Roundup
Best free speech therapy apps for kids
Search “free speech therapy app for kids” and you get a list of apps that are free to download and cost $40 to $60 a year to use. That is not the same thing, and pretending otherwise wastes an evening of downloading. This page says what each app actually gives you for nothing, including ours.
The short answer
No mainstream speech app is fully free. All the big ones are free downloads with the substance behind a subscription, typically $39.99 to $59.99 a year. What genuinely costs nothing is practice material (word lists, mouth-position guides and games) plus the public health, school and early-intervention services most countries provide.
What “free” actually means in each app
| App | Free without paying | Cost to unlock |
|---|---|---|
| Help Me Talk | Nothing beyond a 3-day full trial | $6.99/mo or $39.99/yr |
| Speech Blubs | A limited sample of activities | $14.99/mo or $59.99/yr |
| Otsimo | A limited sample | $6.99/mo, about $4.49/mo yearly, or $119.99 lifetime |
| Articulation Station Hive | 14-day full trial | About $6.99/mo billed yearly (parent tier) |
| My Words | Some activities | In-app purchases |
| Mio | Some games | In-app purchases |
What is genuinely free and genuinely useful
Most of what a speech app sells you is structure and feedback. The raw material is no secret: which words to practise, how the mouth makes each sound, what usually goes wrong. None of it needs to cost anything.
- [Every speech sound, with full practice lists](/sounds). Thirty pages on this site, one per sound, each with a recorded audio clip, mouth-position instructions, the age most children get it, hundreds of practice words grouped from easiest to hardest, phrases, sentences and three games. No sign-up, no email, no app.
- [A home practice plan](/guides/speech-therapy-at-home). The four levels therapists work through and how long to spend on each.
- Public health services. Free in most countries: the NHS in the UK, provincial services in Canada, and equivalents elsewhere. The cost is waiting time, not money.
- School provision. In the US, if speech affects your child's education they may qualify for services through an IEP at no cost. Request an evaluation in writing.
- Early intervention. Under-threes often qualify for state or regional programmes, free or on a sliding scale.
- University training clinics. Supervised student clinics at a fraction of private rates, sometimes free.
Is a paid app worth it?
Sometimes. The honest test:
Pay if the daily practice is not happening. What you are buying is a format your child will actually sit through, feedback you do not have to give, and a record of whether anything is improving. If you have tried free word lists and they lasted four days, that is what an app is for.
Do not pay if you have not tried the free material yet, if your child is under three and barely talking (spend the effort on conversation instead), or if you have not had an assessment and do not yet know what to work on. Buying a subscription before you know the target is how people end up practising the wrong sound for six months.
Cheapest first, if you do pay
Annual prices in this category, from the public listings at the time of writing:
| App | Per year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Help Me Talk | $39.99 | Cheapest annual of the main options; free trial |
| Otsimo | About $53.99 | Or $119.99 once, forever |
| Speech Blubs | $59.99 | Most expensive subscription here |
| Articulation Station Hive | About $83.99 | Parent tier billed annually; 14-day trial |
| Proloquo2Go | $249.99 once | AAC system, not a practice app (different category) |
Practice these sounds
Free word lists, mouth-position guides and games. No app needed.
Questions parents ask
- Is there a completely free speech therapy app?
- Not among the mainstream ones. All of them are free to download with the substance behind a subscription. What is genuinely free is practice material: the sound pages on this site include word lists, audio, mouth-position guides and games at no cost. So are public health, school and early-intervention services.
- What is free in Help Me Talk?
- The download and a 3-day trial with everything unlocked. After that all 30 sounds and the practice bank need a subscription at $6.99 a month or $39.99 a year. There is no permanently free tier.
- Can I get speech therapy for free?
- In most countries, yes. Public health services, school provision where speech affects education, early-intervention programmes for under-threes, and university training clinics are all free or heavily reduced. The trade-off is waiting time. Use the free practice material while you wait.
- Which speech app has the best free trial?
- Articulation Station Hive offers 14 days of full access, the longest of the main options. Most others offer a shorter trial or a limited free tier. A trial is worth using properly, so practise daily for the whole period, because whether your child will sit for it is the thing you are really testing.
- Are free speech apps any good?
- The free tiers are usually a sample rather than a usable programme. Enough to see whether your child engages, not enough to change a sound. That is a reasonable way to try before buying, and it is why doing a week of free practice from a word list first tells you more than any review.
Keep reading
- How much does speech therapy cost?
- Free practice lists for every speech sound
- Best apps for childhood apraxia of speech
- Best apps for dysarthria, for adults and for children
- Best apps for SLPs: what speech therapists actually use
Last updated 7 August 2026.