The 4 Best Language Learning Apps of 2025
Top pick
This app employs all of the dirty tricks that social networks and mobile-games companies use—but for the virtuous purpose of helping you learn. The lessons are quick and enjoyable, too.
The best language learning app is the one you’ll actually use. For most people, Duolingo (available for Android and iOS) is that application. It’s downright addictive to use, thanks to its various social and gamification features, and its lessons are the most engaging ones I came across in testing. It’s also the sleekest app I tested—whereas Babbel and Busuu rely on stock photography, Duolingo has a consistent art and animation style.
It gamifies language learning to keep you engaged. Duolingo employs every mobile-game and social-media trick to keep you interested in language learning—and I mean that as a compliment.
The app features leaderboards and unlockable badges, and it regularly emphasizes building and maintaining a streak. That approach, combined with notifications that remind you to practice, really helps to build a habit. It’s hard to overstate how effective this method can be in getting you to do your daily lessons.
The free version is surprisingly generous. Anyone who installs Duolingo immediately has access to almost all of the features that make it great; the only cost is the ads that appear after every lesson.
The main limitation of the free version is the “heart” system (think Legend of Zelda) that limits you to five wrong answers per day. Pay for a subscription, and that limit goes away. This system, along with frequently offered trials of the paid tier, allows you to do a lot of learning without ever spending a dime.
The paid version includes offline lessons and personalized practice. Starting at around $7 per month (or $13 if you pay a month at a time; the pricing also varies a lot), Duolingo’s cheapest paid plan, Super Duolingo, removes the ads and gives you infinite hearts, so you can make more mistakes. It also provides offline lessons, which are perfect for travelers.
Duolingo Max, which starts at around $12 per month, adds AI-powered conversations with the app’s fictional characters. It also offers an AI-powered Explain My Answer feature, which outlines why the last answer you gave is or isn’t correct; that feature in particular adds context to your lessons at moments that otherwise might just be confusing.
Its lessons are engaging and cover a variety of topics. Duolingo’s standard lessons are quick but always combine a number of different skill sets. Each lesson blends talking, listening, reading, and writing in a way that always feels engaging. Sometimes you’re translating from English, for example, while other times you’re recognizing spoken words.
The lessons feature memorable characters. Duolingo’s lessons feature a core group of characters who all have their own personalities and preferences: the always-excited Zari, the sarcastic Lily, and for some reason a talking bear named Falstaff.
These characters all have quirks that you get to know during the lessons, which in my opinion makes learning vocabulary from context just a bit easier.
The app includes an assortment of interactive features. Between the standard lessons are a variety of longer-form activities, including stories, interactive radio shows, and—in the top paid tier—AI conversations with the characters.
These activities not only break up the lessons but also allow you to put your comprehension and speaking skills to the test. In addition, the app has regular reviews that go over specific words and concepts you have struggled with in particular.
In April 2025, Duolingo announced 148 new language courses created with generative AI, more than doubling its current catalog of courses. According to the company, this expansion is part of a broader strategy to become “AI-first,” which aims to introduce new AI-driven initiatives and gradually replace human contractors in favor of AI-powered work.
The newly introduced courses will primarily support beginner-level language learners and include new features like “Stories” to develop reading comprehension and “DuoRadio” for listening comprehension. We haven’t yet tested these new features and will update this guide once we do.
Social features add stakes. Odds are, you already know at least one person who uses Duolingo. Add them as a friend, and the app will regularly assign you Friends Quests with them. The idea is to create social pressure—your friend is counting on you to help them complete the quest. Believe me when I say that this tactic works (and my sincere apologies to friends I have wronged during the testing process).
Flaws but not dealbreakers
- Its gamification is divisive. Many people love Duolingo for its addictive nature, but it isn’t for everyone. Sometimes, for some people, the game-like aspects may even drown out the learning features.
- It lacks conversations with, and feedback from, native speakers. Some of our other picks offer video classes or feedback from other users. Duolingo doesn’t provide any way to talk with other users or practice language with them. Although it has some AI features that allow for basic conversation practice (which we did find interesting), that isn’t really the same thing.
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