italki is best for real practice with a human tutor.
italki connects you with real teachers and community tutors for one on one video lessons. Nothing beats a patient human who can hear exactly where you're stuck and adjust on the spot, and italki has a deep bench across most languages. The catch for speaking practice is that it's scheduled and paid per lesson, so the cost and the calendar keep a lot of people from doing it as often as they'd need to.
Good for speaking
- A real human who adapts to you
- Huge range of languages and tutors
- Great for accountability and correction
Watch out for
- Pay per lesson adds up fast
- You have to schedule and show up
- Some nerves speak to a person you don't know yet
Speak is best for structured AI speaking drills.
Speak is built around getting you to talk out loud from the first lesson: short instruction, spoken drills, then a stretch of conversation with an AI tutor. The path is clear, which is why it shows up so often as a beginner-friendly speaking app. If you already have a base and mostly need unscripted time inside the language, you may outgrow the drill loop faster than someone still assembling their first sentences.
Good for speaking
- Speaking from the first lesson
- A clear path, not a blank chat box
- Private, so the freeze costs you nothing
Watch out for
- More trainer than open conversation
- Weaker once you already have a base
- Not grounded in a real place you can see
Langua is best for open, high-quality AI conversation.
Langua is a conversation partner more than a course. You talk freely with an AI, pick topics or roleplays, and get corrections after. The voice quality is a large part of why people pick it: it feels closer to a person than a drill app. The conversation itself still floats. You are talking in a box, not standing somewhere the language is simply what's happening around you.
Good for speaking
- Open conversation, not a script
- Corrections you can review
- Talk any time, no scheduling
Watch out for
- A floating chat, not a place
- You decide what to practice
- Easy to stay in comfortable topics
LingoLooper is best for speaking inside a virtual city.
LingoLooper is the closest analog to PathGlot on this list. You walk a 3D city, pick a cafe or a park, and talk out loud with AI locals. The world is a game, and that is a real strength: it is playful, low pressure, and built around situations rather than flashcards. The difference is the street. Their city is invented. PathGlot puts you in real Google Street View photography of Madrid, Paris, Tokyo, and the rest.
Good for speaking
- Place-based speaking, not a chat box
- Playful enough that you keep going
- Situations you would actually use
Watch out for
- The city is virtual, not photographed
- A game layer some people will bounce off
- Not a grammar course underneath
Praktika is best for on-demand AI tutor sessions.
Praktika gives you an AI tutor you can call whenever you want, with a face on the other end of the conversation. For raw speaking reps that is a genuine step: no calendar, no human on the other side to impress, and a session you can start in a spare ten minutes. Like most tutor-style apps, the talk happens in a room with a character, not on a street you can look around.
Good for speaking
- Talk any time, no booking
- A tutor-shaped session, not a quiz
- Private and patient
Watch out for
- Not grounded in a real city
- Quality of correction varies
- Easy to treat as entertainment
TalkPal is best for cheap, anytime AI chatting out loud.
TalkPal is the on-demand voice chat a lot of people mean when they say they want an AI to talk to. You open it, you speak, it answers. That volume is useful. The conversation is general-purpose, which is also the limit: it will talk about anything, and it will not put you anywhere. If you freeze in the real world, a floating chat can still feel like studying rather than being there.
Good for speaking
- Zero friction to start talking
- Cheap compared to human tutors
- Works in short spare moments
Watch out for
- Feels like a chatbot with a voice
- Correction can be shallow
- No street, no scene, no place
Duolingo is best for building a daily habit, not speaking.
Duolingo is one of the best habit builders in software, and it has added more spoken exercises over time. But its core is still tapping, matching, and short recorded prompts, not holding a live conversation. It's a strong way to build vocabulary and keep a streak going, and a weak way to practice the reflex of talking to another person in real time.
Good for speaking
- Free tier and a strong habit loop
- Good vocabulary and grammar drilling
- Very low friction to start
Watch out for
- Little real conversation practice
- Speaking exercises are short and scripted
- Easy to keep a streak without speaking much
That's us
PathGlot is best for immersion in a real city, with no plane ticket.
PathGlot, which I build, is the closest thing on this list to actually being there. You land on a real city street in Google Street View and a local guide talks to you in the language you're learning, reacting to what's actually around you: ask for directions, order a coffee, react to a shop sign. She won't switch to English. It's private, on demand, and gently corrects you in the moment. It is not for absolute beginners and it isn't a course, so it works best once you already have a base.
Good for speaking
- About as close to being there as a browser gets
- Grounded in a real place you can see
- Private, patient, and low pressure
Watch out for
- Not for absolute beginners
- Needs a mic, a screen, and a connection
- Stays in-language about 95% of the time, not always