Home / Best apps to learn a language / English
Prices and language coverage checked in September 2026.
If you can read this page, you already read English at A2 or better, so this guide is for learners past the first lessons and for anyone choosing an app for a parent, a partner or a child. English has more free material than any other language: 49.5% of the websites whose language W3Techs can detect are in English, against 6.0% in Spanish.
The content is free; what you pay for is structure, feedback and a tool to read and watch with. Cambridge puts B1 at about 350 to 400 guided learning hours and B2 at 500 to 600, and between the two, courses thin out and input, speaking and a tutor take over.
Beginner English content is endless; structured content above B1 is scarce. Duolingo stops at B2, Speak thins out at intermediate level, and 12 of Pimsleur’s 15 English courses stop after 30 lessons. At A2 or B1, spend most of your time listening, reading and speaking.
Most apps are built for English speakers learning other languages, so their English course is a separate product for each base language. Babbel teaches English from 8 languages, Speak from 15, Pimsleur from 15 and Duolingo from 32. Find your language in the course list before you pay.
Duolingo and Pimsleur teach American English, and ELSA scores everyone against it even with a British tutor voice; the big graded reader series and the free sources still publishing (the BBC, the British Council) are British. VOA Learning English, the big free American source, has posted nothing since March 2025. Use the variant of the country or exam you are aiming at, and listen to both.
English is the standard example of a deep orthography: in a 2003 study, English-speaking children lagged far behind children learning 12 other European orthographies in their first year of reading. A written word does not tell you how to say it, so pick apps that play audio beside every text, and check new words on YouGlish.
Paper IELTS is being phased out from mid-2026, and since 21 January 2026 TOEFL iBT scores run from 1 to 6, so older prep material is partly stale. The Duolingo English Test costs US$70 and takes about an hour at home, but Oxford, Cambridge and the Australian student visa do not accept it, and Canada’s immigration programmes want IELTS General Training, CELPIP or PTE Core. For work English, Busuu has a Business English course and Preply has business tutors.
Best free start
The whole English course is free, taught from 32 base languages, and since April 2026 the vendor says it runs to B2 from each of them. It builds a daily habit and basic grammar in short drills, with little long listening or reading.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Beginners, relatives you are choosing for, and anyone who needs a course that costs nothing.
Best structured course
A full English course from A1 to C1 with certificates, from up to 14 interface languages, where native speakers correct what you write and say. It is the structured course we would pick for most learners; check first that your language has it.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B2 learners who want grammar in order and a person checking their sentences.
Best live tutors
Preply lists 45,928 English tutors, exam and business specialists among them, averaging about US$25 an hour for a native speaker and US$23 for a non-native one. Below B1, pick a trained teacher who can explain in your language; from B2, a weekly tutor fixes the mistakes no app catches.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to, and anyone with an exam or a job interview coming.
Best free listening
Short programmes in British English, still published every week: 6 Minute English had a new episode on 17 September 2026. The official app closed on 13 December 2023, so you listen on the site or in a podcast app; store apps with the BBC name belong to third parties.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Daily listening from A2 at no cost, in British English.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of an English book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. Its English shelf has 100 public domain books, none below B1 by our estimate; A2 readers start with the Stories. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 and B1 learners who want real books with their own language under the text, and B2 readers with their own EPUBs.
Best for speaking practice
Speak began as English for Korean speakers and now teaches it from 15 languages, among them Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Vietnamese, Turkish and Spanish. You say a phrase aloud, then use it in an AI roleplay, which gets shy learners talking; the scoring is lenient.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B1 learners whose language is on the list and who freeze when they have to speak.
Best for pronunciation
ELSA scores each sound, the word stress and the intonation, which is finer feedback than any course here gives. It scores everyone against American English, even with the British or Australian tutor voice, so a British accent gets marked down.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 to C1 learners whose accent gets in the way, especially those aiming at American English.
Best for grammar in your own language
Babbel writes a separate English course for each base language, with the grammar explained in that language, and from Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Polish it runs to C1. It does so from only 8 languages: for speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Hindi or Japanese it does not exist.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Speakers of those 8 languages who want grammar explained in their own language.
Best for exam prep
Separate IELTS and TOEFL courses, each with mock tests and AI grading of writing and speaking. The TOEFL course licenses ETS questions and follows the January 2026 format, which older TOEFL material does not.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone with an IELTS or TOEFL date who has used up the free official tests.
Best for video input
Language Reactor shows English subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click, and English is where the videos are. Netflix support has been broken since about 30 June 2026, so for now treat it as a YouTube tool.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up, on a laptop, for people who already watch English YouTube.
Best vocabulary trainer
Free spaced repetition with ready English decks: 4000 Essential English Words (English definitions, images and audio) and the Oxford 5000 split by CEFR level. It is the cheapest way to cover the core words level by level, and it teaches nothing on its own.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Covering the Oxford 5000 level by level, and keeping the words you met in books and lessons.
Both are usable free with ads, so try both for a week and keep the one you open every day: Duolingo for the habit, Busuu for grammar and native corrections. If you speak one of Babbel’s 8 languages, Babbel is the stronger course. The adapted versions of Lingo7’s Stories, for A1 to A2, can sit beside the course, but they are not a course.
Lingo7 + BBC Learning English + Speak
Keep the course going to B1 and add input every day: one 6 Minute English episode, and reading in Lingo7, from its A2 Stories to graded readers you import, then the shelf’s classics at B1. Speak gets you talking if your language is on its list; if it is not, book a Preply tutor once a week.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read the books you choose in Lingo7, watch English YouTube with Language Reactor, and talk about both with a Preply tutor once a week. Add Magoosh for an exam date, ELSA Speak if your accent gets in the way, and Anki for the B2 and C1 words of the Oxford 5000.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for English | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Best free start | A0 to B1 | American English (UK spellings accepted), from 32 base languages, all to B2 since April 2026 | All lessons, with ads | US$10 to 13 a month, US$7 to 10 a month yearly |
| Busuu | Best structured course | A1 to B2 | A1 to C1 with certificates, from up to 14 interface languages; UK and US flags on the course; Business English A2 to C1 | All lessons, with ads | US$10 to 15 a month, US$6 to 12 a month yearly |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 45,928 English tutors, native and non-native, any accent you filter for | None | About US$25 an hour, subscription only |
| BBC Learning English | Best free listening | A2 to C1 | British English, beginner to advanced, 4 podcast feeds updated weekly as of September 2026 | All of it | Free |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | 100 public domain books, none below B1 by our estimate; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in US and UK accents; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Speak | Best for speaking practice | A1 to B1 | English from 15 base languages; no accent choice; strongest from A1 to B1 | 7 day trial | US$18 a month, US$7 a month yearly |
| ELSA Speak | Best for pronunciation | A2 to C1 | Scored against American English only; tutor voices American, British or Australian | A few dozen lessons | US$20 a month, about US$8 a month yearly |
| Babbel | Best for grammar in your own language | A1 to B2 | From 8 base languages only; to C1 from Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese and Polish; speakers from several countries | First lesson per course | About US$9 a month yearly, lifetime US$200 to 300 |
| Magoosh | Best for exam prep | B1 to C1 | IELTS and TOEFL as separate courses; TOEFL updated for the January 2026 format | 7 day trial | US$109 a month, US$129 for 6 months |
| Language Reactor | Best for video input | B1 to C2 | Any English YouTube video with human subtitles; Netflix broken since about June 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
| Anki | Best vocabulary trainer | A1 to C1 | 4000 Essential English Words and Oxford 5000 (A1 to C1) shared decks; the variant depends on the deck | All of it (iOS US$24.99) | Free; iOS US$24.99 once |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of September 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: public domain English books you can open in the app, and short English texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in September 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
For a start, yes, and it is free: the English course runs to B2 from 32 base languages. On its own it is not enough: the lessons are short drills with little long listening or reading, and on a phone free lessons are limited to about 2 or 3 a day. Past A2, add daily listening, reading at your level and a person to talk to.
Start with the free official material: the British Council’s IELTS Ready has a mini mock and 2 full mock tests, and ETS sells a full TOEFL practice test in the 2026 format for US$49. Then Magoosh (US$129 for 6 months) for mock tests and AI grading, and a Preply exam specialist for feedback you can trust. TOEFL changed in January 2026, so use material dated 2026.
Either works. Use the variant of the country or exam you are aiming at in your own speech and writing, and learn to understand both. Most apps teach American English; the free sources still publishing (BBC Learning English, the British Council, Luke’s English Podcast) are British, and VOA Learning English, the big free American one, has posted nothing since March 2025.
Babbel teaches English only from Ukrainian, Polish, German, French, Swedish, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Duolingo teaches it from 32 languages, all to B2, for free; Busuu from up to 14 interface languages; Speak from 15, including Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish and Indonesian. A Preply tutor who speaks your language works for any base language.
Reading grows your vocabulary from about A2, but it will not teach you to speak, and before B1 it is slow on its own. Lingo7, our app, shows an English book with a translation in your language under each sentence, reads it aloud and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. Its English shelf starts at B1 by our estimate, so begin with its Stories or a graded reader. Kindle’s free Word Wise gives English definitions instead of translations.
Read your first page free, in English.