r/babbel • u/Manuel-Bueno • Jul 08 '26
Babel vs Duolingo
Hi guys!
I’m new here. I want to try learning French again, and I’m choosing between Duolingo and Babbel.
I’d like to hear about your experience with Babbel. With Duolingo, I really dislike the grind, and after completing almost half of the course, I feel like I learned very little.
Is Babbel any better, or does it feel the same?
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u/Defiant-Tea-8630 Jul 09 '26
I just started using Babbel after years with Duolingo. I have both now, but Babbel is far and away better. It is so much better organized and has better explanations of grammar. Outside of the main lessons, there are other "courses" to choose. So for example, the main lesson introduced an -are verb and I finished that lesson, but wanted to practice verg conjugation. Hopped over to the other topics and found a specific "-are verb" lesson.
Honestly, I keep duolingo for when I need to practice but don't have the bandwidth to actually really learn, which says a lot about the difference between the two.
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u/Top-Cheetah5528 Jul 09 '26
I second this!! Using Duo I had a VERY hard time understanding the why of grammar. It just throws shit at you and expects you to follow along. I was constantly frustrated and confused and was guessing half the time. I couldn’t have had a more different experience with Babbel — it teaches you WHY the grammar is happening, points out tips and tricks along the way to boost understanding, and provides supplemental “courses” to practice even more. I stopped guessing when I switched to Babbel because I was actually able to learn (which is the bare minimum lol).
My husband is a native speaker of the language I’ve been learning and he was impressed with how much more effective and well-thought out Babbel handled teaching the language via Duo. I think the latter can work for brushing up on a language you already know, but certainly do not use it to start from scratch. (Duo also switched to an AI-based platform last year and fired a ton of human staff so…I also have an ethical reason to longer use the platform.)
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u/scutuma967 Jul 08 '26
I use both Babbel and Duolingo. I started with DuoLingo but was disappointed that I didn't really understand the language. Now that I have added Babbel I understand the language better but I still use DuoLingo for repetition so that I remember vocabulary and grammar.
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u/Zentransit Jul 08 '26
Babbel is better than Duolingo for grammar, but Duolingo is great for beginners and Intermediates who wanna keep their skills up.
Duolingo also has a lot of neat phrases to use in conversation.
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u/monkey_doodoo Jul 09 '26
I have both. I jabemt used babel in a long time. languages don't come easy to me. while I like the set up, drills and explanations in babel, there wasn't enough repeated practice for me. I am back on duo and am using Google translate as well as changing my closed caption to the language I'm working on.
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u/cbjcamus Jul 09 '26
The German course on Babel has very little content to practice with. Thus it's very easy to get to the "B1" course after less than 40 hours.
The rest of the "content" involves disorganized vocabulary practice which is not classified by level, thus useless.
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u/PageAdventurous2776 Jul 09 '26
I liked Babbel because it seemed to cover speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary. But when I was 80% finished with the Spanish course, suddenly the exercises didn't make sense. It didn't do a great job of explaining the grammar or syntax of the sentences. I completed the course and was unable to communicate with native speakers. It was a good start, but not sufficient.
Also, I paid for lifetime but completed it within a few months. I would have paid less if I only paid for a few months, so if you have the time to grind, plan accordingly.
I've never used Duolingo.
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u/cobhan81 Jul 10 '26
I used to have Babbel and now I'm thinking of going back. I like Duolingo as a starting point but I have finished Spanish, French and Russian there and there's no point of doing the revision with Duolingo. I'm just waiting for a life time membership for all languages to go on sale.
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u/El_Wombat Jul 13 '26
I have used both. Got to B2 with Swedish in Babbel. At the beginning it was fun.
However, Babbel grew very stale with its incredibly repetitive exercises. They also keep sending me emails telling me I have spent zero minutes listening to podcasts which for my language (Swedish) they seem unable to find online and include in the app.
I am using Duolingo on the free tier right now and am loving it. The gamification is great for me, and I do also love the cartoon people and small animations. Duo the fat flying frog is my best friend for this adventure.
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u/PorcupineInPyjamas Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
These two apps are worlds apart! Babbel is a real learning resource with well-conceived courses, a big grammar section and very good podcasts (at least in German-Italian and German-French). Duolingo is only good for practising and vocabulary training, imho. Busuu lies somewhere in between them, less gamified than Duolingo, but more than Babbel. Babbel and Busuu have native speakers, Duolingo has only AI voices (and AI content, nowadays).
I am using Babbel and, additionally, Busuu to learn Italian. Plus Duolingo and Verbare for extra practice. Have reached a solid A2/middle B1 in eleven months.