With 12 languages and 10-minute lessons, the Busuu program has a lot to offer. It also has tons of other great features, such as practice with native speakers, grammar units, vocabulary training and even official certificates of completion.
But perhaps you’re looking for an alternative, either to find something more suitable for your needs or supplement your learning. Regardless, here are 11 Busuu alternatives you can use instead.
Memrise provides flexible features, language settings and accessibility, making it a great choice for any language learner who needs options.
Features include videos with native speakers, a pronunciation guide and interactive games and activities.
Memrise also offers language flexibility. For example, some of the programs on this list may teach you Spanish, but the explanations are automatically in English.
With Memrise, you can change the language you’re learning within the “Settings” menu, so if you’re more comfortable reading another language, like Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish, you have that option. Now you can study your target language without having to read in English to do so.
Plus, because you can use Memrise online or download its apps, you have plenty of options for how to use it. The apps even have an offline mode, allowing you to keep learning even without internet access.
With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contexts—the way that native speakers actually use them. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:
FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!
Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.
Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.
You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're studying.
The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.
If Busuu’s 10-minutes-per-day guideline is too much for you, consider trying Duolingo, which offers bite-sized lessons that you can complete in just five minutes per day. That being said, nothing is limiting you to the five-minute guideline—you can keep on going for hours if you have the time.
But the program is built around short lesson blocks, allowing you to study whenever you have time. Duolingo is gamified, though, so you might find it too addicting to stop at just one lesson.
Not only does Duolingo offer lessons, it also features activities to help you practice reading, writing, speaking and listening. That’s a lot to pack into just a few minutes per day!
WordBrewery is another great option for any learner who’s crunched for time.
WordBrewery works by presenting you with real-world sentences in your target language. You can listen to them, translate them, save them, save individual words or even read the sentences in their original context.
WordBrewery aims to make learning as fast and efficient as possible by focusing on the most common words. To make it even more efficient, you can set the skill level and/or topic. From there, WordBrewery will track your progress to present you with sentences that are challenging but appropriate for your level.
Plus, WordBrewery is designed to be used in short bursts, so no need to set aside hours for studying.
Lingvist is another Busuu alternative designed for learners who have a need for speed.
Lingvist aims to have you skip over material you already know or just don’t need, allowing you to move at a faster pace. To do this, Lingvist maps your knowledge so that it can personalize the course for your needs.
Lingvist’s main focus is teaching relevant vocabulary in realistic contexts. But don’t worry! You’ll also get a hearty dose of grammar tips along the way.
Too busy to take the time to hold your phone? The Lingvist app also offers a “speak to answer” feature that allows you to study hands-free.
If Lingvist sounds like an app you might want to use, I recommend reading our Lingvist review here.
With HelloTalk, you can find native speakers and start interacting right away.
Not only can HelloTalk help you find your perfect language exchange partner, it also allows you to do voice calls, voice messaging, video calls and text messaging. You can also post questions to the community for native speakers to answer.
Worried that your skills aren’t advanced enough to carry on a conversation just yet? Luckily, HelloTalk has you covered with plenty of useful tools, including pronunciation guides, corrections, translations and more, so there’s no reason you can’t start chatting on day one of your language-learning journey.
If you wish you had a friend to answer all your language questions, HiNative could just be the Busuu alternative of your dreams.
HiNative is a platform that allows you to ask native speakers all your most pressing language questions. You can ask questions in any language you like.
You can ask your questions through text, but HiNative offers some other intriguing options, too. For instance, you can ask verbal questions, so you can even get answers about whether or not you’re pronouncing something correctly. You can also post pictures if you need some help with how you’re writing a character or want someone to decipher written material you encounter.
Whether you want to just chat with a native speaker as a language exchange or you’d rather hire a native tutor, italki can help you find what you’re looking for.
Not only can you schedule a customized, one-on-one tutoring session through italki, but you can also read articles by teachers and tutors.
Prefer to interact with native speakers on a less formal basis? You can connect with a partner for conversation exchange to get a little extra practice. Plus, you can ask open questions on the site, so you can ask the community to check your writing or give you language learning advice.
It can be hard to tell if you’re pronouncing a word correctly in your target language. Are you getting all the letters right? How’s your inflection?
With Mango Languages, you don’t have to stress over pronunciation because you’ll have plenty of opportunities to compare yours to that of a native speaker. Mango Languages features audio by native speakers that you can play to hear the pronunciation of a word.
Once you think you have it down, record yourself saying the same word. Then, you can compare your pronunciation directly against that of a native speaker. If your pronunciation isn’t as flawless as you’d like, just keep trying until you get it down.
Plus, Mango Languages focuses on practical conversational skills, so the words and phrases you work on are ones you’re likely to actually use. Here’s our full Mango Languages review if you want to learn more.
Rocket Languages offers voice recognition that can help you nail down your pronunciation of thousands of phrases. That should be enough to put a smile on any learner’s face.
Courses feature conversations. You can read these conversations, play audio of the discussion and record yourself saying key phrases. If you want to simulate a real conversation, consider only playing one character’s dialogue and then recording your own responses.
Each course offers plenty of interactive audio lessons—over 60 hours—so that should be enough to satiate anyone looking to use a voice recognition program alternative to Busuu. If you want to read more, check out our in-depth Rocket Languages review here.
Babbel’s main aim is to teach learners conversation skills so that they’re ready to roll when it’s time to interact in real life.
To do this, Babbel features audio by native speakers along with interactive dialogues. You get to record yourself responding to the conversation. Not only can this help you perfect your pronunciation, but it could also increase your confidence and give you the extra boost you need to talk to native speakers more often.
Want some more speaking practice? You can also record yourself speaking in the “Review Manager” section, reinforcing key words and phrases you’re studying.
Not only that, Babbel offers activities that are just 10-15 minutes long, so it has more in common with Busuu than speech recognition alone. You can check out our complete Babbel review here.
How to Select the Right Busuu Alternative
Consider which Busuu feature you most want to replicate.
Busuu offers a variety of features, including flexibility, a short time commitment, interactions with native speakers and speech recognition.
While most other options won’t have all these features, it’s easy to find tools that have at least one of these qualities. If you select which feature you want to replicate, you can easily find a tool with a similar option.
Determine what area you’re struggling with most.
What do you need to work on? Do you need speech practice? Do you need to build your vocabulary? What’s your weakest point?
Identifying the areas of language learning you need to work on can help you select resources that target those specific skills. This helps you balance out your abilities and ensures you have no main weak points.
Try out multiple alternatives.
You won’t know what you like until you try it, so go ahead and see how you like several different alternatives. Experimenting can help you find which option you like the best or determine which combination of options can meet all your needs.
What the criteria you base your choices on are up to you—you can consider the usability, interface, price, level and/or features.
So go ahead and change it up. These 11 Busuu alternatives might be just what you’re looking for to reinvigorate your learning.
