HanDa vs Speak for Learning Korean

Quick answer: Pick Speak if you want the most polished lesson production or think you might study another language later; pick HanDa if Korean is your only target, because it is Korean-only and so can enforce 존댓말 and 반말 per scenario, map levels to TOPIK 1–6 and score your pronunciation sound by sound. HanDa is $10/month or $49.99 for 6 months on the US App Store, Speak is $17.99–39.99/month or $83.99–164.99/year, and both run on iOS and Android.

Last updated: October 2026.

Short answer: Speak is the better choice if you want a polished, well-produced lesson experience or expect to study more than one language. HanDa is the better choice if Korean is your only target and you want speech levels, TOPIK-mapped content and sound-by-sound pronunciation feedback. We make HanDa, so weigh this accordingly — the comparison below sticks to differences you can verify yourself in each app's store listing and help pages.

The core difference

Speak is a multi-language product. Korean is one of several courses, and its curriculum architecture has to work for every language it supports. That is a genuine strength — it means a large, well-tested lesson system and a very polished app.

HanDa is Korean-only. Everything in it can assume Korean, which is why it can enforce 존댓말 and 반말 inside role-plays, map levels to TOPIK 1–6, and build drills around Korean conjugation specifically. That is also its limitation: if you decide to learn Japanese next year, HanDa is useless to you and Speak isn't.

Neither bet is wrong. They're just different bets.

Side by side

Prices in this category change often and vary by country. Check both stores before deciding.

Where Speak is better

• Production quality. Speak's lessons are more polished than anything HanDa ships.
• Multi-language. One subscription, several languages.
• Brand maturity. More reviews, longer track record, easier to trust sight-unseen.

Where HanDa is better

• Speech levels. Korean's formality system is not an accent — using 반말 with a stranger is a social error. HanDa assigns a speech level per scenario and holds you to it.
• Pronunciation granularity. HanDa scores each sound you say and tracks which specific sounds you keep missing, rather than returning one overall number per sentence.
• Mistake memory. Recurring errors are detected across sessions and become the next day's practice.
• Teaching style choice. Four teachers apply genuinely different correction strategies — recast, metalinguistic explanation, casual, explicit. Learners who freeze under direct correction and learners who want to be told exactly what they got wrong need different things.
• Not only for English speakers. Explanations are available in English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.

How to actually decide

Answer one question: is Korean the only language you plan to study for the next year?

If yes, the Korean-specific machinery is worth more than the polish, and HanDa is the better fit. If no — if there's any chance you'll switch or add a language — a multi-language subscription is better value and you should pick Speak or Langua.

HanDa has a 7-day free trial; check Speak's current offer in your app store. Two weeks of real usage tells you more than any comparison page, including this one.

FAQ

what does handa mean in korean?

The word 한다 (handa) is the plain present-tense form of the verb 하다, "to do" — the form you'd see in a textbook sentence or a diary entry rather than in polite speech to a stranger. That plain style is 반말; the polite style you'd use with someone you don't know is 존댓말. HanDa the app assigns one of those speech levels to each role-play scenario and holds you to it.

is handa only for english speakers?

No. HanDa's explanations are available in English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, so you can learn Korean through whichever of those you're most comfortable in. Speak's Korean course, by contrast, is for native English speakers only. That's one of the clearer practical differences between the two apps.

can i try handa before paying?

Yes — HanDa has a 7-day free trial, and you can check Speak's current offer in your app store, since prices in this category change often and vary by country. Two weeks of real daily use will tell you more than any comparison. If you freeze under direct correction, try HanDa's four teachers, who each use a different correction style: recast, metalinguistic explanation, casual and explicit.

Related reading

• The best AI Korean tutor apps in 2026
• What the four HanDa teachers actually do differently