Speakly Review 2024: Efficient Learning That Can Seem Too Simple Occasionally

Speakly states its users reach fluency more quickly with its program than with other options. I required further proof, and with a planned visit to a Baltic nation, I decided to study Estonian.

I also explored Spanish for this evaluation, as it's a language I've studied for years.

In general, I discovered the program to be user-friendly and productive, but I genuinely felt the absence of authentic media, video content, and the engaging visual components present in other major language learning applications.

What Is Speakly?

Speakly is a holistic language learning program and app from Estonia that asserts you can attain fluency five times quicker than with other applications. They claim with this program, you can reach fluency in a new language within 100 hours—and 42% fluency in only 10 hours.

Intended for anyone from A1 to advanced learners, at its core, Speakly is a vocabulary application employing spaced repetition to help you memorize the 4,000 most frequently used words in the same sequence as their real-world statistical usage.

Following years of research, teaching, learning, and translating in various languages, Ott Ojametts and Ingel Keskpaik launched Speakly in 2018. Since then, the app has received considerable acclaim, expanding its user base annually.

Key Features of Speakly

My Classroom — Track Your Progress

This is basically a personalized dashboard where you monitor your progress and see how much learning you've accomplished. It's also where you track your learned words and your current level. You access every other section from this home screen.

Study Area — Learning New Words and Phrases Progressively

After selecting whether you want to concentrate on communication, writing, or a mix of both (which the app inquires about before each lesson), you proceed to learning new words. I've always chosen to focus on understanding and speaking, since I'm learning Estonian for travel and won't need much writing.

As a beginner, the program sets a goal of 100 words to learn before advancing to the next beginner level. You cannot skip ahead until you finish the prior levels.

When you open the Study Room section, you are immediately presented with a new phrase, featuring a key word or phrase highlighted in orange. You first see the phrase without a translation and without any image. Then you click to continue, and the English translation is shown as an audio clip of the phrase plays. So you hear and see the word or phrase in both English and Estonian, while listening to a native speaker.

From here, you can proceed to the next phrase, or you can "star" the phrase for later review, click to hear the phrase again, or select the grammar button for a clarification of any grammatical points in the phrase in English. I find these direct grammar explanations quite useful, though more examples would be beneficial.

This process continues until you finish your current level, which typically takes about 5-10 minutes.

Mixed in with learning new words, you also receive multiple choice questions. For instance, I was asked to provide the Estonian translation for "that’s."

The process largely continues in this manner. You are given review words and phrases interspersed with new ones, so you are consistently making gradual progress. This is the spaced repetition aspect of the program.

Word Bank — Review Words and Phrases

Speakly maintains a continuous list of all the words and phrases you've learned, allowing you to refer back to them anytime for review. This was very beneficial for me, particularly as a beginner in a language I essentially knew nothing about. I found the words and phrases difficult to recall, but after reviewing them in the Word Bank repeatedly, I began to remember some.

In the Word Bank, you can select flashcards or listening exercises to review the words. I found the flashcards function more helpful because my grasp of Estonian pronunciation is still developing.

LIVE-Situations, Music Playlist and Listening Exercises

LIVE-Situations are activities designed to simulate real-life language interactions you might encounter on the street or on the phone in Estonia. They are essentially typical conversations presented as text messages between two people, with audio.

For example, someone calls you and says "hi." You must respond, so the activity guides you to say "hello" back and then assists with hints, which are certain letters of the Estonian word for hello filled in. If you can't get it, more letters are revealed, or the entire word is shown as audio plays.

There are also more conventional listening exercises, where you read along to an Estonian text (with or without English translation) as a speaker reads it.

Lastly, there is an enjoyable Estonian music playlist, but Spotify Premium is needed to listen to them (or you can simply copy and paste the titles into YouTube, which is what I did). A tip I used with the music was to find lyric videos, enabling me to follow along with the lyrics, seeing the words as they are sung.

The Pros of Speakly

There is much to appreciate about Speakly. It is very straightforward, simple to use, and it gets you started immediately on practical sentences that could assist you in navigating a country where the target language is spoken. Here are some of my preferred aspects of the Speakly approach:

Uncommon Languages Offered

I had never seen Estonian offered by a language app before, but a quick search showed I was mistaken. Drops, italki, and Ling provide limited Estonian options, although none is as comprehensive and complete in the language as Speakly. The same applies to Finnish, although Duolingo also offers a Finnish course.

Speakly is the top choice for these unusual languages, and since Speakly was developed in Estonian within Estonia, you can trust the program's accuracy.

Music Playlist

One aspect I truly enjoy about this program is the opportunity to pause learning new words and phrases and simply relax by listening to a song in Estonian (or Finnish, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, or English).

This helps make the program more enjoyable and less stressful by giving you a break from learning new words in the Study Room.

And even though I'm listing this as a pro for Speakly, I do wish there was a way to interact more with the music. Perhaps a quiz afterwards about the song's vocabulary or something similar would make this section feel more involved and interactive.

To make listening to these songs more effective for me, I copied and pasted the song titles into YouTube and found lyric videos, allowing me to follow along as the song played. I noticed almost immediately that I recognized a few key words after just a few days on the app.

User Friendly

I assumed that since this app is from Estonia, a tech-savvy country where online voting and tax payment are common, the technical aspects would be excellent. And I was correct.

It is extremely easy to use, and I encountered no bugs or confusion. In fact, I was using the program and learning Estonian within one minute of signing up, which was also very simple.

The user experience seems to encourage you to explore the site's features at your own pace, returning to the main lessons in the Study Room whenever you wish, which is ideal for an independent learner like me.

Communicative Focus

The program immediately starts you with key words and phrases necessary for getting around. Words and phrases like "hello," "thank you very much," "no thanks," and "I’m ____."

These words and phrases are selected because they are the most frequently used in the language, based on statistical analysis conducted by Speakly.

I appreciated this while learning, as most phrases are ones I could use during my first few days in Estonia.

Affordably Priced

I believe $9.99 per month (or $139.99 for lifetime access) is very reasonable for everything you get with this program. What I really like is that there are numerous sections from beginner to advanced levels that can keep you engaged for a long time.

Another reason I find this app very fair in terms of pricing is that you get all eight languages for the same fee. Because of this, I've been switching to Spanish to refresh my skills as well, when taking a break from Estonian.

I assume that over time, the content will continue to be developed as languages are expanded and the program evolves.

The Cons of Speakly

There are also some aspects of Speakly that I believe could be enhanced for it to be the holistic language learning program it claims to be. Here are my main criticisms:

Lacks in Visual Elements

I found myself wanting photos, illustrations, and other graphic elements. Although Speakly is well-designed and visually pleasant, it is surprisingly lacking in visual components.

Even the person icons in the LIVE-Situation texts are rather indistinct and somewhat dull.

I understand this is intentional to help you focus on the language, but I missed the charming illustrations and characters of apps like Duolingo, the vibrant color photographs of Rosetta Stone, or the colorful video of Lingflix.

As I progressed through the beginner levels, I even started noticing the general color palette is quite muted, and I was desiring brighter colors.

No Video Content and Not Enough Authentic Media

I don't know about you, but I really enjoy watching videos, whether movies, TV shows, or vlogs. Due to that preference, I also like having videos in my language learning. It's unfortunate that Speakly lacks any video content.

This is where I would recommend supplementing Speakly with another language learning program that focuses on videos, like Lingflix.

What I appreciate about Lingflix is that you get to watch authentic videos (movie trailers, vlogs, etc.), but each video becomes a language lesson, as they all have highly accurate interactive subtitles and even follow-up quizzes, so you can be confident you understood the video.

For me, video is very important, so I would prefer a language learning program with ample video content. If you choose Speakly, definitely supplement it with something like Lingflix.

Can Become Repetitive

The Study Room section, which constitutes the bulk of this learning program, can become somewhat repetitive. There is some variation in the exercises as you move from hearing and seeing new words and phrases to multiple choice questions, but that is essentially the recurring pattern as you advance.

It is up to you to vary the learning styles by choosing other sections: listening exercises, LIVE-Situations, music, or review. But the program never suggests these alternatives; you must decide to use them on your own, which, for me, meant I often forgot about them and didn't use them as much as I should have.

But even in other sections, like LIVE-Situations, the program is designed for you to repeat the exercises three times each. I think if they created slightly different scenarios incorporating the same lessons, it would be more enjoyable.

Steep Learning Curve

I know many language apps (and teachers) prefer to introduce words in phrases or full sentences for context, but I personally like to learn a few key words individually before they appear in a sentence.

Speakly does introduce some words on their own, like "tere" (hello), but almost every other word was presented within a sentence. The problem with this approach for me, especially as a beginner, was that I usually didn't know any of the other words in the sentence, so the learning curve felt steep.

Grammar Feels Like an Afterthought

Although the grammar in Speakly is available, its design as an extra feature, rather than integrated into each activity, makes it seem like an afterthought.

For example, when I went through the various grammar lessons, I learned that Estonian has 14—yes, 14!—grammatical cases, which affect how nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more are formed.

But had I not opened the Grammar section, which consists of written lessons with no interactive features, I wouldn't have been explicitly informed of this. This might have influenced my decision to continue with Estonian!

Some Skills Aren’t Thoroughly Covered

Writing, unless you specifically select it at the start of a lesson, is not covered. Also, the skills of reading and speaking are not heavily emphasized.

After a couple of weeks using Speakly, I don't feel I could spell the Estonian words I remember. This might be because I've only studied Romance languages like Spanish and Italian before, which tend to have easier spelling, but the double, triple, or more of the same vowels in Estonian and numerous umlauts in words like "töööö" (working night) really confuse me, and not having a chance to write them means I don't remember them well. Is that three ö's or four?

Speakly Versus Other Programs

All language learning programs have their strengths and weaknesses, so I thought I'd compare Speakly with some of the most popular options available today. Here's how they compare:

Speakly vs. Lingflix

Since one of the features I missed most while using Speakly was video, I wanted to begin this comparison with Lingflix, which has video at the core of its program.

I've lost count of how many non-native English speakers have told me they learned English by watching movies (and TV shows, skateboarding videos, etc.). In fact, I've heard it so often that I definitely believe it.

Lingflix works very well for me because I am someone who already enjoys watching movies, TV, music videos, news, and vlogs on YouTube. So it feels like a sustainable and enjoyable way to learn and review a language, and it has been very effective for me.

I find myself spending hours on Lingflix while remaining engaged, whereas 15 minutes sometimes felt lengthy on Speakly due to its drier learning style.

Overall, I would choose Lingflix here, but I genuinely think Lingflix and Speakly would complement each other well, and the combined cost would still be quite affordable. If you pay annually for Lingflix, you could have both programs for about $30 per month.

Speakly vs. Duolingo

I mentioned Duolingo in this review because one of the elements I missed most while using Speakly was the fun colors and other visual components like illustrations that Duolingo has. Comparing Speakly to Duolingo, Duolingo also offers some (actually many more) unusual languages, with options such as Finnish, Hawaiian, Navajo, Ukrainian, and Hebrew.

I think Duolingo is more fun and gamified, and that cute little bird is always encouraging you (some might say nagging you), but for more serious learners, Speakly might feel more suitable.

Here’s our full review of Duolingo.

Speakly vs. Drops

I thought Drops would be good to compare to Speakly for two main reasons: it's one of the few other apps that includes Estonian, and it's also a spaced repetition vocabulary app.

Drops feels more gamified than Speakly and doesn't come across as a holistic learning program; rather, it's a supplementary app you can use alongside your main program.

Drops limits each session to five minutes, and if you want premium content (anything beyond beginner level), it actually costs more than Speakly at $13 per month.

Overall, I would choose Speakly in this comparison. You get the vocabulary plus additional features for a lower price.

Here’s our full review of Drops.

Speakly vs. Ling

Ling, which is based in Thailand, has the same stated goal as Speakly: to teach the words, phrases, and sentences you truly need in a language. Ling also uses spaced repetition like Speakly.

The app also offers Estonian, Finnish, and many other less common languages like Nepali, Mongolian, Lao, Bosnian, Latvian, and more. In total, there are 60 languages currently available on the program.

But I found myself confused by some of Ling's example sentences and word choices. I wondered: would I ever say this? No. They are often too formal or simply not practical.

Also, Ling doesn't teach the writing system for languages that use them. If you can't read Thai, for instance, you will be very lost as a beginner. The program does have fun visuals, though, which surpasses Speakly in that area.

Lastly, Ling is good for beginners but sometimes lacks content for advanced learners. Speakly excels in content for advanced learners, so if you're advanced and they have your language, choose Speakly. Ling is a good option for those other 52 languages at $14.99 per month, $79.99 per year, or $149.99 for lifetime access.

Speakly vs. Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone has those vivid photographs that make a significant difference for me. They offer 25 languages, but they do not offer Estonian or Finnish like Speakly does.

While Rosetta Stone teaches words and phrases in context, similar to how a native speaker learns their own language, Speakly uses more English and provides explicit explanations of grammar and translations of words, phrases, and sentences.

This, for me, makes Speakly more of an "adult" language learning program. You can immerse yourself in your target language, but you can also get a well-written explanation of a grammatical concept in your own language to ensure you understand. I appreciate that personally, since I'm not actually a child.

Here’s our full review of Rosetta Stone.

Is Speakly Worth It?

Pricing

Speakly provides three quite affordable payment options:

You can pay $9.99 per month, $47.99 per year, or you can pay $139.99 for full lifetime access. All these tiers include all eight languages in the program.

They also offer a seven-day free trial.

Here’s a link to Speakly’s payment page.

Final Verdict

Speakly does what it claims, supported by research on the most frequently used words, but I couldn't help feeling that users of other apps might be having more fun than I did with Speakly. Nevertheless, it seemed to work effectively, and I learned a considerable amount of Estonian in a short time.

Because of that, even though I personally missed some of the enjoyable visual and video content found in other apps (I'm thinking of Lingflix and Duolingo here), I would still recommend Speakly if they offer the language you want to learn.

The app is truly solid and functions flawlessly. The same applies to the desktop version of Speakly. What it lacks in visual and video content, it compensates for with a serious, research-backed learning approach that I genuinely valued.

If Speakly adds video content and more authentic media in the future to compete, I would recommend it even more, but until then, I'd suggest using Speakly alongside a complementary program like Lingflix, so you can diversify your learning activities and build a sustainable path to fluency.