Compare four ways to learn a language

Buyer's guide

How to choose a language course

These four services are frequently compared against each other, and they should not be. One books you hours with a private tutor. One runs timetabled classes on a curriculum. Two are apps you work through alone. They are four different products for four different lives.

Which means the useful question is not "which is best" but "which format survives contact with my actual week". Nearly everyone who abandons a language subscription does so because they picked a format that needed more time, or more routine, than they had.

Start with these three questions

• How many hours will you really give it? Take the number you first thought of and halve it. An app you open daily beats a class you skip twice a month, and it costs a fraction as much.
• Can you hold the same slot every week? If yes, timetabled classes give you structure and accountability at a lower hourly rate than one-to-one. If no, a per-lesson tutor or a self-paced app is the only thing that will survive.
• When do you need to speak? If there is a deadline — an exam, an interview, a move — start with a person from day one. If there is not, an app first and lessons later is cheaper and works fine.

What the CEFR levels mean

A1 to C2 are the six levels of the Common European Framework, a public standard used across European education. A1 and A2 are beginner: introducing yourself, ordering food, simple present tense. B1 and B2 are independent: holding a conversation, handling work email, following a film with effort. C1 and C2 are proficient: arguing a point, reading literature, working in the language.

B1 is roughly where a language stops being a hobby and starts being useful. Almost everyone underestimates how long it takes to get there, which is worth knowing before you commit to an annual plan.

Apps do not make you fluent on their own

They are good at vocabulary, reading and recognising grammar patterns — the parts you can practise alone. Speaking is a separate skill that improves mainly by doing it with another person who corrects you in real time. The pattern that works for most people is an app to build a base cheaply, then live lessons once you have enough words to survive a conversation.

Read the cancellation terms before the discount

The heaviest discounts sit on the longest commitments, which is exactly where refund rules matter most. Check the notice period, the refund window and what happens to unused lesson credits before you look at the price. Set a calendar reminder for the day before a trial ends, not the day of.

A note on guarantees

No course can promise fluency in a fixed number of weeks, and any marketing that does is selling you the exception as the rule. Progress depends on the hours you put in, the language you have chosen and how close it is to one you already speak. Treat published timelines as best cases.

Common questions

Frequently asked

Which of these is best for a complete beginner?

All four accept absolute beginners, so the question is really about format rather than level. If you want someone correcting you from the first hour, a tutor or a live class does that. If you would rather learn some words privately before speaking to anyone, a self-paced course is the gentler start and costs far less while you find out whether the habit sticks.

Can an app on its own get me speaking?

Not on its own, no. Apps build vocabulary, reading and grammar recognition — the parts you can practise alone. Speaking improves mainly by doing it with a person who corrects you in real time. Two of the services here are apps and two are live teaching, which is the single biggest difference between them.

Is one-to-one tutoring worth the extra cost over a group class?

It depends on your deadline. One-to-one gives you every minute of speaking time and a lesson shaped around your weaknesses, which is why it costs more per hour. A group class gives you less airtime but more listening, varied accents, a fixed syllabus and a lower hourly rate.

With an exam or a move coming up, the individual attention usually pays for itself. Building steadily over a year, the group format is generally better value.

Are the free trials really free?

Terms differ by provider, by country and by promotion, and they change without notice, so we do not print trial claims here. In general, check whether a card is required up front, when the first charge lands, and how much notice you must give to stop it.

What do the scores mean?

Each service is assessed against four criteria — course structure, speaking practice, flexibility and value — and the headline number is the weighted average of those four. The weights and the reasoning are published on our how we compare page.

They are an editorial judgement about what each provider publishes. They are not measured learning outcomes, not a benchmark, and not an average of user reviews. A low score on one criterion is often the right trade-off for a particular person, which is why every card also says who should skip it.

How does this site make money?

Through commissions. When you subscribe after clicking one of our links, the provider pays us a fee at no extra cost to you. Those commercial relationships affect which services we are able to feature. They do not change what we write about them, and no provider pays for placement or a better score.