Buying guide
Free vs paid language apps: what you actually get
"Free" on a language app's pricing page means one of four different things, and the paid tier removes or adds different things in each. This guide lists, app by app and in the vendor's own words, what is free, what the cheapest paid plan costs per month, and what the refund terms are if you pay and regret it.
Links to apps on this page are plain, untracked links to the vendor. This site is funded by affiliate links: if an app's programme is joined, its link will earn a commission at no cost to you and will be listed on the affiliate disclosure page. Commercial relationships never affect order or inclusion; tables sort by price. Affiliate disclosure and how the data is collected.
The four kinds of free
Read the vendor's sentence about its free tier and it falls into one of four shapes. The shape tells you more than the word.
The whole product, with ads or limits
Duolingo, HelloTalk, Tandem, Clozemaster, Busuu, Ling, LingQ, Memrise and Mondly let you use the app indefinitely without paying, and each holds something back. Duolingo describes its free tier as "Full free tier with ads and limits; paid tiers remove ads and limits." HelloTalk states "Free account with ads and daily limits (for example ten translations a day); occasional randomly offered 3-day VIP trials" Clozemaster is the plainest of the group: "Free account with unlimited play; Pro unlocks advanced features" For Busuu the wording is "Free account with limited features; paid tiers remove ads and add review tools.", and for Ling "Free tier with limited lessons and limited dialogue practice, with ads" LingQ publishes exact caps: "Free account capped at 20 saved words and phrases, 5 lessons created from imported content, and 1 audio playlist"
The first lessons only
Babbel, Mango Languages, Rosetta Stone and uTalk give you a sample, not a product. Babbel: "Free account; the first lesson of every course is free, and up to 80 free lessons depending on the language." Rosetta Stone: "Free sample lessons from the site (TRY A LESSON); no ongoing free plan is described on the pricing page." uTalk: "Starter Words, a free 26-word pack in every language, plus an online demo at demo.utalk.com" These are enough to judge the method and the voice of the app, and not enough to learn anything from; price them at the paid rate from day one.
A capped amount of play
Drops is the clearest example of a time cap: "Free access capped at 5 minutes of play every 10 hours, with topics unlocked one at a time through gameplay" A cap like that is generous for a vocabulary app you open once a day, and useless the moment you want to sit down for an hour.
A trial, not a tier
Glossika, Lingvist and Speak state a free trial rather than a lasting free tier, and are counted as "free tier: yes" here only because the vendor's own page describes the free offer that way. Glossika: "7-day full access with no credit card, plus a permanent Freemium tier covering nine minoritized languages" Lingvist: "Free level placement before subscribing, and a 14-day free trial on the annual plan; the monthly plan has no trial" Speak: "7-day free trial; no permanently free tier is published" The 7 apps with no free tier at all sit in the trial and refund table further down; most of them offer a trial in the same way.
What is free, app by app
Every app that states a free tier, sorted by the cheapest published paid price per month at annual billing, with the vendor's own description of what is free beside it.
| App | Type | What the vendor says is free | Cheapest paid, per month at annual | Monthly plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| uTalk | Vocabulary and flashcards | Starter Words, a free 26-word pack in every language, plus an online demo at demo.utalk.com | $2.50 | $4.99 |
| Tandem | Language exchange | Free account with many features; Tandem Pro unlocks the rest | $3.33 | not published |
| Mondly | Course app | Free version with Daily Lessons, the Hello category and a chatbot lesson. | $4 | $9.99 |
| Memrise | Vocabulary and flashcards | Limited free version of the app; the paid plan unlocks the rest. | $5.17 | $24.99 |
| Drops | Vocabulary and flashcards | Free access capped at 5 minutes of play every 10 hours, with topics unlocked one at a time through gameplay | $5.83 | $12.99 |
| Busuu | Course app | Free account with limited features; paid tiers remove ads and add review tools. | $6.08 | not published |
| Clozemaster | Vocabulary and flashcards | Free account with unlimited play; Pro unlocks advanced features | $6.67 | $12.99 |
| HelloTalk | Language exchange | Free account with ads and daily limits (for example ten translations a day); occasional randomly offered 3-day VIP trials | $6.67 | $12.99 |
| Lingvist | Vocabulary and flashcards | Free level placement before subscribing, and a 14-day free trial on the annual plan; the monthly plan has no trial | $6.67 | $9.99 |
| Speak | AI conversation practice | 7-day free trial; no permanently free tier is published | $7 | $17.99 |
| Babbel | Course app | Free account; the first lesson of every course is free, and up to 80 free lessons depending on the language. | $8.95 | $17.99 |
| LingQ | Immersion (video, reading) | Free account capped at 20 saved words and phrases, 5 lessons created from imported content, and 1 audio playlist | $10 | $14.99 |
| Mango Languages | Course app | Free trial on both personal plans; the first lesson of any language is free; 10 endangered and indigenous language courses are free; free full access through participating public libraries | $10 | $13.99 |
| Ling | Course app | Free tier with limited lessons and limited dialogue practice, with ads | $12.50 | $16.99 |
| Rosetta Stone | Course app | Free sample lessons from the site (TRY A LESSON); no ongoing free plan is described on the pricing page. | $13.25 | $19.99 |
| Glossika | Audio course | 7-day full access with no credit card, plus a permanent Freemium tier covering nine minoritized languages | $16.58 | $19.99 |
| Duolingo | Course app | Full free tier with ads and limits; paid tiers remove ads and limits. | not published | not published |
What paying removes and adds
The vendors' own descriptions above name the same handful of things over and over. Paying removes ads (Duolingo, HelloTalk, Busuu, Ling). Paying lifts a cap: daily limits at Duolingo and HelloTalk, the saved-word and lesson caps at LingQ, the play-time cap at Drops. Paying unlocks the rest of the course where the free tier was a sample (Babbel, Memrise, Mango Languages). And paying adds tools the free tier lacks:Busuu names review tools, Clozemaster names "advanced features".
What paying rarely changes is the lessons themselves. For a course app whose free tier is the whole product, the paid plan buys comfort and continuity, not different teaching. That is the honest reason to pay: you will use the app more without ads and caps, and the cost of using it more is what you are comparing. Offline access is the one feature that changes what you can do rather than how pleasant it is; the "Works offline" filter on the full table shows which apps state it.
Free through a library
Mango Languages is the one app in the dataset whose paid product can be had free through an institution. Its own wording: "Free trial on both personal plans; the first lesson of any language is free; 10 endangered and indigenous language courses are free; free full access through participating public libraries" If your public library subscribes, the whole course library is free with your card; the app page's plan table shows what the same access costs when you buy it yourself.
When free is enough
- A daily habit. If the job is ten minutes a day you will actually do, a free tier that is the whole product with ads is the product. Decide later whether the ads bother you enough to pay.
- Vocabulary. Capped or limited free tiers of vocabulary apps cover a daily session; the cap bites only when you want long sessions.
- A conversation partner. Exchange apps are free at their core; the paid tier at Tandem and HelloTalk lifts limits and adds translation and visibility, and does not change who you talk to.
- Deciding whether you like a method. First-lesson samples exist for this. Use them for what they are and do not expect to progress on them.
When to pay, and the cheapest way
Pay when a cap stops you doing the work you sat down to do, when you need offline access, when you want the structured path rather than the sampler, or when you want a person. Then pay the cheapest honest way: the annual plan, per month, is the lowest published figure for nearly every app, and the how-to-choose guide's annual-versus-monthly table shows how much the monthly plan costs on top.
Among the apps with a free tier, the lowest published paid prices per month at annual billing are:
- uTalk, $2.50 a month (vocabulary and flashcards)
- Tandem, $3.33 a month (language exchange)
- Mondly, $4 a month (course app)
- Memrise, $5.17 a month (vocabulary and flashcards)
- Drops, $5.83 a month (vocabulary and flashcards)
Note the kinds in that list. The cheapest paid tiers belong to vocabulary and exchange apps because they are narrow products; a full course app costs more because it is a different thing, not because it is overpriced. Compare within a kind before comparing across kinds.
Trial and refund terms
20 apps publish a trial or refund term; 4 publish none on a page this site could read (Babbel, Busuu, LingQ and Memrise), which is recorded as "not stated" rather than as "no refunds". The wording is the vendor's own. Apps with no free tier are marked, because for them the trial is the only way to look before paying.
| App | Free tier | Trial and refund terms, as published | Cheapest paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| uTalk | Yes | 28-day money-back guarantee | $2.50 |
| Tandem | Yes | Google Play purchases refundable within 14 days of a 1-month subscription or 30 days of a 3-month or 12-month subscription; iOS refunds requested from iTunes within 14 days | $3.33 |
| Mondly | Yes | 7-day free trial | $4 |
| Drops | Yes | 7-day free trial on the Yearly plan; affiliate terms reference a 14-day refund period | $5.83 |
| Clozemaster | Yes | 30-day money back guarantee on the Yearly plan; no refunds on Monthly plans | $6.67 |
| HelloTalk | Yes | Occasional randomly offered 3-day free VIP trial; refunds handled by Apple or Google for in-app purchases | $6.67 |
| Lingvist | Yes | 14-day free trial on the annual plan; cancel before it ends and you are not charged | $6.67 |
| Speak | Yes | 7-day free trial; refunds for App Store and Google Play purchases go through Apple or Google, and website purchases through Speak support | $7 |
| Mango Languages | Yes | Free trial on Individual and Family plans; cancel before it ends and you are not charged | $10 |
| Cambly | No | $1 trial lesson; 7-day money-back guarantee on a first plan; after that, cancel any time and pay only for days used, with long-term discounts forfeited on early cancellation | $12 |
| Ling | Yes | 7-day free trial on the 12-month plan; 30-day money-back refund for yearly and lifetime subscriptions bought via Ling web (app-store purchases follow Apple's or Google's refund policy) | $12.50 |
| Rosetta Stone | Yes | 14-day money-back guarantee | $13.25 |
| Pimsleur | No | 7-day free trial on subscriptions; 30 Day money back guarantee on purchases | $13.75 |
| Lingopie | No | 7-day free trial; yearly subscription is charged after the trial and cannot be refunded | $13.98 |
| Glossika | Yes | 7-day free trial with no credit card; monthly payments are non-refundable, annual plans refundable pro rata within 60 days of purchase | $16.58 |
| FluentU | No | 14-day free trial with no payment up front, plus a 20-day money-back guarantee | $20 |
| Duolingo | Yes | 1 week free trial on Super | not published |
| italki | No | Discounted trial lesson with a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee: up to two credit refunds on trial lessons if the teacher did not show up or did not meet expectations, requested within 48 hours | not published per lesson |
| Lingoda | Not stated | Free 7-day trial | €54.99, Group classes, 4 classes |
| Preply | No | Paid trial lesson; up to 2 free trial replacements per account if the trial did not meet expectations or the tutor did not attend | $3 to $50 per lesson |
Three shapes recur. A free trial that converts to a paid plan unless you cancel, which is the common one and the one that catches people. A money-back window, which several vendors limit to annual plans and deny on monthly plans. And refunds handled by Apple or Google, which means the vendor's own generosity does not apply if you bought inside the app store. Where you buy matters as much as what you buy: the same subscription can be refundable on the web and not on your phone.
Questions people ask
Is any language app completely free with no catch?
The apps whose free tier is the whole product all limit it somehow: ads, a daily cap on some action, or features held back for the paid plan. The vendor's own wording is in the first table; Mango Languages is the one case where full paid access can be free, through a participating library.
Does the paid plan make the lessons better?
Usually not. In most course apps the lessons are the same on the free and paid tiers; paying removes ads and caps and adds tools such as offline downloads or review sessions. The exceptions are apps whose free tier is a sample, where the paid plan is the course itself.
What is the cheapest way to pay?
The annual plan, per month, is the cheapest published figure for almost every app; the monthly plan is priced higher to push you to commit. A lifetime plan can beat both after its break-even, which the how-to-choose guide calculates per app.
Can I get a refund if I pay for a year and stop?
It depends on the vendor and on where you bought it. Several vendors publish a money-back window on annual plans; some publish none; purchases made through Apple or Google follow those stores' rules. The trial and refund table on this page quotes what each vendor states.
Is a free trial the same as a free tier?
No. A free tier stays free; a trial ends and, in most apps, converts to a paid plan unless you cancel. The tables here keep the two apart: an app whose only free offer is a trial is listed as having no free tier, with the trial wording in the refund column.