Best apps

The best app to learn English for Arabic speakers in 2026

Updated: October 2, 2026

We make Typeflu, so weigh this accordingly. We checked prices and features on 2 October 2026, and we say so plainly when another app is the better choice.

Most Arabic speakers looking for the best app to learn English want three things: explanations in Arabic, a clear path from beginner to a useful level, and something they will actually open every day. No single app does all of that well. Below are the seven apps we would recommend to a friend from Cairo, Riyadh, Amman or Casablanca, ranked by how well they fit an Arabic speaker learning English in 2026, with who each one suits and where it falls short.

The picks

1. 1 Duolingo

   Best for

   Free daily practice for beginners, fully in Arabic

   Price

   Free with limits (energy system and ads). Super from about $12.99 a month in the US; local prices vary.

   How you practise

   Short game-like lessons: tap, type, listen and speak

   Duolingo is the default answer for a reason. English from Arabic is one of its largest courses, with close to 20 million learners, and every lesson is free. You get listening, reading, word tiles, some typing and speaking with speech recognition, wrapped in streaks and leagues that keep you coming back. The English course goes up to about B2, and the Duolingo English Test ($70, taken online in about an hour) is accepted by more than 6,000 institutions, a real advantage if you need a certificate. The downsides: the free app cuts sessions short with its energy system, grammar explanations are thin unless you pay for Max, and plenty of learners keep a long streak without being able to follow real speech. Use it as your daily base and add something deeper for listening or grammar.
   Visit site: Duolingo ↗

2. 2 Typeflu Made by us

   Best for

   Listening, spelling and IELTS prep, with coaching in Arabic

   Price

   First lesson of every unit free. Pro is €7.50 a month or €49 a year in Europe, local prices elsewhere, half price in many countries.

   How you practise

   Listen to a real sentence, type it, fix mistakes letter by letter

   Typeflu is our app, so read this with that in mind. It is built around one exercise: you hear a natural sentence, type it word by word and correct it letter by letter (on phones, early lessons use word tiles). That trains what most Arabic speakers find hardest: catching every word at native speed and spelling it right. English for Arabic speakers is the deepest part of Typeflu: 31 courses from A1 to B2, covering everyday words, daily life, travel, work, tenses, job interviews and emails, B2 argument and register, plus a 6-unit IELTS course with 288 voiced exercises. Mistakes are tagged by patterns typical of Arabic speakers (p and b, missing a and the, is and are), and one tap explains in Arabic why your answer was wrong. The limits are real: no speaking or pronunciation scoring, no live tutors, no certificates, and it is a web app you install from the browser, not a store app. It also needs your eyes and fingers, so it is not for the car.
   Try Typeflu free

3. 3 Busuu

   Best for

   A full course from A1 to C1 with corrections from native speakers

   Price

   Free basic plan. Premium from about $70 a year; Premium Plus costs more. Prices vary by country and store.

   How you practise

   Structured lessons, grammar tips, community corrections, AI conversation (Premium Plus)

   Busuu has an Arabic interface and teaches English from A1 to C1, further than most apps here. Its standout feature is the community: native speakers correct the sentences you write and record, which no other app on this list offers. Premium adds offline lessons and McGraw Hill certificates, and Premium Plus adds AI conversations and pronunciation feedback. Busuu is the better choice than Typeflu if you want one structured course that also gets you speaking and ends with a certificate. Two cautions: many Trustpilot reviews complain about renewals and refunds, so note your renewal date, and community corrections can take hours or days to arrive.
   Visit site: Busuu ↗

4. 4 Mondly

   Best for

   Absolute beginners who want every instruction in Arabic

   Price

   Free daily lesson. Premium lists at about $9.99 a month or $47.99 a year; lifetime deals are frequent.

   How you practise

   Phrase-based lessons with speech recognition and a chatbot

   Mondly lets you learn any of its 41 languages from any other, so the whole English course runs from Arabic. Lessons are short and built around useful phrases, with speech recognition to get you saying them out loud and a chatbot for simple conversations. It is a gentle first step if Duolingo feels too much like a game. It gets shallow after about A2 and the drills repeat, so plan to move on once you can handle basic conversations.
   Visit site: Mondly ↗

5. 5 Fasih

   Best for

   Learners who want explanations written for Arabic speakers, without a subscription

   Price

   One-time unlock, no subscription. Check the App Store for the price in your country.

   How you practise

   Six paths: conversations, vocabulary, listening, grammar, pronunciation, foundations

   Fasih (فصيح) is made for Arabic speakers from the ground up. The explanations are written in Arabic rather than translated, the app is organised into six paths from foundations to conversation, and it includes on-device pronunciation practice. You pay once instead of subscribing, which many learners prefer. We could only confirm it on the App Store, so Android users should search Google Play before counting on it. Read the listing and recent reviews before you unlock it.
   Visit site: Fasih ↗

6. 6 British Council LearnEnglish

   Best for

   Free, trustworthy extra practice sorted by level

   Price

   Free (10,000+ activities). Paid courses, tutoring and IELTS courses are extra.

   How you practise

   Listening, reading, grammar and vocabulary activities by CEFR level, plus free apps

   LearnEnglish from the British Council is one of the best free resources in English teaching: more than 10,000 activities from A1 to C1, a free level test, business English, and free apps such as LearnEnglish Podcasts and Sounds Right for pronunciation. We did not find an Arabic interface, so it suits you best once you can follow simple English instructions. There is no adaptive path and no feedback on your own work: you decide what to do next. Use it next to an app, not instead of one.
   Visit site: British Council LearnEnglish ↗

7. 7 Pimsleur

   Best for

   Speaking out loud, hands-free, on the commute

   Price

   Free first lesson. Subscriptions about $20 a month in the US; one-off courses cost more.

   How you practise

   30-minute audio lessons: listen, then answer out loud

   Pimsleur is the pick if your main goal is to start speaking and you have time in the car or on the bus. Each 30-minute lesson asks you to answer out loud and brings words back at spaced intervals. Pimsleur sells many versions of English for speakers of other languages, and a Level 1 English course for Arabic speakers, with instructions in Arabic, appears in its catalogue; check that it is in the app in your country before you subscribe. It is expensive, almost entirely audio (little reading or writing), and the English course for Arabic speakers stops early. Where it clearly beats Typeflu: you can do it with your hands on the wheel.
   Visit site: Pimsleur ↗

At a glance

How we chose

We looked for apps that an Arabic speaker can start with today and keep using for months. We tested what is free, read official pages and App Store listings, and used 2026 reviews where official prices were hidden. We ranked on:

• Arabic support: an Arabic interface, or explanations written in Arabic.
• Depth: how far the app can take you, from A1 to B2 or beyond.
• Real listening: natural speech at normal speed, not only single words.
• Speaking: whether you get to say things out loud and receive feedback.
• Price and the free tier: what you can do without paying, and what a year costs.

Prices change by country, store and season. Treat every number here as a rough guide and check the app's own pricing page before you pay.

Also worth knowing

• Memrise has an Arabic interface and short vocabulary sessions with clips of native speakers. Good for words, thin past beginner level.
• Clozemaster offers English from Arabic as fill-in-the-gap sentences. Useful at intermediate level for vocabulary in context, not for starting from zero.
• Daily Dictation is a free website with 1,000+ English dictation exercises, including IELTS, TOEFL and TOEIC listening sections. The interface is English only and there is no course, so it suits B1 learners and up. See our Typeflu vs Daily Dictation page.
• YouType is a listen-and-type English app with an Arabic interface, free during its Early Access and then $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year. It works best with a physical keyboard. See Typeflu vs YouType.
• We left out Kaleela, which teaches Arabic to non-Arabs, and Hello English, which is built for speakers of Indian languages.

Which one should you pick?

• Pick Duolingo if you want to start free today and build a daily habit.
• Pick Typeflu if you understand written English better than spoken English, keep mixing up words you hear, or are preparing for IELTS Listening.
• Pick Busuu if you want one structured course to C1, human corrections and a certificate.
• Pick Mondly if you are a complete beginner and want every instruction in Arabic.
• Pick Fasih if you prefer to pay once and want explanations written by people who know Arabic learners.
• Pick Pimsleur if speaking is your goal and you learn best while driving or walking.

Who should skip Typeflu

• You mainly want to practise speaking or fix your accent. Typeflu does not score pronunciation.
• You need a certificate. Busuu offers one, and the Duolingo English Test is widely accepted.
• You learn on the move. Typing needs your attention, so audio apps like Pimsleur fit a commute better.
• You want a live teacher. Typeflu has no tutors.
• You are under 13. Typeflu is for learners aged 13 and up.

A combination that works

Many learners get the best results by mixing two tools: a broad course such as Duolingo or Busuu for vocabulary, grammar and speaking, and 10 to 15 minutes a day of typing what you hear in Typeflu to train your ear and your spelling. If p and b are a problem for you, start with our guide to p and b for Arabic speakers (in Arabic). Preparing for the exam? Look at the IELTS course and our IELTS listening dictation guide (in Arabic).

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.

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