Babbel is an online, self-paced language-learning program. The instruction is good, and it's more challenging than most other language apps, but the exercises can be tedious. As such, Babbel is best for people already skilled at learning languages or those who already speak a language related to the one they want to learn. For example, if you only speak English and want to learn Swedish, Babbel is tough. However, if you already speak German and want to learn Dutch, Babbel will push you at a good pace.
Since our last review, new live group classes taught via Zoom have been added. They're similar to, but not as good as, the ones you get from Lingoda, our Editors' Choice winner for online group language classes. For those needing a slower approach to language learning, we recommend Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, our Editors' Choice winners. Duolingo is a wonderful app to add to any learning plan, and Rosetta Stone is a top pick for building a solid foundation of words and phrases.
What Languages Can You Learn With Babbel?
Babbel offers programs in 13 languages, assuming your language of instruction is English. You can learn Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (European and Latin American—paying for one gets you both), Swedish, and Turkish. There's also a course for learning English and instruction in French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, or Swedish.
If you have prior experience with the language you want to learn, you can take a brief placement test first.
Practical Tips for Successful Schooling at HomeHow Much Does Babbel Cost?
Before you buy a Babbel membership, you can try a small portion of the program for free, but you don't get enough lessons to keep you learning very long.
The price for a Babbel subscription changes depending on whether you get it in the app or on the website. The base price on the web is $14.95 per month, but $17.99 per month in the app. The per-month price decreases when you pay for several months in advance. You can buy three months ($37.95 web; $45.99 app), six months ($66.90 web, $74.99 app), or one year ($89.40 web, $89.99 app). A paid membership gives you unlimited access to the language program you choose on the website and mobile apps. If you want access to all languages, you can get a Lifetime membership for $349 (web only).
Babbel's prices have gone up in the last few years but are still close to average if you buy the six-month or one-year plan via the website. With other high-quality language-learning apps, you can expect to pay around $10 to $12 per month or somewhere in the range of $89 to $179 per year. The Lifetime membership sounds compelling, but you can get a similar all-languages lifetime subscription to Rosetta Stone for $299 (regularly on sale for less), and it includes more than twice as many languages (25).
The online group classes, called Babbel Live, are sold separately. As of this writing, you can take two classes for free. Instead of paying per class, you get unlimited classes when you sign up for one month ($99), three months ($209), six months ($359), and one year ($599). If you are committed and take a minimum of two classes per week, the prices are competitive.
As a point of comparison, Lingoda charges $75.99 for five classes (so $15 per class), and the per-class rate drops the more classes you buy at once, down to $299.99 for 40 classes ($7.50 per class).
(Credit: Babbel)Getting Started With Babbel
I've tested Babbel multiple times in the past, looking at its courses for Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish. In my most recent testing, I returned to German, a language that I don't know well, although I have some familiarity with it and can say a few phrases. I also took a live class in Spanish—I've studied Spanish for some years and lived in a Spanish-speaking country, though I'm rusty and not fluent.
You wouldn't know it from trying just one of Babbel's courses, but the material is unique for each language. For example, in the Dutch program, there's an exercise that involves a French woman speaking, and another person responds to her in Dutch, "I don't speak any French." In The Netherlands and Belgium, that's a phrase you might actually have to use. The Dutch lessons also expose you to the names of cities in The Netherlands and teach you their local pronunciation. In the German program, you get a lesson fairly early on with all kinds of words for drinks: juice, wine, beer, mineral water, lemonade, coffee, and tea. In the Russian program, the early lessons focus a lot on helping you learn Cyrillic.
(Credit: Babbel)The fact that each Babbel course is unique is worth something. Rosetta Stone is notorious for using the same images and core vocabulary no matter what language you're learning. Do enough Rosetta Stone, and you'll be able to say "the dog eats rice" in 20 languages, but you'll never learn how to pronounce Groningen (a city in The Netherlands) like a local the way you do in Babbel.
How Is Babbel Organized?
Babbel has a reasonably clear structure, though it takes a minute to figure it out. Levels contain courses, which contain lessons. Unless you have prior experience with the language and want to jump ahead, you're meant to do them in order.
The amount of content in the courses varies by language. For German, there are four levels: Newcomer (A1), Beginner (A2), Intermediate (B1), and Intermediate (B2). These levels appear to be based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Language. Using CEFR is a welcome change since the last time I reviewed Babbel. Because it's standardized, it's much easier to understand. And if you are coming to Babbel from another program that uses the same scale, you know where to start without taking a placement test.
Each of these levels contains multiple courses. For example, the German Newcomer level has eight courses. The Intermediate level has only three courses.
More courses are hiding under a section called Themes. They should be listed clearly among your other courses and in order, but they're not. Putting them into their own secret place is confusing. These Themes courses are meant to help you with specific skills and interests, such as Grammar, Listening and Speaking, Business German, and so on.
Not all languages are organized the same way, however. For example, the Dutch program doesn't use CEFR and instead has Newcomer, Beginner I (4 courses), Beginner II (4 courses), and Pre-intermediate (2 courses). Dutch also has additional hidden courses, but fewer than German has. And overall, Dutch has less content than German.
(Credit: Babbel)Interface and Information
In the years I've been reviewing Babbel, its interface has come a long way. It doesn't have the same finesse as Rosetta Stone nor the gamification of Duolingo that makes that program compelling, but it's simple, straightforward, and easy to use.
Babbel's website and mobile apps sync up well, giving you nearly identical experiences no matter which device you use to do your language lessons.
Something else Babbel does well is give you information about how it works. For example, it has a help page that explains what space repetition means and why it's important in learning a language. On this same page, you can read about a part of the Babbel program called Review to understand its purpose and how it's meant to work. Few language programs give you such deep insight into how language-learning works. Pimsleur does (the whole program is designed around Dr. Pimsleur's theory of language learning), and Duolingo makes research and studies about its efficacy publicly available.
Learning With Babbel
Babbel teaches reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Most of the exercises have you practice by filling in missing words from sentences, spelling words and short phrases, translating, and repeating words and phrases aloud.
I've never formally studied German, and I can only manage a few words and phrases. I took the placement test and got bumped up only a tiny bit, enough to skip the Newcomer material that teaches new sounds and letters, which seemed appropriate.
Remembering my prior experiences with Babbel, I grabbed a notebook and pen before I got started. In the past, when I couldn't remember how to spell a long word exactly right and would, therefore, fail an exercise. So I decided to take notes.
First, the app introduces a small set of words and phrases, three or four only, and has you repeat them out loud. Next, the same words and phrases appear with images, and you have to match the word to the picture. Next is spelling. You see a picture and hear a word and must spell it using a bank of letters. In this exercise, you can either type or select the letters by clicking or tapping on them. That's helpful when it comes to special characters, like letters with diacritical marks. A little later, Babbel asks you to type the word, but this time in the context of a sentence. The English translation is below the sentence, and the word you need to spell is in bold in the translation.
My notes helped a lot with spelling. Without them, I was forever swapping 'i' and 'e' and getting marked wrong. When you're wrong in Babbel, the app doesn't highlight the incorrect letters. It just tells you you're wrong and that you can start over or move on. I wish it would give constructive feedback.
The exercises get dull quickly, but they're challenging, especially when you get a full sentence and have to type in a missing word. The sentences are not overly simplified and often expose you to a lot of new grammar. If you pick up languages quickly, this type of word exposure is probably to your benefit. If you get frustrated easily, this challenge may be too intense.
A Review section encourages you to do space-repetition learning. In other words, it tailors a review session to you based on what you learned and when. I still found it helpful to have my notes by my side for this part, but overall, it's a great feature.
(Credit: Babbel)I dipped into the Spanish program, too. Similar to the German course, the beginner content has explainers that actually teach you about the language, as well as truly useful words and phrases. In the more advanced areas, you get longer passages to read, though you still have to write words into blank spaces fairly often. You also get audio segments with multiple speakers who go at a natural pace. When you finish listening, you answer a question about what you heard. It's great content, especially for people who are ready to figure out words from context rather than learning them all through direct translation.
Generating Language in a Live Class
As far as I got with any of Babbel's self-paced learning, I never had to generate language. Language generation means thinking about what you want to say and then saying it without too much delay or mental translation. New live, online group classes close this gap. As mentioned, the classes sell separately and are not included in a subscription.
In terms of their structure, Babbel's classes are very similar to Lingoda's. You sign up in advance for a class that has a clear description and skill level. When it's time for the class, you log in to a Zoom call and participate remotely with a few other students. The class I tried had only three students and one instructor.
The instructor does not work off of a script but does have a PDF that they use to move the class along. The instructor asks each student at various times to read a section from the PDF, answer a question, or otherwise participate.
Babbel's classes are 55 minutes long. Lingoda's are a full hour—and I've been in classes that went on longer with an enthusiastic instructor. The PDFs Babbel uses are fairly short, just a few pages. For Lingoda's class, the PDFs are so long that I've never been in a class that got to the end of one, and I've taken dozens of classes. Lingoda also offers more information in advance about the instructor, in case you want to look for someone who specifically speaks Mexican Spanish as opposed to Argentine.
Learn by Listening to Podcasts
Babbel has some bonus content in the form of podcasts. There are quite a few for people learning Spanish, Italian, French, and English. I listened to two to get a sense of what they contain.
A-Zero to A-Hero is Spanish for beginners. It's a conversation between two people who both use English to help guide the listener. The hosts discuss a simple conversation they might have in Spanish and talk out loud as they break down what they want to say in Spanish.
Palabras Bravas is for intermediate to advanced speakers. It's entirely in Spanish, giving you the opportunity to practice extensive listening and hopefully pick up a few new words in the process. The show I listened to was about language: One person introduced foreign words or phrases, and the other hosts guessed what language it came from and what it meant, all in Spanish.
Babbel isn't the only program with podcasts, however. Duolingo has podcasts for intermediate to advanced learners of Spanish and French. Unlike Babbel's podcasts, where the topic is language, Duolingo's podcasts tell real stories (they're short radio documentaries, really), and each episode uses a mix of English and the language you're learning to take you along.
Rosetta Stone has bonus content that includes videos that help teach you how to use the language in everyday situations. These videos are very much structured for beginners.
Games? Skip 'Em
Babbel has some games meant to help you practice your language learning in a fun way, but they're all overly simplistic. One shows a train on the screen going along a track that's damaged, and you have to correctly complete a language exercise within a time frame to repair the track. The games are about as sophisticated as you might have expected them to be in 1980.
Lessons Tailored to Every Language
The minds behind Babbel have clearly spent time crafting a language-learning program that's unique to each language. Some of the exercises can feel boring or repetitive, but the content is good. If you find other apps too easy, Babbel might be up your alley. For everyone else, we recommend Editors' Choice winners Duolingo for free learning and practice, Rosetta Stone for building a base vocabulary, and Lingoda for online group classes.
