Babbel vs Duolingo: Which App Can Help Make you Fluent Faster In 2023?

Babbel and Duolingo are both comprehensive learning tools that offer new ways to learn a foreign language. They can both be used on-the-go on an Apple or Android mobile device through their app, or on a computer via their website. Since there are many language learning

platforms on the web, this article will decipher the similarities and differences between Babbel and Duolingo, so you can conveniently find the service that best meets your need.

Quality of Courses

On its website, Babbel claims to have a “world-class didactic method at its core”, meaning it uses high-quality learning practices that are developed by language experts. This learning tool was the first of its kind to add features based on communicative didactics, cognitivism, behaviourism and constructivism to its content. Babbel guarantees the shortest path to speaking fluently in a foreign language, and it does so by using:

• Real-life dialogues

• Customized courses to suit each individual user based on their personal interests and

native language

• Human voices and speech recognition technologies, and

• Advanced didactic research to stay on top of global language developments and trends

Babbel likes to warm up users from a beginner’s stage to more advanced levels of dialogue. For instance, the app starts with teaching common greetings like, “Hello, how are you,” and the content gradually advances to “How can I book a single room?”. As well, in order to meet individual visual and auditory needs, Babbel claims the use of cognitive psychology and strives to bring high-quality services to its users. This learning tool takes pride in servicing more than one million customers since 2016, so its efforts seem to have paid off tremendously.

Duolingo, on the other hand, refers to its research as the first in history to assess millions of individuals and their learning processes to create the most effective learning tool for its users.

This means it has the world’s largest collection of data that is readily available for the public as well, to help research communities.

Duolingo makes learning happen through:

• Lessons focused on real-life communication

• Unique and memorable content using quirky sentences like, “Your bear drinks beer”

• Customization of content the user comes across using machine learning algorithms

• Various ways of learning, like stories, podcasts, conversations and read/listening

comprehension, and

• Continuously improving learning content

This learning tool states that its ultimate goal “is to give everyone access to a private tutor experience through technology”. The teaching method Duolingo uses is based on a process that  has been proved to produce long-term retentiveness of the languages that users learn. From its efforts, it has attracted more than 500 million users and uses the data collected from these learners to create a database that continuously helps improve its services.

Read relevant Do Language Learning Apps Truly work? 

Number of Languages and Price

Babbel offers 13 languages, and places English as the assumed language of instruction. Languages include Danish, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Users need to pay to learn through Babbel, and they have options to subscribe either every month, 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months, with the prices corresponding to $20 USD, $15 USD, $13 USD, or $10 USD respectively.

Conversely, as of 2021, Duolingo offers 38 languages including English, Dutch, Arabic, Japanese, Spanish and Hindi, to list a few. This learning tool offers two options to its users: a free subscription, and the Duolingo Plus subscription. The free subscription allows users to learn languages without a cost and allows them to sync their account with the free app found on any app store. Duolingo offers a free version for students as well, called Duolingo for Schools, where students can track their work on any device and help teachers grade students’ progress

easily.

Duolingo Plus is a premium subscription for $6.99 USD, where users gain an ad-free experience

with access to offline lessons that won’t require WI-FI or data, helpful for users constantly onthe-go.

What do People Say? Which is Best?

Various review blogs such as Mezzofanti Guild, Rype, and Online Course Rater have compared the features of Babbel and Duolingo, and have even gathered user reviews to see which tool is better for learning a language.

The simple answer is that there are mixed reviews.

Let’s look at each app individually. Users that have either taken a look at Babbel or Duolingo share nothing but positive reviews. They are typically happy with the variety of ways the tools provide content and practices. Babbel has been reviewed by CNN Underscored, and the author Ellen McAlpine recommends this learning tool to their readers and claims that they received a seamless experience. While CNN Underscored has not reviewed Duolingo, the PC Editors’ Choice has. The author from PC Editors’ Choice portrayed the service as an excellent addition to supplement language learning and is one of the best free language-learning apps users can find. 

However, when it came to comparing the two services side-by-side, reviewers mentioned that Babbel is best for individuals who want to pursue learning a language more seriously compared  to the less-intense content that Duolingo offers. Users will probably not transform to speaking fluently in a foreign language solely by using either of these apps, but review sites do mention that Babbel is the better one of the two. Although it comes with a cost, Babbel is designed by professionals and doesn’t use or sell user-data information, according to a review by

Mezzofanti Guild.

For a more real-world review of the apps themselves, we took a look at the reviews for each service on the android app store. Babbel scored 4.5/5 stars, with over 500, 000 reviews and more than 10 million downloads. One of the lowest reviews stated frustrations with the development of the app due to connectivity problems, and one of the higher reviews states that, “Babbel offers much more variety and [the user] feels like it helps more conversationally”.

Duolingo on the other hand, has received a 4.6/5 stars on Android’s Play Store with more than 100 million downloads. The lowest review stated that the user faced a lot of frustrations with the app not recording their voice in some of the exercises, hence impeding on their ability to go

further in the lessons. The highest score stated that, “It makes me learn German in an impeccable way … In these trying times, it is the best past time and fun as well”.

It is safe to conclude that Babbel seems to be a more professionally developed language app for those who are serious about perfecting a foreign language, while Duolingo is a good supplement to the language learning process, suiting those looking to simply familiarize

themselves with learning a language.