A comparative analysis of two of the most popular language-learning apps; Babbel Vs Duolingo.

In the past, when people want to learn a particular language, the first option that comes to their mind is to enrol in a physical class where they will be taught nearly everything they should know by a physical teacher. While that option is still beneficial, it had its limitations. This led to using of CDs and several other options that came up later.

However, with the increase in technology, you no longer need any of those options to learn any language that you desire. Today, you can do all that right from the comfort of your home on your smartphone or personal computer all thanks to the creation of language instructional apps that help make the learning not only simple but also very interesting.

Talking about language learning applications, two famous names have stood out over the years. They are Babbel and Duolingo.

Which is a better language learning app between Babbel vs Duolingo? You asked. Well, here is a head to head battle between the two of them.

In this article, we took a closer look at the features, convenience, cost and every detail of these two amazing language learning applications so you can be able to decide which one of them is best for you.

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Babbel Vs Duolingo – Brief Info About Both Apps

What you need to know about Duolingo

Duolingo review

Duolingo is a freemium language learning service that is available as a mobile application and also a web-based service. You can download the mobile app on your Android and iOS devices or access the service directly on the company’s website.

Over the years, Duolingo has won so many awards and has been named the best language learning app multiple times (more info on that is available on their Wikipedia page).

It has also received massive positive user reviews from numerous people around the globe.

Towards the ending of 2019, the company reported that the number of users on the language learning platform has grown to over 300 million persons. This number is made up of people from several countries across the world, making Duolingo one of the most widely used language learning platforms in the world.

Duolingo offers users the opportunity to participate in 94 language learning courses in about 30 different languages. To fully engage its users, the structure of the app is like that of a video game.

There is a reward “lingot” which you get while using the app. With this, you can get more features on the application.

The learning process on the platform involves paying close attention to pronunciations, hearing and mastering them, reading out sentences, forming phrase, matching images to the right words, talking with the language bots on the app and so on. You will learn more when we go into the Babbel vs Duolingo comparison proper.

Duolingo interface

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What you need to know about Babbel

Babbel vs Duolingo

Babbel is a premium language learning platform that enables users from different parts of the world to learn any language of their choice seamlessly. Unlike Duolingo that offer many languages, Babbel offers very few of it.

Before accessing any of the languages, you are expected to pay for it on Babbel. The money you pay for one cannot apply to another. In order words, you are to pay a separate fee for each of the languages you choose to learn.

Babbel is also available for android, iOS and web. You can access the platform from anywhere in the world, provided you subscribe for any of the lessons.

Due to the ease of learning on the platform, millions of users around the world prefer the language learning app over every other one out there even though it’s not a free language learning application like many others.

A good reason for this is, even though the company operates the language learning platform as subscription-based, the price of each of the plans is very affordable compared to what is available on other similar applications that are in existence today.

Babbel application learning

Babbel has won many awards and received so many positive user reviews from people all over the world.

Being an excellent application in terms of language learning, many have always wondered which is better when the topics such as “Babbel vs Duolingo” pops up.

If you find yourself in that position where you need an honest comparison of the two top best language learning platforms; Babbel vs Duolingo, let the full comparisons made here between the two software on language learning, explain to you everything you need to know about them.

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Babbel vs Duolingo: Differences And Similarities

Is Babbel or Duolingo better? You are just about to find out as we take a closer look at their major differences and similarities.

Price

Beginning with the cost of the language learning services offered by both apps, Babbel is more expensive.

While Duolingo is an open language learning platform that anyone can access without paying a dime, Babbel requires you to pay some amount of money before you can learn your desired language on the app.

That doesn’t mean you cannot do or learn anything on Babbel without subscribing, you can. The company runs a trial version through which you can learn how the app works until you are ready to upgrade for more serious learning.

In terms of the subscription plans, you can either choose the 1-month plan, 3 months plan, 6 months plan or that of the 12 months plan—each of these costs between $80 to $150 maximum.

Talking about Duolingo, you can use the language learning app without paying a dime. You can freely access many lessons on the platform, though there are features that you cannot access unless you pay a particular amount of money for them.

However, you can do without those features.

So in terms of the price, between Babbel vs Duolingo, one can easily choose Duolingo as the better application to use here. I mean it’s not rocket science. Who wouldn’t prefer a “free” over a “paid” one?

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Voice Recordings

In terms of the voice recordings, Babbel beats Duolingo hands down. Voice recordings with Babbel sound very very natural. You will be forgiven to think that you are in the country where the language you are learning is being spoken or talking with someone from there.

The challenge with Duolingo in this aspect is not that the voice recordings are appalling. It’s just that when compared with that of Babbel, they are not always near the quality in terms of sounding very natural.

So when it comes to clarity of the voice recordings or how natural they sound, Babbel is the better language learning platform to use.

You will learn exactly how each word is pronounced faster with the app, compared to Duolingo.

Number Of Languages & Lessons

Talking about the number of languages and lessons available on each application for users to choose from, Duolingo offers more. There are only 14 languages which you can learn on the Babbel platform. This is small compared to Duolingo that offers more than double of this.

The 14 languages offered on Babbel are: English, German, Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Indonesian, Swedish, Russian, Turkish and Norwegian.

If you are interested in taking on many language lessons at the same time, you might have to choose Duolingo since the app has quite a lot of them for you to choose. Especially if the language you want to learn is not among the 14 languages offered on Babbel.

Based on this design, in this Babbel vs Duolingo comparison, it is easy to deduce the fact that Babbel is mainly for users who wants to learn a particular language at a time. If this describes you, then consider choosing Babbel unless the language you desire to learn is not among those offered on the app.

On the other hand, if you are searching for a language learning app with at least more than double of what is available on Babbel, then the wisest thing for you to do is to download and use Duolingo on your Android or iOS smartphones. You can also visit their website if you desire to use the web version.

Quality Of Lessons

Between Babbel vs Duolingo, which is better in terms of the quality of lessons? By the quality of lessons, I mean which of them makes the language learning easier. Which of them can help you learn to make useful sentences in a particular language within a very short time?

On that front, Duolingo edges Babbel a little as they make language learning not only simple but also fun. The only drawback with Duolingo is that there are too many repetitions. This is not bad since we also learn by repetitions. However, when you are repeating words and sentence that you may not be able to use out there in the real world, the whole thing starts becoming boring.

When compared with Babbel, I would not look the way of Duolingo when I have some serious language learning to do within a short time. The reason is straightforward: Babbel offers you almost the same language learning experience you would get sitting in a physical classroom.

The lessons on Babbel are very focused, no beating about the bush and so on. It’s kind of very serious compared to what is available on Duolingo. I admit that there are times when repetitions are needed in learning. But one should be able to move on to something else as soon as the first lessons have been gotten clearly.

The good thing about Duolingo in terms of this quality of lessons is that it has some game-like features which make the learning more fun. Though this is also available on Babbel, it is quite limited compared to Duolingo.

So while Duolingo makes the language learning more fun and teaches you any kind of words and sentences, Babbel focuses on teaching you how to make sentences which you can use out there in the world. The game-like features are not much compared to the other.

Ease Of Use

A good language learning app shouldn’t be difficult to use. Right? Having used several applications for learning different languages, I find Babbel and Duolingo amazingly simple to use.

But which of these two is easier?

Being a premium language learning app, one would expect Babbel to be the winner here. But the truth is, Duolingo is far more comfortable to use than the former.

You can quickly figure this out by checking out some of the reviews the over 300 million users of the application are leaving on different platforms all over the internet.

Even if you are not a tech-savvy fellow, you can quickly grasp how things work on the platform. Perhaps it’s the reason the application has staggering numbers of people using it around the world. I mean apart from the fact that it is a free language learning app too.

Now I’m not saying that Babbel is challenging to use, it is not. It is simpler than several other similar apps you can find out there. However, when compared to Duolingo, it simply loses out. You are free to disagree with this point if you consider Babbel more straightforward.

Babbel vs Duolingo In Summary

We have in this article, compared Babbel vs Duolingo, highlighting their significant strengths and weaknesses. Here we discussed the differences between them in terms of price, quality of lessons, ease of use and many other factors.

Based on what we have seen so far about each of the language learning applications, we know that they are among the best and most popular language-learning apps in existence today.

While anybody can just choose Duolingo and learn any language of his choice, Babbel seems to be for more serious folks who prefer a classroom-type of learning.

At the end of it all, you alone can decide which of the two applications suits your language learning needs, using this comparison between them.

I hope you find this article useful.

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Last Updated on October 2, 2020 by RichTechy