Babbel and Pimsleur are two of the most popular language learning apps in the entire world, each with its own cult following. And while both get results, they are definitely better suited to different types of learners and situations. In this comparison, we take a look at the pros and cons of each language program so you can pick the right one for your specific learning style.
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Video Review: Babbel Or Pimsleur?
In the video above, Bianca from the Guide2Fluency team compares the language learning apps from Babbel and Pimsleur.
Editor’s Choice
Babbel
- Multiple Subscription Options
- Money Back Guarantee
Pros
- Shorter, more diverse lessons than Pimsleur’s
- Extremely affordable (as low as $8 per month)
- Frequent review sessions to help with material retention
- More direct grammar instruction layered into the lessons
- Better for visual learners
Cons
- Not as much conversational practice as you get with Pimsleur
- Not ideal for advanced learners
How The Babbel & Pimsleur Apps Work
To begin this review, I want to provide a high-level overview of how each app works before diving into a more detailed explanation of each program’s strengths and weaknesses. This should help to provide some context for my thoughts below.
Babbel
Babbel’s program is split up into different learning levels, like Newcomer, Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
Within each of these overarching levels, there are typically somewhere between 2 and 8 courses that cover different theme-based topics, such as eating out, sports, travel, etc. Then within each course, there are anywhere from 5 to 15 lessons to complete.
Think of the Babbel program structure like a pyramid. From the top down, it goes: Levels ➡️ Courses ➡️ Lessons.
The lessons are your base units, and assuming you have no working knowledge of the language you’re learning, you’ll start with the Newcomer level. From there, you’ll aim to complete one lesson per day, or at least a few lessons per week.
As for the lessons themselves, each one is short, generally about 15 minutes long. They go by much faster than a Pimsleur lesson, which takes about 30 minutes to complete.
The Babbel lessons are on the shorter side because each one is comprised of a series of several quick-hit, hands-on exercises. Within the program, there are 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.
It’s a very diverse approach to learning that moves quickly. Babbel basically presents the same content for a lesson in a variety of ways and forces you to interact with the material.
Plus, before each lesson, there’s a daily review session where you get spaced repetition and review on vocab you’ve already learned in older lessons.
Pimsleur
Pimsleur is very different from Babbel. Their program is grounded in audio lessons and conversational practice.
To start each lesson, you complete a 30-minute audio exercise, where a moderator speaking in English walks you through a guided conversation step-by-step. After you listen to a few sentences in your target language, the moderator will briefly stop to explain the situation to you, then have you participate by answering questions and repeating phrases.
This interactive audio exercise is truly the heart and soul of the Pimsleur lessons, and what they’re known for.
After the audio lesson, you reinforce what you just learned through a variety of drills. It’s kind of like class followed by homework. These include reading drills, digital flashcards, quizzes, pronunciation training, and speed games.
Plus, Pimsleur has some nice supplemental features, like vocab bonus packs and pronunciation practice with their Voice Coach tool. That’s Pimsleur in a nutshell. You’ve got core audio lessons followed by detailed review exercises, with a few bonus tools wrapped around it.
in summary: Pimsleur lessons take close to half an hour to complete and place a very strong emphasis on listening and speaking in the context of simulated conversations, while the Babbel lessons are much shorter and hands-on, where you move through rapid-fire drills.
Cost Comparison
Next, let’s briefly cover pricing.
Babbel uses a classic subscription model, which is fairly affordable. They offer several different lengths of access, from one month to a 12-month plan, which range from around $8 to $15 per month after discounts. For those who are looking to learn two or three languages, Babbel also offers a lifetime plan that costs around $300 upfront and includes access to all Babbel languages.
Pimsleur offers a few monthly subscription options. First, there’s Pimsleur Premium, which gets you access to one language. That costs about $20 per month. Then, there’s Pimsleur All Access. That gets you access to all 51 of Pimsleur’s languages and costs just a dollar more per month. There’s also an All Access Lifetime plan, although that costs quite a bit more at over $475 upfront.
Putting this in perspective, clearly, Babbel is cheaper. On average, you’ll likely save around $5 to $12 per month with Babbel, a decent savings.
However, I would note that both Pimsleur and Babbel are in fierce competition with one another (and other apps like Rosetta Stone and Duolingo), and because of this, they’re both pretty aggressive with running sales. So check for coupons before buying.
Why Babbel Is Better Than Pimsleur
Now that we’ve touched on cost and how these two apps generally work, let’s start by discussing the major reasons you should consider using Babbel over Pimsleur to learn a new language.
Variety of Practice Drills
Let’s start with my absolute favorite thing about Babbel’s program: the wide variety of drills and exercises. The Pimsleur audio lessons are genuinely effective, but they have you do essentially the same exercise, over and over.
In contrast, the Babbel lessons constantly mix things up, which keeps your experience more balanced and engaging. As noted earlier, you get listen-and-repeat exercises, digital flashcards, fill-in-the-blanks, matching pairs, matching phrases to images, mock conversations, short instructional tips on grammar, and some others.
For me, the diversity in the Babbel drills is great for keeping you engaged during lessons.
Shorter Lesson Format
I also like that Babbel’s lessons are shorter. To complete a full Pimsleur lesson (that is, audio exercise plus the reinforcement drills), you’re looking at around an hour. Of course, you can always pause and stop a lesson halfway through for the day if you want, but I prefer the short length of Babbel’s lessons.
At just 15 minutes, they are perfect for squeezing a lesson in on your lunch break or after dinner. They don’t feel as mentally taxing and are more bite-sized. If you’re a parent or a busy professional, Babbel shouldn’t be too intimidating for you.
Streamlined Grammar Content
My third win for Babbel is all about their grammar instruction.
When it comes to grammar, Pimsleur does things a little differently. Rather than offer direct instruction, they let you discover grammar intuitively through the audio lesson. The moderator will comment on grammar usage, such as verb conjugations and the like, but it’s not deep or direct grammar instruction – it’s on you to intuitively pick up how the language works.
That method is fine and has its own merits, but I prefer how Babbel approaches grammar. They take a more direct approach by working grammar into each and every lesson with exercises give you really clear-cut practice, as well as tips and callout boxes that frequently appear to work in teaching points.
Grammar instruction is more frequent in the Babbel program and incorporated so smartly that you end up absorbing a lot of content without ever feeling overtaxed.
Frequent Review Sessions
The final highlight of the Babbel program is their daily review sessions. Every day when you log in to the Babbel app, you’re prompted to do a short review.
Babbel takes vocab from old lessons you’ve completed previously and pulls phrases back in for spaced review.
You’ll see every word or phrase at least a half dozen times over the course of several months. Plus, you can choose how you want to review: flashcards, listening, speaking, or writing.
Listening is my personal favorite, but I like that they give you the flexibility, and their review system is strong for getting you to remember and internalize new words and phrases. For reference, Pimsleur doesn’t have a formal review system, so this is a nice advantage for Babbel.
👉 Read Our Full Review of Babbel Spanish Here
Pimsleur
- 51+ Languages
- Money Back Guarantee
Pros
- Strong teaching method based on organic learning and spaced repetition
- Engaging audio lessons that improve your listening and speaking skills
- Voice Coach feature for feedback on your pronunciation
- Special driving mode so you can complete lessons in the car
- Helpful reinforcement drills
Cons
- Lessons take time to complete (~30 minutes)
- Could use more grammar and culture instruction
Why Pimsleur Is Better Than Babbel
Now, let’s get into what I like and dislike about Pimsleur.
Interactive Audio Lessons
The clearest win for Pimsleur is their series of audio lessons. Put simply, Pimsleur is much better than Babbel at developing your listening comprehension and speaking skills.
One of the most important aspects of learning a new language is getting frequent, heavy doses of speaking and listening practice. You need to routinely hear and speak the new language you’re learning to get comfortable with it, and Pimsleur offers more opportunities for that.
To be fair, Babbel does use a mock conversation in almost lesson as well, but each one is just 2-3 minutes long, and it’s nothing like what Pimsleur offers with their audio lessons.
Now, looking at their AI partners for extra conversation practice, Pimsleur still takes the win. Babbel Speak guides you through scripted conversations, so you are getting a little pronunciation practice in, but you’re not constructing sentences on your own. Pimsleur includes more freestyle conversation practice, like their Speak-Easy role-play tool and Voice Coach AI.
The Pimsleur audio exercises definitely build your listening and speaking skills, and you’ll develop an ear for understanding the language much more quickly with their daily audio lessons.
Flexible Lesson Format
Because the Pimsleur lessons are audio-based, they’re a lot more flexible than Babbel’s lessons. Even though each Pimsleur lesson takes a lot longer to complete, the beauty of the audio lesson is that you’re not tied to your phone.
For half of each Pimsleur lesson, you don’t have to be staring at a screen, matching word pairs and doing fill-in-the-blanks. With their audio lessons, you can hit play and go about whatever you’re doing.
You can do a lesson while you’re working out, folding laundry, gardening, doing the dishes, whatever. Basically, you can learn a language while doing any mindless task.
I like that you can be productive while still doing a lesson. It’s a huge bonus to me. You can even do an audio lesson while driving because they have a special driving mode, which is nice.
Pimsleur Voice Coach
Finally, I need to give Pimsleur credit for their Voice Coach feature. It records you speaking different phrases, then gives you feedback on your pronunciation on a star system basis.
Since it uses AI to listen and evaluate your pronunciation in real time, you get accurate feedback, so you always know how you’re doing. When you mess up, it will tell you exactly how to improve.
One feature that I especially like is challenge mode, which prompts you in English to say a phrase in your target language with absolutely no hints. This makes you think critically about what to say, and you still need to master your pronunciation. It’s difficult, which is exactly what makes it helpful.
👉 Read Our Full Review of Pimsleur Spanish
Verdict: Which Language App Is Better?
It’s tough to choose a winner between these two strong options. But for most learners looking for accessible lessons that help you get started in a new language, I’d go with Babbel.
Pimsleur might be a better fit if you’re an auditory learner or if you’re already at an intermediate level. They’re also good for commuters and people who need screen-free lessons.
Overall, though, I like Babbel for their short, engaging lessons, spaced vocab reviews, and smart use of grammar. Both programs are powerful; you’ll learn a lot either way. You could even use both together for two different learning styles if you have the budget for it. But unsure where to start? You can’t go wrong with Babbel.
After testing each language program, it’s a very close call; however, our team leans towards Babbel, since their lessons are a little more doable and include more direct grammar teaching.
Lesson format is one of the biggest differences between Pimsleur and Babbel. The Pimsleur lessons are longer and primarily revolve around interactive audio lessons with fluent speakers, whereas the Babbel lessons are shorter and include a wider variation of practice drills.
Yes, the Babbel subscription plans are more affordable than the Pimsleur plans on average.
