I promised to give you the lowdown on my favorite iOS language learning app. But there was a catch: at the time, I didn’t know which one to pick.

So, I spent hours researching iOS language apps, both free and paid, before deciding on three to take for a spin: Duolingo, which is free to use, plus Babbel and Rosetta Stone, both of which come with a brief trial period, but require a monthly subscription thereafter. I dedicated myself to using each app for 20 minutes a day, on my iPhone or iPad, for two months, with the intention of uncovering which one I liked the most or at the very least, which one ticked me off the least.

Our suite of mobile apps turns your tablet, smartphone or other web-enabled device into your portal to on-the-go language learning. What does Rosetta Stone Language Companion include? Can I take Live Tutoring sessions on my iPad?

And here we are. Charting software for mac free. Honorable Mention: Babbel Initially, sounded great: a language-learning app that teaches you between 2,000 to 3,000 words for each language it offers, audio clips from native language speakers, and a constantly evolving database of words to review that grows as you progress through each stage. But the app has enough frustrating quirks that, after two months of use, I can’t recommend it.

Babbel doesn’t do anything terribly wrong. Rather, its faults can be found in 1,000 little irritants spread throughout the app. Babbel’s confusing, disjointed visuals make it a hard app to love. Instead of using mission-specific illustrations or photos that speak to the lesson being taught like Duolingo or Rosetta Stone do, Babbel seems to rely on stock photos which sometimes, sort of, have something to do with the word or phrase the app is trying to drive into your skull. One will in black and white, the next in color or even run through an filter that smacks of Instagram. It makes for a jarring visual experience.

The disjointed feel of Babbel’s user interface carries on throughout the app. While each learning module us introduced by a slick splash screen, the educational components within lack the sort of design quality I would expect from an app that demands a $13 monthly subscription. To be blunt, Babbel feels unpolished. Beyond this, I found that the Babbel was occasionally slow to respond to my answers, no matter the speed of my internet connection—or the fact that lesson modules need to be downloaded to your iOS device. And frustratingly, audio would frequently cut out half way through a new word or phrase being conveyed to me.

Worst of all, I found that phrases I intentionally fudged to test the app’s ability to judge my verbal skills would be accepted as correctly pronounced. If I wasn’t bound by the two-month test period I’d set for myself to vet the app, I wouldn’t have continued on with using Babbel beyond, maybe, a few weeks. Runner-up: Duolingo ’s greatest assets are its colorful design, charm, and the gentle way that the app reintroduces you to new words, phrases, and grammar that have caused you difficulty in past lessons. Unlike Babbel, it offers a consistent user interface that makes learning mostly easy throughout the app’s various modules.

A respectable variety of different quizzes and learning games proved adequate to keep me interested and happy to open the app on a daily basis. However, over the course of my two months with the Duolingo, I found that there was one thing about it that made me a little mental: Its lack of instructions. Duolingo creates a friendly learning environment, but can be short on instructions and visual prompts. On more than one occasion, I stumbled across features that the app didn’t bother to fill me in on.

For example, a few weeks into using it, I was surprised to find that tapping a word in a sentence sometimes provided a drop down menu with clues to its meaning. At other times a tap lets you hear what the word sounds like when spoken by a native speaker. Having that pointed out to me early on, or having a substantial visual prompt to encourage touching the words I was working with on my iPad’s display could have made for a smoother learning experience. Another example of the app’s lack of instructions came up when I was asked to speak a Spanish word or phrase to vet my pronunciation. There was no prompt detailing how to start or stop recording. So, I had to figure it out on my own, which took me a couple of minutes. It’s also worth mentioning that, overall, Duolingo lacks the depth of features that our first place winner provides.