Set your language and goal: the app to start with, the one to add, and what a year costs.
Spanish · speak on a trip · starting out
$149.95 for a yearPremium Annual; billed yearly; checked 2 Nov 2026.
Rehearse spoken replies before using them on a trip.
Spanish (Latin American): Levels 1 to 5. Course details
Skip it if you want to read and write, or want something free: it is audio first, with a 7-day trial.
$0 a year on the free tier.
Keep Duolingo for a free daily vocabulary habit alongside your main practice.
Spanish: up to B2. Course details
Skip it if you want a person to talk to: Duolingo has no tutors, and Max's Video Call is an AI character.
What we don’t know: Duolingo does not say how big its Spanish course is.
Every app that teaches Spanish, compared Pimsleur and Duolingo side by side
Prices checked 6 Sept to 3 Nov 2026 · How we check
Every app with a yearly plan, cheapest first. The apps in your answer are in green. Not on it: Conversation Exchange, DW Learn German, Language Transfer, LingoHut, SignSchool and Speaky, which are free; Anki, Auslearn, BaseLang, Coffee Break French, Coffee Break German, Coffee Break Italian, Coffee Break Spanish, Dreaming Spanish, italki, Lingoda, News in Slow, Novakid, Pingo AI, Pleco, Praktika and Preply, which publish no yearly price in dollars, and Assimil, Endless Spanish, Gus on the Go, Michel Thomas Method, Ouino, Rocket Languages and StoryLearning, bought once rather than by the year.
The yearly planPaying month to month for 12 monthsA price range; the app doesn't say which plan costs whatIncludes lessons with a person
99 apps and 406 published plans compared. The full table, with every plan, free tier and refund term.
Speak on a trip
Busuu$72.99 a year Your languageGrammar explained
Babbel$107.40 a year Your languageA daily habit
DuolingoFree Your languageTalk to real people
TandemFree · paid plan $39.99 a year Your languageRead and listen to real content
LingQ$119.99 a year Your languagePay nothing
ClozemasterFree: up to 30 sentences a day Your languageSpend under $100 a year
Mondly$47.99 a year Your languageLearn by ear, hands-free
Pimsleur$149.95 a year Your languageEvery app, by need: Speaking practice · Tutors and live classes · Spanish tutors · AI conversation · AI for Spanish · Pay once, no subscription · Vocabulary and flashcards · Spanish vocabulary · German vocabulary · Italian vocabulary · French vocabulary · Portuguese vocabulary · Japanese vocabulary · Korean vocabulary · Chinese vocabulary · Audio and hands-free · Spanish by ear · French by ear · German by ear · Italian by ear · Learning from video · Beginners · Older learners · Intermediate Spanish · Travel · Spanish for travel · Japanese for travel · Italian for travel · Children · English for children · Business and teams · English for work · Kana and kanji · Hangul · Chinese characters
Why each app is picked, with what is free and who should skip it · Leaving Duolingo · Every free app
Babbel if you want the grammar explained and a published price; Duolingo if you want a free daily habit.
Rosetta Stone if you will pay $159 a year for a picture-led course with a 14-day money-back guarantee; Duolingo if you are not sure you will stick with it.
Busuu if you want a person to correct you and a course with named levels; Duolingo if you want a free daily habit in any of its 40 languages.
Memrise for real speech and vocabulary once you have the basics; Duolingo to get the basics for free.
Babbel if you want the grammar explained at the lower price; Rosetta Stone if you want immersion, a tutor option and a money-back guarantee.
Preply if you want 50-minute lessons and an average price for your language before you look; italki if you want 30-minute lessons, a placement test and a guaranteed trial.
A course, an audio course and a tutor do different jobs. Start with the kind of practice you need, then compare the apps that offer it.
The five questions that rule apps out fastest, with the yearly and lifetime arithmetic worked out per app.
What "free" means on each app, and what paying removes or adds.
Start from what Duolingo leaves out for you: grammar, speaking, a real person, or staying free.
Monthly against yearly for the months you will really study, and when a lifetime plan pays off.
Start with Duolingo for a free daily habit, Babbel for grammar and dialogues, Pimsleur for spoken practice, or a tutor for live conversation. Choose the one you can fit into a normal week.
A course builds lessons step by step; a vocabulary app helps you remember words; a tutor gives you a live conversation. Pick the kind of practice you need first, then compare its price and free trial.
Because the app does not list that language on its own site. Tutor marketplaces that advertise a very long list are included only for the languages they enumerate. Open the app's page to see its full list.
Every price is checked against each app's own pricing page as a visitor in the United States sees it (or Apple's US App Store, for the few apps that show prices only inside the app), and checked again every week. Each page says under its title when its prices were checked. The full table, with the page behind every row, is downloadable.
