The best apps to learn Arabic, compared by what they actually teach

Arabic Learning Resources > Best Apps to Learn Arabic

The best app to learn Arabic is Anki, a free flashcard program you fill with the words you are learning. It is the app this site's owner wrote about using: "To this day I still use Anki software to learn new Arabic words and phrases." For a ready-made course, our pick is AlifBee for Modern Standard Arabic, and Mango Languages for Egyptian, Levantine or Iraqi Arabic, which many US library cards unlock for free.

Most lists of the best apps to learn Arabic skip the first thing a learner needs to know: which Arabic the app teaches. An app built on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA, called fusha) prepares you to read. An app built on Egyptian or Levantine prepares you to talk in Cairo or Amman. A Quran app prepares you for neither, and is excellent at its own job. So every app below is labelled by what it teaches, and every price was read off the app's own store listing or pricing page on 5 October 2026.

Eleven Arabic learning apps at a glance

The eleven apps below cover three different jobs: courses that teach you Arabic from the start, drills that sit next to a course, and tools such as a dictionary or a language exchange. Read the second column first. It decides whether an app is any use to you at all.

Prices are US App Store or official pricing-page figures. Where an app lists several prices for the same kind of plan, usually because of introductory offers, we give the range. They change often, so check the store before you pay.

The second table is the verdict: what each app does well, what it leaves out, and which of our free tools fills the gap.

How we chose

We started from the apps that Google's results, its AI Overview and its People Also Ask boxes named for "best apps to learn Arabic" on 5 October 2026, then kept only those that passed four tests. Apps that failed one are in the rejected section further down.

• Does it say which Arabic it teaches? MSA, a named dialect, or Quranic Arabic. An app that will not tell you is asking you to find out after you pay.
• Does it teach the script? Arabic normally leaves out the short vowels, so a learner who stays in English letters never learns to read a real sentence. Dictionaries and exchange apps are exempt, since they teach nothing by themselves.
• Is the price published? Every price above comes from the app's own store listing or pricing page, read on 5 October 2026. Where the page showed none, we wrote "see store" rather than guess.
• Does it fit a stage of a real plan? Our six-stage roadmap for learning Arabic puts the alphabet first, then one course or grammar book, a tutor, and daily review. An app earns a place by doing one of those jobs well.

Apart from Anki, we make no first-hand claims about any app on this page. Every other verdict rests on what each app's own listing and website say it teaches and charges, judged against those four tests.

Anki: our top pick, and the app the owner wrote about

Anki is the best app for learning Arabic because it keeps every word you have learned, at every level, instead of teaching one course and stopping. It is a spaced-repetition flashcard program: each card comes back just before you would forget it, so ten minutes a day holds thousands of words. It has no Arabic content of its own. You add the words you are learning, or import a ready-made deck.

This is the app with first-hand experience behind it. The site's owner learned Arabic as an adult, and the owner's account of it says: "My tutor introduced me to the concept of spaced repetition." He continues: "To this day I still use Anki software to learn new Arabic words and phrases." And on how far it went: "I used this space repetition technique for every step along the way: Alphabet, reading words, learning vocabulary, and memorizing grammar rules." The full story is in how the owner learned Arabic as an adult.

The cost is low. Anki's own site says the computer version is free for all major platforms and that AnkiDroid for Android is free. The iPhone app, AnkiMobile, was listed at $24.99, a one-off purchase, on 5 October 2026.

Anki does one job. It will not teach you a letter, explain a rule or correct your pronunciation, so it always runs next to a course or a book. To skip the empty-deck stage, start with our free Arabic flashcards with spaced repetition and Anki decks.

Our verdict: top pick, and the one app on this list we would keep for years.

AlifBee: the best course app for Modern Standard Arabic

AlifBee is the best app if you want one structured course in Modern Standard Arabic, because it teaches the script and states grammar rules instead of leaving you to guess them. AlifBee's own site says the course has 10 levels covering reading, writing, listening and speaking, and that you will learn "over 6500 words, roots and sentences, as well as essential grammar rules". It names MSA as the variety it teaches.

The free mode unlocks about 20% of lessons: 20 lessons in the first level, then 2 in each later level. That is enough to judge the method before paying. After that, the AlifBee App Store listing showed monthly Premium plans from $7.49 to $18.49, a quarterly plan at $35.99 and annual plans from $56.99 to $119.99 on 5 October 2026. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web.

It does not teach a spoken dialect, and no person corrects you. Its App Store page also carried only 185 ratings, so there is little public feedback to go on yet. Plan a tutor alongside it from month three.

Our verdict: the course app we would start an MSA learner on. It passes all four of our tests.

Mango Languages: the best app for a dialect, often free through your library

Mango Languages is the best app for learning a spoken Arabic dialect, because it offers three named dialects as well as MSA. Its list of available languages shows four Arabic courses: Egyptian, Iraqi, Levantine and Modern Standard. If you want to talk to people in Cairo or Baghdad rather than read a newspaper, start here.

Check your library card first. Mango's library finder says thousands of public libraries, schools and colleges give full access at no cost. Without one, the Mango pricing page showed $13.99 a month, or $10 a month billed annually, on 5 October 2026. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web.

Nobody corrects you, and there is nothing for Gulf or Moroccan speech. Our Levantine Arabic resources page describes Mango's Levantine course as having a Syrian focus, so check the accent fits the country you care about.

Our verdict: the first app to try for Egyptian, Levantine or Iraqi, and free for many US readers.

Duolingo Arabic: the best free warm-up, and a weak plan

Duolingo is the best free app for building a daily Arabic habit, and the wrong app to rely on for learning Arabic. Its course teaches Modern Standard Arabic: Duolingo's post on Arabic dialects says MSA "is the one you'll learn on Duolingo". The Duolingo App Store listing says "Every course is free", and lists Super Duolingo, which removes the ads, at prices from $9.99 to $119.99 by plan.

The script gets real attention. Duolingo's post on learning other writing systems describes letter charts and a tracing exercise where you draw each letter with your finger.

Grammar does not. Duolingo's own explanation of why its courses skip the ABCs says that in its approach the alphabet and "even details about grammar take a backseat". The same writing-systems post says each character tile shows the English letter or letters for its sound beneath the Arabic, which helps in week one and becomes a crutch soon after.

Our verdict: the same as on our guide to learning Arabic for free: a supplement, not a method. Ten minutes on a tired day is fine. Do not mistake the streak for progress.

Pimsleur: speaking drills, not a course

Pimsleur is good for getting you to say Arabic out loud from the first lesson, and poor at everything a course has to do after that. The Pimsleur App Store listing offers "Eastern, Egyptian or Modern Standard Arabic". Its Modern Standard Arabic page describes Levels 1 to 3 and 45 hours of audio, with a 7-day free trial. The Egyptian course page lists 30 half-hour lessons and says reading lessons are included.

The App Store listed an All Access subscription at $20.99, and annual All Access plans at $131.99 and $164.99, on 5 October 2026. For that you get no grammar explanation and little of the reading practice it takes to handle unvowelled text. Three levels of audio are a short course.

Our verdict: we agree with our own comparison of online Arabic courses, which rejects Pimsleur as a course. As a daily speaking drill next to a book, it earns its place: good for an accent and travel phrases, and it will not get you reading.

Kalam: AI conversation practice for learners who can already read

Kalam is an app for practising spoken Arabic against an AI conversation partner, and it suits learners past the alphabet. Its App Store listing describes conversational AIs for different scenarios, speaking drills, video lessons and flashcard review, and says these features need a subscription. It is also on Android. The App Store listed a monthly plan at $9.99 and other plans from $4.99 to $99.99 on 5 October 2026.

Which Arabic you get is unclear. The App Store description names no dialect, while Kalam's own blog says it supports Egyptian, Levantine and Gulf varieties. Nothing we read says it teaches the script.

Our verdict: worth a trial once you can read and build simple sentences. Confirm the dialect on the first screen before you subscribe.

Drops: five-minute vocabulary sessions

Drops is a picture-based vocabulary game, useful for spare minutes and nothing more. The Arabic Drops listing describes illustrated mini-games, 5-minute sessions, and more than 2,700 words across 150 topics. Drops' home page lists Arabic and Egyptian Arabic as separate languages.

Free sessions are time-limited, and the App Store listed Premium purchases from $9.99 to $159.99 on 5 October 2026. There is no grammar and almost no sentence work, and words learned as pictures still need a long-term review system.

Our verdict: fine as a game. Move the words you keep into Anki.

ArabicPod101: a listening library

ArabicPod101 is a large library of audio and video lessons with written notes, and it is better for listening practice than as a course. The ArabicPod101 app page says free users get every new lesson, the first 3 lessons of every series and the Arabic word of the day, and that premium lessons need a paid plan or a 7-day trial. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Android and Kindle Fire. No Arabic price was shown on the pages we read, so: see store.

Our verdict: as on our roadmap: good listening practice next to a book, too scattered to be the book.

Quranic: the pick if the Quran is your goal

Quranic is the app to choose if your goal is understanding the Quran rather than ordering coffee in Arabic. The Quranic App Store listing says it teaches "the words & meaning of the Quran and Islam" using verses from the text itself, with spaced repetition. It had a 4.9 rating from about 4,200 ratings on 5 October 2026.

It is free to download, and the App Store listed a Basic plan at $4.99, Pro at $9.99 and Pro annual at $49.90. It runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. It does not try to teach spoken or everyday Arabic, which is fine for its purpose.

Our verdict: the best fit here for Quranic study. Learn the letters first with a quiz on all 28 Arabic letters and their forms.

HelloTalk: native speakers, once you can write a sentence

HelloTalk connects you with native Arabic speakers for text, voice and video exchange. On its home page it promises free practice with native speakers worldwide. The HelloTalk App Store listing showed VIP at $12.99 a month or $79.99 a year on 5 October 2026.

Our verdict: install it once you can form a sentence. Before that it is useless. To type Arabic on a laptop without Arabic keys, use our online Arabic keyboard.

Lughatuna: the dictionary app for dialects

Lughatuna is the Living Arabic Project's dictionary app, and it is the one to install if you learn a dialect. The Lughatuna App Store listing describes an Arabic-English dictionary for Classical Arabic (MSA) and Levantine, Egyptian, Maghrebi, Iraqi, Gulf, Yemeni and Sudanese dialects. The ad-free version was $1.99 for 6 months or $2.99 for a year. The Living Arabic website is free to search.

Our verdict: the dictionary app we would install for a dialect, and cheap enough to pay for.

Three apps we rejected, and why

Three apps that show up in searches for Arabic apps failed one of our four tests. Each reason comes from the app's own page.

Babbel: it does not teach Arabic

Babbel appears in Arabic app searches and in Google's People Also Ask box, but it has no Arabic course. On 5 October 2026 Babbel's home page listed 13 languages, from Spanish to Turkish, and Arabic was not among them. If you liked Babbel for another language, AlifBee is the nearest equivalent for MSA.

Mondly: it will not say which Arabic

Mondly fails our first test. The Mondly App Store listing includes Arabic among 41 languages, but the listing does not say whether it teaches MSA or a dialect. The plans are not cheap either: the same listing showed unlimited access at $15.90 a month or $74.90 a year. With Mango covering named dialects, we see no reason to pay to find out.

Learn Arabic for Beginners: "Learn Arabic in 31 Days"

This app from Appcano has its App Store page on Google's first page for both "best apps to learn arabic" and "arabic learning apps". Its App Store listing leads with "Learn Arabic in 31 Days" and charges $19.99 to unlock all features. The US Foreign Service Institute puts Arabic in its hardest category, at 88 weeks or 2,200 class hours for full-time students. An app whose headline promise is off by that much has told you how far to trust the rest. It does teach the script, and its 4.7 rating says people enjoy it. We still would not build a plan around it.

Which app for which goal

Choose by what you want to do in Arabic. A 4.9-star Quran app will not help you in a Cairo taxi, and a dialect app will not get you reading the news.

No app replaces a person who corrects you. When you are ready for live classes, our comparison of eleven online Arabic courses by price per live hour covers the paid ones, and our guide to what is genuinely free covers the rest.

Frequently asked questions

Which app is better to learn Arabic?

It depends on what you want to be able to do. For vocabulary at every level, Anki: it is free on desktop and Android and $24.99 once on iPhone, and you fill it with the words you are learning. For a ready-made course in Modern Standard Arabic, AlifBee, which teaches the script and states grammar rules across 10 levels. For a spoken dialect, Mango Languages, which has Egyptian, Levantine and Iraqi courses and is free with many US library cards.

Is Duolingo actually good for Arabic?

As a warm-up, yes. As a plan, no. Duolingo's Arabic course teaches Modern Standard Arabic and every course is free, which makes it an easy daily habit. But Duolingo's own blog says grammar takes a backseat in its courses, and its letter tiles print English letters under the Arabic. Use it for ten minutes on tired days and do your real study from a course or book that explains the rules.

Is there a Duolingo for Arabic?

Yes, Duolingo itself teaches Arabic. The course is Modern Standard Arabic, not a dialect, and the App Store listing says every course is free. Super Duolingo, which removes the ads and adds perks, was listed at prices from $9.99 to $119.99 on 5 October 2026, depending on the plan. There is no Duolingo course for Egyptian, Levantine or any other spoken dialect.

Is AlifBee free to use?

Partly. AlifBee's free mode unlocks about 20% of its lessons: 20 free lessons in the first level, then 2 free lessons in each later level. The rest needs Premium, which the App Store listed on 5 October 2026 at monthly plans from $7.49 to $18.49 and annual plans from $56.99 to $119.99. The free first level is enough to judge whether its method suits you.

Does Babbel do Arabic?

No. On 5 October 2026 Babbel's home page listed 13 languages to learn: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Danish, Dutch, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish and Turkish. Arabic is not one of them, even though Babbel still turns up on lists of Arabic apps. For a similar structured course in Arabic, look at AlifBee for Modern Standard Arabic or Mango Languages for dialects.

What is the quickest way to learn Arabic?

There is no fast route, and an app that promises one is selling something. The US Foreign Service Institute puts Arabic in its hardest group, at 88 weeks or 2,200 class hours for full-time students. The quickest realistic path is the alphabet with audio first, one course or grammar book worked to the end, daily spaced repetition in Anki, and a tutor who makes you speak.

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