Written and checked by The Sada Team · How we check

Free shadowing apps and websites, compared

There is no single best shadowing app; the right one depends on what you need. For graded lessons with a score for every line, TryShadowing (free for 20 lines a day) or Parroto; for feedback on individual sounds, ELSA Speak; to shadow any captioned YouTube video free, with no account, in a phone browser and in English or Arabic, Sada, or ShadowingEnglish, which adds apps and a percentage score.

Try one line nowListen to one short line, record your take, then play it beside the original. Free, with no account.

Key facts

Any captioned YouTube video
No extension, works on phone and computer
No account needed to practise; a free, optional account keeps your history on every device
Free, no paid plan
Recordings stay on your device
Repeat and Shadow modes
Word recognition and timing feedback (not per-sound grading)

Which one fits what you need

Last checked: 30 September 2026. Updated that day: corrected several claims about other tools after re-reading their pages, and added FluentDictation, Lang Shadow, Picup Shadowing and TubeShad.

Structured lessons with a score for every line: TryShadowing (free for 20 lines a day), Parroto (1,000+ free lessons with dictation) or Lang Shadow (a mobile app with a free daily tier).
Feedback on individual sounds: ELSA Speak, Lang Shadow (a tracker for the 41 sounds of American English) or Parroto, which points out the sound, stress or linking that is off.
Any YouTube video, no account, in a phone browser: Sada is free with no paid plan. ShadowingEnglish allows guest practice but lists daily limits on its free plan. FluentDictation takes any YouTube link and offers basic dictation with no sign-up, but its guest mode is limited.
Your own video link, with an account: Parroto and TubeShad turn a pasted link into a lesson; ShadowingGO does so on its paid plan.
An Arabic interface: Sada, ShadowingEnglish (website), Parroto, FluentDictation, Speak Pro and YouGlish.
A human coach who listens to your recordings: Speechling, a nonprofit with a free plan and paid unlimited coaching. It is not a YouTube shadowing tool, so it is not a row in the table below.
Typed dictation as well as shadowing: FluentDictation (dictation on any YouTube link, with a pronunciation coach and sign-in for saved progress) or Parroto. Sada has a simpler Type it mode: type one line, check it word by word, then record it.
Typed dictation only, with a large library and exam listening sets: Daily Dictation, a listen-and-type site. It does not record or check your speaking on the pages we read, so it is not a row in the table below; Sada can be the speaking step after it.
Practising a speaking test’s repeat task: Sada has real sentences to hear, repeat and record for PTE Repeat Sentence, TOEFL Listen and Repeat and Versant Repeat. They are practice lines, not test items, and give no score.
Shadowing inside YouTube on a computer: ShadowEcho, a Chrome extension.
Hearing one word from many speakers: YouGlish. Understanding a Netflix or YouTube video: Language Reactor. Neither scores your speaking.

Fourteen shadowing tools side by side

Listed alphabetically. Tool names with a link open a detailed comparison with Sada. Prices are as shown on the tool’s own page or on the US App Store unless marked, on 30 September 2026; they change and differ by country.

Tool	Free use and limits	Account needed	Works in a phone browser	Any YouTube video	Content library	Feedback	Where your audio goes	Arabic interface	Price
ELSA Speak	7-day trial; a free account includes the Welcome topic and the first 2 lessons of every module	Yes	Not a website: iPhone and Android apps; its FAQ says it cannot be used on a PC or laptop	No	Its own lessons and AI role-plays	Sound level: the underlined sound, or the whole word	Not stated on the pages we read	Not listed (its App Store listing shows English only)	Varies by country, store and offer; see the store listing for your country
FluentDictation	Basic dictation tools are free with no sign-up; guest use is limited and temporary, and full use needs a Google sign-in (our test)	Not for basic dictation; sign-in to keep progress and use the full pronunciation and AI chat features	A web app; phone use not stated	Yes, paste any YouTube link	A featured video library, plus your own links	Dictation checked against the transcript; a Pronunciation Coach with fluency and accuracy scores; AI chat about the video	Not stated on the pages we read	Yes (13 interface languages listed)	Paid plans not shown on the pages we read; the site has a Pricing link
Lang Shadow	A free tier with daily limits and word-by-word scoring	Yes (one account across devices; it can be deleted in Settings)	No; iPhone (iOS 15.5+) and Android (7.0+) apps	Not stated	100,000+ short videos and 50,000+ podcasts (its figures)	Word-by-word scores; a tracker for the 41 sounds of American English; an AI tutor for role-play	Processed for pronunciation scoring and discarded by default; “My voice” takes stay on your device	Not stated (content is English; it explains in 120+ languages)	Plus $4.00 a month (US); other plans in the app
Language Reactor	Free features; Pro is an in-app purchase	Not stated	No store app. The extension runs in Chrome on Windows and Mac computers; staff say the website opens in a phone browser (March 2026), and whether the video subtitles work there is not stated	Yes, to watch with dual subtitles	Netflix and YouTube, plus imported text	None on your speaking: subtitles, dictionary and playback tools	No speaking check described	Extension interface not among its 27 listed languages; translation languages not checked	Free; Pro price not stated
Parroto	Unlimited access to 1,000+ lessons, dictation, and shadowing with basic scoring	Yes: a free account (“Sign Up Now”; “Sign in to create your own lesson”)	Not stated; iPhone and Android apps	Yes: paste an English video link and AI makes the transcript and level; sign-in needed	1,000+ lessons, A1–C2, plus IELTS and TOEIC tests	Points out the sound, stress or linking that is off; basic scoring on the free plan	Not stated in its privacy policy for shadowing	Yes	Free plan; Premium is a one-time payment for 1 month, 3 months or 1 year, with no recurring charge; prices are not on its website
Picup Shadowing	“Limited contents, all features” without a subscription; a subscription unlocks all contents and includes a 1-month trial	Not stated	No; an app for iPhone, iPad, Apple-silicon Macs and Apple Vision Pro	Not stated	Its own contents (the App Store listing names the app “Shadowing - English Speaking Exercise”)	Not described in detail on its listing	Not stated	Not listed (English and Japanese)	A monthly plan; 14.99 SAR on the Saudi App Store on the day we checked; varies by country
Sada	Free, no paid plan	Not needed to practise; a free, optional account (Google or email) keeps your practice history on every device and raises the coach’s tips from 3 to 30 a day	Yes, any modern browser; nothing to install	Yes, with usable captions, or a pasted transcript, SRT or VTT file	Caption-checked famous talks, sorted by level	Which words were recognised or missed, and your timing against the speaker; not individual sounds	On your device; recordings are not uploaded	Yes	Free, no paid plan
ShadowEcho	5 tries without signing up; then 20 recordings a day and 100 AI credits a month	After 5 tries	No; a Chrome extension	Yes, any line with subtitles	None; you bring YouTube videos	AI coach on pronunciation, rhythm and intonation; your take replayed beside the original	Not stated	Not listed (English only)	$2.99 for 7 days; $5.99 for 30 days (one-time passes)
ShadowingEnglish	A free plan with daily limits: its upgrade page lists video practice as “3 + 1/day” and AI pronunciation scoring as “10/day”; Premium lifts them	Guest practice exists (guest sessions save scores only); a free account keeps recordings and progress	Yes; also iPhone and Android apps	Yes; it makes AI captions when a video has none	Videos by level and topic	A pronunciation score per sentence; fuller AI feedback in Premium	The browser’s speech recognition; its policy says audio is not sent to its servers	Yes on the website (15 languages listed); the App Store listing shows English	$4.99 a month, $12.99 for 3 months, $19.99 a year, $99.99 lifetime (US App Store)
ShadowingGO	Trial: recommended videos plus 2 YouTube videos you choose, 30 minutes of recording in total	Its “Start for free” button opens a registration page	Yes; also iPhone and Android apps	On the paid plan (2 in the trial)	Recommended videos	Your speech compared with the original subtitles, with scores	Sent to Deepgram (US) for speech-to-text; it says it does not store the recordings on its servers	No: 17 interface languages listed, Arabic not among them	$12.99 a month, or $99.99 billed yearly
Speak Pro	Free download; advanced features need a subscription	Not stated	No; an app for Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac with an M1 chip or later, and Apple Vision)	Yes, its listing describes practice with YouTube content	Curated videos, including a Beginner section	AI feedback on pronunciation, rhythm and intonation; your take beside the original	Not stated	Yes (App Store lists Arabic)	$7.99 a month; $49.99 a year (US App Store)
TryShadowing	20 practice lines and 3 new lessons a day, no card needed	Not stated for free practice; sign-in is offered and is needed to upgrade	Yes; Safari recommended on iPhone and iPad. Its privacy policy mentions a mobile app; we saw no store link on its home page	No	2,000+ lessons, A1–C2; IELTS, TOEIC and business tracks	Pronunciation scored word by word	Recordings stay on your device; the browser’s speech recognition may send audio to Google or Apple	No	$25 a year (one payment for one year, through Polar)
TubeShad	Free download with in-app purchases; what stays free is not stated on its listing	Not stated	No; an app for iPhone, iPad and Apple-silicon Macs, and a Google Play listing	Yes, paste supported video links (YouTube and other sources) to make lessons	Its own lessons by CEFR level, plus your links	Pronunciation feedback with IPA hints; sentence-by-sentence shadowing and dictation	Not stated	Not listed (English only)	$1.99 a week, $4.99 a month or $19.99 a year (US App Store)
YouGlish	20 searches a day	Not needed for free searches	Yes (website); also iPhone, iPad and Mac apps	No; it searches its own index of clips by word	YouTube clips found by word or phrase	No scoring described; its app has a tool to record yourself and track progress	The website does not say; its app has a “record yourself speaking” tool	Yes	From €3 a month, billed yearly (50 searches a day)

A 10-minute routine that works with any of these tools

Pick a clip of 30 to 60 seconds that you already understand.
Listen once while reading the transcript, then once without it.
Repeat it line by line, right after the speaker.
Speak along with the speaker, following the rhythm and pauses.
Record one take, play it beside the original and note one difference.
End by saying your best line again.

New to the method? Read what shadowing is, or shadow your first YouTube video.

Each tool: who it suits and its limits

ELSA Speak

Best for: Feedback on individual English sounds and word stress, inside a structured course.

Limits: After the 7-day trial most lessons need a subscription, an account is required, and you practise its lessons rather than videos you choose.

ELSA Speak compared with Sada. Sources: App Store listing, ELSA FAQ, ELSA API.

FluentDictation

Best for: Dictation on any YouTube link, with shadowing, pronunciation scores and AI chat, and an Arabic interface. It offers scores and chat that Sada does not.

Limits: Guest mode is limited and asks you to sign in with Google to keep progress; we could not read its paid plans; we found nothing on where your audio is processed.

FluentDictation compared with Sada. Sources: fluentdictation.com, FluentDictation in Arabic.

Lang Shadow

Best for: A mobile app with scored shadowing on a large library, a free daily tier and a sound tracker, which Sada does not have.

Limits: Store apps only, internet needed for scoring and content, daily limits on the free tier, and we found no statement about YouTube videos.

Sources: langshadow.com.

Language Reactor

Best for: Understanding Netflix and YouTube with dual subtitles, a pop-up dictionary and precise playback controls.

Limits: It helps you understand a video, not say it: its store listing describes no check of your speech, and the extension runs in Chrome on a computer. We could not read a Pro price on its Pro page, so none is quoted.

Language Reactor compared with Sada. Sources: Chrome Web Store listing, staff reply on phones, Pro page.

Parroto

Best for: A large free library of graded video lessons that mixes dictation, shadowing and exam practice, with feedback on sounds, stress and linking.

Limits: You need an account, transcripts and levels of your own videos are AI-made, free scoring is basic, and Premium prices appear only in the stores.

Parroto compared with Sada. Sources: parroto.app, Parroto shadowing, Parroto plans, Parroto in Arabic, privacy policy, App Store listing.

Picup Shadowing

Best for: A dedicated iPhone shadowing app with its own contents and a month-long trial.

Limits: Apple devices only, English and Japanese only, and we found nothing on YouTube videos, feedback details or where audio goes.

Sources: App Store listing (Saudi store).

Sada

Best for: Shadowing or repeating any captioned YouTube video line by line, free and without an account, on a phone or a computer, in English or Arabic.

Limits: It does not grade individual sounds, it has no course and no store app, and the first recording downloads a speech model once (about 75 MB on a phone, about 240 MB on a computer).

Sources: About Sada, what the check measures, privacy page.

ShadowEcho

Best for: Shadowing inside YouTube itself on a computer, with AI tips on rhythm and intonation.

Limits: It is a Chrome extension, so not for phones; after 5 tries you must sign in, and free use stops at 20 recordings a day.

Sources: Chrome Web Store listing.

ShadowingEnglish

Best for: YouTube shadowing with a pronunciation score, dictation, AI conversation practice, apps, XP, streaks and a leaderboard if those keep you practising.

Limits: The free plan has daily limits on its upgrade page, full AI pronunciation scoring and detailed feedback are Premium features, and its scoring relies on the browser’s speech recognition (see how we compared).

ShadowingEnglish compared with Sada. Sources: shadowingenglish.com, upgrade page, help page, privacy policy, App Store listing.

ShadowingGO

Best for: Paid daily shadowing of your own YouTube videos, with one account across web, iPhone and Android, and segments split to the length you choose.

Limits: The free trial ends at 2 chosen videos and 30 minutes of recording, registration is required to start, and your audio goes to a speech-to-text provider.

ShadowingGO compared with Sada. Sources: shadowinggo.com, ShadowingGO pricing, privacy policy.

Speak Pro

Best for: Shadowing YouTube and curated videos on an iPhone, with your take placed beside the original, and in several languages besides English.

Limits: Apple devices only, and the advanced features need a subscription.

Speak Pro compared with Sada. Sources: speakpro.app, App Store listing.

TryShadowing

Best for: Structured shadowing of everyday conversations by level, with a word-by-word score, dictation and vocabulary review.

Limits: The free plan stops at 20 lines and 3 new lessons a day, you cannot bring your own videos, and the interface is not in Arabic.

TryShadowing compared with Sada. Sources: tryshadowing.com, TryShadowing pricing, privacy policy.

TubeShad

Best for: A mobile app that turns video links into shadowing and dictation lessons with IPA hints and spaced repetition.

Limits: Store apps only, English interface only on the App Store, and its listing does not say what is free or where audio goes.

Sources: App Store listing, Google Play listing.

YouGlish

Best for: Hearing how a word or phrase is said by many real speakers, in many accents.

Limits: It plays other people saying the word. Its app lets you record yourself, but we found no scoring, so it is a companion to shadowing rather than a shadowing tool.

YouGlish compared with Sada. Sources: youglish.com, YouGlish plans, App Store listing, YouGlish in Arabic.

When Sada is not the right choice

You want each sound graded. Sada shows which words were recognised and your timing; it does not diagnose how you made a vowel or consonant. Use ELSA Speak, Parroto or Lang Shadow for that.
You want a course. Sada has a library of talks and a 30-day path of five lines a day, not graded lessons, vocabulary review or exam tracks. Its dictation is one line at a time; TryShadowing, Parroto and FluentDictation offer fuller dictation, and TryShadowing and Parroto also have graded lessons.
You want scores, AI chat or a tutor. FluentDictation (pronunciation scores and chat with the video, after signing in) and Lang Shadow (word scores and an AI tutor) offer these; Sada does not.
You want a store app or offline practice. Sada is a website only. ShadowingEnglish, ShadowingGO, Parroto, ELSA Speak, Speak Pro, Lang Shadow, Picup Shadowing and TubeShad have apps.
Your video has no captions and you have no transcript. Sada needs one of them; ShadowingEnglish says it makes AI captions when a video has none.
Your mobile data is tight. The first recording downloads Sada’s speech model once, about 75 MB on a phone.
You learn from Netflix. Sada works with YouTube only.

How we compared

On 30 September 2026 we read each tool’s own website, pricing page, help or privacy page, and its App Store or Chrome Web Store listing, and linked them under each tool above. We did not buy subscriptions, and we did not rate or rank the tools. “Not stated” means the pages we read did not say. Prices are in US dollars on the US App Store unless marked; they change and differ by country. For FluentDictation’s guest mode we describe what we saw when we tried it ourselves.

“Where your audio goes” reports each tool’s own statement. Several tools use the browser’s built-in speech recognition; TryShadowing’s privacy policy explains that, depending on the browser, this may send audio to its maker, such as Google in Chrome or Apple on iPhone. Sada runs its own speech recognition model inside the page instead.

Sada is made by the team that wrote this page, so we held it to the same questions and listed its limits too. Some older lists name shadowing websites that no longer load; we included only tools whose sites or store pages we could open on the day we checked. Names such as “Shadowing English” are used by several unrelated apps; each row above says which one we mean.

Other comparisons

Practise one line, step by step

Open an exercise from this guide. Choose a captioned video for this guide’s topic and a line whose meaning you understand.
Listen and read the caption, then say the line after the speaker in Repeat mode.
Try saying the line with the speaker in Shadow mode, following the rhythm and pauses.
Record a take, then open Compare and play your recording and the original. Review words and timing; Sada does not grade individual sounds.
Repeat the line while focusing on one difference you heard, then move to another line.

Questions people ask

What is the best free shadowing app?

It depends on what you need. For graded lessons with a score for each line, TryShadowing’s free plan (20 lines a day), Parroto or Lang Shadow; for feedback on single sounds, ELSA Speak; for any captioned YouTube video with no account, in a phone browser and in English or Arabic, Sada, which is free with no paid plan.

Is there a shadowing app with no sign-up?

Yes. Sada needs no account. ShadowingEnglish allows guest practice, though guest sessions save scores only and its free plan lists daily limits; FluentDictation offers basic dictation with no sign-up, but its guest mode is limited. ShadowEcho allows 5 tries before you sign in, and ShadowingGO, ELSA Speak and Parroto need an account.

Which shadowing apps work with any YouTube video?

Sada, ShadowingEnglish, FluentDictation, Speak Pro and ShadowEcho work with YouTube videos you choose. Parroto and TubeShad turn a pasted video link into a lesson (Parroto needs sign-in), and ShadowingGO does on its paid plan (2 videos in the free trial). TryShadowing and ELSA Speak use their own lessons.

Which shadowing apps have an Arabic interface?

Sada, ShadowingEnglish (its website), Parroto, FluentDictation, Speak Pro and YouGlish, on the pages we checked on 30 September 2026. TryShadowing and ShadowingGO do not.

Does Sada grade pronunciation sound by sound?

No. Sada shows which words were recognised or missed and your timing against the speaker. For sound-level feedback, use a tool such as ELSA Speak.

Does shadowing work on a phone without an app?

Yes for Sada, ShadowingEnglish (website) and TryShadowing, which run in the phone’s browser; TryShadowing recommends Safari on iPhone.

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