Babbel

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R15] 5/5 · US Much Better Than Duo!: I am learning so much more with Babbel than I ever did with Duolingo. It helps you practice information several times in different ways, and I find that very helpful.
2. [R22] 5/5 · US The BEST language app: I’ve used Duolingo and quickly became tired of the continual gamefication. Went to AirLearn after that. It was better in my opinion than Duolingo but then they had to follow the gamefication too. I gave up on language apps for about a year then decided to give Babbel a try. I’m so glad I did. After 2 - 3 days I knew Babbel was my go to language app.
3. [R24] 5/5 · US Huge fan: New to Babbel and I’m a huge fan. I like the lessons which are structured like Spanish classes.
4. [R32] 5/5 · US Babbel: Babble has helped me learn German sooo much easier than Duolingo, you actually learn the words and get to know the language
5. [R3] 5/5 · US New: I just started and I feel like I’ve learned a conversation already
6. [R12] 5/5 · US Practicality meets Functionality: Form and function love the lesson style and how it works with you to really get the language to stick making it well worth the time you put into it! Practice makes better not perfect remember that!
7. [R21] 5/5 · US It’s time: Fully engaging and effective. If you haven’t discovered Babbel yet, make the switch.
8. [R40] 5/5 · US great: learning at my own pace and really easy to comprehend
9. [R7] 4/5 · US Lifetime of evolving knowledge.: Love that I paid for a lifetime and they still update it. It’s a good investment for people who can’t afford the burden of paying subscriptions. The down side is that it needs to be more visually appealing in comparison to its counterparts like Duolingo. It’s known for being “cool” Babbel needs to increase appeal and interaction.
10. [R66] 5/5 · US Native Danish speakers: I appreciate the use of native Danish speakers in the lessons. I was losing my mind with pronunciation on another app, but one of the Danish speakers is from the region in Denmark where I learned Danish 20 years ago, and his pronunciation is more familiar and makes me feel more confident with mine. I also appreciate the grammar explanations, including when they vary by regi
11. [R1] 3/5 · US Thorough but soooooo slow: Love the content and the structure, but the AI takes forever to process the spoken word!
12. [R11] 4/5 · US Almost perfect for first time leaner: Everything thus far is great and intuitive. However the speech recognition is having issues and not able to hear to my voice despite several tries and speaking volumes.
13. [R16] 4/5 · US Poor app performance: This app has regressed every year. I’ve had it why have speaking exercises when the app AI cannot understand a perfectly pronounced the word this is getting ridiculous. I know it can’t be perfect, but it just keeps getting worse. The Italian lessons must get the back burner from the developers.
14. [R31] 1/5 · US Non Stop Issues: I am constantly having issues with this app from hearing my voice to failed attempts to speak with the ai chat bot helper. The program is ok. The execution is the worst.
15. [R8] 1/5 · US No longer works: I’ve been using the babel italian app for more than 4 years… suddenly it won’t link to my iPhone. I still have 6 months of my paid subscription remaining.. I’ve had no luck reaching out to them. When my subscription is up in December I’ll likely look for a different service.
16. [R25] 3/5 · US Glitchy: App glitchy and crashes when trying to view your progress
17. [R39] 3/5 · US Starting off bad: Haven’t even been able to complete my first lesson after I just downloaded/paid for the app. Finish all the way to the last question, then it fails on me. Go back into the app and have to restart the same lesson. Doesn’t give me a lot of hope that this is going to be a useful tool
18. [R74] 1/5 · US Bad app: Don’t use it. It doesn’t work
19. [R4] 1/5 · US Pictures have very little correspondence to word or phrases. Will charge you yearly without notice: The current PICTs are useless for expressing what is being taught. Zero refund once charged! I don’t recommend this company. No human to talk to also!!
20. [R52] 1/5 · US Watch out for hidden auto renewal: I vividly remember not selecting auto renewal. But regardless they kept charging quietly, without any email, push notification, or in-app alert letting me know a subscription payment was being processed. No receipt, no reminder, nothing. Transparent billing is a basic expectation for any subscription service.
21. [R85] 2/5 · US Disappointed in Service: The app itself was fine but billing and customer service was poor. I swear I cancelled my subscription, year + later I see I’m still being charged. I saw the charge and reached out a few days later when I saw my bank statement. Refused to refund me or even a partial refund. No response back when I emailed them again. After reading other reviews on trust pilot it seems li
22. [R91] 1/5 · US Dishonest: Avoid this app. Babbel auto-renewed my annual subscription without any advance warning, no email, no in-app notice, nothing. The charge just appeared on my card. When I contacted support, I was pointed to fine print buried in the original sign-up confirmation. This is a deliberate billing trap. Cancel before your renewal date and don't expect Babbel to remind you.
23. [R2] 5/5 · US Croatian: I would love if you added Croatian as another language
24. [R27] 2/5 · US No Asian languages: If all you want to learn are European languages, it’s fine. But they offer no Asian languages at all. No Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Thai, Malaysian, etc. Very disappointing
25. [R33] 1/5 · US You need Greek: You don’t have Greek as an option. If you had Greek it would be better!
26. [R35] 4/5 · US Great App: Babel is perfect! Such a great system. I wish there were a few more languages so that is my only feedback. Otherwise - Thankyku!!
27. [R10] 1/5 · US Travel: I wanted to learn basic French for travel, the app is geared more for reading and writing not basic conversation
28. [R34] 4/5 · US To fast: I love how Babbel is and how you can learn a language in writing speaking and listening, but I think they give you too much at the start
29. [R36] 2/5 · US Need to learn the alphabet first. It starts out to advanced for a beginner.: If you don’t know how to sound out the letters you can’t read
30. [R42] 1/5 · US Too fast: I need more review of the basic things I’ve “learned “ so that I can remember things. I can’t figure out how to review older lessons. Not user friendly
31. [R20] 1/5 · US Do we have to pay?: I really do hate apps that I have to pay in this app is one of them. I’m trying to learn so I can talk to my friends and understand what they’re saying, but I really can’t because every app I go to I have to pay so can somebody please tell me an app that doesn’t pay because I’m so sick and tired of apps staying like you have to pay you have to pay no I don’t like y’all just fin
32. [R38] 1/5 · US Misleading: The app is free but after filling out their questionnaire you’re hit with a $100 pay wall
33. [R47] 1/5 · US My opinion: Got to pay right away unlike Duolingo where you can do it right away for free
34. [R60] 2/5 · US This is NOT free: I have seen multiple ads and heard many advertisements for Babbel claiming that it is free. I thought it would be similar to Duolingo in the way that you could only have a certain amount of learning each day and you had a pay if you wanted more. But for Babbel this is NOT the case. It seems to me like you get ONE free lesson from each unit, meaning you get a one time chance to ge
35. [R93] 1/5 · US Horrible customer service: I have an annual unlimited membership that doesn’t expire until October and they’re saying I need a new membership because they won’t help me resolve the login issue.
36. [R6] 4/5 · US Review: It’s good but it does not encourage me enough So possibly add a daily streak Like Duolingo
37. [R17] 4/5 · US Good: Asked me to rate too many times.. minus one star
38. [R29] 1/5 · US Stop being THIRSTY on your review requests!!!!!: Stop asking me to do a review every time I do a lesson!!!! this is complete BS and annoying. You make me want to cancel my entire subscription for a lifetime subscription.
39. [R61] 1/5 · US Meh: Honestly only writing this review because I’ve done one before but every time I use the app it asks me again. Maybe if I write enough bad ones it will stop asking me every single time. The app itself is okay. I find it rather boring and don’t feel it’s helping me much. I wish there were more speaking exercises.
40. [R19] 3/5 · US Good, needs improvement: I like the overall layout and scope of the program. The different speaking/listening/writing options are nice. The pacing seems right, but there desperately needs to be a function that generates new sentences to apply what the words and phrases learned. Using the same sentences over and over to review seems cheap given the cost of the program. Similarly, there should also
41. [R180] 3/5 · US So…: I made it past the first lesson pretty quickly but when I went to do the next one it immediately told me I needed a subscription to continue. It only taught me a few basic words that I’m pretty sure everyone knows. When it said in app purchases I thought it meant ad free or super advanced stuff not the entire thing and the worst part is that I already gave them my email so if I don’t continue
42. [R49] 2/5 · US Why cant i learn japanese??: I used to learn on duolingo but that was teaching me wrong so i wanted to restart and use a different app and i heard about this one so i look at the list of languages to pick Japanese and its not there
43. [R214] 3/5 · GB Limited options: I’ve heard great things from mates hence the 3 star review. Although the language options are very limited 13 , ES, PT, FR, DE, IT, SE, TR, NL, PL, NO, DK, IDN & RU. Happily use the app for these but not helpful if you’re planning on learning a language outside Europe or Indonesia / it’s 700+ other languages. It’s got a good platform and learning model but yes it’s limited to Euro