Last updated: August 2026. Written by Josh Hutcheson, OnlineCourseing editor. Prices, tutor counts and billing terms verified directly against each provider’s own pages and help centres on 8–9 August 2026. See our review methodology.
QUICK ANSWER
What is the best app to learn English? It depends on what is actually holding you back. If you can read English but freeze when speaking — which is most learners — the answer is not an app at all. It is a tutor, and Preply has the deepest English bench at 33,602 teachers, averaging $25 an hour.
- Best structured course app: Babbel, $8.95/month on the annual plan
- Best free option: Duolingo, for the habit rather than the fluency
- Best for cheap speaking reps: an AI practice app, as a supplement to a tutor
- Skip apps entirely if: you already understand English well. Your problem is output, and only speaking fixes that
BROWSE ENGLISH TUTORS ON PREPLY →
Almost every “best app to learn English” list you will find is published by a company that sells one of the apps on it. That is worth knowing before you read any of them, including this one — so here is our position plainly: OnlineCourseing earns commission from some of the links below, we say which ones, and the recommendations are ordered by what we think will actually work.
English learners are also a specific case. Most people reading this are not starting from zero — you have studied English for years, you can read it, and you still hesitate to speak. That is a different problem from “learn a new language,” and it needs a different tool.
What each option costs, and what it fixes
Before you spend money on the wrong online course, read this.
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| Option | Cost | Fixes |
|---|---|---|
| Preply | ~$25/hr native, ~$24 non-native; 28-day plan | Speaking, accent, exam prep, interview practice |
| italki | $4–$60/hr, pay per lesson | Same, without a subscription |
| Babbel | $8.95/mo on 12 months ($107.40 once) | Grammar gaps, sentence patterns |
| Lingoda | Monthly class packages | Structure, CEFR levels, certificates |
| AI practice apps | Free tiers, paid upgrades | Unlimited low-stakes speaking reps |
| Duolingo | Free core app; paid ad-free tier | Daily habit, basic vocabulary |
Diagnose the problem before you pick a tool
If you cannot follow native speakers at full speed, your bottleneck is listening. Apps help less than volume does: podcasts, series without subtitles, and anything where you hear real English spoken quickly. A course app will not fix an ear.
If you understand but cannot produce, your bottleneck is output, and it is the most common one. No amount of extra input clears it. You need to speak, be corrected, and speak again — which means a tutor, or at minimum an AI partner to take the edge off first.
If your grammar is genuinely shaky, a structured course app is the efficient fix, and this is where Babbel earns its price. But be honest: most learners who say “my grammar is bad” actually have adequate grammar and no speaking practice.
If you need a certificate or an exam score, skip the app tier. You want a structured course with levels and assessment, or a tutor who specialises in your exam.
Preply — the deepest English tutor bench
English is Preply’s largest category by a wide margin: 33,602 English teachers listed at the time of writing. That depth is the actual product. You can filter for a tutor who does IELTS preparation, or job interviews, or reducing a specific first-language accent, and still have hundreds of options.
Rates from Preply’s own directory: native English speakers average $25 an hour, non-native speakers $24. Tutors from the UK average $28, the US $25, Canada $23. The cheapest tier starts around $3.
THE NATIVE-SPEAKER PREMIUM IS A MYTH
$25 against $24 an hour. There is essentially no price gap between native and non-native English tutors on Preply, so paying up for a passport buys you nothing. Many learners do better with a tutor who once learned English themselves and can explain why your first language is pushing you toward a particular mistake. Filter on reviews, qualifications and specialism instead.
Know the billing before you commit. Preply is a subscription charged every 28 days, tied to one tutor, with a minimum of four lessons per cycle. Unscheduled lessons expire at renewal, and trial lessons are paid rather than free. None of that is hidden, but it catches people out. Our full Preply cost breakdown walks through every term.
italki — the same job without the subscription
italki covers the same need and bills on the opposite principle: you buy lessons one at a time, so a month where you book nothing costs nothing. English tutors run $4 to $60 an hour.
Its two-tier split is genuinely useful for English. Professional Teachers are formally qualified and run structured lessons with materials and exam preparation. Community Tutors are fluent speakers without teaching credentials who focus on conversation, and cost noticeably less. The efficient pattern for most English learners is a professional every fortnight for correction, and a cheap community tutor weekly for volume.
Choosing between the two platforms comes down to your calendar, not the teaching: see Preply vs italki for the direct comparison.
Babbel — the best structured course app
If your grammar genuinely has holes, Babbel is the most efficient way to close them. Lessons are built around complete, usable sentences rather than isolated words, and the review system brings material back before you forget it. In the US it costs $8.95 per month on the 12-month plan, billed as $107.40 once; a single month is $17.95. Students pay around $6.28 a month.
Where it falls short for English specifically: Babbel teaches English from a handful of source languages, so the experience is best if your first language is one it supports well. And like every course app, it stops being the constraint once your grammar is adequate — at that point more lessons are procrastination, not progress. Full pricing in our Babbel cost guide.
Lingoda — for levels, structure and certificates
Lingoda runs live small-group English classes with qualified teachers on a CEFR-aligned curriculum, around the clock. It is the option when you need a timetable to make yourself show up, or when you need documented levels rather than a vague sense of improvement — useful for employers and visa processes.
You buy monthly class packages, and the per-class price falls as the package grows. Because the plans change often, current numbers live in our Lingoda cost guide. The trade-off is speaking time: in a group you talk far less than in a one-to-one lesson.
AI speaking practice — the cheap way to get reps
For English specifically, AI conversation apps solve a real and awkward problem: the fear of speaking badly in front of a person. An AI partner will let you make the same mistake fifty times without a flicker of impatience, which is exactly what you need in the weeks before you are ready to book a tutor.
LingChat is one of these — chat with AI characters, with real-time grammar and pronunciation correction, across 60+ languages including English. It runs a free tier with paid upgrades. We are not quoting a price because its published plans currently disagree across sources; check the current rate in-app before subscribing.
Treat this tier as a supplement, not a replacement. An AI will not notice that you have quietly avoided the present perfect for a month, and it will not hold you to anything. If you can afford exactly one paid thing and your goal is to speak English at work, buy tutor hours instead.
Where Duolingo fits
Duolingo is the best habit-builder here and the weakest teacher. The free tier is real, and the streak mechanic genuinely keeps people returning, which matters more than critics allow — a mediocre method you do daily beats an excellent one you abandon.
But translating disconnected sentences does not build the ability to hold a meeting in English, and long streaks routinely coexist with an inability to order lunch. Use it to keep the habit alive between lessons, not as the plan. Duolingo has no affiliate programme, so we earn nothing from this recommendation.
A realistic plan for the next 90 days
Weeks 1–4 — lower the stakes. Daily input you actually enjoy in English, plus AI speaking practice most days. The goal is not accuracy; it is getting used to producing English out loud without freezing. Add Babbel only if grammar is a genuine gap.
Weeks 5–8 — add a person. One tutor lesson a week. Preply if you will hold a weekly slot, italki if your schedule is unpredictable. Tell the tutor your specific goal in the first lesson — “I need to run meetings” produces a very different lesson from “improve my English.”
Weeks 9–12 — shift to output. Two lessons a week, keep the input, drop the course app. This is where progress stops feeling visible even though it is still happening, and it is where most people quit. Push through it and the difference at month six is large.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free app to learn English?
Duolingo, for building a daily habit and basic vocabulary. For genuine comprehension, free English podcasts and video will take you further than any free app, because the constraint at intermediate level is exposure to real speech rather than exercises.
Can I become fluent in English using only an app?
No. Apps are efficient for vocabulary, grammar and comprehension, and poor at spontaneous speech. Fluency is built by speaking with people who correct you. Every learner who gets there adds a tutor, a class or a conversation partner.
How much does an English tutor cost?
On Preply, English tutors average about $25 an hour for native speakers and $24 for non-native speakers, with the cheapest tier starting near $3. On italki the range is $4 to $60 an hour, with community tutors at the lower end.
Do I need a native English speaker as a tutor?
No, and the price data suggests the market agrees: on Preply native speakers average $25 an hour against $24 for non-native speakers. A qualified non-native tutor who learned English themselves can often explain your specific mistakes better, because they made them too.
What is the best app for English speaking practice?
For real practice, a tutor platform beats any app, because correction from a person is what changes your output. If you want unlimited low-pressure reps first, an AI conversation app such as LingChat does that cheaply. Use the AI to get comfortable, then move to a tutor.
Is Babbel good for learning English?
Yes, if you need grammar and sentence structure and your first language is one Babbel supports as a source language. At $8.95 a month on the annual plan it is good value for that job. It will not make you conversational on its own.
The verdict
If you already understand English and freeze when you speak — the position most learners are in — stop shopping for apps. Book a tutor. Preply has the deepest English bench at around $25 an hour, and italki does the same job without a subscription if your schedule is unreliable.
Add Babbel only if grammar is genuinely the gap, use an AI partner for cheap reps while you build the nerve, and keep Duolingo for the habit. The single highest-return decision is not which app you choose. It is how soon you start speaking to someone who will correct you.
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