Duolingo, Mondly, LinGo Play and Bilinguae compared for learning Catalan: free courses, vocabulary flashcards, pronunciation drills and what each app lacks.
Catalan has around ten million speakers and is co-official in Catalonia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, yet it remains a rarity in language apps: most big platforms simply do not offer it, and the ones that do give it far less material than their French or German courses. A learner therefore pieces together vocabulary, pronunciation and basic conversation from several smaller tools rather than one complete programme. The 4 apps in this guide are the ones worth that effort, selected for how they complement each other — a gamified daily course, dialogue practice, flashcard drilling and a Catalan-only vocabulary app — rather than for any false promise of fluency from a single download.
Duolingo's free Catalan course is the easiest way to build a daily habit, though it teaches Catalan only from Spanish.
Duolingo is the world's most popular language-learning app, with more than 40 languages and a gamified formula that keeps users coming back: five-minute lessons, streaks, levels and rewards turn study into a low-effort daily game. It is free with ads, with a paid Super tier to remove them, and it is ideal for starting a language or keeping one alive. Two caveats apply specifically to Catalan. The course exists only for Spanish speakers, not English, and it is weaker for real conversation than a structured course such as Babbel. If you already speak Spanish, it is the clear starting point; everyone else should begin with Mondly or LinGo Play.
Mondly teaches Catalan through everyday dialogues with speech recognition, and learns from your own language instead of routing through English.
Mondly covers 41 languages, far more than Babbel or Busuu, which is how Catalan ends up in a polished, mainstream app. Lessons are short and built around real-life dialogues, with speech recognition that corrects your pronunciation and a chatbot for rehearsing basic conversations; unusually, it teaches from your own language rather than forcing everything through English. The limits are the familiar ones for a less-common language: without a subscription you get only one lesson a day, grammar depth is below Babbel's, and lesson quality varies noticeably from language to language. It is the best pick for pronunciation and speaking confidence once Duolingo-style drilling feels too mechanical.
LinGo Play builds everyday Catalan vocabulary quickly with flashcards, spaced repetition and games against other users.
LinGo Play is a vocabulary-and-phrases app covering more than 40 languages, Catalan included. Its method rests on flashcards, spaced repetition and short games played against other users, with everyday words and expressions organised by topic, so a motivated beginner can assemble a practical lexicon fast — and it works from English and other languages, which matters given Duolingo's restriction. What it does not do is teach grammar in any depth: there is no explanation of why forms work the way they do, the free version carries ads, and the Catalan library is thinner than the content for major languages. Treat it as a drilling companion to a course, not a course itself.
Bilinguae is the only app here made solely for Catalan: over 1,000 native-recorded words and phrases, with vocabulary exercises only.
Learn Catalan with Bilinguae is a small, single-language app rather than a polyglot platform, and that focus shows. It contains more than a thousand words and phrases organised by topic, each with audio recorded by native speakers, plus writing and listening exercises around pronunciation — material built for Catalan instead of treating it as one checkbox among dozens. The trade-off is scope. It covers vocabulary and phrases with no grammar teaching, it lacks Duolingo's gamification, so nothing pushes you to return daily, and its small user base means few ratings and little community momentum. Use it as a pronunciation and lexicon supplement once a main course has given you structure.
Pros
Built exclusively around Catalan
Native-speaker audio for every entry
Writing, listening and pronunciation drills
Cons
Vocabulary only, with no grammar
No gamification to enforce daily practice
Small community and few ratings
Download price only. In-app purchases and subscriptions may cost extra.
Questions & answers
Which is the best app to learn Catalan?
Start with Duolingo if you already speak Spanish: the course is free and well structured for building a daily habit. Mondly adds the conversation and pronunciation practice Duolingo skips, and LinGo Play or Bilinguae cover vocabulary drilling. None of these matches the depth the same studios give major languages, so it is worth adding free official resources too — the Generalitat, the Catalan government, runs online courses and conversation groups that round out what the apps miss.
Does Duolingo have a Catalan course?
Yes, but only for Spanish speakers. You cannot take the Catalan course from English or any other base language, so the Duolingo route effectively assumes you already read Spanish comfortably. If your base language is not Spanish, Mondly and LinGo Play both offer Catalan from English and other languages, and Bilinguae works in any language because it is organised around words and audio rather than explanations.
Is Catalan hard to learn?
For Spanish speakers it is one of the most accessible languages possible: it shares most of its vocabulary and sentence structure, so reading comprehension arrives within weeks. The genuinely tricky parts are pronunciation, especially the open and neutral vowels, and some verb conjugations that do not map neatly onto Spanish. French and Italian speakers also start from a close language, while English speakers face more new vocabulary but a grammar that stays comparatively regular.
Are there free apps to learn Catalan?
Yes, with different ceilings. Duolingo is free with ads. LinGo Play and Bilinguae both offer free versions that unlock only part of their content, and Mondly restricts non-subscribers to one lesson a day, with the full course behind a subscription. Beyond app stores, the official online courses run by the Generalitat de Catalunya are free at beginner levels and pair well with any of the four apps in this guide.
More related apps
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