Best App to Learn Sign Language: 30 Tools Checked

The short answer

For most beginners in the US, the best app to learn sign language is Lingvano. Deaf teachers made its 600+ lessons, and 119,780 people have rated it 4.9 stars in the US App Store, more than any other sign language app. It is also one of the priciest, at $119.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). To pay nothing, start with Intersign ASL, whose core lessons are free, and Lifeprint, a free online ASL course running since 1997.

No app will make you fluent on its own, though. A phone can show you a sign, but it cannot really see you, and in ASL your face is part of the grammar. What works is a course app for structure, a dictionary for lookups, some fingerspelling practice, a way to keep the signs you learn, and time with Deaf signers. This list is grouped by those jobs.

How we checked these 30

We searched the US App Store ten ways (sign language, ASL, fingerspelling, baby sign, deaf and more), read about 90 sign language apps and kept only those updated in the 12 months before 2026-10-19. Prices come from each app's US App Store listing, or the maker's site for web courses, all checked on 2026-10-19. Where a listing shows several prices for one plan, we give the regular one and mention the offers.

That rule removed three apps most "best ASL app" lists still recommend. The ASL App, made by Deaf creators, was last updated in March 2024. ASL Sign Language Pocket Sign, with 39,413 ratings, was last updated in August 2025. The SignSchool app was last updated in October 2024, although its website still works.

Mindomax, our own app, is on the list too: last, with the same treatment as everyone else.

Why so many Americans are learning ASL

ASL went from 1,602 college students in 1990 to 107,899 in 2021 and passed German in 2013. Data: Modern Language Association, Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in US Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2021 (2023), table 5. ASL was first counted in 1990. Chart by Mindomax.

American Sign Language is the third most studied language at US colleges, after Spanish and French. The Modern Language Association counted 1,602 ASL enrollments in 1990 and 107,899 in fall 2021, and ASL passed German in 2013. The same census shows the catch: 95,989 enrollments were in introductory courses and only 9,929 in advanced ones, about ten beginners for every advanced student. Starting is easy. Keeping going is the hard part.

Course apps made with Deaf teachers

These teach ASL in order, from the alphabet to simple conversations, and say plainly that Deaf people made the lessons. Pick one as your main course.

1. Lingvano. 600+ bite-sized video lessons from Deaf teachers, dialogues between Deaf people and, according to Lingvano, sign recognition that checks your fingerspelling letter by letter. ASL Premium costs $17.99 a month, $47.99 a quarter or $119.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: the free part is only a sample, since Premium unlocks all the lessons, and it costs more than most apps here.

2. ASL Bloom. From SignLab, a Norwegian company, and featured by Apple's editors under "Learn ASL From Deaf and Native Instructors". It has 23 modules, 120+ video lessons, 1,300+ signs and sentences, and AI review checks that bring old signs back. Plans are listed from $47.99 for three months and $98.99 a year, with offers down to $48.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: the store shows several prices for the same plan, so read the offer before you pay.

3. Intersign ASL. Made in Mexico, with content "developed by certified Deaf ASL teachers, including university instructors": 370+ lessons in 17 sections and a built-in dictionary. The company promises its core content will always be free; Premium is $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: 4,816 ratings, far behind the two above, and no live practice.

4. The ASL Shop. A Deaf-owned school in an app: video courses from Deaf instructors, a 2,000+ sign dictionary and, on the Plus plan, live practice sessions with Deaf instructors and other learners. Base is $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year, Plus $13.99 a month or $149.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19); group classes cost extra. Limitation: only 16 ratings so far.

5. ASLdeafined. A video lesson library from Michigan whose lessons are "taught by Deaf experts of ASL", built for Deaf students, parents of Deaf children and everyone else. Full access is a website subscription of $39.99 a year, or $12 a year for schools (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: the app is rated 3.4 stars, and you pay on the website, not in the app.

Popular new apps that do not say who teaches

These climbed fast, but their App Store listings do not name a teacher or say that Deaf signers made the lessons (ASL Otty only mentions "native speakers"). They may be fine; we cannot tell you who is signing. Watch the first lessons before you subscribe, and look out for weekly billing.

6. Ziggy. First released in July 2026 and already at 5,883 ratings and 4.8 stars, with 30+ units, 500+ signs, quizzes and review exercises. It costs $6.99 a week or $49.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: its developer, OneDegree Labs, also sells a dinosaur game and an affirmations app.

7. ASL Otty. Short lessons and a training plan that adapts to you, rated 4.7 by 4,341 people. Plans start at $8.99 a week, and a year is $98.99 (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: one of the highest yearly prices here for a course with no named teachers.

8. Anna: Sign Language. Lessons, a dictionary and regular tests, rated 4.8 by 1,286 people since February 2026. A year is $89.99, or $149.99 for a family pack (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: no teachers named anywhere in the listing.

9. Aslingo. Bite-sized lessons and a dictionary, rated 4.7 by 1,597 people, at $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: no teachers named, and the developer's other apps include a messenger add-on and a subscription tracker.

10. AISA School. The one app here built around AI feedback: its listing promises "instant, accurate corrections as you practice". It is free to download, with no in-app prices listed in the US store (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: only 20 ratings, and we could not test how well its AI judges a sign.

Dictionaries: look up any sign

You will open a dictionary more than any other app, every time a class, a show or a Deaf friend uses a sign you do not know.

11. Signing Savvy. Several thousand high-resolution sign videos, plus signed sentences with ASL glosses, from a company that calls itself "Deaf, Coda, and educator owned". The dictionary is free on the website; full membership is $9.95 a month or $49.95 a year (checked 2026-10-19) and also unlocks its member app. Limitation: that app is rated 3.4 stars, so the website is the better way in.

12. Handspeak. A free dictionary and learning site with sentences, stories and Deaf culture, run since 1995 by Jolanta Lapiak, an ASL instructor born into a Deaf family. Patron membership, which removes the ads, is $5.95 a month (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: a website rather than an app, with ads on the free version.

13. What's the Sign? ASL Dictionary. Made "by a 100% Deaf team", with 25,000+ signs, regional variations and Deaf signers from many backgrounds. Free to try; Pro is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: only 33 ratings, and the App Store shows it as "TWA Dictionary".

14. Spread the Sign. From the European Sign Language Centre in Sweden: 600,000+ sign videos across 23 sign languages, so you can compare a word in ASL and British Sign Language. Free; Pro is $4.99 (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: a dictionary only, with no lessons in order.

15. ASL Dictionary. Pay $4.99 once (checked 2026-10-19) for 5,200+ signs, 765 words with more than one meaning and 473 idioms, all working without internet; 1,328 ratings at 4.7 stars. Limitation: one signer for everything, so you will not see how signs vary from person to person.

16. Hand Talk. Type or say a word and an animated 3D interpreter, Hugo or Maya, signs it in ASL, Brazilian Sign Language or British Sign Language. Free; Premium is $4.99 a month or $44.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: an avatar is not a person, and at 4.1 stars it rates lower than most apps here.

Fingerspelling: the skill that needs drills

Spelling your own name is easy. Reading someone else's fingerspelling at full speed is much harder, and only practice fixes it.

17. ASL Speed Spell. Every word is recorded as its own video, so you read real fingerspelling at the speed you choose, in categories such as names, animals and countries; 338 ratings at 4.8 stars. Free with ads; ad-free is $1.99 a month or $5.99 once (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: it trains your reading, not your own hand.

18. ASL Fingerspell Dictionary. More than 1,000 videos of whole fingerspelled words, quizzes by word length and 35 levels, offline, for $1.99 once (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: last updated in November 2025, with only 38 ratings.

Free courses, a university and live tutors

19. Lifeprint ASL University. Dr. Bill Vicars' free course, online since 1997: lessons in order with vocabulary videos and practice sentences, a dictionary with 10,000+ sign pages and a free fingerspelling drill at asl.ms. The site says many college students use it alongside their classes. Free; an instructor-led version costs $483 (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: an old-fashioned website, and nothing reminds you to come back.

20. Gallaudet University ASL Connect. The Washington, DC university for Deaf and hard of hearing students offers free "Learn Basic ASL by Topic" videos on 24 topics, from the alphabet to family, weather and a baby's routine. Its online courses cover all six levels in eight-week sessions: $990 per course plus a one-time $75 application fee, or $2,403 per course for three college credits (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: far pricier than any app, and the free videos stop at the basics.

21. Sign Language 101. Free video lessons, plus paid courses designed and taught by Deaf language experts and led by Dr. Byron Bridges, including kids' courses for ages 8 to 15. Courses are $49.99 each with a year of access, or $149.99 for all four (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: video only, with nobody checking your signing.

22. Start ASL. A free, limited ASL 1 trial with no credit card, and a tutoring service with Deaf and hearing tutors; the six listed charge $13 to $25 per 30 minutes (checked 2026-10-19). Sessions like these, or The ASL Shop's Plus plan, are the only options here where someone watches your face and hands and corrects you. Limitation: tutors vary, so choose a Deaf tutor if you can.

For kids and families

23. My Signing Time. The app from the Signing Time series, which its maker says 250,000+ families have trusted over two decades: 500+ videos of baby signs, ASL vocabulary, songs and reading. It costs $12.99 a month or $129.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: the highest yearly price in our chart, and made for young children, not adults.

24. Play With ASL. Mini-games for kids, families and classrooms, with every sign filmed by Deaf ASL educators: a memory game across 12 themed packs and a tilt game. It costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, or single packs from $0.99 (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: vocabulary games, not a course.

25. ASL Flurry. Vocabulary, fingerspelled words and sentences from Deaf signers aged 2 to 93, turned into games with points and a leaderboard, for $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: only 32 ratings so far.

Watch real ASL every day

26. The Daily Moth. Daily news in ASL, with Deaf news, humor, polls and live chats. Once you know a few hundred signs, a few minutes of real signers a day is the closest thing to immersion an app can give. It costs $3.99 a month or $39.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: made for fluent signers, so expect to catch only a little at first.

Learning another sign language

ASL is the sign language of the US and most of English-speaking Canada. British Sign Language is a separate language with a two-handed alphabet, and most countries have their own.

27. Bright BSL. British Sign Language from the makers of ASL Bloom, with two teachers who were born Deaf: 20 modules of 4 to 7 lessons each. Plans are listed from $89.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: only 75 ratings, and only useful if the people you sign with use BSL.

28. InterSign LSM. Mexican Sign Language from the makers of Intersign ASL, with 240+ lessons in 8 sections, for $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: the app itself says signs vary by region and it has not added the variants yet.

Spread the Sign and Hand Talk, above, cover several sign languages too. For spoken languages, see our best language learning apps.

Keep the signs you learn

Course apps move on to the next lesson before your memory is ready, and signs you never see again start to fade within days. The fix is to review each sign just before you would forget it, which is what the forgetting curve research points to and what spaced repetition apps do for you.

29. Anki. The free, open-source spaced repetition app. Its shared library has free decks that follow the Lifeprint lessons: three decks cover lessons 1 to 24 with 1,604 notes, last changed in June 2022. Anki is free on Android, Windows, Mac, Linux and the web; the iPhone app is $24.99, paid once (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: you look after your decks yourself, those decks are a few years old, and the iPhone app was last updated in September 2025. Our guide to Anki for language learning shows the setup.

30. Mindomax. Our own app, so weigh this accordingly. It turns your notes, PDFs, photos or recordings into flashcards with AI and schedules each card with spaced repetition, so you can drop in the word list from your ASL class and review it a few minutes a day. It also has millions of ready-made cards. Everything is free right now, and Premium is free until the end of 2027 (checked 2026-10-19). Limitation: its cards hold text and pictures but not video, so for ASL it reviews the English word and your note on how the sign is made, not the movement itself; keep a dictionary open to watch the sign. It is also new in the US App Store, with no ratings yet.

Is there a Duolingo for ASL?

No. On 2026-10-19 Duolingo's course list had 42 languages, including Klingon, High Valyrian and Navajo, but no American Sign Language and no other sign language. There is even a public petition asking Duolingo to add ASL. The closest thing in feel is Lingvano: short daily lessons and quizzes, made by Deaf teachers. For free, Intersign ASL is the nearest match. Looking past Duolingo for a spoken language too? See our Duolingo alternatives.

What no app can do

An app shows you signs; it cannot fully see you. In ASL, facial expressions and head movements carry grammar: raised eyebrows mark a yes-or-no question, for example. Apps that check your hands, such as Lingvano's fingerspelling check or AISA School, are a start, but only a person can tell you that your eyebrows said the wrong thing. That is why live practice matters so much: a tutor, a class or a Deaf event near you. Use apps for the hours in between.

Which ones should you use?

Starting from zero: one course app (Lingvano, or Intersign ASL for free), Signing Savvy or Handspeak for lookups, and five minutes a day on ASL Speed Spell. Review your signs with a spaced repetition app, and after a month or two book a Deaf tutor or join a class.

A parent of a Deaf child: ASL Bloom's listing calls it a helpful tool for parents of deaf children, Gallaudet's free topic videos include a baby's routine, family and emotions, and My Signing Time is made for the little ones.

Taking ASL at college: Lifeprint is the free companion many students already use.

What one year costs, from The ASL Shop's $19.99 Base plan to My Signing Time's $129.99 (checked 2026-10-19). Standard 12-month plan in each app's US App Store in-app purchase list (Signing Savvy: its own website); discount and trial tiers, free tools and one-time purchases left out. Chart by Mindomax.

If you want one free place to review the signs from whichever course you choose, Mindomax is free to start.

Sources

US App Store listings with their in-app purchase lists, Google Play for AnkiDroid, and the makers' own pages, all read on 2026-10-19; each name above links to its source. Modern Language Association, Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in US Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2021 (2023), tables 5 and 7.