Best Apps to Learn Russian in 2025
Choosing the right Russian learning app depends on your goals. If you only need basic skills like ordering coffee, go for a simple vocabulary app. However, serious learners should opt for an app that covers speaking, reading, and writing. Start with a free app to learn basics and essential phrases, and later, consider investing in a paid Russian course for a deeper understanding. Keep in mind that no app can make you a Russian expert instantly, but they will certainly help you progress step by step.
Best Russian Lessons:
Busuu
The concept of Busuu is simple, but interesting for beginner and intermediate level students. You go through a series of mini- lessons to learn vocabulary and grammar. Busuu brings Russian language learners closer to fluency with exercises that support real conversation rather than just memorizing vocabulary. If you decide to purchase the premium version of Busuu, your work can be assessed by a native speaker.
Mondly
Mondly is unique due to its augmented and virtual reality features. It's intriguing, but geared more towards low-level learning, and some features may seem unnecessary. It is inexpensive, there is a free version and a paid subscription.
Rocket Russian
Rocket Russian is a great language learning app that offers a comprehensive course. It's a little expensive but provides excellent guidance during the learning process. It has impressive conversation sections and gamification features.
Duolingo
Duolingo is well known and offers a course with personalized lessons, but it is not a real course. It's fun and has a playful approach, but it won't allow you to speak fluently. It's inexpensive and there's a free version.
Babbel
Babbel focuses on listening, speaking, writing and reading, but lacks interaction with teachers. The goal is to bring students to a conversational level as quickly as possible through the use of a variety of exercises and spaced repetition for repetition. The courses are well designed and inexpensive.
Red Kalinka
Red Kalinka offers many different products to help you learn Russian. The core course is well designed and will improve reading, writing and comprehension skills. The videos and exercises are extremely detailed.
Busuu
The concept of Busuu is simple, but interesting for beginner and intermediate level students. You go through a series of mini- lessons to learn vocabulary and grammar. Busuu brings Russian language learners closer to fluency with exercises that support real conversation rather than just memorizing vocabulary. If you decide to purchase the premium version of Busuu, your work can be assessed by a native speaker.
Mondly
Mondly is unique due to its augmented and virtual reality features. It's intriguing, but geared more towards low-level learning, and some features may seem unnecessary. It is inexpensive, there is a free version and a paid subscription.
Rocket Russian
Rocket Russian is a great language learning app that offers a comprehensive course. It's a little expensive but provides excellent guidance during the learning process. It has impressive conversation sections and gamification features.
Duolingo
Duolingo is well known and offers a course with personalized lessons, but it is not a real course. It's fun and has a playful approach, but it won't allow you to speak fluently. It's inexpensive and there's a free version.
Babbel
Babbel focuses on listening, speaking, writing and reading, but lacks interaction with teachers. The goal is to bring students to a conversational level as quickly as possible through the use of a variety of exercises and spaced repetition for repetition. The courses are well designed and inexpensive.
Red Kalinka
Red Kalinka offers many different products to help you learn Russian. The core course is well designed and will improve reading, writing and comprehension skills. The videos and exercises are extremely detailed.
Best for speaking and listening:
Pimsleur
Pimsleur Russian is one of the most popular resources for learning Russian. Pimsleur is great for speech comprehension and listening using auditory learning. Visual content and quizzes feel outdated. It's a bit pricey.
Speechling
The app allows students to use Russian vocabulary and grammar instructions to creatively combine sentences and describe actions on picture cards. Speechling is not for beginners and is best used with other Russian language learning tools, such as a dictionary translator. The basic Speechling app is free, а paid membership allows you to send an unlimited number of messages every month.
Best for reading and listening:
LingQ
It's an app with a lot of different features: flashcards, reviews, dictionaries, and progress tracking. One of the best features of LingQ is its combination of audio and visual content. And after any reading you check your vocabulary or the grammar you have learned.
RussianPod101
RussianPod101 offers podcast-style lessons. Pros include native speakers, but video quality varies. It is not expensive and a free version is available. This app provides excellent listening practice in Russian.
Beelinguapp
This reading app displays Russian text along with translation into your native language. The app also works like an audiobook, highlighting text as you read it aloud. It also promotes excellent listening and pronunciation practice.
Pimsleur
Pimsleur Russian is one of the most popular resources for learning Russian. Pimsleur is great for speech comprehension and listening using auditory learning. Visual content and quizzes feel outdated. It's a bit pricey.
Speechling
The app allows students to use Russian vocabulary and grammar instructions to creatively combine sentences and describe actions on picture cards. Speechling is not for beginners and is best used with other Russian language learning tools, such as a dictionary translator. The basic Speechling app is free, а paid membership allows you to send an unlimited number of messages every month.
Best for reading and listening:
LingQ
It's an app with a lot of different features: flashcards, reviews, dictionaries, and progress tracking. One of the best features of LingQ is its combination of audio and visual content. And after any reading you check your vocabulary or the grammar you have learned.
RussianPod101
RussianPod101 offers podcast-style lessons. Pros include native speakers, but video quality varies. It is not expensive and a free version is available. This app provides excellent listening practice in Russian.
Beelinguapp
This reading app displays Russian text along with translation into your native language. The app also works like an audiobook, highlighting text as you read it aloud. It also promotes excellent listening and pronunciation practice.
Best for grammar:
Lingodeer
Lindeer is grammar-based and resembles a traditional course. It's not expensive, with a variety of subscription options at reasonable prices. Lindeer doesn't offer as much for free as Duolingo, but its content is better, especially for the Russian language.
Russian Grammar
The Russian Grammar app teaches students at levels A1 to C1 the grammatical structures of the Russian language with thousands of multiple-choice exercises for each level. The application works in tandem with Google Translate.
Brainscape
Brainscape has Russian vocabulary and flashcard-based verb courses. The Brainscape app is not focused on communicating in Russian in real life, but rather concentrates on learning grammar.
Learn&Go
With this app, you can learn and practice Russian verbs of motion, one of the most interesting topics in Russian grammar, on the go. This app allows students to learn different prefixes and covers from beginner to intermediate levels. The application is built on the principle of from simple to complex.
Best for vocabulary:
Clozemaster
Clozemaster combines gamification and flashcards to help you remember Russian words. This fill-in-the-blank method is good for getting used to seeing words as they are actually used. Most features are available for free, although they are not suitable for beginners and do not offer many additional features.
Memrise
Memrise is considered one of the best apps for quickly learning Russian vocabulary. The application gives students access to ready-made vocabulary lessons and allows them to publish their own lessons. The basic version of the Memrise app is free. The paid version has a good language course with videos from native speakers and many practical exercises.
MosaLingua
MosaLingua uses a spaced repetition method in lessons using flashcards. The lessons use individual vocabulary terms or more complex phrases. But if a student wants to study vocabulary in a specific category in more detail in preparation for a trip, he will not be able to override the app's programmed learning schedule.
Drops
Drops has a unique approach to vocabulary learning: you match new words with pictures to build your mental vocabulary. The app gives you 5 minutes a day to play combination games. The focus of Drops is almost entirely on vocabulary, more specifically nouns.
Anki
This is a flashcards app for expanding your Russian vocabulary in general. You can use cards created by others or customize them to suit your interests. One of the best things about Anki is its very active community.
Reverso Context
This is a great app to use as a reference. You enter a word or phrase in one language and see the translation in the target language. The key here is to have plenty of examples. Unlike a dictionary, it helps you understand which word to use in which situations.
Lingvist
Lingvist presents new words in the context of a sentence, meaning you'll get used to interacting with the language as it's actually used. Most cards contain valuable additional information about the language element. However, the Russian course has less material than other courses it offers, despite the same price.
ABBYY Lingvo
ABBYY Lingvo is one of the most complete dictionaries of the Russian language, which has been popular among Russian language learners for several years. It's full of common phrases and idioms and allows you to see all the conjugations of the verbs you're looking for. ABBY Lingvo and Linguee are available for download and offline use.
Linguee
Linguee has an offline dictionary feature and is also useful for translating short phrases. It searches the Internet for relevant translations and can help you decipher the meaning of a phrase.
Lingodeer
Lindeer is grammar-based and resembles a traditional course. It's not expensive, with a variety of subscription options at reasonable prices. Lindeer doesn't offer as much for free as Duolingo, but its content is better, especially for the Russian language.
Russian Grammar
The Russian Grammar app teaches students at levels A1 to C1 the grammatical structures of the Russian language with thousands of multiple-choice exercises for each level. The application works in tandem with Google Translate.
Brainscape
Brainscape has Russian vocabulary and flashcard-based verb courses. The Brainscape app is not focused on communicating in Russian in real life, but rather concentrates on learning grammar.
Learn&Go
With this app, you can learn and practice Russian verbs of motion, one of the most interesting topics in Russian grammar, on the go. This app allows students to learn different prefixes and covers from beginner to intermediate levels. The application is built on the principle of from simple to complex.
Best for vocabulary:
Clozemaster
Clozemaster combines gamification and flashcards to help you remember Russian words. This fill-in-the-blank method is good for getting used to seeing words as they are actually used. Most features are available for free, although they are not suitable for beginners and do not offer many additional features.
Memrise
Memrise is considered one of the best apps for quickly learning Russian vocabulary. The application gives students access to ready-made vocabulary lessons and allows them to publish their own lessons. The basic version of the Memrise app is free. The paid version has a good language course with videos from native speakers and many practical exercises.
MosaLingua
MosaLingua uses a spaced repetition method in lessons using flashcards. The lessons use individual vocabulary terms or more complex phrases. But if a student wants to study vocabulary in a specific category in more detail in preparation for a trip, he will not be able to override the app's programmed learning schedule.
Drops
Drops has a unique approach to vocabulary learning: you match new words with pictures to build your mental vocabulary. The app gives you 5 minutes a day to play combination games. The focus of Drops is almost entirely on vocabulary, more specifically nouns.
Anki
This is a flashcards app for expanding your Russian vocabulary in general. You can use cards created by others or customize them to suit your interests. One of the best things about Anki is its very active community.
Reverso Context
This is a great app to use as a reference. You enter a word or phrase in one language and see the translation in the target language. The key here is to have plenty of examples. Unlike a dictionary, it helps you understand which word to use in which situations.
Lingvist
Lingvist presents new words in the context of a sentence, meaning you'll get used to interacting with the language as it's actually used. Most cards contain valuable additional information about the language element. However, the Russian course has less material than other courses it offers, despite the same price.
ABBYY Lingvo
ABBYY Lingvo is one of the most complete dictionaries of the Russian language, which has been popular among Russian language learners for several years. It's full of common phrases and idioms and allows you to see all the conjugations of the verbs you're looking for. ABBY Lingvo and Linguee are available for download and offline use.
Linguee
Linguee has an offline dictionary feature and is also useful for translating short phrases. It searches the Internet for relevant translations and can help you decipher the meaning of a phrase.
Best for finding a tutor:
italki
The application allows students to take lessons from Russian language teachers and communicate with Russian language tutors. This app is one of the most expensive options for Russian language learners, with prices varying depending on the instructor.
Preply
There are many language tutors available on Preply at a range of prices, but teachers are not paid for trial lessons and receive lower commissions than alternative platforms.
Best for language exchange:
Tandem
Tandem is a reliable option for finding language partners. The app also offers tutoring services.
HelloTalk
It is a global language exchange app designed to provide a richer experience for Russian language learners. The app does not contain structured lessons or other language learning tools. The HelloTalk app is free.
italki
The application allows students to take lessons from Russian language teachers and communicate with Russian language tutors. This app is one of the most expensive options for Russian language learners, with prices varying depending on the instructor.
Preply
There are many language tutors available on Preply at a range of prices, but teachers are not paid for trial lessons and receive lower commissions than alternative platforms.
Best for language exchange:
Tandem
Tandem is a reliable option for finding language partners. The app also offers tutoring services.
HelloTalk
It is a global language exchange app designed to provide a richer experience for Russian language learners. The app does not contain structured lessons or other language learning tools. The HelloTalk app is free.
DECEMBER, 2 / 2024
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