online meeting and have discussions on various topics. You can also join curated classes for a fee.

Apart from this user-connect-based learning, the premium subscription also gives beginners access to Spanish courses. These include texts and audio in both English and Spanish that have interactive dialogues. You can also add vocabulary words to your Favorites, view example sentences, and check grammar.

The ‘Me’ section has great tools like a Spanish-English translator, AI Grammar checker, and notepad. A recent update has also introduced a grammar correction function that supports verb conjugation.

One big downside of HelloTalk is its unrestricted social-media-like networking features. While this can be great for learning Spanish live with another person, there is no user-review feature. You can easily get sidetracked or have unpleasant experiences with online trolls.
Otherwise, HelloTalk is a unique way to learn Spanish and practice your speaking skills with worldwide community members and find local learner-friends.

HelloTalk Spanish lessons; Partner-connect texting; Live sessions

The Good:
  • Live learning with conversational practice
  • Large user base of 30 Million people and support for 150 different languages
  • Spanish translation and grammar-checking tools work well
The Not-so-good:
  • Unregulated user-networking system
  • The free version has limited features
  • Annoying adverts in the free version
  • Messages often don’t get sent

Available on: iOS, Android

9. MosaLingua Spanish

MosaLingua Spanish

MosaLingua promises fast results with just 5 minutes of daily practice. With more than 10 million users, this app advertises itself as beginner friendly. “Only useful content, no wasted time” are some features it aims to provide.

Once you select your goals for learning Spanish and your daily time commitments, you can start learning immediately. MosaLingua uses flashcards and category-specific lessons to ensure you learn what you need to and skips the unnecessary parts.

Using flashcards, you can begin comprehension and pronunciation practice. The app uses listening and repetition to help you learn. It has inbuilt voice recognition software that checks your pronunciation. It also makes users memorize and write in Spanish. At the end of each flashcard, users can “turn the flashcard over” and self-evaluate and review their lessons.

The “Progress” tab has detailed insights into your learning analytics. You can see your progress by category or by level or see a graphical representation of your accumulated skills. It even lets you know how much time you’ve spent learning Spanish in total! The app also allows you to sync and back up your progress data once you sign in via email.

The free version has plenty of lessons and flashcards for basics, but intermediate and advanced students may consider upgrading. Once you subscribe to the Premium version, you get a lot more content, daily reviews, grammar hacks, and full dialogues.

The app is simple and straightforward in its teaching approach and gives users all the tools they need to become proficient in Spanish.

MosaLingua learning categories; Flashcard lessons

The Good:
  • Simple to use and helpful for every level
  • No unnecessary lessons; skips to whatever you want to learn
  • Advanced voice recognition for pronunciation help
The Not-so-good:
  • A lot of content is locked for free users
  • Annoying ads in the free version

Available on: iOS, Android

10. Memrise

Memrise

Memrise uses real-life audio from native Spanish speakers to help you learn the language. You can learn both Latin American and Castilian Spanish using Memrise. They make use of flashcards, interactive quizzes, and memorization techniques.

The quizzes are interactive and let you listen to audio, practice speech, and even learn useful phrases. The gamified quizzes also include Speed Review, Classic Review, and Difficult Words. Each of these categories helps you test and hone your speed and accuracy to make you better at Spanish.

Once you’ve finished the official lessons, you can also complete courses made by other users! This way, you’ll never run out of practice material or learning resources. Once you become fluent yourself, you can create your own courses.

Memrise also uses adaptive difficulty to customize the course for your needs. This makes it friendly for both beginners and advanced users alike.

The best thing about Memrise is that most of its useful language-learning features are entirely free of charge. Users may consider buying a premium subscription for more personalized learning and detailed analysis.

Memrise interface

The Good:
  • The free version is comprehensive
  • User-created courses ensure that you never run out of material
  • Focus on vocabulary retention through memorization
The Not-so-good:
  • Some users may find memorization boring and repetitive
  • User-created courses are prone to errors

Available on: iOS, Android

11. Wlingua

Wlingua

Wlingua aims to teach Spanish via vocabulary-building exercises along with tons of practice questions and review sessions. You can learn both Mexican and Castilian Spanish with this app.

Once you choose your difficulty level (via a placement test), you can start learning right away. The courses include listening, reading, and practicing questions. The lessons are concise and bigger ones are split into sections. The app uses progressive exposure to spread out information over the length of the course. This ensures that new users don’t feel overwhelmed and can focus on one task at a time.

Once you study enough sessions, you can unlock more features like vocabulary review, concepts, readings, and even dialogues in Spanish. These courses range from Beginner all the way up to Upper Intermediate and include 520 lessons.

The app offers a helpful study reminder and weekly goal function that lets you tailor your study schedule as you require.

You can always subscribe to their premium version if you want more features. This allows you to download lessons offline, adaptive reviews, and unlimited access to all content. You can also get diploma certification after completing the intermediate course.

Wlingua interface

The Good:
  • Detailed grammar explanations
  • Separate audio for Mexican and Castilian Spanish
  • Diploma certification for completing the Upper Intermediate course
The Not-so-good:
  • The interface can be slightly confusing at times
  • Some features are locked till you complete a certain number of lessons

Available on: iOS, Android