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Which format survives your actual week?
These eight services are constantly compared against each other, and they shouldn't be. Two book you hours with a private tutor. Two run timetabled classes on a curriculum. Four are apps you work through alone. Pick the shape of your week first, then pick within it.
Talk to a tutor
One-to-one, booked per lesson. Every minute is your speaking time, and the lesson bends around your weaknesses. The most expensive hour and the fastest progress.
For a deadline, or an unpredictable diary →Join live classes
Small groups on a fixed curriculum, at a set time. Less airtime than one-to-one, but more listening, varied accents, a syllabus that moves you forward and a lower hourly rate.
For anyone who can hold a weekly slot →Learn on your own
Self-paced apps. Cheapest by a wide margin and the only format that fits ten spare minutes. Builds vocabulary and grammar well; will not make you conversational on its own.
For building a base before you speak →Talk to a tutor
Both are marketplaces, not schools — you pick an individual teacher and pay per lesson.
Preply
Large tutor marketplace — filter by rate, accent and availability
- Pay per lesson
- 50+ languages
- Swap tutors free
- Any time zone
italki
Professional teachers and cheaper community tutors, side by side
- Pay per lesson
- 150+ languages
- Two tutor tiers
- Informal chat option
Join live classes
A teacher, a syllabus and other students. Cheaper per hour than one-to-one, but you turn up when the class runs.
Lingoda
Small-group classes on a CEFR curriculum, running around the clock
- A1–C1 pathway
- Small groups
- Classes 24/7
- Few languages
Open English
Round-the-clock live English classes with native-speaker teachers
- Live classes 24/7
- Native teachers
- Self-study library
- English only
Learn on your own
A fraction of the cost of live teaching, and the only format that fits into ten spare minutes. None of them will make you conversational alone.
Busuu
CEFR courses, plus written work corrected by native speakers
- CEFR-aligned
- Native corrections
- Free tier
- Study plans
Mondly
Short gamified daily lessons across a long list of languages
- 40+ languages
- 5-minute lessons
- Daily streaks
- Lifetime option
Rosetta Stone
Teaches without translation, with speech recognition on every phrase
- Speech recognition
- 25 languages
- Lifetime pricing
- No translations
uTalk
Words and phrases in languages nothing else teaches — not a full course
- 150+ languages
- 100+ base languages
- Native audio throughout
- No grammar course
The real decision
A person, or an app?
Almost every reader ends up here. This is not a close call on quality — it is a question about your calendar and your budget, and the two answers are genuinely different products.
Preply
One-to-one tutor · Our score 9.2
- Every minute is your speaking time
- Corrected in real time by a person
- Book around a diary that keeps changing
- No subscription to forget to cancel
Choose this if there is a date in the diary — an exam, an interview, a move — or you have tried an app before and stalled.
Browse Preply tutors →Busuu
Self-paced app · Our score 8.7
- Roughly a fiftieth of the cost per month
- Fits ten minutes on a commute
- Native speakers correct your written work
- Free plan, so the test costs nothing
Choose this if there is no deadline and you are still finding out whether the habit sticks. Add lessons later, once you have enough words to survive one.
Start free with Busuu →Specifications
What each provider publishes
Taken from each provider's own website and help pages. Course lists and pricing change frequently and vary by country — always confirm before subscribing.
| Service | Score | Format | From | Languages | Structure | Commitment | Free option | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preply | 9.2 | Tutor | €11/lesson | 50+ | Set by your tutor | Per lesson | Trial lesson | Visit → |
| italki | 9.0 | Tutor | €8/lesson | 150+ | Set by your tutor | Per lesson | No | Visit → |
| Lingoda | 8.9 | Live class | €10/class | 4–5 | CEFR A1–C1 | Monthly bundle | No | Visit → |
| Open English | 8.2 | Live class | €26/mo | English | Levelled course | Subscription | No | Visit → |
| Busuu | 8.7 | Self-paced | €5.49/mo | 14 | CEFR A1–B2 | Monthly or annual | Yes | Visit → |
| Mondly | 8.1 | Self-paced | €9.99/mo | 40+ | Themed daily lessons | Monthly or lifetime | Yes | Visit → |
| Rosetta Stone | 7.9 | Self-paced | €11.99/mo | 25 | Immersion units | Monthly or lifetime | Demo only | Visit → |
| uTalk | 7.6 | Self-paced | €4.99/mo | 150+ | Topic-based vocabulary | Monthly or lifetime | Starter words | Visit → |
Details are as published by each provider and were checked on 26 August 2026. They may have changed since. Prices shown are the local advertised rate and may differ once you reach the provider. Tutor marketplace rates are set by individual teachers and vary widely. "Our score" is SpeakSooner's editorial assessment of published information — it is not a measured learning outcome, a benchmark, or an aggregate of user reviews.
Buyer's guide
How to choose a language course
These eight services are frequently compared against each other, and they should not be. Two book you hours with a private tutor. Two run timetabled classes on a curriculum. Four are apps you work through alone. They are three different products for three 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.
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.
A marketplace is not a school
The two tutor services do not employ the teachers you book. They are marketplaces: individuals set their own rates, their own cancellation terms and their own lesson style. That is why the price range is so wide, and why the first tutor you try may not be the one you stay with. Both let you move on, and doing so early is normal rather than rude.
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 eight 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. Four of the services here are apps and four 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.
What if my language is unusual?
The lists differ enormously. A tutor marketplace and a phrasebook app between them cover well over a hundred languages, while a structured class provider may cover four or five. If you are learning something outside the usual shortlist, check the language list before anything else on this page — it will decide the format for you.
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. They are an editorial judgement about what each provider publishes, not measured learning outcomes and not an average of user reviews.
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.
Ready to start
Two picks cover almost everyone
If there is a date in the diary, book a person — a tutor marketplace lets you try one lesson without a subscription. If you are still finding out whether the habit sticks, start free with an app and add lessons once you have enough words to survive one. The worst outcome is a year-long plan you stop opening in March.