Pimsleur
Audio-first language courses built on spaced recall and speaking out loud.
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About Pimsleur
Pimsleur courses are built from 30-minute audio lessons in which a narrator prompts you to recall and say phrases aloud, with new material spaced so earlier phrases come back just as you might forget them. The method puts speaking and listening first, which makes it popular with commuters and people learning before a trip, and the app now adds reading lessons, flashcards, speech-recognition roleplays and a driving mode for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Lessons can be downloaded for offline use. A subscription covers one language or all of them, with up to several users on the all-access plan and a free trial. The trade-off is pace and range: vocabulary grows slowly, written skills are secondary, and the formula can feel repetitive. Pimsleur is owned by Simon & Schuster. It runs on iOS, Android and the web.
Best for: Commuters and travellers who want to start speaking through audio lessons.
Pros and cons
What works
- Gets you speaking out loud from lesson one
- Hands-free mode for driving
- Offline lessons
Why people leave
- Vocabulary grows slowly
- Reading and writing are secondary
- Format can feel repetitive
Top Pimsleur alternatives
See all 5- 1
Language Transfer66.5Free audio courses that explain how the language works as you speak.
- 2
Glossika62.6Sentence-based listening and speaking repetition in many more languages.
- 3
Babbel59.6Structured lessons with reading, writing and grammar alongside audio.
- 4
Speak57.2AI conversation partner for open-ended speaking practice.
- 5
Rosetta Stone55.3Immersion course with visuals and speech recognition.
Why people left Pimsleur
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Pimsleur: common questions
Is Pimsleur free?
No, Pimsleur is a paid product.
Is Pimsleur open source?
No, Pimsleur is not open source.
What platforms does Pimsleur run on?
Pimsleur is available for Web, iOS and Android.
What are the best alternatives to Pimsleur?
The highest-ranked Pimsleur alternatives right now are Language Transfer, Glossika and Babbel. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.