LingoDeer is the best app to learn Indonesian, because it is the only one that explains the grammar, and grammar is the single thing that stops people here. Pimsleur is second and the only one that makes you speak. Memrise is third and the only one that lets you hear how Indonesians actually talk.
Two of the biggest names in the business, Rosetta Stone and Busuu, do not offer Indonesian at all. That alone reorders most of the rankings you will read.
The ranking in one look
| # | App | Best at | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LingoDeer | Grammar, explained | ~$15 a month |
| 2 | Pimsleur | Speaking out loud | ~$20 a month |
| 3 | Memrise | Hearing real speech | ~$60 a year |
| 4 | Duolingo | Turning up daily | Free, or ~$13 a month |
| 5 | Babbel | A structured beginner course | ~$10 to $18 a month |
| 6 | Mango Languages | Being free with a library card | $120 a year, often $0 |
| 7 | Clozemaster | Words inside sentences | ~$8 to $13 a month |
| 8 | Ling | Southeast Asian vocabulary | ~$10 a month |
| 9 | Drops | Five minutes a day | ~$13 a month |
| 10 | Mondly | Nothing in particular | ~$10 a month |
How they were ranked
Every comparison scores apps on interface, streaks and price. For Indonesian, three questions matter more, and you can check all three yourself in about ten minutes.
Does it have Indonesian? Not the marketing page, the actual course list.
How far does it go? Some publishers state a ceiling in writing. Most do not, and it is lower than the sales page implies.
Does it tell you which register it teaches? Open any of them and search the vocabulary for nggak. Then try gue, banget and dong. Four searches, four blanks, and you have measured the ceiling of every app on this page faster than any review will tell you.
What the book says: Saya tidak mau.
What you’ll hear: Aku nggak mau.
Learning tidak first is correct. Finishing a course without ever being told the other form exists is how people end up being answered in English, and it is why this site labels the register on every example, starting with the saya against aku split.
Prices are what they were in August 2026 and they move constantly.
1. LingoDeer
The one most lists miss, and the one that answers the actual problem. LingoDeer was built for Asian languages and it explains grammar properly, with notes attached to each lesson rather than a hint buried three menus down.
That matters more for Indonesian than for Spanish, because the one genuinely hard thing here is the affix system. An app that shows you kirim turning into mengirim without explaining what happened has taught you two words. An app that tells you me- becomes meng- before a vowel and swallows the k has taught you a rule that covers hundreds.
Around $15 a month, cheaper annually. Take this one if you take only one.
2. Pimsleur
Audio only, thirty minutes a session, no screen. It asks a question, leaves a gap, and expects you to say the answer out loud before it gives it to you.
That gap is the whole product. Every other app on this page tests recognition, where you pick the right tile from four; Pimsleur tests production, from nothing, in about two seconds. It is the closest thing to being asked a question by a stranger.
The trade is real: your vocabulary after finishing will be small, and at around $20 a month it is the most expensive here. Worth it if you have a commute, a kitchen or a dog to walk.
3. Memrise
Built around thousands of short clips of ordinary Indonesians saying ordinary sentences, which makes it the only app where you hear the language as it is actually spoken.
What you hear is the contraction no course writes down:
sudah comes out as udah, and often just dah
tidak comes out as nggak, or gak
bagaimana comes out as gimana
mengerti comes out as ngerti
None of that is sloppy speech, it is the default. Around $60 a year. Use it as an ear trainer rather than as a course, and use it early.
4. Duolingo
Free, and the Indonesian course is real, which is more than Thai or Tagalog learners get. Five sections, roughly 1,900 words by independent counts of its course data, and a streak that works on most people including the ones who know exactly how it works.
Judge it as the thing that keeps you turning up rather than the thing that teaches you. It stays at beginner level, it teaches affixed words without teaching the affixes, and it never mentions register. There is a longer piece on exactly where it leaves you.
5. Babbel
A properly built beginner course with better sentences than Duolingo and real grammar notes, and Indonesian is its only non-European language, which tells you it was a deliberate addition.
It is also the one publisher honest enough to print its ceiling: Babbel’s own help pages cap Indonesian at A2, while German and French run to B2 and English to C1. A2 is a real level and it is not a conversation. Around $10 to $18 a month depending on the term.
6. Mango Languages
Solid, unexciting, dialogue-based, and the reason it is this high is that thousands of public libraries give members full access for nothing. Check your library card before you pay for anything else on this page.
$120 a year direct, and frequently $0.
7. Clozemaster
Not a course. It gives you a sentence with one word missing and asks you to fill the gap, thousands of times, which is the right exercise at the wrong moment for a beginner and the right exercise at exactly the right moment once you have finished one.
Words inside sentences stick where words on flashcards do not. Around $8 to $13 a month, with a free tier that is genuinely usable.
8. Ling
A vocabulary trainer with a game around it, and the best of that group for this language because Southeast Asia is where the company put its effort. Around $10 a month.
It builds word count. That is a real service and it is not a course, and confusing the two is how people end up with two thousand words and no sentences.
9. Drops
Five-minute sessions, picture matching, no typing, no grammar, no sentences. It is the most enjoyable app on this page and the one that teaches the least per hour.
Around $13 a month. Worth it only as a second app next to a real course, and only if you would otherwise do nothing.
10. Mondly
Forty-one languages built from the same template, and Indonesian gets the template. Nothing is wrong with it and nothing is aimed at you. Around $10 a month.
Last on this list is not an insult. It means that if you already own one of the nine above, there is no reason to add this one.
The two that do not have Indonesian at all
Rosetta Stone. Twenty-five languages, including
Tagalog and Vietnamese. Indonesian is not one of them.
Busuu. Same story. Its catalogue is European plus Japanese,
Chinese and Arabic.
Between them they account for a good share of the “best language apps” articles you will find, which is worth knowing before you spend an evening comparing plans.
What no app on this list will do
Correct you. They all mark against a fixed key. None can tell you that your sentence was grammatical and that nobody says it that way. An hour a week with a tutor beats a year of tapping for that, which is argued properly in the full resource breakdown.
Teach the affixes as a system. LingoDeer comes closest. None of them stop to say that six rules cover every case, which is the thing that would save you a month.
Make you speak. Except Pimsleur, and only in the narrow sense of repeating aloud.
So which one
If you buy one app: LingoDeer, because grammar is the part you cannot absorb by osmosis.
If you have a commute: Pimsleur instead, and accept a small vocabulary.
If you are spending nothing: Duolingo for the habit, Memrise’s free tier for the ear, and this site for the register, which is free and is the part the apps skip.
And whatever you choose, one is enough. The failure mode with Indonesian is not picking the wrong app. It is running four of them at forty dollars a month, hitting the affix wall in week three, and concluding the language is hard when what was missing was one page of explanation. The level test will tell you where you actually stand in six minutes.
App icons are the property of their respective publishers and are shown here to identify the products discussed.