Best Apps to Learn Spanish Vocabulary (2026)

Duolingo is the easiest free on-ramp; Babbel offers a structured course; Anki hands you full control over a flashcard deck, including Spanish decks other learners already built; Clozemaster drills vocabulary inside full sentences; Drops keeps each free session to five minutes; Memrise adds native-speaker video; SpanishDict pairs a dictionary and conjugator with grammar lessons and quizzes. Watch Your Language does not teach any of that — it keeps Spanish words already met once in view, on the iPhone and Apple Watch, with no lesson to open.

How we chose

We compared what each app offers, from its own site and App Store listing, in September 2026: what it teaches, which platforms it runs on, and how it prices access. This is a comparison of public information, not a hands-on trial, so every claim below links to where it came from.

Spanish is not one fixed target, either. Vocabulary and pronunciation differ between Spain and Latin America, and the apps below vary in whether they let you pick a region. Its grammar also tends to get harder the further you go, not easier — see why Spanish grammar gets hard later — which is one reason several apps below pair vocabulary with grammar rather than leaving it to stand alone.

Duolingo Spanish

Who it is for: a complete beginner who wants a free, gamified way to start.

What it does well: short, game-like lessons — translation, multiple choice, listening and speaking exercises — plus Explain My Answer, a short grammar note after a wrong answer, free for everyone since 1 January 2026 in its Spanish course among others.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its listing shows iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision only. Super Duolingo, its paid tier, removes the ads and the "energy" limit rather than changing the lesson format.

Babbel

Who it is for: someone who wants a fixed course toward a stated goal, ready to subscribe once the free lessons run out.

What it does well: a structured curriculum that explains grammar in context inside its lessons, and speaking practice with speech recognition, Guided Conversations and Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner, as its App Store listing describes them. On the web, its system requirements page says speech recognition works best in Chrome and, in Edge, Firefox or Safari, is available for Spanish among four languages.

What it lacks: a free way through a full course — registration and the first lesson of every course are free, and a subscription unlocks the rest — and an Apple Watch app: its App Store listing shows iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision only, for all of its 13 languages for English speakers.

Anki (with shared Spanish decks)

Who it is for: learners who want one large, personal deck, self-built or downloaded from another learner.

What it does well: the desktop app is free on Windows, macOS and Linux, and AnkiDroid is free too; AnkiMobile for iPhone and iPad is a one-time $24.99 purchase, not a subscription. AnkiWeb's shared-deck library holds Spanish decks other learners have already built, browsable at ankiweb.net/shared/decks/spanish.

What it lacks: any teaching of its own — Anki is a card format and a review schedule, not a course, so a good Spanish deck is still down to you, and there is no Apple Watch app listed.

Clozemaster

Who it is for: a learner past the absolute beginner stage who wants vocabulary drilled inside full sentences.

What it does well: its own site describes the method as fill-in-the-blank "cloze" sentences across "50+ languages", so a Spanish word is always reviewed in context, and a free tier is usable without paying.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its App Store listing names iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision only. Sentence search, favoriting, unlimited listening practice and offline play sit behind Clozemaster Pro, whose in-app purchases start from $8.99 a month; check the listing for the tier shown in your region.

Drops

Who it is for: someone who wants short, icon-based vocabulary games and nothing else competing for attention in the same session.

What it does well: quick games that match a word to a custom illustration, across Drops' 55+ languages, built on what its own site calls "spaced-repetition, contextual learning, and visual association".

What it lacks: free sessions longer than five minutes — Drops' own welcome page says five minutes a day is enough and that Premium lets you practise more — and an Apple Watch app, absent from its App Store Compatibility section. Premium is available from $7.99 on the US App Store.

Memrise

Who it is for: learners who want to hear Spanish spoken naturally and practise a conversation.

What it does well: real native-speaker video clips and AI-powered conversation practice, covering Spanish among its languages.

What it lacks: an Apple Watch app — its App Store listing shows iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Apple Vision only. Memrise is free to start, with a paid plan that unlocks extra features; its in-app purchases start from $24.99 on the US App Store, so check the App Store in your country before subscribing.

SpanishDict

Who it is for: someone who wants a Spanish dictionary, verb conjugator and grammar reference in the same app they use to quiz themselves on vocabulary.

What it does well: a dictionary and translator alongside verb conjugation and grammar lessons, plus a vocabulary quiz described as "powered by spaced repetition"; Premium adds phrasebooks for regional Spanish dialects. Unusually here, its App Store listing includes Apple Watch compatibility.

What it lacks: a game-like daily routine — its listing describes hundreds of video lessons, from introductory Spanish to advanced grammar, but the app is organised around lookups and reference, so it works best alongside a course app such as Duolingo or Babbel. Premium is $12.99 a month, $39.99 for six months, or $59.99 a year on the US App Store.

Watch Your Language

Who it is for: someone already using one of the apps above, who wants that vocabulary to keep coming back afterward, without opening another app to review it.

What it does well: it shows Spanish words — pre-made packs or your own — in iPhone Lock Screen and Home Screen widgets, iPad widgets, and Apple Watch complications. Its Basics pack, for example, shows familia ("family"), amigo ("friend") and gracias ("thank you"), with spaced repetition deciding which word to bring back next, at a pace you set from every minute to once a week.

What it lacks: any of the teaching above — no grammar, no conversation, no full sentences. It is free to start with pre-made packs; a Premium subscription unlocks all packs and your own words.

How the seven compare

Which one to pick

• Duolingo to start today for free, with a game-like habit that gets you to open the app.
• Babbel for a fixed course toward a stated goal rather than your own path.
• Anki for a flashcard deck — your own, or one built by another learner — that you fully control.
• Clozemaster if you have some vocabulary and want it drilled inside real sentences.
• Drops if a short five-minute session suits you better than an open-ended app.
• Memrise if native speech and conversation matter more than a large personal deck.
• SpanishDict for a dictionary, conjugator and grammar reference alongside whatever else you use.

Pick Watch Your Language alongside whichever of those you choose — not instead of it — if last week's words have already faded. Browse a free Spanish word list by topic or test your current level first, and see which Spanish to learn before settling on one course's regional choices.

Watch Your Language is not a course, a dictionary or a conversation partner: it shows Spanish words, from its pre-made packs or, with Premium, your own list, in widgets on the iPhone and in Apple Watch complications, and schedules which word appears next using spaced repetition. It suits a reader who already has a primary study method and wants today's vocabulary to keep surfacing without opening another app.