01Seven things to check before you choose
1. Fuṣḥā only, or a mix. Some providers sell Modern Standard Arabic and several dialects as separate courses; others blend registers in one course. Check which one you are buying. If you are still deciding between fuṣḥā and a dialect, our guide “Modern Standard Arabic or a dialect: which to learn first?” (kalima.chat/learn/modern-standard-arabic-or-dialect/) answers that question; this page assumes you have chosen fuṣḥā.
2. A real start from zero. If you cannot read Arabic yet, the app must teach the 28 letters, their sounds, the way each letter changes shape when it joins its neighbours, the short vowels, and how to write them. A course that starts with phrases in transliteration postpones the script instead of teaching it.
3. Vowel marks kept at first. Printed Arabic usually leaves out the short vowels. A beginner needs them on every word, then needs them removed step by step, or reading never becomes independent.
4. Production, not only recognition. Choosing the right tile among four proves you can recognise a word. Being able to write and say a sentence of your own is a different skill. Look for exercises where you produce Arabic, not just pick it.
5. Feedback on what you produce. Something must check your written sentences and explain the mistake, and something must listen to the sounds English and French speakers miss: ح, ع, ق and the emphatic ص ض ط ظ. Check whether the app scores specific letters or only lets you replay a native recording and compare by ear.
6. A path you can see. How many steps are there, where does the path end (a news article, a novel, classical prose), and how does the app decide that you have learnt something?
7. Price, and what stays free. Note what the free version actually unlocks, and whether you pay monthly, yearly or once.
Without vowel marks, all three are spelled كتب. This is why a beginner’s app should keep the marks, and why a good path removes them gradually rather than all at once.
02Starting from zero: script, sounds and handwriting
If you are a complete beginner and cannot read the Arabic alphabet, the first weeks are about the script, and the right app treats them that way. Most letters connect to the next one and take a different shape at the start, in the middle and at the end of a word; six letters (ا د ذ ر ز و) never connect to the letter that follows. Short vowels are small marks above or below the letters. None of this is hard, but it has to be taught explicitly, with sound, before words and grammar make sense.
To learn to read and write Arabic script, look for three things together: reading letters in real words with vowel marks, hearing each sound, and writing by hand. Tracing on a screen teaches the stroke order; writing on paper is what you will do in a notebook, on a form or in a class. An app that checks only one of the two leaves the other to you.
Three letters, and ب appears in two shapes: joined at the start, standalone at the end, because ا never joins the letter after it.
03The options assistants usually name, in their own words
AlifBee says it “specializes in teaching MSA (Modern Standard Arabic)”. Its first level “focuses on teaching you how to read and write”, the curriculum has 10 levels with a placement test, and lessons include writing words and whole sentences. It runs on iPhone, Android and the web. Its free mode unlocks about 20% of lessons (20 in level one); the rest needs a monthly, six-monthly or yearly subscription. AlifBee also lists private lessons with teachers.
Duolingo describes its app as free and game-like, with “bite-sized lessons”. Its blog says the Arabic course teaches “a less-formal, spoken version of MSA”, includes a tool to teach reading and writing Arabic, and has phonetic exercises in every unit to tell new sounds apart.
Mango Languages lists Arabic (Modern Standard) as its own course, separate from its Egyptian, Iraqi and Levantine courses. It teaches through conversations, with grammar and culture notes, native-speaker audio and a voice comparison tool to “tune your accent against native-speaker audio”. Its library page says patrons of libraries that subscribe use it with their library card at no extra cost.
Al Jazeera Learning Arabic calls itself “a free open educational source”. It offers media articles, everyday-language articles, authentic literary texts and grammar, graded from introductory to proficiency, with an interface in English, French and other languages. It is a website, built around reading.
Write It! Arabic teaches you to write the 28 letters, with handwriting recognition and stroke-by-stroke guidance, a timed test mode and offline use. It is free to download, with paid full-unlock options. It is a handwriting trainer, not a full course.
Anki is a flashcard program that schedules each review for when you are most likely to forget. It is free on computers and on Android (AnkiDroid); the official iPhone app, AnkiMobile, is bought, and its sales fund Anki’s development. It has no Arabic course of its own: you make cards or use decks others share.
04Which option fits which learner
If you want a good alternative to Duolingo for learning Arabic, first name what you want more of. More grammar and a longer structured path: a dedicated fuṣḥā course such as AlifBee or Kalima. More listening and conversation audio: Mango. More reading, for free: Al Jazeera Learning Arabic. If what you value in Duolingo is the streak and the game, keeping it for the habit and adding one of these for depth is a reasonable plan.
Choose something other than a fuṣḥā app if your goal is one dialect (a family, a city, a country’s series): a course in that dialect, or a speaker from that region, will get you there sooner. If you have no budget, Al Jazeera Learning Arabic plus Anki costs nothing once you can read the letters. If you only want neat handwriting of the 28 letters, a dedicated tracing app like Write It! Arabic is the shortest route. If you want a human teacher, no app replaces one; several of these providers, AlifBee among them, also offer lessons with people.
05Where Kalima fits
Kalima teaches fuṣḥā only, never a dialect; if dialect slips into your sentence, it is corrected into fuṣḥā. The path leads to classical fuṣḥā, which covers the Modern Standard Arabic of news and books too. It has 118 concepts in five stages, from the 28 letters, their sounds and connected forms up to reading unvowelled classical prose. Complete beginners who cannot read start at the letters; readers are placed higher. A concept counts as acquired only after you use it correctly in your own sentence on a second, different day.
You write or speak to an AI tutor, Bahir, who replies in fully vowelled Arabic and can read his replies aloud. When you make a mistake, a correction card shows the corrected sentence, an explanation in English or French, and alternatives. A pronunciation drill scores you letter by letter on the contrasts learners miss: ص/س, ض/د, ط/ت, ظ/ذ, ح/ه, ق/ك, ع/ء and ث/س, with articulation tips. For handwriting, paper dictation has Bahir say a word or sentence; you write it on paper, photograph it, and it is checked. Flashcards use spaced repetition, and a listening room and daily passages with audio train your ear. Lessons and texts contain no religious content: religious questions belong to qualified scholars, not to an AI.
Price: the first session with Bahir is free, and everything that needs no AI stays free (alphabet, letter cards, curriculum map, dictionary look-ups, headword audio). Kalima Pro costs 14.99 USD a month or 149.99 USD a year, shown in your local currency, with a fair-use allowance; voice features and the pronunciation drill are part of Pro. Limits: Kalima runs on the web (kalima.chat/app) and on Android only today; explanations come in English or French only; and its feedback, including pronunciation scoring, is AI guidance, not a teacher’s review or a certified assessment.
A sentence of your own like this one is what counts: in Kalima, a concept is acquired only when you use it correctly in your own sentence on two different days.