lingfit, honestly: a language app that doesn't feel like homework

Most language apps feel like a chore. You open them because the reminder is nagging you, not because you fancy it.

LingFit tries it the other way round. Here’s the basic note: what’s in it, what’s quietly good about it, and where it snags. No score, because we don’t give them here.

what’s in it

LingFit is a subscription app for iPhone, iPad and Android. It’s made up of six building blocks, and all of them are included in every language direction:

• The course: 60 chapters per language direction, each with eight levels of ten lessons. That covers A1 to B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).
• Your own packs: You type in a topic or bring 1 to 20 words with you, and an AI builds a whole chapter out of it.
• The video feed: real YouTube videos in the target language, sorted by level, with tappable subtitles.
• Grammar classes: one rule per class, then a matching practice chapter (“Practice Now”).
• Articles in simple language: short stories and news pieces with audio, published by made-up fox newspapers like “The Washington Paw”.
• Games with friends: Flash, Ping Pong and Tug of War, all played with real exercises.

There’s also a detail that applies everywhere: every foreign word can be opened. Several translations, the base form, audio at slow speed too, an AI explanation and a bookmark.

why it’s lowkey good

First: the lessons keep changing format. Twelve exercise types, from vocabulary cards to sentence building and fill-in-the-blanks to speaking practice with speech recognition. You read, hear, build and say the same word in different ways. It feels less like being tested.

Second: you get a say in what you learn. Instead of “the apple is red” for the tenth time, you can build a pack on football, job interviews or the tenancy agreement for your new flat. That’s the part that really sets LingFit apart from other apps.

Third: the feed. If you’re scrolling anyway, here you’re scrolling in Spanish or French. Tap a word, the video pauses, save the word. Slow it to 0.75× or 0.5× if you need to.

Fourth: the tone. The app asks for your age group during setup. Under 35 it’s cheeky (“You beast.”), from 35 it’s calmer (“Well played.”). Sounds like a small thing. It isn’t, if you’re fed up with language apps that treat you like a child.

And then there are the mascots. Fitty Fox and his mates are fully 3D-animated, with real fur. You don’t have to like it. But it’s visibly done with care.

the catch

There’s no free tier. LingFit is a subscription. What’s confirmed is a 7-day trial on the annual plan, with a reminder three days before it ends, and a free credit for one custom pack. After that you pay.

What it costs depends on the store. In the US App Store on 10 Oct 2026 it was $44.99 a year and $12.99 a month, in the German App Store €49.99 a year. We don’t know the pound prices. The maker itself says “about 40 dollars a year”.

Custom packs cost extra credits. One per pack. Bought credits don’t expire, at least.

The course stops at B2. If you need C1 or C2, this isn’t the one.

And it’s only 13 languages. For English speakers: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Czech, Danish and Hungarian. No Japanese, no Korean, no Arabic.

There are no tutors and no chat partners either. You practise speaking with speech recognition, not with people.

who it’s for

For people who’ve already cancelled another app out of boredom. For anyone who’s on their phone a lot anyway and wants to make something of it. For students who want to photograph a vocabulary list and turn it into a chapter.

Probably not for anyone after a rare language, already advanced, or dead set against subscriptions.

in short

LingFit isn’t a revolution, and it doesn’t need to be. It’s a well-built language app with one genuinely original idea: you decide the material. The trial week is enough to work out whether it suits you. More at lingfit.app.

it’s fine. actually, it’s good.