Learning a new language can prove to be advantageous in several ways. Be it fulfilling your career requirements or personal ambitions, or educational goals, learning new languages is rewarding enough. Here, online courses such as Babbel and Duolingo come to our aid.
Not only are these apps flexible, but they are also available at affordable rates. However, you might get confused between both of these options. Let us look at what both of these apps have to offer.
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Babbel vs Duolingo: Quick Comparison
Here is a quick comparison between Babbel and Duolingo:
| Feature | Babbel | Duolingo |
| Cost | Subscription required – $13.95/month for full access | Freemium model – Free version available with paid subscriptions ($6.99 – $12.99/month) |
| Languages Offered | 14 languages | 38 languages |
| Lesson Format | Timed lessons with speech recognition | Gamified lessons and spaced repetition |
| Teaching Methods | Focused on conversational skills with grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation lessons | Adaptive skill tree methodology with translation, listening, speaking, and matching exercises |
| Courses | Structured courses for beginner to advanced | Flexible skill trees covering vocabulary and grammar |
| Supplemental Content | Lesson notes and vocabulary lists | The tips section provides grammar explanations |
| Offline Access | No | Yes, downloaded lessons are available to play offline |
| Platforms | Web and mobile app | Web, iOS, and Android apps |
| User Experience | Clean & intuitive interface | Fun and game-like |
Babbel vs Duolingo: In a Nutshell
Babbel and Duolingo enable you to learn a language from scratch. You do not need prior experience for this purpose. What you must have is your willingness to commit to your learning experience. Both of the apps are now emerging as top trends to learn multiple languages via online courses. We have also done a Babbel Review here for you to check.
These courses are more preferable and accessible than in-class courses. Babbel and Duolingo come with their own sets of pros and cons. Now, let us compare Babbel vs Duolingo for understanding which platform will suit your learning style.
Babbel vs Duolingo: Similarities and Differences
Here are the similarities and differences between Babbel and Duolingo.
Differences
- Babbel has a straightforward design and does not contain any extra gamification. It focuses on more serious adult learners unlike Duolingo’s colorful appearance catering to kids and younger learners.
- To emphasize the learning process, Babbel does not include any advertisements in the app. However, Duolingo’s free version comprises displaying advertisements and selling advertisements to advertisers. Undoubtedly, it distracts the learners.
- Babbel helps you learn more than simple vocabulary and arrangements of words in sentences. It teaches grammar and cultural tips and emphasizes the usage of regional differences. Contrariwise, Duolingo does not offer such advanced lessons to deal with real-life situations and significant cultural nuances.
Similarities
- Both of the apps bring back information in short intervals for helping you recall it afterward. Thus, they implement the technique of spaced repetition.
- Babbel and Duolingo both offer the scope for a mobile and portable learning experience. So, you can carry it with you in your pocket as well.
- The apps provide lessons spanning not more than 10-20 minutes. Here the purpose is to give you a consistent and interactive learning experience according to your schedule.
- Before introducing complex topics, both Babbel and Duolingo teach the fundamentals of a language to learners. Since you learn simple concepts at the outset, you are unlikely to face difficulty while tackling advanced lessons.
Babbel vs Duolingo: Interface
The interface is a key feature that determines usability. Nobody will want to fight their way through a messy app while gaining familiarity with a new language. Let us get to know which app wins in the Babbel vs Duolingo battle.
Babbel Interface
Since Babbel offers paid subscriptions, it does not consist of advertisements. However, the layout and navigation lack clarity on the whole. It is extremely confusing to navigate to the appropriate lesson. However, once you reach there, you can choose the suitable answers easily. The feel and look of the app are not so inspiring. Such is the case with unattractive visuals and color schemes. When you are paying substantial amounts for an app, it should engage and encourage you to learn. At times Babble becomes deficient in substance and style as well.
Duolingo Interface
This app is easy to navigate. You can also operate it easily. Either you have to type or touch the answers while you are solving the lesson activities. Learning a language with a different set of alphabets requires you to enable that alphabet system on your phone’s keyboard.
However, it becomes frustrating when you cannot reorder the tapped words during translation activities. If you miss a word or place it in the wrong area, you have to tap them again from the beginning. The Duolingo Plus membership offers unlimited lives for you to keep practicing complicated topics even after all incorrect answers.
Babbel vs Duolingo: Languages Offered
As compared to Duolingo, Babbel is slightly harder for new learners. While Duolingo offers 37 languages, Babbel only offers 14 options. Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, French, Italian, Russian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Turkish, and Indonesian are the 14 languages for which Babbel offers courses. Not only does Duolingo teach you these languages, but also some more.
This list includes languages such as Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Czech, Vietnamese, Greek, Welsh, Hawaiian, Ukrainian, Latin, Hebrew, Hindi, Romanian, Swahili, and Scottish Gaelic. Though Esperanto, High Valyrian, and Klington are not languages, you can learn them on the app. Presently Duolingo is developing Hungarian, Finnish, and Navajo.
Babbel vs Duolingo: Devices Availability
Users can run Babbel on laptops, tablets, smartphones, and even desktops. The app is available on both Android and iOS (Apple) versions. However, rooted devices and/or those devices with a custom ROM do not support the Babbel app. Duolingo is available for systems with iOS and Android. Its website consists of a mobile-friendly design for you to access via a mobile web browser.
Babbel vs Duolingo: Pros & Cons
Here are the benefits & drawbacks of using Babbel and Duolingo.
Babbel Pros
- All the lessons of Babbel are based on real-life interactions.
- All the audio tracks can be heard perfectly on Babbel.
- Lessons are taught in a coherent pattern where you will learn new things based on what you’ve learned previously.
- Babbel is much more affordable than other language learning apps.
- You can also learn online with Babbel mobile app.
Babbel Cons
- Babbel offers only 14 languages, whereas other apps offer more languages.
- If you want to become a fluent speaker of a language, then it is not the right platform for you.
Duolingo Pros
- All the courses on Duolingo are free of cost.
- Lessons are in a gamified manner making the learning more interesting for users.
- You can learn more than one language on Duolingo at the same time, free of cost.
- Duolingo offers over 90 courses in 38 different languages.
- Duolingo offers recording exercises to help you improve your speaking skills.
Duolingo Cons
- There is no course information available in advance on Duolingo.
- The Duolingo apps have many bugs that the developers have been avoiding for a long time now.
The Pricing Structures of Babbel and Duolingo
When it comes to the pricing structures of Babbel vs Duolingo, both the software have their specific models.
Babbel Pricing
The price of Babbel falls halfway between the extremely costly and popular Rosetta Stone and the far inexpensive free services offered by Duolingo. With $83.70, Babbel is quite cheap for an annual subscription, and with our exclusive discount offer, you can save more on your subscription. It offers complete access to all the languages. So you do not have to pay for each extra language separately. Such a plus point helps in learning multiple languages. If you still have doubts about Babbel pricing, then click here to check out everything related to Babbel Pricing.
Duolingo Pricing
You can learn languages completely free of cost on Duolingo. Its cost starts from $6.99 per month. The premium subscription available to its users, called Duolingo Plus, enables you to have an experience free of advertisements.
Bonus: Get 50% off on purchasing the premium version by using our Super Duolingo Coupon!
Reviews About Babbel
According to reviews, the objective of Babbel is to create a balance between costs and efficiency. The systematic lessons encourage users to develop an interest in the languages they learn. However, its disadvantage is that the free version provides initial lessons for each course. The variety of learning styles makes the users come back to Babbel repeatedly. Users claim that it is easy and fun to learn a new language while adhering to a hectic schedule.
Reviews About Duolingo
What appeals to users about Duolingo is that it is available free of cost. Its lessons appear as text, images, and sound. A series of questions and answers helps the users in mastering languages with ease. However, its lessons are somewhat random. Without more explanations, the key segments become difficult to comprehend at times.
Related Read:
Babbel vs Duolingo: Which One is Better?
With passing days, online learning and its sources are improving in quality. The diverse services cater to all language learners. While Babbel is tough to grasp at the beginner level, it drives students to learn in a conversational pattern. Contrariwise, Duolingo’s mass-sourced library provides longer and swiftly developing languages to learn from.
Moreover, English language courses can be accessed by people of all language backgrounds. However, if a student has plans to study or work abroad, Babbel can prove to be more helpful. The reason is that Babbel lets you pick a profession or occupation. Accordingly, it focuses on vocabulary practice while you are learning the language(s).
Here, we have covered every detail related to Babbel vs Duolingo. So, which software are you going to choose? Let us know in the comment section below.
FAQs On Babbel vs Duolingo
After using both platforms thoroughly, we have concluded that Babbel is a better platform than Duolingo for many reasons. It offers a better curriculum, the delivery style is better, and the teaching style is superior.
Duolingo offers its content for free, so if you want to learn a language without spending anything, then Duolingo is better. However, the pro version of Duolingo is a bit more expensive than Babbel, so overall, Babbel is more affordable.
If you want to learn Spanish, then Duolingo is a superior choice to Babbel because it has Spanish podcasts and course materials, which can be really good for you to learn.
Many language learning apps are available on the internet, but here we have only compared Babbel and Duolingo. If you want to know which is the best language-learning app, then you should check our post on the same here.
Duolingo offers you to learn up to 37 languages, whereas Babbel only offers 14 languages for you to learn. They are working on adding new languages to their platform constantly.
