jessiebeck Last updated: July 14, 2023

21 Best Websites to Learn English at Any Level

Many people take classes to learn English, but there are plenty of other ways to learn and practice. The internet has provided learners with a a wide range of resources. In fact, there are so many that sometimes it’s hard to choose which website to use.

That’s why I completed the research for you and wrote this post to share my findings. Keep reading to discover the 21 best websites for learning English at any level, all by yourself!

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Best Overall: Duolingo

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Summary: This trusted program guides you through fun, colorful activities focusing on listening, speaking and writing to get your fluency up fast.

Duolingo helps you learn new vocabulary and grammar through five-minute games and quizzes on their easy-to-use app. Each lesson comes with very cute illustrations and animations to make it even more fun to use.

The program gets you to start creating sentences from the very beginning, always teaching words and phrases in context, and there is voice recognition software for pronunciation exercises.

And the best part is that you can do all this in just five minutes per day!

We did a full review of Duolingo, if you want to know more about the ups and downs or this program.

Best Video-Based Program: FluentU

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free trial; then $19.99 per month or $96 per year

Summary: Uses authentic native speaker videos ranging from music videos and movie trailers to news clips and vlogs.

Using authentic video English content is a powerful learning method, but finding the right videos isn’t always easy.

This program has hundreds of videos made by and for native English speakers, from TED talks and instructional videos, to funny commercials and movie clips.

Each video has accurate interactive subtitles. When you click a word, you see the grammar information, example sentences and other videos where the word appears. More importantly, all this information is contextual, so you’ll see the meaning of each word as it’s used in that sentence, and the text and video examples will all show the word as it’s used in the same context.

Most Fun: Babbel

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Monthly subscription from $7.45/month or a one-time fee of $349 for lifetime access to all languages
Summary: A trusted name in gamified language learning that uses repetition to be effective.

Babbel lets you practice new vocabulary and grammar through quick quizzes and mini-games. The approach focuses on repetition, helping you to remember new words and concepts by reminding you about them often, with audio, videos, images and exercises. You can also improve your speaking skills with the speech recognition tool.

Babbel really turns learning English into a game. You can earn achievements, compete against friends and set a weekly goal for yourself to complete. Plus, there are actual games that you can play if you want a fun break from the regular lessons.

You can read our full review of Babbel here.

Best for British English: BBC Learning English

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Summary: This trusted media company teaches British English through a variety of activities, from video to radio podcasts.

The BBC always has high-quality material, so it’s not surprising that their BBC Learning English website is very good quality. It’s also the ideal choice for those who want to learn British English.

The website is designed for intermediate and advanced English learners. It teaches English with BBC-style videos and radio broadcasts. These focus on topics like stories in the news, the latest English words and phrases and even some videos that explain English pronunciation in incredible detail.

Although there’s no interactive speaking feature, each of their podcasts and videos include post-listening activities for you to check your understanding. Overall, this is a great resource for practicing listening skills.

Best Free Program: British Council

App versions: British Council offers several mobile apps for different learning topics
Price: Free (additional programs have a fee)
Summary: Another British English program, British Council offers all types of highly usable English for free, most with an academic focus.

The British Council’s LearnEnglish website features a huge number of interactive lessons, videos, games and podcasts. This means that no matter what level you’re at or what topic interests you, you’ll always find something here.

The website is divided into six main sections: Skills (for reading, listening, writing and speaking practice), Grammar, Vocabulary, Business English, General English (British culture, short stories and even Shakespeare) and IELTS practice.

There are many types of activities for different levels of learners. For example, if you choose to work on your writing, beginners can practice filling out forms and writing simple texts like emails, while advanced learners will find lessons on how to write essays, reports, articles and college assignments.

Best for Access to Tutors: English Central

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Depends on the study plan (private lessons per week and subscription period)
Summary: Focusing on learning through video lessons, this site uses effective speech recognition software so you can perfect your pronunciation.

English Central focuses on learning through over 20,000 video lessons. First, you just watch the video lesson. Then, you check the words in the video with the transcript, choosing the lines and saving the words that you want to practice.

Then, the speech recognition program will let you know how well your recording matches up to the video’s.

What makes English Central stand out is that you can also join a live, 1-on-1 lesson with a language tutor to discuss the video.

Best Authentic Language Resource: Phrasemix

Mobile versions: Android
Price: Some free lessons; $15 for 1-month access, $132 for 1 year
Summary: This site teaches phrases instead of words and grammar, so you can get fluent faster.

I love Phrasemix because it simulates how people actually learn languages. Instead of learning new words by themselves, Phrasemix teaches you whole phrases.

Not only that, but the site focuses on phrases that real people use in real conversations. So, next time you go to talk with your new friends in English, you’ll be able to speak like them, not like your textbook.

PhraseMix is a very audio-focused program. Their audio player, the Phrase Mixer, lets you listen to each sentence one at a time, rewind or skip to a new sentence or slow them down.

The sentences in PhraseMix are very natural, and each sentence is broken down, so you can understand every phrase and vocabulary word that’s used.

Best Academic Resource: Cambridge English

Mobile versions: Cambridge English has several apps for different learning topics
Price: Free
Summary: This trusted brand takes an old school academic approach with content based learning.

Cambridge English is a popular resource for students who want to study for the Cambridge English proficiency exam or learn English, in general. The website has over 175 options of online activities for reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar and vocabulary.

These activities take about five to 10 minutes to complete. This targeted practice means you can focus on a specific skill for a short amount of time if you’re having a busy day!

All activities on the Cambridge English website have a theme and a level, so you can find one that’s perfect for your learning goals. Themes include travel, sports, food and hobbies. Levels are divided into basic (beginner), independent (intermediate) and proficient (advanced).

Best for Various Learning Styles: Busuu

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free plan available; Premium plan from $6.95/month
Summary: This site combines culture and many learning styles, from audio-visual to more traditional listening and reading activities.

With Busuu, the activities use flashcards and mini-lessons on English phrases, vocabulary and grammar.

The power of Busuu is repetition. You read and hear a word or a phrase, and then you do a variety of practice activities to help you use and remember it fully. There are also mini-grammar lessons along the way as well as a quiz at the end of each lesson.

The app also helps with pronunciation and conversation through a chat option, which allows you to speak and interact with native English speakers. These speakers can also correct the things that you write in Busuu to help you become a better English writer.

You can read what we thought of the program in our Busuu review.

Best for Vocabulary: WordReference Forums

Mobile versions: Android and iOS (dictionary only)
Price: Free
Summary: This site is perfect for looking up words and it has a helpful public forum where you can chat with other English learners.

The WordReference website is a fantastic resource to find English definitions and translations into other languages. In this section, though, we’re specifically talking about the website’s forum.

On the WordReference forum, you can interact with English learners from across the globe. You can ask questions about native phrases, idioms, expressions, pronunciation or anything else you can think of related to English.

You can even browse the forum for previously-asked questions. This is a great way to find tips for learning English and to learn about the English language.

You’ll also discover many great tips, study routines and advice from English learners.

Best Business English Resource: Lingua

Price: Free; Premium content for $9.90/year
Summary: This site has lots of fun activities based on reading, listening and dictation, and its business English section is excellent.

Lingua is a website with a lot of fun activities. The activities are based on reading, listening and dictation. There’s also an excellent business English section if you’d like to practice this particular style.

The activities let you read and listen to a short text before answering a quiz or completing an exercise. The quizzes are short, at only five questions long, so it’s an awesome way to get quick reading or listening practice. You can even listen to the audio recording of a text in more than one accent!

This is an excellent all-around great resource to practice listening and reading skills.

Best for Grammar Practice: Daily Grammar

Price: Free
Summary: This site is great for old school grammar drilling and practice.

The website design might look slightly old-fashioned, but I promise this is an awesome resource for studying English grammar.

The Daily Grammar site features almost all the parts of English grammar broken down into easy activities. This includes grammar activities on beginner topics such as verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs. The website also has more advanced topics like indirect objects and prepositional phrases. There are 440 activities to choose from and 88 quizzes!

There’s also an interactive glossary that links out to the activities based on the topic. This means you can focus on a specific grammar point and learn it properly.

The blog is also updated regularly and is a great place to practice a little bit of daily grammar!

Best Idioms Library: Using English

Price: Free
Summary: This site features an effective idiom dictionary and it’s a great source for phrasal verbs, that can be so confusing in English.

Using English is a website with a large compilation (many different resources from a range of topics) of English learning materials.

This website has word lists focusing on native English language, such as idiom dictionaries and phrasal verb lists. These expressions can make a big difference in your use of English and fluency.

Plus, there are many free quizzes and reading comprehension activities to help test your level and improve your English skills. In fact, there are over 520 quizzes that you can take for free, and these quizzes cover grammar topics such as verb tenses, phonetics and articles.

Reading activities cover topics like entertainment, business English and politics.

Best for Test Prep: Magoosh

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free trial available; Subscription price depends on course type
Summary: This site prepares students for taking language tests, from the SAT and GRE to the TOEFL.

Magoosh is a test preparation website that helps students develop skills to pass their upcoming exams. These include common exams in the English-speaking world such as the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language).

Magoosh introduces you to English grammar in its TOEFL course. It has over 140 online video-based lessons and over 420 video explanations. The lessons are similar to a private tutor teaching you the materials. Therefore, the videos explain the topics well and follow a nice slow speed.

To practice what you’ve learned, the course has over 420 practice questions.

Best Vocab Builder: Knoword

Price: Free
Summary: This site is perfect for building your vocabulary, and it takes a gamified approach, so it’s also quite fun.

Knoword is a very addictive online vocabulary-building game. While the website is not specifically for ESL learners, it’s still a great place to practice your vocabulary and word association.

To play the game, you’re given a word definition and the word’s first letter. You must then type the missing word. At the end of the game, you can view your answers and summarize the vocabulary. For an extra challenge, you can set a time limit.

The lists are designed by users of the app, so they’re really varied. One helps you learn irregular verbs in English and I recommend the super fun idioms pack.

Best Authentic Speeches: TED

best websites to learn english

Mobile versions: i OS and Android
Price: Free
Summary: This site is perfect for learning about fascinating topics while you get more comfortable with listening comprehension.

TED creates videos known as “TED Talks,” which are presentations by experts in many fields. You can find TED Talks about science, philosophy, self-help, education and much more.

TED talks are fun and effective ways to practice your English listening skills. They’re often led by native English speakers, and they have a lot of vocabulary that’s useful for many situations, plus subtitles.

To study with TED talks, listen to the video more than once, take notes and research any unknown vocabulary. It can also be helpful to watch videos in subtitles first in your native language and then in English.

Best University Level Courses: Coursera

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free (option to pay for a certificate at the end of the course)
Summary: This site offers online university level language courses for free.

Coursera is a directory that has free online courses known as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The “Open” part of the name means that anyone with an internet connection can take the course.

Coursera has many MOOCs from all around the world. You can find courses in intermediate English, grammar-specific classes, business or science English and more.

I recommend Coursera because all the courses were created by recognized institutions. You can search for a course by level, length or even the institution which provides the resource.

Most courses are self-directed. This means that you go through the course material at your own pace whenever you want. Many courses include videos or readings, and some even have practice exercises to complete.

Best for Aussie English: ABC

Price: Free
Summary: If you want to learn Aussie English, this site is the place. It fuses Aussie English and culture, so you learn English at the same time you learn about the Aussie way of life.

ABC is the Australian public news service and it has an English learning website!

Here you’ll discover a number of English learning activities like articles, video courses and listening exercises.

You can read articles that interview people about life in Australia or what they thought of the year 2020, but there are also articles for learning English idioms, grammar points and learning tips.

A fantastic resource from the website is “Behind the News.” In this section, you watch short news clips and focus on vocabulary related to the story. There are also follow-up questions to test your understanding of the clip.

This is an especially useful resource if you want to develop an Australian accent or have a particular interest in Australia, in general.

Best Resource Based on Current Events: News in Levels

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Summary: Stay informed and learn English with current events at various learner levels with this well done site.

News in Levels is a fantastic resource that introduces English learners to news stories at three different levels of difficulty. Simply choose a news story of interest, and then choose a level.

On this website, you can read and watch an original news story. As you read, some words are in bold to show that they may be difficult or important to the text.

News in Levels lets you take a level test, answer questions related to the text and even speak live with someone on Skype about the content of the page.

The best part about this resource is that it updates as the news develops. New articles are added every day, so there’s always new content to choose from.

Best Dictionary: Collins Dictionary

Mobile versions: iOS and Android
Price: Free
Summary: A trusted name in dictionaries, this site is easy to use and there are lots of examples, which makes understanding words easier.

When learning English online, it’s important to have a solid and reliable English language dictionary.

Along with the online dictionary, thesaurus and translation sections, you’ll also find the latest news from Collins and other great articles all about the English language.

Simply click on the “Definitions” for dictionary entries for any English word. Once you look up the word, you’ll see details such as meaning, origins, pronunciation and grammatical information.

The thesaurus is great for finding synonyms (words that mean the same thing), and the translation section allows you to find out the meaning of the English word in another language.

Collins also has articles where you can learn about things like “Scrabble,” a popular English word game.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Learning

Know your level. If the lesson is too easy, you’ll be bored. If it’s too hard, you won’t learn. So before you start to learn English online, know your level and be honest!
Know how you learn best. Find English learning websites that’ll help you learn through your favorite learning style.
Use a computer or phone with a microphone. Many of these websites and apps have activities where you can practice speaking. You’ll need a microphone for that.
Find topics that interest you. When you use topics that you like, you’ll want to learn and listen or read!
Schedule a time each day to study. You need to practice often and regularly to get better. Schedule a set time each day to study English, like while you have breakfast or take the train to work.
Don’t forget to go offline, as well! Even if you learn a lot from these English websites, it’s important to practice with real people, too.

Here we are: Now, you have a large range of options to choose from, and a good idea of the pros and cons of each website. All that’s left to do now is take your pick and start learning!