Comparison

italki vs PolyPod

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

italki

Connect with native-speaking tutors for personalized language lessons. Learn at your own pace with flexible scheduling and customized courses. Practice conversation, master grammar, and immerse yourself in new cultures.

Highlights
  • Connect with native tutors
  • Personalized lesson plans
  • Flexible scheduling
  • Pay-as-you-go classes
  • Immersive learning experience
  • Over 150 languages available
Features
Read full description

Start learning or keep improving your Spanish, English, French or any other language with private tutoring, thanks to qualified native teachers. With italki, enjoy an immersive learning experience with native teachers, and learn Spanish, French or any other language by sharing a real and human connection with your teacher. Do you want to learn a new language? Would you like to study English with a native teacher? You speak a bit of French and you’re not sure how to keep on learning? Language academies don’t fit your schedule? Download italki, register for free and learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and more languages. Customize the way you learn languages; connect with native teachers according to your interests, work experience, etc. In italki you’ll find qualified language teachers to learn the language you like best (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean…). Make the most of this opportunity to learn languages, practice your conversation skills, get to know new cultures and grow professionally. Aside from the italki’s community’s support, video call tutoring with native teachers is the best tool for you to learn a language. italki, the app to learn languages with tutoring More than 150 languages available with native teachers - Spanish - English - French - Japanese - Korean - German … and much more! ◉ Language classes where and when you want Do you want to make the most of your lunch break at work or your daily walk to learn Spanish? Choose the class duration (30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes) and adjust it to your schedule. Use italki Classroom, Skype, Zoom or another platform for your online language classes and start speaking the language you always wanted to learn, or practice the languages you want to get better at. ◉ Master the language skills you need the most italki's qualified teachers tailor their language classes to your current level (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2). They will build every lesson based on your personal needs and weaknesses, to ensure you progress fast. Choose a course that fits your priorities: conversation, business, grammar, creative writing, exam preparation… You have lots of options available for each language! ◉ Pay as you go Forget about paying a lot without knowing if you’ll be able to attend all the classes. With italki, you pay per class. You can also buy credits to spend them little by little or buy a package and save on the final price. Educators set their own prices, from less than $10 for qualified teachers to less than $5 for tutors. You also have three classes for less than $5 each to try, so you can make sure it’s right for you! ◉ An immersive learning experience Learn and exchange with native teachers who will teach you everything you need to know about the language and its culture, and with whom you can create a real human connection, far beyond mechanical language learning. Whether you want to learn Spanish, English, Japanese or any other language, progress quickly with a total immersion. ◉ Connect with thousands of native teachers Find Spanish, English, French, Japanese, German, Italian and Korean teachers, and teachers of many more languages. Choose your teacher according to their interests, specialization, or even their accent: British or American English, to learn English and any other language you need. Some teachers use language-teaching materials in their tutoring classes, such as books, videos, cards, etc. ◉ Learning together with your friend Invite your friends to join italki to study a language, and earn $10 every time one of them spends their first $20. They will also earn $5 for adding you as their referrer. Study online, learn languages with native tutors in italki and expand your world. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

PolyPod

Learn languages by listening to podcasts with this app. It tracks your listening time, helps you build habits, and visualizes your progress. Features include adjustable playback speed, episode transcription, and achievement earning.

Highlights
  • Automatic listening time tracking
  • Daily listening goals
  • Progress visualization (streaks, hours)
  • Podcast tagging and organization
  • Adjustable playback speed
  • On-device episode transcription
  • Achievement system for habit building
Read full description

Build your language-learning habit with podcasts you enjoy. PolyPod is a podcast player that counts how long you listen in each language. Find something you want to hear, press play, and watch your comprehensible input hours add up. LANGUAGES Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Each language keeps its own total. SEE YOUR CONSISTENCY GROW - Listening time is counted automatically, and it's real time: 10 minutes of audio at 2x counts as 5 minutes. - Set a daily goal and follow your streaks, weekly summaries and total hours. - Today's Listening builds a plan around your daily goal. - Home screen and lock screen widgets. MAKE LISTENING WORK FOR YOU - Playback from 0.5x to 2x, bookmarks, an up-next queue and a sleep timer. - On-device transcripts that follow along as you listen (Pro). FIND YOUR NEXT LISTEN - Discover podcasts in your target language, get For You recommendations, or add any podcast by its RSS feed. KEEP YOUR RECORDS - Export your listening sessions as a CSV file to log your hours in another tracker. FREE AND PRO PolyPod is free for one language, with tracking, goals, streaks, the full player and your last 30 days of history. Pro adds all 8 languages, transcripts, downloads and offline listening, cloud sync, unlimited RSS feeds and your full history. Guides and help: polypod.app Terms of Service: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://polypod.app/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

italki4 screens
PolyPod4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: PolyPod at none against italki's shown. PolyPod also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 68%). italki's advantage is ratings volume (10K vs 6) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 weeks). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. italki sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $5.99 per month and PolyPod sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for italki against 4.8 for PolyPod. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: italki has 10K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 68% of italki's written reviews are positive against 100% of PolyPod's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

italki ships an update weekly, PolyPod every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
italki versus PolyPod: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteritalkiPolyPod
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (10K ratings) — better4.8 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews68.2% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings10K — better6
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size308 MB131 MB
Age rating4+17+
Developeritalki HK Limitedscott saunders

Customer experience

italki

All ratings9,964 ratings
Positive96.0%
Neutral1.0%
Negative3.0%
Written reviews1,491 reviews
Positive68.2%
Neutral5.0%
Negative26.8%

PolyPod

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

italki

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App crashes and freezes
  • Inaccurate teacher availability information
  • Issues with login and account management
  • Problems with video/audio quality during lessons
  • Syncing and integration problems with other platforms

Requested features

5 requests
  • Improved calendar and scheduling functionality
  • Better notification system for lessons
  • Ability to search for and connect with language partners
  • More transparency around teacher availability and cancellations
  • Streamlined payment and refund process

PolyPod

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

4 purchases

italki

Subscriptions4
  • italki Plus - 1 Month$5.991 Month
  • Plus Monthly Plan with Trial1 Month trial$5.991 Month
  • italki Plus - 1 Year$59.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Plus Yearly Plan with Trial1 Month trial$59.991 Year
1 purchases

PolyPod

Subscriptions1
  • Pro$1.991 Month

Questions

Is italki free?
italki is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is PolyPod free?
PolyPod is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, italki or PolyPod?
italki is rated higher. italki averages 4.8 out of 5 from 10K ratings, while PolyPod averages 4.8 from 6 ratings.
Do italki or PolyPod have ads?
italki shows ads; PolyPod does not.
Which is updated more often, italki or PolyPod?
italki ships an update weekly, and PolyPod every 4 weeks. Most recently, italki was updated on November 7, 2026 and PolyPod on November 5, 2026.

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