Do you want to connect with 75 million people who speak Korean?

Do you want to travel to Korea without stress?

Do you want to understand Korean when watching Korean drama?

Do you need to work or study in Korea?

So, you decided to learn Korean, amazing!! In this article, we’ll be talking about the best Korean learning apps that serve different purposes, enabling you to learn Korean merrily anytime and anywhere.

Best Apps to Learn Korean (Free & Paid)

1. LingoDeer

Price: Basic (free), Premium ($11.99/month)

Best for: Beginners who want to understand the rules of Korean alphabet and grammar

LingoDeer is one of the highest-rated as well as the best app to learn Korean.

It teaches alphabet, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. There are tons of exercises and lessons on the app for you that ought to improve your learning, reading, speaking, and writing skills. From beginner to advanced level, everything has been covered firmly. Over 2,000 most frequently used words and phrases are mentioned in the lessons.

👍Key Features

• Course is easy to follow and lessons are interactive and engaging
• Grammar explanations are clear and concise
• Lessons are the perfect length
• All audio is from native speakers to improve your comprehension

2. Teuida

Price: The first lesson of every chapter on Teuida is free; a subscription ($9.99/month) is required for access to the full app.

Best for: Speaking and listening practice in common situations

Teuida is a Korean learning app that is speaking based. The creators believe that the best way to learn Korean is to actually get practice speaking. 

You’ll first learn essential speaking phrases through video lessons taught by Korean teachers. The emphasis in these videos is on learning how to produce the spoken phrase rather than writing or grammar, but there are some basic grammar explanations.

Also, the app seems catered to Kpop fans wishing to learn Korean, as not only one of the first lessons is “Expressing love to your Kpop bias”, but the first speaking exercises are done with no one other that Nancy from Kpop group Momoland! 

👍Key Features

• Bite-sized lectures with speaking exercises
• Practice speaking in everyday situations
• A.I. pronunciation analysis
• New content updated weekly

3. Tandem

Price: Free. Tandem Pro costs $9.99/month, $6.66/month for three months, and $4.17/month if you sign up for a year.

Best For: Learners who are already studying Korean through other methods and channels

Tandem is a language exchange app that lets you master any language by actually chatting with real people. It has intuitive messaging features and language tools for language learning. There are lots of active language learners from all over the world so there’s no shortage of language partners.

Key Features:

• Unlimited translations
• Ad-free experience
• Find language partners in the same city
• Appear at the top of the Community stream

4. Memrise

Price: It’s free to use Memrise for basic lessons, but if you want the most features, you’ll need a paid plan.

Best for: Learning Korean words and phrases

Memrise is a superb vocabulary builder which uses spaced repetition and interactive features to help you learn Korean.

Its courses are pretty heavy on the vocabulary side of things. So, if you stick to the lessons made by Memrise itself, you’ll learn vocab and a few key conversational phrases. In other words, simple rote memorization…just like its name says.

👍Key Features

• Learn new words and phrases quickly with high-quality flashcards
• Uses video clips of native Korean speakers in authentic environments
• Many fluency levels available
• Flexible way to study for short amounts of time

5. HelloTalk

Price: You can use HelloTalk completely for free, although the free version is ad-supported. 

Best for: Those that want to speak with a native Korean speaker 

HelloTalk is one of the language learning apps for finding language exchange partners around the world. Chat, share audio, and make new friends worldwide while learning different languages, including Korean.

It also includes built-in aids for translation, pronunciation, transliteration and corrections to make learning as simple, fun and effortless as chatting.

You can practice speaking, reading, listening, and writing skills by chatting with korean native speakers.

👍Key Features

• Find Korean language partners from anywhere in the world
• In-app translation and corrections make learning convenient
• Chat via text, voice, or video
• Save useful words and phrases to review later

6.  Mango Languages

Price: A subscription to Mango Languages costs $7.99 per month for one language or $17.99 per month for all languages. And, there’s a solid chance that you have access to it through a library system or a university for free.

Best for: Beginners

Mango Languages is one of the best apps to learn Korean. It focuses on teaching its users the common phrases that they can use in everyday routine.

The app mainly focuses on its auditory features. You can keep repeating the audio until you get the hang of that Korean phrase. Besides, you can record yourself as a means of tracking your development. 

👍Key Features

• Lots of languages, and even different dialects
• Color-coding of corresponding words between sentences in the native language and the target language
• Includes grammar and cultural notes, including common grammar mistakes
• Will constantly review material so you don’t forget

7. Learn Korean Phrases & Words

Price: Free

Best For: Getting a grasp on basic Korean in a short period of time

Learn Korean Phrases and Words is solely focusing on Korean phrases. This app offers practical words and phrases neatly organized into categories such as Romance (“Can I have your number?”) and Shopping (“What kind of colors do you have?”).

For each piece of vocabulary, you’re given the usual Hangul/Romanized spellings and audio clip in addition to the option to listen to the audio at a slower speed or to record your own voice for comparison.

👍Key Features

• Commonly-used Korean phrases & words
• Search by Korean or English
• Native Korean pronunciation
• No Internet connection required

8. Learn Korean language by Drops

Price: Drops is free but limited to five minutes of game play. You can extend the time limit for $8.49/month, $5/month for one year, or $149.99 for lifetime access.

Best for: Those who don’t want to commit to long hours of studying Korean

Drops is an educational and fun application to learn Korean.

The app prioritizes vocabulary and phrase learning above other topics like grammar. It proceeds rapidly, incorporates various things like games and quizzes, and gives you a pretty decent mental workout. The free version of Drops lets you learn five minutes a day. You can learn Korean with wonderfully illustrated, immersive and engaging lessons in just five minutes per day.

👍Key Features

• Contains thousands of useful words and phrases
• Unique animations and interactive games help you remember new vocab
• Spaced repetition technology to review words and phrases at the perfect time
• Simple to use and very well-designed

9. Mondly 

Price: Free users can complete one lesson (Hello) plus a chatbot dialogue, as well as daily, weekly, and monthly challenges. However, if you want to access all lessons, you’ll need to pay.

Best for: People who learn a new language in beginning time, not for advanced

Mondly is a language learning app developed by ATi Studios, an EdTech company with the goal of “making technology-based learning easier.”

The app uses a combination of course materials, augmented reality (AR) and chatbots in its lessons to help learners master a new language.

👍Key Features

• A Custom Daily Lesson, fun quizzes speech recognition technology
• Access to 41 different language courses, a total of 1320 language combinations
• 50+ real & simulated conversations between native speakers

10. Eggbun

Price: It’s free to use Eggbun for basic features, but if you want the most features, you’ll need a paid plan.

Best for: All learners

Eggbun starts by teaching you the basics of hangul – the Korean alphabet, and how they should be formed into each sentence. As soon as you open Eggbun, you are greeted by Lanny, Eggbun’s Korean Teacher. Once you set up an account, Lanny takes you step by step into learning hangul, as well as greetings.

Some of the courses that you can learn through Eggbun include Hangul, Greetings, Self-Introductions, Pronunciation and even Numbers.

Eggbun also helps you learn and use Korean phrases in real life situations. This can be helpful when dealing with any sort of Korean experience whether that be while watching a K-Drama, or while visiting in Korea.

👍Key Features

• Teaches you Korean in a conversational manner
• Eggbun has audio in addition to text
• Teaches you how to type in Korean
• They have a culture section

11. Learn Korean Phrasebook

Price: Free with an optional upgrade costing $4.99

Best For: Travelers

The Learn Korean Phrasebook app helps you learn and look up useful sentences in Korean quickly. The app uses high quality audio recordings of native speakers to get you practicing and understanding authentic Korean pronunciation.

It lists 400 free Korean sentences with their English translations by topics, including Greetings, Basic Conversation, Numbers, Directions and Eating Out. In addition, the app lets you unlock up to 900 words in 18 categories when you purchase the premium version.

👍Key Features

• High quality audio pronunciation by native speaker
• Ability to adjust font size
• Store frequently used phrases in favorites
• No internet connection required

What Is the Best App for Learning Korean?

As you can see, while all of these Korean learning apps have many similarities, each one of them is designed with a slightly different purpose in mind.

Some might be better at learning words, some might be better at teaching grammar and others might be great for practicing your speaking.

So, depending on how you want to learn Korean, you might choose a different app that best suits your purpose.

Best of luck with learning Korean!