Compare · Thai apps

The Best App to Learn Thai, Honestly Compared

Choosing a Thai learning app is a smaller decision than it looks, because the field is far narrower than the general language-app market: most of the biggest apps in the world don’t teach Thai at all. This page lists every Thai app that does, describes what each one is, says which have a free tier, and leaves the choice to you.

Checked July 2026 · updated as products changeReviewed by the Dublo content team

A man checking his phone against a brick wall, where the search for an app to learn Thai usually starts — Almost everyone starts the same way: typing “app to learn Thai” into a phone.

Key facts

As of July 2026, Duolingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone and Busuu do not offer Thai in any form.
The products that do teach Thai fall into four groups: Thai-specialist courses, multi-language platforms that include Thai, live tutor marketplaces, and free reference sites.
There is no single best app. The useful question is which format matches how you will actually study.
This page contains no rankings, no scores, no affiliate links and no prices. Reasons are explained at the bottom.

Start here: most of the biggest apps don’t teach Thai

If you’ve been comparing the household-name language apps, this narrows your search considerably. As of July 2026, none of the following offer a Thai course:

Platform	Thai course?	Notes
Duolingo	No	No Thai course has been publicly available. Duolingo does teach other tonal languages, including Mandarin and Vietnamese.
Babbel	No	Course catalogue is concentrated on European languages plus a small number of others.
Rosetta Stone	No	Thai is not among the languages offered.
Busuu	No	Busuu’s published catalogue of around 14 languages does not include Thai.

This is worth knowing before you spend an evening searching. It also explains why Thai learners end up on more specialised products than learners of Spanish or German do. We cover the Duolingo case specifically in Duolingo Thai: why there isn’t one.

The comparison at a glance

Grouped by what the product fundamentally is, rather than ranked. “Typically suits” describes the study habit each format tends to fit, not a judgement of quality.

Product	What it is	Format	Typically suits
ThaiPod101	Thai-specialist lesson library	Audio and video lessons with native speakers, podcast style, beginner to advanced	Learners who want a large volume of material and are comfortable choosing their own path through it
Ling	Multi-language app, Thai a major course	Gamified app lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, alphabet and writing	Learners who want short structured daily sessions in an app, including script practice
Pimsleur	Multi-language audio course	Roughly half-hour spoken audio lessons built on spaced recall	Learners who study hands-free, commuting or walking, and prioritise speaking
Glossika	Multi-language sentence trainer	High-volume listen-and-repeat sentence repetition	Learners past the beginner stage who want fluency through sheer repetition
Mondly	Multi-language app including Thai	Gamified short vocabulary and phrase lessons	Casual learners wanting brief sessions across several languages
Memrise	Multi-language app including Thai	Vocabulary-led lessons with native-speaker video clips, plus free community decks	Learners who want to build vocabulary fast and like seeing words said by real people
italki / Preply	Tutor marketplaces	One-to-one live lessons, paid per lesson	Learners who need a human correcting their pronunciation and want conversation practice
thai-language.com	Free reference site	Dictionary, script reference, forums	Anyone needing to look something up, at any level
Dublo (ours)	Thai-specialist spoken course	Short daily units following one continuous journey, script optional; text-to-speech audio	Travellers and residents who want to speak everyday Thai and prefer a fixed path over a library

Thai-specialist products

ThaiPod101

Part of the Innovative Language network, which runs the same format across many languages. Its defining characteristic is scale: a very large library of audio and video lessons recorded with native speakers, spanning absolute beginner to advanced, and covering listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural context. Access is tiered, with a free account offering limited access and paid tiers going up to plans that include a personal teacher.

The library model is a genuine trade-off rather than a flaw. Learners who like choosing their own route get enormous value from it; learners who want to be told exactly what to do next sometimes find the volume hard to navigate. Discussed further in ThaiPod101 alternatives.

Ling

A multi-language app in which Thai is one of the more developed courses. It follows a gamified structure of short lessons covering vocabulary, grammar, the Thai alphabet and writing practice, with native-speaker audio and speaking exercises. Closest in feel to the mainstream app format that Duolingo popularised, applied to a language Duolingo doesn’t cover.

Dublo

The product we make, described here on the same terms as the others so it can be compared rather than promoted. Dublo is a Thai-only spoken course structured as short daily units that follow a single continuous journey, from arriving in Thailand through to daily life as a resident. Speaking comes first and the Thai script is optional rather than a prerequisite. It includes review scheduling, checkpoints that must be passed before later units unlock, and practice built around real situations. It is a paid subscription or a one-time purchase, with a 14-day refund on your first payment. It is a newer and much smaller product than ThaiPod101 or Pimsleur, which is a relevant fact when you’re comparing catalogue size.

Multi-language platforms that include Thai

Pimsleur

An audio-first method with a long track record, built on structured spoken lessons of roughly half an hour that use graduated recall intervals. You listen, you answer aloud, and the course prompts you to retrieve earlier material at increasing intervals. Strong for pronunciation and for people whose only free time is spent driving, walking or commuting. Correspondingly light on reading and on visual reference material.

Glossika

Built on mass sentence repetition: you hear full sentences and repeat them, in volume, with the scheduling handled for you. It assumes you already have some grounding rather than teaching from zero, so it tends to be recommended for intermediate learners who want to consolidate rather than for absolute beginners.

Mondly

A broad multi-language app that includes a Thai course, built around short gamified lessons on vocabulary and set phrases. Suits brief casual sessions; the Thai course is one of many rather than a specialist focus.

Memrise

Memrise offers Thai both as an official course and through free community-made decks. Its distinctive feature is short video clips of native speakers saying the word or phrase, which helps a lot in a language where hearing the real thing matters. Strongest on vocabulary building; lighter on structured grammar and on getting you into full conversations.

Is there a free app to learn Thai?

Partly, and it’s worth being precise, because “free” means different things here:

Genuinely free, no time limit: Memrise’s community-made Thai decks, and thai-language.com as a dictionary and script reference. Free YouTube channels also cover a lot, with very variable quality.
Free tier inside a paid product: ThaiPod101 gives limited free access to its library; Dublo carries a 14-day refund on your first payment; several apps offer a trial period.
Paid after a taste: Ling, Pimsleur, Glossika and Mondly are subscription products.

The honest picture: there is no fully free Thai app with the polish and completeness of a paid course, because the Thai learner market is far too small to support an advertising-funded model like Duolingo’s. Free resources are excellent for reference and vocabulary, and weaker on structure and speaking practice.

A learner writing at a desk in front of a screen during a one-to-one online lesson — A tutor fixes what no app can: your own mistakes, out loud, in real time.

Live tutors

Marketplaces such as italki and Preply connect you with Thai tutors for one-to-one lessons, priced per lesson and paid directly to the tutor, with rates set by each tutor. This is the only category on this page that gives you real-time correction of your tones by a person, which no app replaces. It is also the only category with no fixed curriculum by default, quality and structure depend on the individual tutor. Many learners combine a tutor with self-study rather than choosing between them. If you want in-person classes or an education visa instead, see our guide to Thai language schools in Bangkok.

Laptops, notebooks and drinks on a shared wooden table, free resources for learning Thai — Free material is plentiful. Structure is the part you end up paying for.

Free resources worth knowing about

Not everything useful is a product. thai-language.com has been a free reference for Thai dictionary lookups and script information for many years and remains one of the most cited resources among learners. There is also a large amount of free Thai teaching on YouTube, ranging from excellent to unreliable. Free resources are generally strong for reference and weak for structure, which is the opposite of what paid courses provide.

Overhead view of hands writing in a planner beside a laptop, coffee and glasses — Decide what you want the app to do before you compare feature lists.

Choosing without testing all of them

Rather than ranking, here is the question that most often decides it in practice. Match the format to the study habit you realistically have:

You study hands-free, in a car or on foot. Audio-first courses are the only ones that work at all. Pimsleur, then Glossika once you have a base.
You study in short bursts on a phone. App-format products, Ling, Mondly or Dublo.
You want depth and lots of material, and you like choosing your own route. A library-model product, ThaiPod101.
You want to be told what to do next and to follow one path. A fixed-sequence course rather than a library.
Your pronunciation is the thing holding you back. A human. Tutor marketplaces or a school, in combination with whatever you use daily.
You want to read Thai script properly. Check specifically for script and writing instruction, several audio-first products cover it only lightly.

Most of these products offer a free tier or trial. Testing two for a week each is a more reliable way to choose than reading comparison pages, including this one.

What this page deliberately doesn’t do

No ranking or scores. A numbered “best Thai app” list implies a measurement nobody has actually made. The products here have different purposes, so ordering them would be a preference presented as a fact.
No prices. Subscription pricing changes often and is frequently discounted, so any figure here would be wrong within months. Every product publishes current pricing on its own site.
No affiliate links. Links on this page are plain links. We earn nothing if you click them or subscribe.
No claims about products we couldn’t verify. Where a detail could not be confirmed, it has been left out rather than estimated.

Read next: Duolingo Thai: Why There Isn’t One, Duolingo has no Thai course. What is actually known about why, and what learners use instead.

Dublo, stated plainly

Dublo is the product we make, listed above on the same terms as the others: a journey-based spoken Thai course, organised as short daily units. Audio is text-to-speech rather than native-speaker recordings. Your first payment is refundable for 14 days.

Frequently asked questions

Does Duolingo have a Thai course?

No. As of July 2026 Duolingo does not offer Thai in any direction, and no public Duolingo Thai course has existed. Duolingo does teach other tonal languages such as Mandarin and Vietnamese, so tone alone is not the explanation.

Which app is best for learning Thai?

There is no single best app, and any page that names one is expressing a preference. The products differ by format rather than by quality: audio courses such as Pimsleur suit hands-free study, app-format courses such as Ling or Dublo suit short daily sessions, ThaiPod101 suits learners who want a large library, and tutor marketplaces such as italki suit learners who need live correction. Match the format to how you will actually study.

Which major language apps do not teach Thai?

As of July 2026, Duolingo, Babbel, Rosetta Stone and Busuu do not offer Thai courses. Platforms that do include Thai are ThaiPod101, Ling, Pimsleur, Glossika, Mondly and Dublo, alongside tutor marketplaces such as italki and Preply.

Can an app teach me to read Thai script?

Some can. Ling and ThaiPod101 both include alphabet and writing instruction. Audio-first products such as Pimsleur and Glossika cover reading only lightly, since their method is spoken. If reading matters to you, check for it specifically before subscribing, and note that you can learn to speak Thai without the script.

Is one Thai app enough on its own?

For conversational everyday Thai, one well-matched product plus consistent daily practice is usually enough. The common exception is pronunciation, which improves fastest with a person listening to you. Many learners pair a daily self-study app with occasional tutor lessons rather than choosing one.

Do these apps cost money?

Most operate on subscriptions, with some offering a free tier or trial and some offering one-time purchases. Prices are not listed here because they change frequently and are often discounted, check each product's own site for current terms.