Yes. The official MyColosseum app and Rick Steves’ walks are both free, and several paid guides let you hear part of their content for nothing. For the Colosseum itself, free is good enough for many visitors. The Forum and the Palatine are where free guides thin out — and where your ticket sends you next.
MyColosseum — free and official
The Parco archeologico del Colosseo’s own app. Its interactive audio guides, in Italian and English, follow you through the amphitheatre — including the underground, the middle gallery and the upper level — and start by position. Store reviews say the audio must be downloaded in advance, playback by position is unreliable and the battery suffers, so download everything at the hotel.
Rick Steves — free, English
The Rick Steves Audio Europe app has free tours of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in English, excerpted from his guidebook. Download them before you go and they play offline. They are linear walks with no map of where you are, so follow the route as described.
Free samples of paid guides
Most paid Colosseum apps let you hear a few stops first, which is the best way to judge the voice, the depth and the map before paying. Tessera’s five free stops are on the ground you will walk anyway — two in the Forum, the Arch of Titus between the Forum and the Colosseum, and two on the Colosseum square — and they work offline like the rest.
Where free guides stop
The Palatine: the hill on your ticket is the part free guides cover least.
Languages: the free options are in Italian and English.
A plan of where you are across all three sites.
Set it up before you go
Whatever you choose, download it at the hotel and play one track in airplane mode. There is no usable Wi-Fi at the site, mobile coverage inside the Colosseum is weak, and the queue at security is not where you want to discover a large download.
If you would rather not use a phone
The handheld guide rented at the Colosseum is not free, but it costs only a few euros and needs no preparation. Remember it covers the amphitheatre only.
Tessera