Learn Italian

Duolingo, Rosetta Stone and other Apps

In addition to the most famous apps like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, we will also look at other Italian learning apps — some of which are even better.

Italian travel posters from the 1960's

Overview of the Italian Language:

The Italian language is spoken by over 90 million people worldwide. Within Europe, Italian has even more speakers than Spanish.

In addition to regional Italian dialects, there are also non-Italian languages in Italy. These are spoken as a second language by many Italians:

In the U.S., Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, etc. the descendants of Italian emigrants often speak one of these non-Italian languages.

Italian is a Romance language, which makes it similar to Spanish, French, Portuguese and even Romanian.

Italy travel posters from the 1960's

Standard Italian is based on the dialect of the Tuscany region. It became the state language when the Kingdom of Italy was founded in 1861.

After this introductory overview, let us now take a look at the various apps for learning the Italian language. A compact overview of all the Italian learning apps can be found below.


Mondly Italian App

The Best Alternative to Duolingo

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Learners, Students, Travel

Content: Italian vocabulary trainer (5000 words), playful exercises, grammar

Prices: Free (initial lessons), $12.99
(1 month and 1 language), $59.99
(12 months and all 41 languages)

Discount offer: $99 (Lifetime Access to all 41 Languages)

Overall Value:

The Mondly App lets you learn the Italian language in a playful way with a series of interactive exercises.

This Italian learning program contains:

Mondly has around 45 million users worldwide. This language course has the advantage of having 41 source languages and 41 target languages.

Summary: Mondly is very similar to the Babbel and Duolingo apps and even better in terms of quality. The cost-benefit ratio for the lifetime access to all 41 languages is unbeatable.

Link: Mondly Italian App and Online Course


Italian Basic Course

Online Language Course App

Systems: Online Access (PC, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS)

Suitable for: Beginners and Advanced Learners, Students, Professionals

Content: 1300 words (basic course), 5200 words (complete course), complete grammar, verb conjugations, exercises

Prices: $59.95 (Basic Course), $127 (Complete Course)

Overall Value:

The Italian Basic Course contains a vocabulary trainer for the basic Italian vocabulary (1300 words) with native-speaker audio, as well as grammar explanations and various exercises.

The vocabulary trainer works with a long-term memory method, in which the new vocabulary is checked at increasing intervals.

You can choose between text input, multiple choice or simply confirming whether you knew a word or not.

The exercises include text comprehension questions, filling in word gaps or just vocabulary lists where one side is covered.

The basic course corresponds to the official language levels A1 and A2 (explanation of CEFR language levels).

The Complete Course contains:

There are 17 different languages you can use to learn Italian with this app.

Summary: Much cheaper and even better than the famous Rosetta Stone. There is a free demo version available and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Link: Italian Basic Course and Complete Course


Rocket Languages: Italian

Learn Italian Without Subscriptions

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, PC and Mac (Download)

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate, advanced learners, students, business

Content: Exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition, writing, grammar, culture

Prices: Free (initial lessons), $89 (basic course), $249 (full course)

Overall Value:

Rocket Languages offers a complete Italian language course for download, without monthly subscriptions. It covers the beginner, intermediate and advanced levels (A1-C2).

This Italian learning software and app features:

You can use the Rocket Languages Italian course completely offline on the computer and on your smartphone after the download.

Summary: Excellent premium Italian course on par with Rosetta Stone but without a subscription. You pay only once and own the software. There is also a 60-day money-back guarantee.

Link: Rocket Languages Italian Learning Software


Rosetta Stone: Italian

Most Famous Language Learning App

Systems: PC, Mac, Android, iOS Apps

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate, experts, professionals, business

Content: Italian lessons with native speaker audio and speech recognition

Prices:
$  36 (3 months)
$145 (12 months)
$299 (Lifetime access)
$349 (Lifetime access for 24 languages)

Overall Value:

How does Italian learning with Rosetta Stone work?

Rosetta Stone has a different approach to language learning than many other online courses or language apps such as Duolingo, Memrise and others.

The idea behind Rosetta Stone is to learn a language like you did as a child - by using pictures in combination with listening, speaking, and reading.

Each Rosetta Stone lesson includes the following exercises:

A possible disadvantage of Rosetta Stone is that there are no grammar explanations or translations of the Italian vocabulary.

Instead, you are supposed to learn the grammar and the meaning of words from the context or recognize the meaning from the pictures.

Rosetta Stone Apps and Online Version:

The Rosetta Stone Italian learning software can be used online with a subscription for 3 or 12 months or with a Lifetime Access.

In addition to the online version, there are now also Rosetta Stone apps for iPhones and Android smartphones.

Summary: Time-tested method, but the lack of grammar explanations and translations may make Rosetta Stone not suitable for everyone.

Link: Rosetta Stone App and Online Course


Babbel Italian App

Better than Rosetta Stone

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, Students, Business Italian

Content: Vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio and speech recognition, grammar, exercises

Prices:
USD 9.60 (1 month), USD 57 (12 months), USD 159 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

The Babbel Italian Learning App is quite similar to Rosetta Stone.

Babbel also focuses on combining pictures, listening, reading, writing and speaking. For this, Babbel has native speaker audio of all the words and speech recognition just like Rosetta Stone.

The Babbel App also offers improvements over Rosetta Stone:

Babbel is one of the oldest language learning apps and has over 10 million subscribed users world-wide.

Summary: Babbel includes most of the advantages of Rosetta Stone and even eliminates its disadvantages. Highly recommended!

Link: Babbel Italian App and Online Course


Lingodeer Italian App

Learning Italian for Beginners

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate, students, travel vocabulary

Content: Exercises with native-speaker audio and speech recognition, grammar

Prices: $12 (1 month), $60 (12 months), $99 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

The Lingodeer App is somewhat similar to Duolingo or Babbel, but has a more extensive list of features:

The use of playful exercises and "achievements" ("gamification") is supposed to make Italian learning more interesting and motivating.

Summary: The Lingodeer App impresses with excellent grammar lessons and speech recognition. However, this app has lessons only for beginners and intermediate level learners.


LingQ Italian App

Innovative Approach to Learn Italian

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate, advanced learners, students, professionals

Content: Video and text lessons, browser extension to import any Italian texts, vocabulary trainer

Price: $15 (1 month), $120 (12 months)

Overall Value:

The LingQ Italian App is basically a translation program that is combined with a personalized vocabulary trainer.

In addition to the lessons and texts that are included in this app, any Italian text can be imported. LingQ has its own browser extension for Firefox, Safari and Chrome to import texts (including ebooks).

You can click on any word in the texts to see a translation and this adds the word to your personal vocabulary trainer.

LingQ also has many videos and podcasts, the content of which appears as a text next to the video or podcast — so that any word there can be clicked on and saved as well.

Unfortunately, there are no grammar lessons, meaning that this app will not suffice on its own to learn Italian.

Summary: Very interesting way to learn Italian vocabulary on any subject. However, you need other apps for Italian grammar and conjugations.


MosaLingua Italian

App like Babbel, Mondly or Duolingo

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, intermediate learners, pupils, students, travel vocabulary

Content: Italian vocabulary trainer and most important grammar

Prices: $5 (Vocabulary Trainer App), $59 (12 months subscription to the full online version)

Overall Value:

The Italian App from Mosalingua can teach over 3000 words, which include native speaker audio and pictures.

The grammar explanations in this app are limited to the 20% that are most frequently used in practice according to statistics.

The online version for computers contains the entire grammar.

As far as the exercises are concerned, there are classic vocabulary quizzes and also fun exercises like anagrams and word puzzles.

This Italian learning app also has a "Hands Free Mode" that allows you to learn words while driving or jogging.

Summary: For beginners, the Mosalingua vocabulary trainer app offers great value for the money. The full subscription version is comparable to Babbel or Duolingo and has a similar price.


Bluebird Italian App

Italian Lessons and Exercises

Systems: Android and iPhone apps, online version (PC and Mac)

Content: Italian exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition

Prices: $9.99 (1 month), $100 (12 months), $200 (unlimited), $400 (163 languages)

Overall Value:

The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Italian.

The Italian language course in this app includes the following:

There are about 500 video lessons for learning Italian, each 5 to 60 minutes long. For languages with other scripts, the words can also be displayed transliterated in the Latin script.

The Bluebird app has no grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, like in Rosetta Stone.

Summary: The video lessons and the interface take some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is a viable alternative.


Pimsleur Italian Course

Most Expensive Software to Learn Italian

Systems: PC and Mac (incl. Mobile App)

Suitabe for: Beginners, advanced, students

Content: Italian vocabulary, lessons with native-speaker audio and voice recognition

Price: $122 (Basics), $469 (Complete)

Overall Value:

The Pimsleur App is very similar to Rosetta Stone in that it does not give grammar explanations, verb conjugation tables, etc.

Instead, the Pimsleur method is supposed to let you learn the Italian language intuitively, just like your native language - by combining pictures, reading and speaking (speech recognition).

The complete course includes a total of five courses (levels 1 to 5). The beginner course is level 1. Each of the five courses offers 30 daily lessons of 30 minutes each and there are various interactive exercises.

This Italian learning course for PCs and Macs also includes a mobile app for Android and iOS systems.

Summary: The most expensive Italian course, even though it is unlikely that learning with it is much better than with the cheaper apps.


LinguaTV Italian App

Learning Italian with Videos

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Suitable for: Beginners, advanced learners, students, travelers

Content: Italian vocabulary trainer, videos with texts, various exercises

Prices: $89 (3 months & 2 courses), $149 (6 months & 4 courses)

Overall Value:

The LinguaTV App teaches Italian primarily with videos. The texts and vocabulary also appear next to each video, including translations.

The Italian courses at LinguaTV include the following exercises:

This app offers Italian courses for language proficiency levels A1 to C1.

Summary: Learning Italian with videos works well, but it doesn't justify the relatively high subscription price of this app.


Duolingo Italian App

Well-Known Language Learning App

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Italian exercises with native-speaker audio

Prices: Free (with ads), $12.99 (1 month), $60 (12 months)

Overall Value:

The Duolingo App offers beginner language courses for 36 languages, including Italian. Duolingo covers mostly the basics as well as some intermediate level Italian vocabulary.

The major drawback of Duolingo (just like Rosetta Stone) is that there are no grammar explanations.

The vocabulary learning with Duolingo is "gamified", which means it is structured like a game with levels, experience points, achievements, etc.

The interface is relatively similar to the apps from Mondly and Babbel.

Summary: The vocabulary trainer and the exercises of the program are okay. However, it is not possible to learn Italian grammar with this app.

Italian travel posters from the 1960's

Overview of the Italian Learning Apps:

Learning App Subscrip­tion? Price Systems
Mondly
No
$99
PC, Mac,
Apps
Mondly
1
month
$13
PC, Mac,
Apps
Mondly
12
months
$59
PC, Mac,
Apps
Babbel
No
$159
PC, Mac,
Apps
Babbel
1
month
$10
PC, Mac,
Apps
Babbel
12
months
$57
PC, Mac,
Apps
Lingodeer
No
$99
PC, Mac,
Apps
Lingodeer
1
month
$12
PC, Mac,
Apps
Lingodeer
12
months
$60
PC, Mac,
Apps
LingQ
1
month
$15
PC, Mac,
Apps
LingQ
12
months
$120
PC, Mac,
Apps
Duolingo
1
month
$13
PC, Mac,
Apps
Duolingo
12
months
$60
PC, Mac,
Apps
Bluebird
No
$200
PC, Mac,
Apps
Bluebird
1
month
$10
PC, Mac,
Apps
Bluebird
12
months
$100
PC, Mac,
Apps
Mosalingua
(Basic App)
No
$5
Apps
Mosalingua
(Complete)
12
months
$59
PC, Mac,
Apps
LinguaTV
3
months
$89
PC, Mac,
Apps
LinguaTV
6
months
$149
PC, Mac,
Apps
17 Minutes
(Basics)
No
$59
PC, Mac,
Apps
17 Minutes
(Complete)
No
$127
PC, Mac,
Apps
Rocket
(Basics)
No
$89
PC, Mac,
Apps
Rocket
(Complete)
No
$249
PC, Mac,
Apps
Rosetta Stone
No
$299
PC, Mac,
Apps
Rosetta Stone
3
months
$36
PC, Mac,
Apps
Rosetta Stone
12
months
$145
PC, Mac,
Apps
Pimsleur
(Basics)
No
$122
PC, Mac,
Apps
Pimsleur
(Complete)
No
$469
PC, Mac,
Apps

Best Apps to Learn Italian:
Mondly, Babbel

Best Italian Online Course:
17 Minute Languages

Best Learning Software for Download:
Rocket Languages

  Learning Languages
Reviews of language learning apps:

English
Learning Apps

Chinese
Learning Apps

Hindi
Learning Apps

Spanish
Learning Apps

French
Learning Apps

Arabic
Learning Apps

Russian
Learning Apps

Portuguese
Learning Apps

Italian
Learning Apps

German
Learning Apps

Japanese
Learning Apps

Korean
Learning Apps

Copyright © 2026 - World Languages

Switch to: German Version