Rosetta Stone offers an easy-to-use desktop version as well as the finest mobile language learning app we tested. Once you log in, your progress is synced across all learning platforms, allowing you to begin a course at home and finish it on the app during your lunch break or morning commute. Its strategy is to immerse you completely in the French language - all of the text and speech are in French - and to provide you with visual cues to help you learn. It also relies on repetition to ensure that all of the lessons are remembered.

The voice recognition tool makes use of Rosetta Stone's TruAccent technology to help you perfect your pronunciation so you can engage effectively with native speakers. Most of the applications we tried had speech recognition, and while it wasn't flawless, we found Rosetta Stone's to be among the most accurate.

If you wish to study French classes without utilizing Wi-Fi or cellular data, the audio companion is a terrific option. These audio-only lessons can be downloaded to a mobile device or music player. If you wish to brush up on your vocabulary before a flight to a French-speaking country, you can use use downloadable lessons. Rosetta Stone provides live tuition if you are having difficulty understanding some of the lesson concepts. You can communicate with a native French-speaking tutor in real time. The live teacher service is not free (unless you are a business user), but it is an excellent way to improve your pronunciation and sentence structure.

Website: www.rosettastone.com

Reasons to buy

• Easy to use
• Great mobile app
• Live tutoring available

Reasons to avoid

• Some features require additional fees

Duolingo provides French education through a fun and simple interface. You can use the web application at home on your laptop or desktop computer, or you can learn on the move with the well-designed mobile app. Both tools track your progress through the lesson plan, ensuring that you do not overlook any ideas. The learning tools and course content are on par with the finest for-pay programs we evaluated.

You can use this as your primary language study software or as a supplement to face-to-face teaching or other language learning tools because it is free. For less than $10 per month, you can remove the ads and gain access to downloadable lessons by subscribing to Duolingo plus

This French study software employs a linear approach to ensure that you obtain a solid foundation upon which to develop more complicated themes. Linear learning systems do not allow you to jump around the lesson plans, however Duolingo does allow you to test out of skills that you may already have learnt. Duolingo offers classes for both beginners and expert students. The Duolingo Stories are an excellent learning tool for advanced and intermediate students who require assistance with their listening and reading comprehension skills. The stories are now only available in a few languages, one of which is French. The Duolingo stories can be found under the Labs tab on the web or mobile app..

Website: www.duolingo.com

Reasons to buy

• Free
• Friendly daily reminders
• Fun learning platform

Reasons to avoid

• Annoying ads

Rocket Languages is the appropriate choice for you if you prefer audio interaction and activities to learn. This program helps you build and refine your pronunciation by using interactive audio lessons and a voice recognition technology. Among the apps we examined, Rocket Languages boasts one of the most accurate speech recognition algorithms.

We also enjoy that it contains cultural lessons, which could come in handy if you plan on traveling. Furthermore, its Survival Kit lessons concentrate on vocabulary and phrases that are necessary for navigating in French-speaking nations. It's an excellent learning tool for anyone who expects to use their language when traveling or conducting business with international clients.

It's not cheap, but it's akin to Rosetta Stone, and completing the Rocket course requires a certain level of determination. This is a fantastic option if you're searching for an excellent location to start and are ready to put in the time and money to learn.

Reasons to buy

• Excellent for beginners
• Loads of lessons
• Good audio content

Reasons to avoid

• Expensive

Babbel offers a seven-day free trial, after which it costs $6.95 to $13.95 a month, depending on the length of your subscription. This may appear to be expensive, but it is significantly less expensive than some other learning platforms, and it includes a number of useful features.

We enjoy how you may change up your learning sessions by playing games and listening to podcasts according to your level of language comprehension. It also has some helpful revision tools that keep track of the words (or grammar rules) you keep forgetting and push you to go back and review them. Furthermore, purchasing a subscription to this site will allow you to study all of the offered languages, a total of 14.

However, because the bulk of lectures follow a similar framework, we discovered that lessons might become monotonous. Users must also pay to access live lessons, but they can usually attempt a few for free first. The Babbel app's AI tool, on the other hand, proved to be extremely accurate, picking up any minor errors in our accent and urging us to try again.

Website: www.babbel.com

Reasons to buy

• Easy to use
• Free games and podcast
• Can learn multiple languages

Reasons to avoid

• Sometimes repetitive

Mondly has a user-friendly, modern UI as well as a number of useful functions. Lessons are thorough and just difficult enough to keep you interested. We particularly liked the chatbot feature, which lets you mimic a discussion in your preferred language.

We did notice that some lessons threw you into the deep end with unfamiliar phrases or words. This is a common teaching strategy since dealing with new information can help you retain it in the future, but it can be painfully tough for the less experienced learner.

The app's sole small flaw is that we didn't get the impression that it scaled for more advanced learners. Instead, the same repetitive lesson approach – which is suitable for beginners – appears to be used at all levels of language comprehension. We also saw that the emphasis in the courses was on acquiring new phrases and vocabulary rather than establishing grammatical standards. This is a useful method if you're a learner, but it might not appeal to a more advanced student.

Website: www.mondly.com

Reasons to buy

• Simple to use
• Relatively cheap

Reasons to avoid

• Only really suitable for beginners

Pimsleur is a research-based learning system that focuses on audio as the primary teaching medium (with only a handful of visual cues thrown in). It's significantly different from Rosetta Stone in this regard. It has, however, been demonstrated to be useful, and it is not subject to any of the fads or 'attempts to be quirky or distinctive' that a lot of learn French software tries to avoid.

It includes a lot of sample dialogues, which is great if you're trying to learn French for a certain topic or setting. It lends itself nicely to conversational French because of its audio format, and it does an excellent job of integrating the vocabulary you study into usable phrases and discussions.

The disadvantage is that there are no visual signals, and it can seem stuffy and monotonous at times. It's also reasonably priced, so take advantage of the free trial to see if audio learning is right for you.

Website: offers.pimsleur.com

Reasons to buy

• Great for listeners
• Tried and tested method

Reasons to avoid

• Expensive
• Can get repetitive

Memrise, like Duolingo, is a mostly free program that is great for anyone looking to learn some basic French in their leisure time. It's easy to fit in around chores because it doesn't need long periods of focus. The disadvantage is that it does not provide you with a fully cohesive understanding of the language, thus it is not recommended for persons who desire a thorough understanding of French.

Memrise prompts learning through flash cards and other clues, and it adapts lessons as you succeed, so you improve via mastery rather than a reward system. It's also amusing: users will learn words and phrases faster if they're associated with odd or amusing visual cues.

There are a lot of lessons, but they're supplemented with user-created courses, one-on-one tutoring, and other useful information that can help you further your learning if you like the Memrise approach.

Website: www.memrise.com

Reasons to buy

• Free / low cost
• Good for the basics

Reasons to avoid

• Not a great learning method

What are your thoughts on seeing Victor Hugo naked? Frantastique is probably not for you if the concept is stupid or makes you want to vomit in your mouth. If the concept is amusing, and you believe you could benefit from an app with a sense of humor, it's certainly worth a shot.

Frantastique instructs through stories, comics, and movies, but with a unique twist. One of the primary characters in an app that uses more recent media to help you learn a language is a naked Victor Hugo who has been thawed out by aliens. It involves complete immersion, similar to Rosetta Stone, and the process is based on a lot of science and facts. And if you like the look, it works, and you can even get personalized tests and reports based on your performance.

The negative is that it's pricey - one of the most expensive on our list - so if it appeals to you, take advantage of the limited free trial before you commit.

Website: www.gymglish.com

Reasons to buy

• Genuinely funny
• Doesn't feel like learning

Reasons to avoid

• Expensive
• Style isn't for everyone

FrenchPod101 is primarily weighted toward podcasts, videocasts, and audio learning, as the name suggests. The idea is that you can listen while doing other things or check it out whenever you have five minutes to spare. This is both its greatest strength and its greatest flaw.

It's really convenient and fits into your schedule, but it takes a lot of personal willpower to absorb the information and stick with the course. It's also extremely costly, so if some people appreciate the procedure, the expense may be enough to motivate them.

If you require the French language for a specific reason, such as a business trip or a vacation, it offers a paths function that allows you to go further into specific themes. The software is useful, and there are numerous lessons to choose from.

Website: www.frenchpod101.com

Reasons to buy

• Helps you learn fast
• Ideal for those who enjoy podcasts

Reasons to avoid

• Needs loads of willpower
• Quite expensive

Busuu resembles both Duolingo and Babbel in terms of lesson styles and teaching methodologies, and it follows a similar trend. Where it differs from the competition is in its certificate program; unlike the other platforms, it allows paying customers to receive a McGraw Hill certificate to prove their language proficiency.

We found the lessons to be entertaining and straightforward in our testing. We particularly enjoyed the platform's capability for detecting repeated errors in your lessons and encouraging you to acquire the proper spelling, pronunciation, or grammar. Because your learning is tied with a profile rather than a device, Busuu makes switching between your laptop and phone a breeze.

If you use the free-tier membership, you can only study one language on the site; however, premium subscribers have access to all 12. Premium members can also download content to learn on their own time, and they can pay extra for live tutoring. Because it lacks many additional features, such as games or podcasts, this platform did not receive as high a rating as some other language learning apps. As a result, the lesson structure may become repetitive after a while.

Website: www.busuu.com

Reasons to buy

• Easy to switch between laptop and phone
• Simple, modern interface

Reasons to avoid

• Premium subscription needed to download content