Babbel, Duolingo, Busuu, Mondly and Drops compared for French — ear training from day one, pronunciation checks, vocabulary games and how far the free tiers reach.
French sets a familiar trap for English speakers: shared vocabulary lets you read quickly within weeks, while the pronunciation keeps you stuck just as fast, so sounding out words you recognise becomes the first frustration. An app that trains your ear from lesson one is therefore worth more than one that only rewards reading. The 5 apps in this guide cover the separate jobs involved — structured grammar, daily free practice, human corrections, pronunciation drills and rapid vocabulary — and most learners end up combining a main course with one or two of the smaller tools.
Babbel builds French around real dialogues and explains the grammar in your language, exactly where Duolingo goes quiet.
Babbel's linguist-designed lessons focus on everyday situations and get you speaking from the start, with speech recognition checking pronunciation and, unusually, explanations of French grammar delivered in your own language, so the rules behind the dialogues are never left implicit. That makes it the strongest structured complement to free practice. Full access requires a subscription, it teaches fewer languages than Duolingo, and it is less gamified and therefore less sticky.
Duolingo's French course is among its most complete, and you can study it free indefinitely to build the habit.
Duolingo brings the same gamified system that made it the world's most-used language app: five-minute lessons, streaks, levels and rewards that keep daily French practice low-effort, and its French course is one of the longest and most complete on the platform, usable without a time limit on the free plan. You see ads between lessons, it spends less time on real conversation than Babbel, and the ad-free Super tier is paid.
Busuu follows the CEFR and gets your French writing corrected by native users, feedback no other free app offers.
Busuu pairs structured French lessons in grammar, vocabulary and conversation with a community of French speakers who correct your written exercises, adding personalised study plans and official certificates. The native-speaker layer is its main advantage over purely automated apps. Its best features sit behind Premium, it covers fewer languages than Duolingo, and how quickly you get corrections depends on how active other users are.
Mondly works your French pronunciation with speech recognition and a chatbot, teaching from your own language.
Mondly covers 41 languages and is one of the few apps that teach French directly from your own language instead of routing everything through English. Its short lessons lean on speech recognition to correct pronunciation — the critical skill for French — plus a chatbot for rehearsing basic conversations. Without a subscription you receive only one lesson a day, it offers less grammar depth than Babbel, and lesson quality varies noticeably between language pairs.
Drops drills French vocabulary through pictures in five-minute games, a sharp supplement before a trip.
Drops does one job thoroughly: vocabulary. With illustrations and a drag-the-word game, you memorise French terms in five-minute sessions without reading explanations, which makes it the least boring way to load a few hundred useful words before travelling. It deliberately does not teach grammar or sentence building and cannot make you speak, the free plan caps you at five minutes a day, and it is not enough as a standalone method.
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Questions & answers
What is the best app to learn French from scratch?
Babbel is the strongest choice if the goal is to end up speaking: its early lessons use everyday dialogues and explain the grammar plainly, which prevents the classic trap of knowing isolated words but being unable to build a sentence. Duolingo is the best free alternative for forming the daily habit first.
Can you learn French for free?
Yes, up to a basic-to-intermediate level. Duolingo lets you study French with no time limit at no cost, and Busuu and Mondly give one free lesson a day. What no free app supplies is real conversation practice; for that you need exchanges with native speakers or lessons, even occasional ones.
How long does it take to start speaking French?
With a steady fifteen or twenty minutes a day, most learners reach A2, coping in everyday situations, in roughly six to nine months. A solid B2 usually takes two to three years combining an app with reading and conversation. Daily consistency matters far more than long weekend sessions.
How do I improve my French pronunciation?
It is the hardest skill because of the nasal vowels and the French r, so drill it rather than avoid it. Mondly and Babbel include speech recognition that compares your pronunciation with a native model, and you should add plenty of real listening — radio, series in the original version and podcasts for learners — which no app replaces.
More related apps
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