The 10 best apps for learning Spanish

Why invest in language courses when free mobile apps can teach you to speak fluent Spanish?

A few weeks ago, the Generation Voyage editorial team was invited to the wedding of a friend living in Alicante, Spain. Naturally, we jumped at the chance to visit this country renowned for boasting the best beach in Europe. With only the magnificent beach lining the Spanish coastal town in mind, we were quickly disillusioned once we got there when we realized that, to walk the streets of Alicante, Spanish was a must; it’s rare to find locals fluent in French.

Back in France and after a few more or less abject failures at courtship, we logically decided to start taking Spanish lessons, in anticipation of a possible summer trip to our Basque neighbor.

In the spirit of sharing with you the apps we’re currently using, here’s our ranking of the 10 best apps for learning Spanish!

1. Babbel

Our top/flop:

👍: its personalized learning

👎: the lack of a community

Babbel was founded in 2007, and has become one of the leaders in the online learning of Spanish and 15 other languages. Easy to use, it promises specialized learning based on your selection criteria. So whether you’re looking to travel to Latin America, or for professional reasons, this application is sure to meet your expectations!

With its playful interface, Babbel is gaining in popularity year after year, and offers two training modules: vocabulary and tools. Whether you have a basic or advanced level of Spanish, Babbel’s mission is to make you perfectly bilingual.

To achieve this, the application usesinteractive activities based on oral and written exercises, and a very simple method reminiscent of the translator of yesteryear: a word in French and its translation into Spanish.

The only drawback is that, although Babbel is a very complete application, it does not come free. You’ll have to pay around €5 a month for a year’s subscription, or €7.5 a month for a 6-month subscription.

2. MosaLingua

Our top/flop:

👍: its scientific method

👎: its lack of diversification

MosaLingua is a behemoth of an app for learning Spanish, as it is for other foreign languages. In fact, this small, multi-platform application teaches using a scientifically proven method: spaced repetition. The app’s mission is to help you memorize words through vocabulary exercises.

To do this, MosaLingua uses some 3,000 cards containing key words and phrases, which are unexpectedly repeated as you progress through the levels, to help you memorize as many words as possible.

For this application, you’ll have to pay €9.99 per month, or opt for the 12-month package at €59. 99 (or €4.99 per month)!

3. Mondly

Our top/flop:

👍: its very intuitive chatbot

👎 : its repetitive side

In just a few years, Mondly has become one of the true benchmark apps for learning a new language! Designed in 2013, the app is already complete for 33 languages.

The real advantage of Mondly is that it perfectly blends Babbel’s learning method with that of Duolingo, while offering its own features! Here, you’ll learn your listening and reading skills, vocabulary and grammar.

What’s more, you can choose the context in which you want to learn Spanish. Whether you’re going on vacation, learning for work or simply improving your skills, the choice is yours! The app’s real plus is its intuitive chatbot, which will guide you through the learning process.

Prices range from €9. 99 for a month to €47. 99 for a year. The application also offers numerous deals throughout the year. Alternatively, you can opt for the « lifetime subscription » version, at €60, so you never have to spend another cent.

4. FluentU

Our top/flop:

👍: podcasts and innovation

👎 : its exacerbated price

FluentU is the most up-to-the-minute application in our ranking. In fact, it breaks with learning codes by simply proposing to learn Spanish through podcasts and other digital information formats. This makes it the most original application in our ranking.

FluentU offers a wide range of tools, from videos on rather vulgar subjects such as music videos, to more straightforward ones such as news and commercials. This type of training addresses one of the problems of language learning. Indeed, after days and days of learning, when you’re put into a real-life situation, you’re rarely left blank during the conversation phases.

To help you along step by step, each video has a detailed script in English and Spanish, so you’ll know which term means this or that. The only downside is that, in keeping with the times, the application comes at a price: only the first two weeks of use are free, after which you’ll have to pay €15 a month or €120 a year to continue using it.

5. Busuu

Our top/flop:

👍: perfect for learning vocabulary

👎: the false hope of freemium

Busuu has also made its mark on the language-learning landscape. Weighing in at just a few megabytes, this application offers school-like lessons in vocabulary and grammar, dialogues in story format and audio documents to help you understand the phonetics of words.

As was the case with its English version, here too 150 topics are covered in 3,000 unique sentences to read and listen to. Whether it’s about everyday life or more serious, professional topics, Busuu is the ideal companion tool for Duolingo, even if intermediate learners can use it to perfect their knowledge.

The downside is a minor disappointment… Initially free for the first few lessons, the application then becomes a paying application! On the other hand, the application is quite economical, costing just €34. 99 per year for the premium version!

For the premium plus version, you’ll have to pay around €6.50 per month. But don’t worry, the application often offers attractive deals…

6. Memrise

Our top/flop:

👍: its user community

👎: its lack of diversity

Summer is just around the corner, and vacations are the perfect time to travel, visit new places, learn new languages and make new friends. Memrise is an application that will help you learn Spanish with ease. In fact, Memrise is a learning tool based on vocabulary cards that you’ll need to memorize little by little by repeating them at certain intervals.

These maps are created and enriched by the user community. If you’d like to take your training to the next level, a range of paid subscriptions is also available.

A basic version is free. For advanced use, three subscriptions are available: monthly($8.99), quarterly($18.99) and annual($45.99).

7. Duolingo

Our top/flop:

👍: the app is 100% free

👎: the fun aspect is too present

Duolingo is a must-have application in the world of language learning. Whether it’s Spanish or another of your favorite languages, Duolingo is the Swiss army knife of language learning. Once installed on your smartphone, the application defaults to French, and uses fun little games to teach you the language of your choice, which in this case is Spanish.

This will give you the opportunity to improve your vocabulary, conjugation and grammar, punctuation and listening comprehension.

Well-structured, the learning process evolves gradually as you complete the missions assigned to you within the application. The level of difficulty increases proportionally. This method will help you understand the most difficult Spanish terms in the shortest possible time.

Completely free of charge (no in-app purchases), Duolingo also features a saving tool that makes it easy to learn on a variety of media. In fact, you can start an exercise on your tablet and finish it on your smartphone, regardless of the operating system installed on the terminal.

8. Tandem

Our top/flop:

👍: the perfect app for learning and meeting people

👎: it’s easy to accumulate too many conversations and lose track

Here’s an application that’s quite different from all the others you’ve come across so far! Here, you enter the languages you already know, then the ones you’d like to learn. Then you enter some of your interests, the topics you like to discuss in your daily life.

Finally, Tandem will match you with profiles of people who want to learn your language, and who are fluent in the language you want to learn. The advantage here is that you’ll be able to chat with people from all over the world, and share your cultural differences.

Completely free of charge, Tandem is a real opportunity to learn a language while (virtually) meeting new people. You’ll be both student and teacher, in a relaxed, studious atmosphere.

9. MindSnacks

Our top/flop:

👍: perfect application for children

👎: the limited quality of its exercises

MindSnacks is an application for people of all ages. Whether you’re 6 or 8, 9 or 11, 12 or older, there’s something for everyone. The application takes the form of a game in which you can learn Spanish, read and speak.

The app offers a total of 24 challenges to win, based on 50 lessons to master and a pool of 1,500 words to remember to improve your Spanish. Developed by an American start-up based in San Francisco, MindSnacks offers real brain gymnastics for a good cause!

And to top it all off, the application is 100% free!

10. Nemo Spanish

Our top/flop:

👍: perfect for improving your basics

👎: avoid if you’re just starting out

Aimed above all at users who already have some knowledge of Spanish, Nemo Espagnol will help you perfect your use of the neighboring language. Multi-platform, the application offers audio features to perfect your accent with the help of recordings.

It’s also designed for those planning a trip to Spain in the near future, to get to grips with pronunciation as quickly as possible.