FrenchPod101 vs InnerFrench vs News in Slow French (2026)

Bonjour ! Amélie here. 👋

FrenchPod101 vs InnerFrench vs News in Slow French is the comparison almost every learner runs at some point, usually at 11pm with three tabs open and a credit card nearby. Let me save you the tabs.

The short answer: InnerFrench is the best value: a free, 200-episode intermediate podcast with transcripts, now finished but still all online. FrenchPod101 suits beginners who want cheap, structured lessons that explain every word. News in Slow French suits current-events lovers at $22.90 a month. None of the three trains you for fast, everyday French conversation.

I checked every price and plan below on 6 October 2026. Prices change, sales come and go, so treat the numbers as a snapshot, not a contract.

How do the three compare at a glance?

	FrenchPod101	InnerFrench	News in Slow French
Price	Free account; Basic $4, Premium $10, Premium PLUS $23 a month at list price (45% off on a 24-month plan when I checked)	Podcast free; paid courses sold separately	Full Access $22.90/month; Audio Only $6.90/month
Free trial	Free lifetime account with sample lessons; 60-day money-back guarantee	Everything in the podcast is free	7 days of Full Access, first-time subscribers
Levels	Absolute beginner to advanced	Intermediate, getting harder episode by episode	Beginner (A1–A2), Intermediate (B1–B2), Advanced (C1+)
Transcripts	Lesson notes from Basic up	Yes, on the InnerFrench site	Full Access only, with contextual translations
Speed	Learner pace; teachers explain every word	Clear, a touch slower than natural	Narrated at a learner pace
Format	Short audio and video lessons	Long episodes: Hugo alone, then Hugo and Ingrid	Weekly news, plus grammar and expressions
Status	Active	Podcast ended 14 Sep 2026 (200 episodes)	Active, new episodes weekly

I took every cell from the brands’ own pages. If one of them changes its prices next week, the table will be wrong next week. Check their own pricing pages before you pay: FrenchPod101, News in Slow French.

Is InnerFrench still worth it now the podcast has ended?

Yes. Absolutely yes.

On 14 September 2026, Hugo and Ingrid published episode 200, Toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin, and closed the podcast after nine years. That is sad news, and it changes nothing about the 200 episodes already out there. They are still free, still on every podcast app, and the transcripts are still on the InnerFrench podcast page.

Two hundred episodes is months of listening. The early ones are Hugo alone, clear and calm. From episode 92, Ingrid joins him and the episodes become more conversational, which is exactly the stretch an intermediate ear needs. Start with the oldest episodes and work up; Hugo recommends the same.

The catch: there will be no new episodes. If you love fresh weekly content, you will run out eventually. If you are a back-catalogue person, you have found treasure. My full take is in the InnerFrench review.

Who is FrenchPod101 best for?

Beginners and lower-intermediate learners who like short lessons with everything explained.

FrenchPod101 is enormous. The free lifetime account gives you a survival-phrases course and the first three lessons of every pathway, which is enough to decide whether you like the hosts. Paid plans unlock the full library, lesson notes and, higher up, quizzes, flashcards and a teacher.

It is also the cheapest paid option here, especially on a long plan: when I checked, the pricing page showed 45% off on 24-month subscriptions. That is a real saving, and a real commitment. Two years is a long time to promise a website you met last Tuesday.

The trade-off is the noise. The site sells hard, and with a library that size, quality varies. Pick a pathway, ignore the pop-ups, and it works. More detail in my FrenchPod101 review.

Who is News in Slow French best for?

Learners who would happily read the news anyway, and want to do it in French.

News in Slow French has been running for over ten years, with three levels from beginner to advanced. Full Access, at $22.90 a month, gives you the audio, transcripts with contextual translations, a grammar course, an idiomatic expressions catalogue, quizzes and live conversation Rooms. Audio Only, at $6.90 a month, keeps the audio and the Rooms but drops the transcripts.

That transcript point matters more than the price. Without a transcript, you cannot check what you missed, and checking what you missed is where listening practice actually happens. If you buy Audio Only to save money, you are buying the half of the product that teaches less.

There is also a free public feed, News in Slow French (Intermediate), with roughly ten-minute weekly episodes. Listen to three of those before you pay anything. I go deeper in the News in Slow French review.

Which one sounds most like real French people?

Honestly? None of them, and that is by design.

All three slow French down or tidy it up for learners. That is their job, and they do it well. But it means none of them sounds like two friends at a café: the dropped ne, the du coup every third sentence, il y a shrinking to y a, someone saying genre when they mean nothing at all.

Of the three, InnerFrench gets closest, especially the Hugo-and-Ingrid episodes. News in Slow French is careful newsreader French. FrenchPod101 dialogues are short and scripted, then explained word by word.

This is the gap I built French with Amélie for: real colloquial dialogues, written to sound like French people actually talk, with audio at normal speed, 🐢 slow audio and ⚡ À la parisienne, plus a transcript to check yourself against. Free subscribers get a new dialogue every week. Premium is 2 full lessons a week, the 💜 private podcast and the 220-lesson library, at $24 a month or $240 a year (30% off right now, so $168), with a 7-day free trial. It is not a replacement for any of the three above. It is the next layer, once clear French stops being the problem.

Which should you choose?

Match the resource to the problem you actually have.

• You are a beginner and want structure: FrenchPod101, on the free account first.
• You are intermediate and want lots of free listening: InnerFrench, from episode 1.
• You love current events and want three levels in one place: News in Slow French, Full Access, after the free trial.
• You understand clear French but lose real conversations: add dialogue-based listening, such as French with Amélie.

And if you do not know which of those you are, that is the real first step. Learners are famously bad at guessing their own listening level: a tired evening feels like A2, a good lesson feels like B2.

How do I know which level I really am?

Test your ears, not your grammar. My free French listening test plays eight clips of real spoken French, from gentle A2 up to full Parisian speed, and gives you your level in about two minutes. Then you can pick between these three with your eyes open.

For a wider list by level, see the best French podcasts by level.

FAQ

Is InnerFrench better than News in Slow French? For value, yes: InnerFrench is free and has transcripts. News in Slow French wins if you want current events, three levels and new weekly content, which InnerFrench no longer publishes.

Is FrenchPod101 cheaper than News in Slow French? Yes. FrenchPod101’s list prices start at $4 a month for Basic, and long plans are often heavily discounted. News in Slow French Full Access is $22.90 a month.

Are InnerFrench transcripts free? The transcripts are published on the InnerFrench website alongside each episode. The courses are the paid part.

Which is best for beginners? FrenchPod101 or the News in Slow French Beginner level. InnerFrench is built for intermediate learners.

Can I use more than one? Yes, and it often works best: one structured resource plus one free source of volume. InnerFrench plus anything is a cheap, strong pairing.

Bon courage, and choose the one you will actually open on a Tuesday night. That is the best one. 💜