Language learning apps that let you choose what to learn

If you want to choose the words, use a flashcard app: Anki, Quizlet or Memrise's word lists. If you want a course with a choice of lesson order, use Babbel or Busuu Premium.

One disclosure first: Verbamor, which I build, is one of the 11 apps below. Every other app's row comes from that company's own pages, and the sources list gives each read date.

Choosing what you learn means 3 separate controls: the words, the lesson order, and how much you study each day. Each app gives you a different mix of them.

I pulled 13,183 low-star App Store reviews of language apps from Apple's review feed on 17 Oct 2026. A model reader, an AI that checks each review against a fixed definition, read 2,409 of them.

It found 79 reviews where the learner says they can't choose what or how much to study. They came from 16 apps, led by Duolingo (20), Memrise (13) and Babbel (10).

Which apps let you choose what to learn?

Here are 11 apps, split by the 3 controls. "Not stated" means the company's own pages I read don't say.

Which apps let you pick your own words?

Anki gives you the most control over words. It ships no language content of its own, so every card in it is one you made or downloaded.

Quizlet lets you create your own flashcard sets, or search millions of other people's sets. Memrise removed its community courses from the app on 31 Mar 2024.

In 2026, Memrise returned about 800 of those courses to the app as word lists. You can also make your own word list there.

A 1-star App Store review of Memrise from Feb 2024 said: "I want to learn my own way and through my own choices."

The course apps mostly pick the words for you. Babbel's help centre says it's "not possible to manually add random words or phrases to your review."

Busuu adds words to its Vocabulary Review when you finish a lesson. Its help centre says it doesn't "support manual changes or additions" to those words. You can delete a word from that list.

In Verbamor, you save the words you want from your own material. That can be a recorded class or conversation, an audio file, pasted text, or a Translate look-up. Ask the other people before you record them.

Which apps let you pick the lesson order?

Babbel does. With a subscription, you can open any course or lesson for your language, in any order, and repeat any of them.

Babbel's own FAQ says its lessons build on each other, and you can skip one if you already know the material. Its courses are grouped by topic.

Busuu Premium lets you skip lessons or chapters "as you wish". On a free account, you pass a Checkpoint to open the rest of a chapter.

Mondly sorts its main app into 33 topic categories. Its FAQ says they give you "the freedom to choose what you need most".

Duolingo teaches each language as a single path. Since 1 Nov 2022, its home screen has been "a path that you'll follow step by step".

Duolingo sets the lesson order, and it mixes new concepts with practice of old ones. A 2-star App Store review of Duolingo from Aug 2022 said: "You no longer get the choice of what you study."

Duolingo does give you 2 ways to skip: a placement test when you start a new language, or 1 unit at a time. Duolingo says a placement can't be undone.

Verbamor has no course, so there's no lesson order to pick. Essentials, its starter deck of about 650 common words per language, has a fixed order.

Which apps let you set how much you study each day?

Anki has the 2 classic controls: "New cards/day" (default 20) and "Maximum reviews/day" (default 200). Its manual says 20 new cards a day leads to roughly 200 reviews a day.

If you enable FSRS, Anki also lets you set desired retention, which defaults to 90%. FSRS is opt-in, and Anki uses SM-2 by default.

Busuu's Study Plan lets you choose 5 to 30 minutes a day, and Busuu suggests at least 10. It needs a Premium Plus subscription.

Quizlet added spaced repetition on 21 Aug 2026, with a "New cards per day" setting. Quizlet's help centre says the feature is only on its website, so the phone apps don't have it.

A 1-star App Store review of Lingvist asked for this control directly: "giving an option to select how many new words I want to see."

Verbamor has 2 numbers you set: reviews a day (5 to 60) and new words a day (5 to 30). If you finish early, there's a "study 20 more" top-up.

Each new word becomes 2 cards, so 10 new words a day is 20 new cards.

For a starting number, read how many flashcards a day. It shows the review load each new card adds. For the scheduling itself, read spaced repetition for language learners.

How do you set your own daily limits?

In Anki on a computer

1. Select your deck on the Decks screen.
2. Click Options at the bottom of the screen.
3. Set New cards/day.
4. Set Maximum reviews/day.
5. Click Save.

In Busuu (Premium Plus)

1. Tap the Me tab.
2. Tap Settings at the top right.
3. Tap Study Plan.
4. Choose how many minutes a day, from 5 to 30.

In Verbamor

1. Open the profile sheet from the Today screen.
2. Tap Study.
3. Set Reviews a day, from 5 to 60.
4. Set New words a day, from 5 to 30.

Remove a card in Verbamor

1. Open the Library tab.
2. Tap the card.
3. Tap Remove from study.
4. Tap Remove from study again to confirm.

When is a fixed path the better choice?

If you're a true beginner, a path is probably better for you. You don't yet know which words you need, and a course app tells you what comes next.

Duolingo built its path for that reason. Its blog says learners told it they weren't sure they were using Duolingo the "correct" or "best" way.

Verbamor has no course, no curriculum, no grammar lessons and no placement test. Its grammar cards come only from your own mistakes in your recordings or pasted text.

If you want control of every field on a card, use Anki. In Verbamor you can't edit the card text or write a fully custom card, and there's no desired-retention setting.

You can add a personal note to a Verbamor card as a memory hook, and replace its picture with your own photo. That's the limit of editing.

AI models write each Verbamor card's text, sentence and picture. Automated checks run on every card, and no person checks it.

Verbamor is an iPhone and iPad app, with no Android version, so on Android you'll need something else. It costs US$19.99 a month, or US$129.99 a year (US prices).

Questions people actually ask

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Sources