There's no single best app to learn French. There's a best app for what you want French for: a daily habit, a structured course, speaking in real situations, or feedback from actual French speakers. This comparison looks at six good apps to learn French, what each one does well, where it falls short, and how you pay.
A disclosure first: I built PrettyFluent, after two decades of living across Asia and Europe and trying nearly every kind of language learning resource along the way: school, classes, apps, podcasts, worksheets, and language meetups. For what it's worth, none of these apps is how I learned French: that was a French girlfriend, actually using the language and living in Bordeaux. But not everyone has that option, and a good app gets you much further before you do. I've included PrettyFluent because it's the right choice for a specific kind of learner, and I say plainly below where the others are the better pick. Features and pricing were checked on each company's own website on the date at the top of this page; prices vary by country and change often, so follow the links for current figures.
The short answer
| If you want... | Pick |
|---|---|
| A free, gamified daily habit | Duolingo |
| A structured course with grammar explained | Babbel |
| To learn by listening | Pimsleur |
| Corrections from native French speakers | Busuu |
| Real conversation with a person | italki |
| To handle specific real-life situations (the café, the landlord, the school gate) | PrettyFluent |
Duolingo: best free way to build a habit
Duolingo's free plan is the most generous way to start French for nothing, and its streaks and short lessons are good at getting people to open the app every day. The paid Super Duolingo plan removes ads, gives unlimited hearts (so mistakes don't stop you) and adds a personalised practice hub. Duolingo Max adds AI features on top, including roleplay chats and a video-call-style conversation practice, on iOS and Android.
Falls short on: most exercises are recognising, matching and translating sentences, and the sentences don't always come from situations you'll face. A long streak doesn't necessarily mean you can hold a conversation.
Choose it if: you're starting from zero, want to spend nothing, and need something that keeps you coming back.
Babbel: best structured course
Babbel is the closest thing to a traditional course in an app. Lessons take about 10–15 minutes, are built around real situations like ordering food or introducing yourself, and explain grammar as they go. Speaking exercises use speech recognition for pronunciation feedback. For extra cost, Babbel Live adds live classes with teachers. It's a subscription, and you can try the first lesson of each course free.
Falls short on: speaking is practised in short exercises rather than open conversation, and the paid plan is needed for almost everything.
Choose it if: you want to actually understand how French works, in a clear order, and are happy to pay for it.
Pimsleur: best for learning by ear
Pimsleur's French course is audio-first: 30-minute lessons where you listen, respond out loud and get prompted to recall words at spaced intervals. It covers five levels of Parisian French, and the app adds reading lessons, flashcards and an AI voice coach. It works hands-free, including in the car. There's a 7-day free trial, then a subscription for one language or an All Access plan for all of them.
Falls short on: it's slow if you want to read and write, and 30 minutes is a real commitment each day.
Choose it if: you commute or walk a lot and want to be speaking and understanding from the first lesson.
Busuu: best for native-speaker feedback
Busuu combines structured lessons with a community feature most apps lack: you submit written or spoken exercises and native French speakers correct them. Free users can send a limited number; Premium removes the limit and moves you up the queue for feedback.
Falls short on: corrections depend on community volunteers, so quality varies; the lessons themselves are fairly conventional.
Choose it if: you want real people telling you what sounds natural, without paying for a tutor.
italki: best for real conversation
italki isn't a course; it's a marketplace for one-to-one video lessons with French tutors, paid per lesson. On its own French page, prices range from about $4 to $60 an hour depending on the tutor, and many tutors offer discounted trial lessons.
Falls short on: it's only as good as the tutor you pick, costs add up with regular lessons, and you need to schedule them.
Choose it if: you want to talk to a real person, especially once you have the basics. Nothing beats it for conversation practice.
PrettyFluent (ours): best for specific real-life situations
PrettyFluent teaches French through the situations you'll actually be in: greeting people, ordering at a café, booking a restaurant, talking to your landlord, chatting at the school gate. Each lesson gives you the phrases with native audio, then you practise the whole conversation as a spoken roleplay until it's automatic, with spaced repetition to keep it. If a situation you need isn't there yet, you can request it.
Pricing: buying on the web is cheapest, with subscriptions from $8.99 a month or lifetime access from $159.99. In the App Store it's $13.95 a month, $27.99 a quarter or $89.99 a year. You can try the lesson content free on this site before paying.
Falls short on: it isn't a complete French course. It won't take you through grammar systematically or prepare you for an exam, and it's currently iPhone and iPad only (App Store).
Choose it if: you're moving to France or travelling there and want to handle specific conversations soon, rather than slowly work through a curriculum. It pairs well with Babbel for structure or italki for open conversation.
Side by side
| App | Best for | Speaking practice | How you pay | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Daily habit | Short exercises; AI roleplay in Max | Free, or Super / Max subscription | Yes, full course |
| Babbel | Structured course | Speech recognition exercises; paid live classes | Subscription | First lesson of each course |
| Pimsleur | Learning by ear | Core of the method: you answer out loud | Subscription | 7-day trial |
| Busuu | Native-speaker feedback | Spoken exercises corrected by the community | Free, or Premium subscription | Yes, with limits |
| italki | Conversation with a person | Live lessons | Pay per lesson | Discounted trial lessons |
| PrettyFluent | Real-life situations | Spoken roleplay of whole conversations | Subscription from $8.99/mo on the web ($13.95/mo in the App Store), or lifetime | Lesson content free on the web |
Which is the best conversational French app?
If your goal is conversation, rank them by how much you actually speak. italki gives you the most real speaking, with a person. Pimsleur and PrettyFluent build speaking into every lesson, in different ways: Pimsleur by prompting you through audio drills, PrettyFluent by rehearsing complete real-life conversations. Babbel and Duolingo Max include speaking, but it isn't the centre of the experience.
Whichever you pick, combining two usually beats searching for one perfect app: a structured course (Babbel or Duolingo) for the foundations, plus something that gets you speaking (italki, Pimsleur or PrettyFluent). For the conversations themselves, start with our French conversation for beginners and French phrases for tourists guides.
