Babbel and Duolingo are two of the most popular language apps in the world. So which one is for you – and which one simply threatens to waste your time? In this comparison, we highlight the pros and cons of each language learning program so you can pick the one that best fits your budget and learning style.
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Our pick for beginners. Duolingo has Babbel beat on price, but this is the perfect newbie app with quick lessons and foundational content. |
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An app built around fun and fast lessons. We like the price tag and engagement, but this app is too game-like for us. Babbel’s teaching style sticks with you. |
Video: Our Thoughts On These Apps
In the video above, team member Bianca breaks down our team’s thoughts on how these two apps compare after using each for almost a year.
Editor’s Choice
Babbel
- Multiple Subscription Options
- Money Back Guarantee
Pros
- Lessons cover more material than Duolingo
- Engaging lessons comprised of quick-hit practice drills
- Regular review sessions help to drive home material retention
- Concise, helpful grammar instruction
- Bonus podcasts are an excellent supplemental resource
Cons
- No free version available like Duolingo
- Lessons could use more conversation practice
How The Babbel & Duolingo Apps Work
To kick off this review, assuming you know nothing (or at least very little) about each language program, let’s begin with an overview of how each app works.
Babbel
When you open up the Babbel app for the first time, you’ll see several different learning levels including Newcomer, Beginner I, Beginner II, Intermediate, etc.
Each level contains around a half dozen “courses,” which all cover different thematic topics like cooking, sports, and cinema. Within each course, you’ll find anywhere from 5 to 15 lessons.
Assuming you have no working knowledge of the language that you’re learning, you will start with the Newcomer level and try to complete one lesson per day.
As for the lessons themselves, each one only takes about 15 minutes total. Though not as short as a typical Duolingo lesson, they generally go by quickly.
This is because the Babbel lessons are built around a series of several fast interactive drills. You’ll do listen-and-repeat exercises, digital flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, matching pairs, matching phrases to images, completing mock conversations, short instructional tips on grammar, and more.
In essence, Babbel’s framework is built around diverse, hands-on exercises that move fast. In the course of a single lesson, they present the same content in a variety of ways and make you interact with the material from different perspectives.
Outside of the lessons, there are also daily review sessions based on the concept of spaced repetition, plus some extras, like games, audio lessons, podcasts, and a digital magazine. Overall, it’s a well-rounded app.
If your goal is steady progress and grammar confidence, Babbel is usually the better choice, while Duolingo suits learners who prefer short, flexible practice sessions.
Duolingo
The Duolingo lessons are also shorter than lessons from other language apps, and they use a healthy variety of drills within lessons as well, but the program has a different design.
With Duolingo, you follow a learning path that snakes through hundreds of units, and you work through what I would call “stepping stones.” Each stepping stone is in essence a collection of about four to six lessons.
The typical Duolingo lesson takes just 5 minutes to complete, and consists of a set of rapid fire drills. This includes listening drills, fill-in-the-blanks, matching pairs, verbal practice, and writing full sentences, among others.
These lessons go by incredibly fast (even faster than Babbel’s), and a lot of times you’ll end up doing two or three lessons in one sitting.
Duolingo’s program is fundamentally different. Where Babbel goes deeper into the instructional side of language learning, with grammar notes and detailed teaching points in each unit, the Duolingo program is meant to feel like a game.
You connect with friends, earn XP points, compete in leagues, and buy things with gems. It is more like a quest than a learning program.
From a high level, that is how the two companies compare. The lessons are somewhat similar in terms of length and design, but the Babbel program provides higher quality language instruction, while the Duolingo app is primarily designed to entertain and keep you clicking through.
Cost Comparison
Before we dive into talking about what I like and don’t like about each program, I want to briefly discuss pricing.
Starting with Duolingo, they are best known for their free version. Their basic plan is free. You just download the app, make a profile, and start doing lessons. Obviously though, there are some drawbacks with the free version, such as limited daily mistakes, tons of ads, and limitations around navigating new and old lessons. If you want to upgrade to remove those issues, you can sign up for Super Duolingo, their premium version.
Super Duolingo costs about $8 per month. Another option is to split their Super Family plan, which costs about $10 per month, with friends or family. Finally, their highest tier, Duolingo Max, is much more expensive at about $30 per month. It includes all of their AI features: Video Call for conversation practice, the “Explain My Answer” tool for whenever you’re confused, and Roleplay to help you go over everyday scenarios.
Babbel doesn’t do the freemium model, although they do let you try out the first lesson of each language for free. After that, you simply choose the length of access you want, anywhere from one month to an annual plan, which range from around $8 to $15 per month after discounts.
Plus, for anyone looking to learn two or three languages, or simply wanting a permanent app, Babbel offers a lifetime plan. It costs around $300 and includes access to all Babbel languages.
So comparing Duolingo’s paid plan with the Babbel subscription options, they are priced about the same.
Why Babbel Is Better Than Duolingo
At this point, you should have a good idea of how each app works and what they cost. So now let’s get to the juicy stuff: the pros and cons of each app. Let’s start with Babbel.
Lessons Are Deeper
The thing I like most about Babbel’s program over Duolingo is that their lessons are longer and more in-depth. After my first few lessons, I already felt like I was learning and remembering much more than I’d gotten out of countless Duolingo lessons.
And this isn’t just because the lessons are longer. The Babbel exercises hit the material you’re covering from more angles, and they frequently weave teaching points right into the lesson.
Unlike Duolingo, which mainly just rolls through vocabulary. There isn’t much direct instruction within Duolingo. If you’re looking for a developed body of coursework and actual teaching, Babbel’s app is definitely superior.
Helpful Grammar Explanations
My second win for Babbel is grammar. The bottom line is that Duolingo doesn’t include much grammar instruction at all within their program. The only thing they give you are these little “guidebooks” at the start of each unit, which provide high-level grammar coverage.
In contrast, Babbel works grammar into each and every lesson. There are exercises that teach grammar directly, as well as tips and callout boxes that frequently appear to work in teaching points (similar to Lingopie).
Grammar instruction is just more pervasive in the Babbel program, but not to the point of being too much. I actually like how Babbel weaves it in.
Natural Language
Another advantage for Babbel is how they use natural language. In other words, they teach you things people really say.
For those of you that don’t know, this is one of the most common complaints about Duolingo. Many of the phrases and sentences that Duolingo teaches you are nonsense. You’re practicing weird statements you’d never actually say in real life.
I’ve worked with crazy sentences in Duolingo like, “The owl wears a jacket,” and, “My foot is very tall.” It’s just a lot of nonsense.
To me, it seems like the Duolingo algorithm grabs random verbs, adjectives, and nouns and just combines them into a sentence.
Now, Babbel on the other hand, is very good about teaching you more natural language chunks. So instead of learning something like, “The milk is purple,” you’ll learn, “The water is hot.”
It’s a small but important point, as when you’re learning a new language, the patterns you see on repeat are the ones that end up sticking with you.
Speaking and Listening Skills
The last advantage in Babbel’s favor, and this is a big one: Babbel does a better job developing your ear for a language.
For one thing, Babbel has you do more audio exercises. You probably get twice as many direct audio exercises in each Babbel lesson.
Even for non-audio drills, Babbel almost always repeats the word out loud. This way, you’re hearing the words and phrases constantly over the course of a lesson. Duolingo, on the other hand, doesn’t repeat many phrases out loud. If you have to type out a word, when you get it right, it will just make a chiming sound, do a little motion graphic, and you move on. So I like that Babbel reinforces listening comprehension over and over until recognizing new words becomes second nature.
An important update: both programs have recently added new AI tools to their platform for a little conversation practice. So how do they compare? Duolingo’s AI conversation partner, Lily, is locked behind a steep paywall. You have to spend an unbelievable $30 per month just to have a quick chat with an AI tool that is now becoming standard in almost every language learning app out there.
Babbel Speak, on the other hand, comes included in every Babbel plan. For about $8 per month, you can work through scripted dialogues that introduce you to real-world scenarios with structured guidance and real-time pronunciation feedback. It’s not as much conversation practice as you get with an audio-first program, like Rocket Languages or Pimsleur. But for beginners wanting early conversation practice, Babbel definitely wins out over Duolingo.
👉 See Our Review of Babbel Spanish
Duolingo
- Free Version
- 40+ Languages
Pros
- Very affordable (free and paid plans)
- Extremely short, bite-sized lessons (~5 minutes)
- Duolingo makes the learning process fun (like a game)
- Decent speech recognition technology
Cons
- Free version has serious limitations (annoying ads)
- Grammar is not a focus
- Practice drills use unnatural language and sayings at times
Why Duolingo Is Better Than Babbel
Having covered the advantages in Babbel’s favor, let’s get to Duolingo’s wins.
Fun Lesson Format
My first advantage for Duolingo is how enjoyable they make learning. Duolingo gamifies the language learning experience, making their app somewhat addicting.
Using Duolingo’s app is kind of like playing a questing game, and you get hooked. You earn XP points with every lesson, you can do “friend quests,” you can spend gems you earn on cool features, you compete in leagues against other users, and they bait you into keeping your streak going.
It’s simply great for keeping you motivated. Engagement is a huge factor in learning, and having a fun app makes a difference.
Free Version Available
Second, I like that Duolingo offers a free version. If you’re on a tight budget, you can get most of the benefits of the app without having to drop a dime. In short, it’s the perfect program for people looking to keep things ultra-cheap.
Not to mention, it’s literally the only language app on the market I’ve used that offers a decent free version. Other language learning apps claim that they have free versions, but they don’t offer nearly as many features as Duolingo’s free plan.
However, do just keep in mind those limitations I referenced above. You will get hit with a bunch of ads, there are limitations around navigating new and old lessons, and there are caps on your daily usage with their heart system.
Let me explain that last one. In essence, hearts are equal to mistakes, and if you make too many mistakes in a lesson, then you run out of hearts and you’re done for the day. Now, Duolingo keeps playing around with changing the heart system, since so many people find it frustrating. They’re currently experimenting with a new “energy” system that may end up completely replacing hearts. It’s supposed to take a more positive spin: instead of losing hearts every time you make a mistake, you gain energy every time you get an answer correct. Sounds nice, but it’s the same basic idea: Duolingo is just putting a cute spin on the fact that as long as you’re on the free version, they’re going to severely limit your usage.
Short Lessons
Another quick win for Duolingo is how short the lessons are. There isn’t a huge discrepancy between the length of each companies lessons (Duolingo’s lessons take about 5 minutes to complete and Babbel’s take about 15 minutes), but it’s enough to make a difference.
With Babbel’s lessons you can’t pause and come back; you need to get though the full 15 minutes uninterrupted.
If you’re stretched for time and can perhaps only afford to learn 5 minutes here or 10 minutes there, Duolingo might be a better choice given how short their lessons are.
Lots of Repetition
My final pro for Duolingo is how their lessons hammer vocab. To be honest, this can be a pro or a con because it is a little annoying. But with how many times Duolingo hits the same word – literally two dozen times per unit – it burns new vocab into your brain. I see that as a plus.
Verdict: Which Language App Is Better?
At the end of the day, I would go with Babbel. Their lessons are more in-depth, you get a lot more grammar instruction, and they hit you with daily spaced reviews. You’re not just spinning your wheels, like you mostly do with Duolingo. You’re making real progress in learning a new language.
So is there any benefit to Duolingo’s short, addicting lessons? Maybe – but only if you’re using it for a week or two while deciding whether you really want to taking on language learning, or if you use it together with Babbel. Only a serious program like Babbel deserves to be your main learning platform. Whenever you need to take a break and unwind, Duolingo is a fine option. Just don’t expect too much out of it.
After testing each language app, our team believes Babbel is better than Duolingo. With more in-depth lesson work and direct grammar coverage, Babbel simply offers the more effective language learning courses from top to bottom.
In comparison to Duolingo, Babbel offers more thorough lessons, better grammar explanations, and more accurate speech recognition technology. Duolingo, on the other hand, is more fun.
Although Babbel and Duolingo are similar in several respects, the two differ when it comes to speech recognition technology, grammar instruction, and verbal practice. Babbel’s lessons are longer, and Duolingo relies more on their user base to foster engagement.
