Learning Spanish is easy with the right resources for you. Find your best online Spanish course with Elayaa.com.
Spanish is the second most spoken language in the world; there are more native Spanish speakers than English speakers, and it is a language that is quite easy to learn.
In addition to being a melodious language associated with a culture full of colors and joy, for many people, it also represents a career opportunity and a way to expand their horizons in life. According to this study conducted in 2022 at Harvard University, 85% of multinational companies require personnel capable of speaking Spanish correctly to meet the demands of a market that covers more than 20% of the world 😎
Whether for passion or work, if you are looking for the best online Spanish courses of 2024, you are in the right place!
The Top 10 Best Spanish Courses
Here is our comparative analysis of the best online Spanish courses of 2024, featuring the most important options available on the market:
Let's start with our favorite online Spanish course and, in our opinion, the most comprehensive one overall.
1. Elayaa.com
★★★★★ Rated 4.8/5 by hundreds of Spanish students. Reviews HERE.
Switching from one course to another, from one app to another, or investing hours of your time to find the right video or online Spanish teacher, only to possibly change again to cover everything you need to know, can be bewildering and confusing.
Elayaa.com is an all-in-one platform, highly flexible and efficient both in terms of cost and time. It is an interactive and comprehensive online Spanish course (from beginner to advanced), with conversation and individual lessons available.
As a student, you can:
Learn Spanish at your own pace
Have conversations almost every day
Personalize your experience
Boost your confidence from day one
Find everything you need to speak Spanish naturally and confidently
ALL-IN-ONE EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM
With everything included, plus a Professional Chat Support to solve your doubts instantly. From Zero to Advanced in one place.
REAL CONVERSATIONS
Group Conversation Classes (1 to 6 participants) available almost everyday for real-world speaking experience, and Individual Coaching Sessions for a customized learning path.
LEARN SPANISH ON THE GO
Podcast in Spanish and Audio Version of the entire course.
ENGAGING PRACTICE
Intelligent Interactive Exercises & Instant Explanations.
In Elayaa.com, you will find an online Spanish course that offers a real solution to becoming 100% fluent. Fun and with the possibility of learning Spanish in-depth and efficiently. You can progress at your own pace and schedule your live lessons as you prefer. Everything is designed around your specific needs, ensuring authentic engagement, and a wide variety of content and tools that make learning Spanish a complete and rewarding experience.
You can start by signing up for the FREE TRIAL (100% Free). Then, if you decide to progress, you can choose the complete Spanish course that better suits your needs:
EXPRESS Total: Platform (Self-taught) - From $15/month
PREMIUM: Platform + Conversation Classes - From $29/month
PREMIUM +Plus: Platform + Conversation Classes + 1:1 Lessons - From $60/month
If you really want to achieve your goals and are looking for the most comprehensive solution, Elayaa.com is for sure your best option overall.
2. Duolingo
Duolingo presents itself as an affordable option for those looking to learn Spanish online. This app for learning Spanish offers an interactive online Spanish course and the flexibility to study at your own pace, making it an attractive option for those seeking a free and flexible solution in terms of time.
The underlying idea of Duolingo is to make learning the Spanish language fun, progressing in small doses, and bringing students back every day through a study method based on gamification. This involves making a study program as similar to a game as possible, with lots of exercises and repetition.
However, Duolingo has some limitations that should be considered. While the cost can be advantageous (100% free), the lack of depth in learning, live interaction, and real customization could limit both the learning experience and the quality of results obtained by students.
In conclusion, Duolingo can be a useful initial resource for those looking to learn Spanish inexpensively and flexibly, but those aiming to become fluent may want to complement their learning path with more in-depth and interactive resources.
Mango Languages offers one of the most visually appealing online Spanish courses in the market. Their Spanish course is very user-friendly and focuses more on learning vocabulary and useful phrases for various everyday situations "in blocks" than on the grammatical rules of the Spanish language in general.
Their use of colors to highlight different blocks of Spanish vocabulary and align them with translations of these phrases in other languages is very clever. This way of learning Spanish is definitely an advantage for students with a more "visual" learning style and allows them to have the tools to start communicating in Spanish almost immediately, without the need to learn grammar.
In addition to all these resources for learning Spanish, Mango Languages offers its students modules dedicated to various cultural aspects, which are certainly interesting and useful.
Like many other online Spanish courses, its biggest limitation lies in the lack of depth of content, the lack of focus on grammar, and the inability to truly learn to speak Spanish. From our perspective, this means that Mango Languages' Spanish course can be an excellent complement to other resources but is unlikely to be a sole option for learning to speak Spanish naturally and confidently.
Mango Languages' online Spanish courses are extremely affordable, starting at $7.99/month.
4. Babbel
Babbel is considered one of the best online Spanish courses on the market. Their lessons serve as a useful solution for learning aspects such as reading, writing, listening, and pronunciation in Spanish and are often seen as a more comprehensive and professional version compared to Spanish lessons offered by Duolingo.
In practice, Babbel provides interactive Spanish lessons on grammar rules and vocabulary, lasting about 20 minutes without delving too deeply. This relaxed approach allows students to have frequent and flexible contact with the Spanish language without making the process cumbersome.
If you're looking for a low-intensity online Spanish course, and the time required to start seeing the first results is not an issue for you, undoubtedly Babbel could be a very convenient way to learn useful vocabulary for daily life and to build your first grammar foundations. If desired, you can add live group Spanish conversation lessons with various teachers, but not individual lessons to customize your path and delve into those topics or skills most important to you.
With prices of $14/month for the relaxed-style Spanish course alone and $99/month for the same Spanish course plus conversation, Babbel positions itself as a fairly competitive option for what it offers. That said, if you're looking for a flexible Spanish course with live interaction (both in groups and individually), you probably have more comprehensive and simultaneously competitive options.
5. Lengalia
Lengalia's online Spanish courses are divided into many different levels, from absolute beginner to advanced. Each course is divided into various sections dedicated to vocabulary and grammar, and there is also a section dedicated to podcasts.
Throughout the Spanish courses offered by Lengalia, you can find numerous exercises and content, organized in a very clear and orderly manner. Most lessons focus on Spanish grammar, and you can take advantage of an educational support service via chat to communicate with teachers and quickly resolve any doubts.
From our perspective, Lengalia does an excellent job of teaching grammar and offering hundreds of exercises for practice. It can certainly be a good option for those looking for an online Spanish course with a more traditional style and a solid structure, primarily to be followed as a self-taught learner.
Contrary to many other online Spanish courses, Lengalia's limitation does not lie in the lack of depth of the content found in their courses, but rather in the lack of practicality and a sense of engagement that students may perceive when learning this content and applying it in everyday life.
Without the possibility of accessing any kind of live lessons, their price is $29.99/month.
6. Preply
Preply is a database of online Spanish teachers, along with many other languages. By using their search filters, you can find various Spanish teachers that suit your needs: availability on specific days and times, lesson prices, and years of experience. Additionally, you can search for Spanish teachers with different specializations, such as Spanish for adults, Spanish for children, preparation for various exams, and many other variables among the over 6000 Spanish teachers on the platform.
Once in a lesson, you will find some teachers with a more traditional approach focused on grammar, others more concentrated on conversation, and others who may suggest educational games or presentations to follow like a schoolbook. The price of lessons can range from a minimum of $2/hour (yes, $2 per hour) to a maximum of $20/hour. Preply retains up to 33% of each teacher's hourly earnings, plus 100% of the first lesson fee, which the student always pays but the teacher never receives.
Learning Spanish with only individual lessons is absolutely possible, but the level of enthusiasm and/or frustration that an experienced teacher may feel in this context could certainly be reflected in their commitment to creating professional and consistently helpful lessons for students over time. In other contexts, an engaging and experienced Spanish teacher can help you delve into various topics, create a tailored path for you, and guide you to total fluency in Spanish.
In our opinion, without a proper structured Spanish course to follow freely, you may struggle to learn Spanish at your own pace, lack the assurance of covering all the topics you truly need, and miss out on the features and tools of a well-designed course. These shortcomings can make your experience inefficient from both an economic and time perspective. We are confident that there are more comprehensive options available, including both conversation classes and individual lessons.
7. Italki
Italki is another database of Spanish teachers where you can request an online Spanish course. The idea behind this platform is to allow students and teachers to connect, then freely organize their online Spanish lessons. Students purchase "credits" which they can later use to book their lessons, directly through the platform. Trial lessons last for 30 minutes and can be booked at half price.
On Italki, there are two types of teachers: Professionals (with qualifications) and Tutors (without qualifications). Both the prices of their lessons and the learning experience of their students can vary greatly. In fact, it is very common to find teachers without any specific teaching qualifications but with excellent communication skills and years of experience, who typically create professional and truly helpful lessons for students. At the same time, other qualified teachers with poor communication skills and few years of experience may offer a less satisfactory service at a higher price.
Speaking of prices, the competition among teachers on Italki is so significant (there are thousands of teachers available for each language) that you can often find hourly rates that very few students on the platform would accept as fair compensation, as it may be seen as exploitative and personally unsatisfying. On average, an hour of lessons on Italki can cost around $5. The platform retains 15% of each teacher's hourly earnings. In our opinion, these conditions can be challenging to sustain over time for most teachers.
As with other similar platforms, on Italki, you can learn Spanish online by relying on the experience and motivation level of the teachers. Keep in mind that truly learning Spanish with only individual lessons, without a complete and professional Spanish course, implies taking many hours of lessons, potentially leading to spending much more than you might elsewhere. This is not to mention the time needed to find the right teacher among thousands of profiles.
Rocket Languages' online Spanish courses are organized into three levels, from beginner to advanced, allowing you to learn Spanish in a fairly linear manner. This style of learning the Spanish language might be ideal for you if you're looking for a course with more structure compared to many other options currently available on the market.
The three levels that make up Rocket Languages' Spanish course are primarily composed of podcasts that teach Spanish progressively, along with a series of dialogues set in different contexts, and a voice recognition feature that allows you to refine your pronunciation by repeating phrases and words several times.
The underlying idea of these online Spanish courses is to cover all the major skills needed to learn Spanish: listening, speaking (through repetition), reading, and writing. If you're looking to learn Spanish fairly comprehensively but gradually, without a personalized path for you, and without any human interaction to become truly fluent through conversation with a professional and engaging teacher, this course might be for you.
To access these Spanish courses, you can choose to buy each of the three available levels individually at $149.95 each, buy all three together for $449.85, or opt for a 6-month plan at $75/month. If their pricing list seems a bit confusing, know that you're not alone in feeling that way! In our opinion, if you're looking for a professional and well-structured course, with and without live lessons included, there are better and more competitive options.
Keep in mind that their Spanish courses only cover the Latin American spoken variant, with no reference to the European version. Having a comparison between the two variants, in our opinion, is essential as it allows for a broader understanding and a richer experience, both linguistically and culturally.
Rosetta Stone is one of the biggest names in the language learning industry for many years, and their online Spanish courses definitely deserve our attention. Once offered in CD format, a now outdated version converted to the world of web applications, their Spanish courses have always been innovative and continue to be.
As is the case with many other revolutionary products, Rosetta Stone's online Spanish courses can either be loved or disliked. Their Spanish courses come without any translations or grammatical explanations at your disposal, aiming to recreate as much as possible a total immersion process in the Spanish language, similar to what you would experience if you were born in a Spanish-speaking country. In practical terms, you will be compelled to learn vocabulary, grammar, and all communicative skills through intuition and repetition.
In our opinion, the biggest limitations of Rosetta Stone lie in the lack of depth of the content presented and the absence of human interaction for conversation in Spanish. Regarding their teaching method, you can certainly learn Spanish just as a child would, without grammatical rules or any assistance, but there are a couple of problems: You are not a child, and no language course can fully and consistently expose you to the language you want to learn so that you can deduce the grammatical rules needed to speak correctly.
That being said, if you are not in a hurry and enjoy experimenting, Rosetta Stone subscriptions start from $6.49/month.
10. Cervantes
If you're undecided between online language courses and traditional classroom courses at a language school, perhaps the Cervantes online Spanish courses might be suitable for you. In practice, it's the same format and pace as a traditional Spanish course but held intensively online.
Cervantes is a Spanish language school dedicated to the promotion of the Spanish language and culture, and their courses follow the levels defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2. If you enroll in one of their online Spanish courses, for each level, you will have to complete 40 hours of self-study on a platform and attend only 10 hours of group lessons on Skype.
Each individual level lasts for 4 weeks and costs €440. If you start from scratch and aim to reach a B2 level (Upper-intermediate), you would need to complete 4 levels, spending almost €1800 in total. Once you complete the first 4 levels, you would have done 160 hours of self-study and only 40 hours of traditional group lessons, conducted on Skype.
From our perspective, with thorough research, you will find that there are currently equally comprehensive, much more engaging options with many professional group and individual lessons already included. Oh, and with a much more competitive cost!
Our advice to get the most out of each type of course
Whether you choose to learn Spanish with a comprehensive solution like Elayaa.com, with one of the many apps and online Spanish courses - more or less complete - available on the market, with a traditional Spanish school, or by directly seeking an online Spanish tutor, there are several ways you can maximize the benefits in your favor.
Let's go through them together, starting with our preferred option!
a) Elayaa.com
Depending on the package you choose, you will have access to various features. Let's see what packages are available and how to make the most of them case by case:
Complete Educational Platform:
Follow the program in order
Take quizzes/activities/tests (repeating as many times as you want)
Use Educational Support via chat to clear any doubts at any time
Use Grammar and Vocabulary Cards to study
Take your own notes during video lessons
Use graded readings/podcasts to improve your written and listening comprehension
Use interactive exercises to solve your doubts (sometimes even those you didn't think you had) and delve into each topic
Use the audio version of the complete course to review the content whenever you want to just listen and keep your brain focused on learning
Complete Educational Platform and Live Conversation Lessons:
Follow all the advice given for EXPRESS Total
Participate in Live Conversation Lessons to speak and become fluent, without overthinking and having fun
Use the HUNDREDS OF INCLUDED LIVE CONVERSATION LESSONS to feel more and more comfortable applying your Spanish in real-life contexts (everyday life, tourism, work, study, and personal growth)
Complete Educational Platform, Conversation, and Individual Sessions:
Follow all the advice given for EXPRESS Total and PREMIUM
Book your Individual Sessions to put everything into practice by speaking even more, to focus on the most useful topics FOR YOU, to completely personalize your course, and to achieve any of your goals more quickly
b) Apps and Online Spanish Courses
If you choose to rely on one or more of the apps for learning Spanish currently on the market or one of the many online Spanish courses you can easily find on the internet, our advice is to be as consistent as possible, trying to have as many contacts as possible with your favorite app or online course. This will allow you to feel the Spanish language closer to you and a part of your day.
If your goal is to increase your vocabulary or more generally to "know something in Spanish" without necessarily becoming fluent and confident for real, with 15 or 20 minutes a day of dedication, you will achieve excellent results.
If, on the other hand, you want to be able to speak Spanish fluently and confidently, not only in front of your smartphone but in real-life situations, we recommend complementing your app or online course with other resources that allow you to learn the structure and grammar of the language. Ideally, this includes professional live lessons (with someone who can guide you in the practical application of everything you learn on your own). To be fluent and confident, you need to speak as much as possible in real situations, with real people.
c) Traditional Spanish Schools
In this case, our advice is to look for Spanish schools that allow you to study and make progress on your own, giving the teacher - whether online or in person - as much time as possible during lessons to speak and put into practice all the fruits of your study. Additionally, before each lesson with the teacher, make a list of every question that comes to you as you study and do Spanish exercises on your own, so that you can make the most of the knowledge and guidance that a professional and experienced teacher can provide. This way, you should always receive an answer to clarify each of your doubts.
If the Spanish school you have chosen dedicates most of the lesson time with the teacher only to present each topic in the book or on the board, leaving only a small part of the lesson for conversation, you are unlikely to become fluent and confident quickly. In this case, you may have to purchase and attend numerous Spanish courses, one for each level (sometimes a course for only a "half" level), which can lead to feelings of frustration and the sensation of wasting your time.
No matter how "technological" or "beautiful" a language school is, the most important thing is how much time of the lesson is dedicated to speaking and the professionalism of the teachers (more on this in the next point).
d) Tutors and Online Spanish Teachers
If you are looking to rely entirely on a tutor or Spanish teacher (online or in person), the most important thing to understand is the professionalism of the person with whom you are about to embark on your educational journey.
Personally, I have been involved - among many other things related to the world of languages - in the recruitment of teaching staff for various educational institutions for many years. Given that absolute truth does not exist, the world is not black and white, and there are a thousand colors in between that deserve our attention..., the best candidates have never been exclusively those with a specific degree for teaching the Spanish language, nor the "Qualified" or "Certified" teachers by some professional body.
Often (again, in a absolutely NOT exclusive way), those with a specific university degree to teach a language, often tend to be very focused on grammar alone and know little about the practical applications that this language can have in various everyday life contexts and in different professional sectors. Those who give too much importance to a Professional Certificate (usually obtained through fairly expensive and at the same time very short courses) often know about teaching methods but lack field experience.
The best Spanish teachers I have encountered throughout my professional career have at least 5 years of teaching experience, excellent communication skills, a great knowledge of the grammar of the language they teach, work experience in other sectors and in multicultural environments, knowledge of various languages (and therefore know what it means to truly "learn" a foreign language), have lived in different countries (and therefore know what it means to "integrate" into a culture different from their own), and all this package should always be wrapped in a nice smile, with availability and genuine willingness to help. None of these characteristics can be guaranteed by a certificate or degree, which a good teacher may or may not have, but which - at least for me - will always take a back seat to what I have just described.
Our Final Conclusion
The online Spanish courses currently on the market are many, the methods proposed are diverse, and the absolute truth probably does not exist. When choosing the best Spanish course for you, try to discover which course services you really need and which you can do without, based on your study goals.
If you want the assurance of having all levels of the Spanish language in a single interactive course, full of audio-visual features, and the freedom to choose whether you want to access only the complete platform, or if you also want to have hundreds of live conversation lessons in small groups already included, and also individual sessions to focus on your specific goals, your absolute best option is Elayaa.com. Once you finalize your enrollment in one of the available Spanish courses: EXPRESS Total, PREMIUM, or PREMIUM +Plus, you will have access to a hyper-complete, extremely flexible, and efficient platform, both in terms of time and cost. You can learn Spanish completely, enhance your fluency to speak confidently and with self-assurance, and also focus on what matters most to you, thanks to the individual sessions included in PREMIUM +Plus (the most comprehensive option).
If you are looking to learn Spanish in a very relaxed manner, recreationally, and without delving too deep, you can probably do well with Spanish courses designed for online learning, but set up as a game. Among the best in the market in this category, you can find Duolingo, Mango Languages, and Rosetta Stone. Light and fun, these online Spanish courses will help you learn the basics of the Spanish language and plenty of useful vocabulary for everyday use, but it's unlikely that you can become fluent in Spanish if you don't integrate your learning path with many other resources.
If you are looking for online Spanish courses with a more structured didactic path, divided into different levels where you can progress at your own pace, the Spanish courses organized by Babbel, Lengalia, and Rocket Languages may be right for you. Usually with a deeper level of content compared to online Spanish courses set up as a game, these Spanish courses will allow you to learn Spanish more concretely and effectively. Keep in mind that price offers can vary greatly from one course to another, and also from one level to another. Moreover, you will rarely find the possibility to truly personalize your course, as you will always have to follow the proposed structure, and your live interactions (if present) may be very limited.
If, on the other hand, you are looking for maximum customization, you might consider learning Spanish by relying on a tutor or an online Spanish teacher. Depending on your needs and in proportion to the level of experience and true satisfaction derived from their work, your teacher will create materials and lessons tailored to you every time you meet online. With a bit of patience and a willingness to try different options, you will probably find the right teacher for you among the over 6000 teachers available on platforms like Preply and Italki. Keep in mind that to learn Spanish in this way, you will need to take many hours of lessons, and this could lead you to spend much more than you would often elsewhere. Despite the very low hourly costs (sometimes on the verge of exploitation), as is normal and human, this last factor will always be inversely proportional to the quality - sustained over time - of your lessons.
If what you would like is to have all the structure and method of a traditional Spanish school, but online, your choice could fall on the online Spanish courses offered by Cervantes. You will have a study program divided into different levels, on which you will have to study independently, and some - relatively few - hours of live group lessons, held on Skype by their teachers. The level of personalization can be very low because you will have to follow their study program, and your progress may depend both on your personal study and on whether you actually enroll from one level to another. It's hardly possible to consider yourself "fluent" with only one or two of their levels, as you would have had to share only 10 or 20 hours of live lessons with other people in the group, respectively. All this at a much higher cost compared to all the other options available in this article put together! 🤔
That being said, in case you want to push yourself a little more along your Spanish learning journey, maybe finding new and powerful resources, plus the opportunity to practice your Spanish by talking in a professionally managed environment, if you want, you can take a look at our Live Conversation Classes (384 Classes available per YEAR — 1 to 6 students per class) 🙂
Complete Spanish Courses — from Zero to HERO in 6 months — can be found through our homepage 🚀
Qué tengas un maravilloso día!
Claudio
Still looking for the best Spanish course for you?
Discover which course services you really need and which you can do without, based on your study goals...
Claudio
Professional Spanish Coach with 15+ years of experience.
"Do what you love and focus your energy on creating what you want in your life. Your energy goes where your thoughts go, and so does your life itself. You have to believe that you are worthy of what you want, you have to believe that you deserve what you want, and you have to act.
If you have decided to learn Spanish, take action and make things happen. You deserve it, and you are worth it.”
