Alternatives

The best Busuu alternatives in 2026

Updated: October 2, 2026

We make Typeflu, so weigh this accordingly. We checked every app and price on this list on 2 October 2026, and Typeflu is ranked where we think it honestly fits, not first.

Busuu is a good app: a full course from A1 to C1 in 14 languages, an Arabic interface, native speakers who correct your exercises, and McGraw Hill certificates. People still leave it for real reasons. Some hit billing and cancellation problems, which are the most common complaint in its Trustpilot reviews. Some find that community corrections take hours or days to arrive. Others want more free content, live teachers, or a different way to practise. Here are six alternatives, ranked by how well each one replaces what Busuu does, with honest notes on who each one suits.

The picks

1. 1 Duolingo

   Best for

   A free all-round course in many languages, with an Arabic interface

   Price

   Free with limits; Super about $12.99 a month in the US, varies by country

   How you practise

   Short game-like lessons with listening, typing and speaking

   Duolingo is the most direct swap for Busuu if price is the reason you are leaving. Every course is free, the interface works in Arabic and Spanish, and Arabic speakers can learn English, Spanish, Portuguese and seven other languages from Arabic. English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese and several other courses go up to B2. It also covers speaking with speech recognition, and the Duolingo English Test ($70, accepted by thousands of institutions) is a cheap certificate. The downsides: the free plan runs on an energy system that interrupts lessons, it has no human feedback like Busuu's community, it stops at B2 where Busuu reaches C1, and its Portuguese is Brazilian only. See Typeflu vs Duolingo for more.
   Visit site: Duolingo ↗

2. 2 Babbel

   Best for

   Structured lessons with clear grammar, for learners who use an English, Spanish or other European interface

   Price

   First lesson free; from about $8.95 a month on a yearly plan in the US, prices vary

   How you practise

   10 to 15 minute lessons with grammar, speech recognition and spaced review

   Babbel feels the most like Busuu: short, teacher-designed lessons with real grammar explanations, a review trainer, offline lessons and courses mapped to A1 to C1 depending on the language. It adds Babbel Speak, an AI speaking trainer, and Babbel Live, small online classes with teachers for Spanish, German, Italian and French at extra cost. For Spanish speakers learning English it is a strong choice. For Arabic speakers it is not: Babbel has no Arabic interface. Almost nothing is free beyond the first lesson, and its Portuguese is Brazilian.
   Visit site: Babbel ↗

3. 3 italki

   Best for

   Real conversation and feedback from a tutor, in almost any language

   Price

   Pay per lesson: about $4 to $15 an hour with community tutors, $15 to $60 with professional teachers

   How you practise

   One-to-one video lessons with a tutor you choose

   If the best part of Busuu for you was the feedback from native speakers, italki gives you more of it and faster: a tutor who listens to you speak and corrects you on the spot. You pay per lesson with no subscription, and you can filter for tutors who speak Arabic, or for European Portuguese tutors from Portugal. It is not a self-study course, so pair it with an app for daily practice. Quality depends on the tutor, and the cost adds up if you book several lessons a week.
   Visit site: italki ↗

4. 4 Typeflu Made by us

   Best for

   Arabic speakers who read English well but struggle to understand it when spoken

   Price

   Free first lesson of every unit; Pro €7.50 a month or €49 a year in Europe, local prices elsewhere, half price in many countries

   How you practise

   Listen to a full sentence, type it, fix it letter by letter

   Typeflu is our app, and it is not a full Busuu replacement. It does one thing: dictation. You hear a real sentence in a natural voice, type it, and fix your mistakes letter by letter. Each word shows its IPA, meaning and grammar role, and “Explain my mistake” tells you in Arabic why you got it wrong. Mistakes are tagged by Arabic patterns (p and b, missing a or the, is and are) and turned into Weak Spots lessons. The English for Arabic speakers catalog has 31 courses from A1 to B2, including an IELTS prep course with 288 voiced exercises. Arabic speakers can also learn Spanish (A1 to B1) and European Portuguese (A1). The limits are real: no speaking practice, no tutors, no certificates, nothing above B2, only a single A1 English course for Spanish speakers, and it is a web app you install from the browser rather than a store app. Many learners keep Busuu or Duolingo for the course and add Typeflu for listening. See Typeflu vs Busuu.
   Try Typeflu free

5. 5 Memrise

   Best for

   Short daily vocabulary sessions with clips of native speakers

   Price

   Free tier; Pro around $8.99 a month in the US, check their site for your country

   How you practise

   Spaced-repetition vocabulary, native-speaker videos and an AI chat on Pro

   Memrise is good at one part of what Busuu does: getting words and phrases to stick, with videos of real people saying them. The interface comes in 25+ languages, Arabic and Spanish included, and its official courses include Portuguese from both Brazil and Portugal, which is rare. It is thin past beginner level and gives you little sustained listening, so it works best as a light daily habit next to a fuller course.
   Visit site: Memrise ↗

6. 6 Mondly

   Best for

   Arabic speakers who want a beginner app fully in their own language, in many languages

   Price

   Free daily lesson; Premium about $10 to $12 a month in the US, lifetime deals are common

   How you practise

   Gamified phrase lessons with speech recognition and a chatbot

   Mondly teaches 41 languages and lets you learn any of them from any other, including from Arabic. That makes it one of the few ways to study, say, Spanish or French with Arabic instructions. Lessons are short and phrase-based, with speech recognition and a chatbot. It gets shallow past A2 and the drills can feel repetitive, so treat it as a starter, not a Busuu-level course.
   Visit site: Mondly ↗

At a glance

How we chose

We ranked apps by how well they cover what people use Busuu for, and then by who they serve best. Our criteria:

• Depth: how far the course goes (A1 to B2 or beyond) and whether it explains grammar.
• Feedback: whether you get corrections, from people or from the app, on what you write and say.
• Your language: whether the app works in Arabic or Spanish, and which languages it teaches from them.
• Price and free tier: what you can do without paying, and how clear the pricing is. All prices were checked on 2 October 2026 and change by country and store.
• Listening practice: how much real spoken language you work with.

Which one should you pick?

• You want the same kind of course, for free: Duolingo.
• You want the same kind of course with stronger grammar, and you don't need Arabic: Babbel.
• You miss the human feedback: italki, alone or next to an app.
• You can read English but can't follow it when spoken, or you're preparing for IELTS listening: Typeflu, ideally next to a course app.
• You want European Portuguese: Memrise has it with an Arabic interface; Typeflu teaches it from Arabic at A1.
• You want to start a new language with Arabic instructions: Mondly or Duolingo.

Who should skip Typeflu

Skip Typeflu if you need speaking practice, a certificate, a level above B2, or a language other than English, Spanish or European Portuguese. Skip it too if you mostly study hands-free on your commute: it needs you to type. If you are a Spanish speaker learning English, Typeflu currently has only one A1 course for you, so Babbel or Duolingo will give you far more. And if Busuu works for you apart from one annoyance, staying may be the best choice: compare carefully before you switch.

We checked every price and feature on this page on October 2, 2026. Prices change and can differ by country, so confirm on each app's own site before you pay.

Practise it

Build Your Sentences

English from zero: build your sentences

From first words to real conversations

A1 · 6 units · 24 lessons

Español Cotidiano

Everyday Spanish: core words

Home, food, people and time

A1 · 2 units · 8 lessons

Português Essencial

European Portuguese basics

Greetings, introductions and first sentences

A1 · 3 units · 6 lessons