Looking to learn German, but not happy with hitting the class? No problem. There are plenty of German learning apps that can help you master German incredibly quickly.

In this post, we’ll provide an overview of the top German leaning apps available to try. Find out what makes the best apps to learn German, and which ones you should invest your time in.

Best Language Learning Apps for German

1.  Rosetta Stone – Most Comprehensive German App

The Rosetta Stone app gives students access to one of the most comprehensive German language learning tools on the market.

Its immersive approach to teaching German distinguishes it from other language apps. Unlike other apps that simply translate English words, this one teaches students to connect words with imagery, sound, text, and video.

The lessons are five to ten minutes long, and they include listening, speaking and comprehension exercises to help you master the words and phrases. The aim is to take in as much information as possible without having to learn grammar.

Key Features

• Completely immersive but not intimidating or overwhelming
• Flexible and you can move at your own pace
• Lessons are short and manageable
• Has live and recorded lessons on German culture and grammar

Pricing: A subscription to the Rosetta Stone app costs $36.00 for 3 months. You can also choose a longer subscription and get a discount.

2.  Duolingo – The Best Free Option for Beginners

Duolingo is an entirely free app offering game-like activities to help you learn the basics of grammar, vocabulary and some phrases.

The app provides visuals, auditory, and verbal practice. This helps you to understand German from several different angles. It is a unique type of interaction that gives a better sense of the language.

There is a social element to it as well. You can invite friends to join and have friendly competitions. You can also join clubs and challenge yourself against other people learning German.

Key Features

• Completely free to use
• Offers entire course that covers a wide range of topics
• Designed like a game to make learning fun
• Adapts to you over time

Pricing: It’s completely free to sign up and use Duolingo to learn German, but it is ad-supported. To remove the ads and access additional features, you can subscribe to Duolingo Plus for $6.99 per month.

3.  Memrise – The Best Paid Option for Beginners

Memrise a very popular app which allows you to learn multiple languages through the use of colorful flashcards. You can choose one of the seven German levels and then begin. The flashcards contain both text and images, but also make use of short video clips to improve your listening skills.

Memrise also offers a small number of basic exercises and grammar instruction, but neither of these is particularly comprehensive.

Key Features

• Uses spaced repetition so you’re reviewing older and missed items more than newer and correct ones
• Tons of courses available created by the Memrise team and individual users
• It is flashcard-centric and great for reviewing vocabulary

Pricing: The basic version of the Memrise app is free. However, there is a paid premium version that offers more content and features. The prices are $8.99 per month, $7.50 per month for an annual subscription contract, and a one-time fee of $139.99 for lifetime access.

See this Memrise vs Duolingo comparison.

4.  Drops – Best App to Learn German Vocabulary

Drops is a gamified app aimed at learning German vocabulary. It presents information in quick spurts and is fantastic for word association and visual learners. The app makes German learning fun while still teaching vocab and grammar.

Each day, Drops will remind you to turn 5 minutes of study time into 5 minutes of playtime with the free version. With the premium version, you get unlimited playtime, offline access, and pronunciation listening tests. 

Key Features

• Beautiful app with a sleek design
• Innovative puzzles to keep learning exciting
• Short sessions to avoid overwhelming learners

Pricing: Drops offers a free account that lets you practice German vocabulary for 5 minutes every day. To practice more, access all of the vocabulary lists, and use additional features, you can get a premium account. This starts at $9.99 per month but gets cheaper if you choose a longer subscription.

5.  Pimsleur – Best German App with Audio Lessons

Pimsleur is an American foreign language e-learning service. It’s one of the oldest and biggest names in this market and has been providing people with language learning expertise since 1963.

Pimsleur courses are known as some of the best audio courses for learning to speak a foreign language. Their method includes a question/recall/response technique that is very effective for helping you internalize the basics of a new language.

In each language, there are various “levels” ranging from 1-5 (1 for complete beginner, 5 for expert). Each level contains 30 lessons. You should take these lessons daily (they last around 30 minutes each).

Key Features

• The lessons are audio to help you start speaking fast
• Bite sized lessons full of useful phrases that make it easy to pick up the basics
• Each lesson builds on what you already know
• Take the lessons anywhere you want – at home, in the car, or even while exercising

Pricing: A subscription to the Pimsleur app costs between $14.95 and $19.95 per month. You can also choose to purchase lifetime access to the complete German course, which starts at $150.00.

6.  Busuu – A Good Option for Auditory Learners

Busuu is another great app for improve German speaking and listening.

More than other apps, Busuu encourages you to develop your speaking skills by helping you to practice the language out loud with its speech recognition tool.

The app also has a strong focus on listening to dialogues, and it gets you involved in other learners’ journeys.

The fact that Busuu offers language courses that follows the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) curriculum is probably one of its best features! It makes learning a new language way more structured, less random and allows you to easily switch to a language school if you ever feel the need to attend in-person classes.

Key Features

• Complete course from beginner to conversational
• Fresh and engaging content to improve your communication skills
• Improve your writing skills and speaking skills simultaneously
• Native speakers help you express yourself more naturally

Pricing: Busuu offers a free account that gives you limited access to the German course. To access the entire course and additional features, a subscription starts at $9.99 per month.

7.  Babbel – The Best Paid Option for Advanced Levels

Babbel is another popular language learning course/app with over 1 million users worldwide. Launched 12 years ago, the company uses a team of more than 150 educators, polyglots, editors, researchers, and linguists to develop their content.

Babbel’s most unique trait is that each course is tailored to the student’s language of instruction. This means that if you’re learning German as an English speaker, your lessons will be different than those of a Spanish speaker learning German at the same level.

Babbel’s lessons all follow the same structure throughout the entire course. You’ll learn a few words and phrases, then complete a series of activities to practice using them. Throughout the lessons, you’ll practice reading and writing the words and phrases, as well as listening to them and pronouncing them using Babbel’s speech-recognition technology.

Key Features

• German linguists built the course from scratch
• Practice all communication skills at the same time
• Learn how Germans actually speak so you sound more natural
• Lessons are interactive and engaging to help you remember everything

Pricing: A Babbel subscription costs $12.95 per month, but it gets a lot cheaper if you buy a longer subscription. 

8.  LingQ – Best App to Read German Online

For anyone who has consumed German media and wanted to use those TV shows, YouTube videos, and books to learn more German in a structured manner: LingQ is the app for you.

The app places a focus on learning from content that you find personally interesting. It offers a huge library of content to draw from in a number of different formats such as videos, podcasts, and texts. It also allows users to import anything into LingQ and instantly turn it into an interactive lesson.

Each lesson features a short German text and a listening exercise spoken by native Germans. The lessons are organized into courses, and most of the courses follow a story. Each lesson builds on the story in the previous lesson and introduces new vocabulary.

Key Features

• You can use Netflix, news, ebooks, etc. to learn German
• Tailor lessons to a variety of topics (culture, politics, sports, books, etc.)
• There’s a Grammar Guide to help explain the intricacies of the language
• Has a growing community that constantly adds new lessons

Pricing: LingQ offers both a free and premium account. You can access 5 lessons and look up 20 words with the free account. A premium account costs between $7.99 and $39.99 per month, depending on which features you’d like.

9.  Der Die Das – Best App to Learn German Articles

Der Die Das is an app focused on learning the German articles. It has a very basic interface but fulfils its mission perfectly. Through a search function, you can enter a word to find its gender. The app also features game-like quizzes that reinforce memory of noun genders and associated articles. 

Moreover, there is a grammatical rules page that helps you navigate through the articles and the grammar rules that accompany them. You are also able to listen to how the words are pronounced and can add words to your “favorites.”

Key Features

• Dictionary has over 17,000 words
• Useful rules and guidelines to figure out the article of words
• Games to practice choosing the correct article
• An ideal app for learning German grammar

Pricing: The Der Die Das app is completely free to use. To access additional features, there are purchases available in-app.

10.  Preply – Best German App for Talking to Natives

Preply is a huge platform for finding language tutors online. It connects tutors with language learners for 1:1 video call lesson.

Speaking with natives is one of the best ways to achieve fluency in a language. Preply makes that possible for anybody with any budget.

After signing up, you can choose your tutor based on language, country of origin, specialty (e.g., for beginners or professionals), time availability, and price per hour. Each tutor sets their own price. For a German lesson with a tutor from Germany, the price ranges between 20 and 50 euros.

Key Features

• Search and select high quality online German tutors
• Practice with a native speaker in a laid back and welcoming environment
• Trial lessons with a money-back guarantee are available.
• Tutor rating is based on students’ reviews, so you can be sure they are good at teaching and not passing tests only.

Pricing: Price on Preply is different for every tutor because they set their own Pricings. Rates typically range from around $7.00 to $25.00 per hour. 

11.  Tandem – Best Language Exchange App to Learn German from Native Speakers

Tandem is a language exchange app, that does not provide courses or exercises but instead connects you to another Tandem user, native in German, and with similar interests. The concept is based on chatting, voice messaging, and video calling with native speakers to overcome the fear of speaking German. In exchange, you will teach your mother tongue to your new Tandem partner.

Key Feature

• You can meet strangers from around the world to help you with your German.
• Tandem partners can correct your writing and your speaking.
• You can speak about topics that interest you, and learn about what interests you too!
• Great for immersion and practicing your writing (and speaking!) skills.

Pricing: There is a limited free version of Tandem and a pro version available at $6.99 for one month, $3.99/month for three months, and $2.92/month for a year’s subscription.

12.  MosaLingua – Best App to Learn German Language and Culture

MosaLingua is a comprehensive language program available in both web and app. The teachings and course structures are based on the MosaLearning® method which is scientifically proven to help with language learning.

MosaLingua uses flashcards to teach its students. Each lesson has pieces of vocabulary or expressions for users to memorize. It starts with a listening and repetition exercise where users can record themselves and compare their pronunciation to a native speaker’s. Then it’s time to memorize. MosaLingua displays images of the vocabulary in question, and users try to recall the word before turning the flashcard to see the answer. Lastly, to consolidate everything, there’s a writing exercise. At the end of the lesson, users perform a self-assessment where they tell MosaLingua how well they think they know the words just learned.

Key Features

• Quickly learn essential words and phrases in German
• Easily find tools and resources to immerse yourself in the language
• Create custom vocabulary lists using any website you want
• Excellent quality offered for a low Pricing compared to other apps

Pricing: A subscription to MosaLingua costs $4.99 per month. You can also get a yearly subscription for $59.90.

Best Apps to Learn German – Final Thoughts

You now have a list of fun and goal-oriented learning apps to improve your German skills. This list of best German language apps will help you in every aspect while you are learning German.

You can learn German vocabulary with Drops, Read German Online with LingQ, start speaking with natives with Preply, or learn completely free with Duolingo.

Now you can use your personal smartphone as a portal into the German culture, language and literature.

If the list is missing any apps you might be using, feel free to let us know in the comments and we would be happy to add them here!