Do you want to learn a new language? Perhaps you are planning an epic trip, dating a foreigner, or have to move for work?
Or, maybe you’re looking for a new hobby, and languages have always intrigued you?
You may want to consider one of the many online language-learning solutions, such as Babbel vs Rocket Languages.
But which one of these apps is the best?
I did the legwork for you and thoroughly tried out both these apps. I spent time revising my Italian on Babbel and learning Spanish on Rocket Languages, and here’s how these apps compare in terms of actually teaching you, the features they offer, cost, and more.
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What Is Babbel?
Babbel is a company based in Germany and its online language-learning platform launched in 2008.
Babbel stands out in the language learning space with a focus on practical, real-life conversation in 14 languages, ranging from Spanish to Indonesian.
It crafts lessons around realistic dialogues and cultural nuances, offering a mix of listening, speaking, reading, and writing exercises.
Key features include personalized review sessions, speech recognition technology for pronunciation practice, and tailored courses for various interests, like travel or business. This approach makes Babbel ideal for learners seeking everyday communication skills.
Here are a few Babbel statistics:
- The app is available in the Google Play and App Store with an average star rating of nearly 4.7.
- More than 50 million people have downloaded the Android version of the app.
- Over 8.5 million visitors check out the website every month.
- Most of the website traffic comes from the US, followed by Germany, Italy, France, and Ukraine.
- Most Babbel users are in the 25-34 age group.
- More women than men use Babbel to learn a language.
PROs
- Free trial access to initial lessons in all languages
- Regular app updates with new content
- Learn online or offline
- Excellent vocabulary trainer
CONs
- Subscription covers only one language course
- Not designed for young kids due to a mature interface
- Live classes are expensive
- Varied features among language courses
Special Features of Babbel
- Learn on the website or the mobile app (available for Android and iOS users)
- Complete interactive lessons, games, videos, and live lessons
- Some of the extra features include Toucan (the browser extension), the podcasts, and Babbel Magazine
- Audio is spoken by native speakers
- Get basic grammar explanations and tips
- Download the content to learn offline
- Start the language course from scratch, skip sections, or do a placement test
- Special lessons if you need to learn something specific
- Set goals to keep you motivated
Babbel’s Approach
Babbel’s language courses are all research-backed. Its teaching approach is all about:
- Authenticity, since the conversations you hear are based on real-world scenarios
- Being immersed with native pronunciation and helping you learn about the local culture
- Helping you remember what you learned with the learn-review-retain method
You learn mostly via memorization and translation, and Babbel mainly focuses on listening, understanding, and speaking skills.
Babbel’s Target Audience
Beginners benefit the most when they use Babbel. But if you are an intermediate student, like I am with Turkish and Italian, you can use the app to revise what you’ve learned and strengthen some skills.
Advanced learners are, unfortunately, out of luck since Babbel doesn’t offer any material for these students to become more fluent in their target language.
What Is Rocket Languages?
Rocket Languages is a language-learning solution that was created in 2004 by Jason Oxenham and Mark Ling. The company’s headquarters are in New Zealand.
Rocket Spanish and Rocket French were the company’s first two products, and since these were instant hits, Rocket Languages now offers many more languages for you to learn.
Rocket Languages offers an immersive experience in 12 languages, blending interactive audio lessons, cultural insights, and voice recognition technology.
It emphasizes practical conversation skills, with self-paced lessons and a focus on real-world usage, ideal for learners seeking comprehensive, flexible language education.
Here are a few Rocket Languages statistics:
- The app is really well rated on the App Store and Google Play Store with an average star rating of nearly 4.5.
- Over 100K Android users have downloaded Rocket Languages.
- More than 433.6K visitors check out the website monthly. (similarweb)
- Most of the website traffic comes from the US, followed by the UK, Germany, Spain, and Canada.
- Most Rocket Languages users are in the 25-34 age group.
- More females use Rocket Languages to learn a language than males do, though the split is close to 50-50.
PROs
- Free trial available for your chosen language
- Clear learning structure with ample practice
- Abundance of extra features
- Offers American Sign Language
CONs
- Subscription package limited to one language
- Not designed for young kids
- Time-consuming
- Some language courses have content only for beginners
Special Features of Rocket Languages
- Learn on the website or the mobile app (available for Android and iOS users)
- Audio lessons
- Loads of reinforcement activities
- A quiz after each lesson
- Audio is from native speakers
- Practice your conversational skills “on the spot”
- Get personalized activities so you can practice problem areas
- Great grammar and language usage explanations
- Leaderboard and other motivational tools
- Complete the beginner (level 1), intermediate (level 2), or advanced (3) with 7 modules each (and hundreds of learning hours) for each language
Excited to learn more? Explore my reviews listed below:
The Approach of Rocket Languages
Like Babbel, Rocket Languages focuses a lot on your conversational skills so you can chat with locals. Thus, the app lets you practice a set of vocab in an audio lesson and you complete various reinforcement activities so what you learned can stick.
Rocket Languages offer thorough grammar and language use explanations, which aid the learning and comprehension process.
All of the language instruction from Rocket Languages is researched-backed, and the app uses the latest in technology to ensure you enjoy your learning experience.
Rocket Languages’ Target Audience
Beginners will benefit the most when they use Rocket Languages to learn a new language. With the app, you can start with Level 1, which is geared toward beginners, and level up as you learn.
Intermediate students can also benefit because they can review the target language and advance with the activities in Level 3.
Advanced students can also use Rocket Languages, especially if they want extra practice or need to work on a specific area of the target language, like becoming more conversational.
Begin learning a new language with Babbel! 🌟 Unlock up to 55% OFF your Babbel subscription today!
Babbel vs Rocket Languages: Which Languages Can You Learn?
There’s quite an overlap of the languages that Babbel vs Rocket Languages offer. Both apps offer 14 languages that you can learn.
Here’s a breakdown of what languages Babbel and Rocket Languages have:
Language | Babbel | Rocket Languages |
American Sign Language (ASL) | No | Yes |
Arabic (Egyptian) | No | Yes |
Chinese (Mandarin) | No | Yes |
Danish | Yes | No |
Dutch | Yes | No |
English | Yes | Yes |
French | Yes | Yes |
German | Yes | Yes |
Hindi | No | Yes |
Indonesian | Yes | No |
Italian | Yes | Yes |
Japanese | No | Yes |
Korean | No | Yes |
Norwegian | Yes | No |
Polish | Yes | No |
Portuguese (Brazilian) | Yes | Yes |
Russian | Yes | Yes |
Spanish (Latin American) | Yes (and European Spanish) | Yes |
Turkish | Yes | No |
Price Comparison: Babbel vs Rocket Languages
Here’s a price comparison between Babbel and Rocket Languages:
Babbel
There’s no free trial for Babbel so to check out the language-learning app, you need to subscribe. The good news is that you can request a refund within 20 days if you aren’t satisfied.
With Babbel, you can only learn one language per subscription.
The Babbel subscription options are divided into two:
1. Babbel Self-Study
The Babbel subscription options are divided into two:
Complete interactive classes on the website or app.
You pay US$13.95 (undiscounted) per month, and choose whether you want to pay monthly or a once-off for a 3, 6, or 12-month subscription.
There’s also the Lifetime subscription, which costs US$599.99. While you have access to Babbel Self-Study forever with this option, you can also learn all the languages Babbel has to offer.
2. Babbel Live
Babbel Live lets you complete the Self-Study interactive classes and you can book and attend unlimited live group classes.
The subscription for Babbel Live is US$99 per month (undiscounted), and you can pay monthly or buy a 3, 6, or 12-month subscription.
Rocket Languages
Rocket Languages offers a free trial with access to the first couple of lessons for each Level.
If you like the app, you can buy a language package.
With Rocket Languages:
- One package is for one language.
- A package is divided into Level 1, Levels 1 and 2, and Levels 1, 2, and 3.
- You can also buy each Level separately.
- The Level that’s available depends on the target language.
- A package gives you lifetime access to learn and revise.
- You can choose to pay a once-off amount or pay the package off over 6 months.
For Rocket Spanish, for example, here are the undiscounted once-off costs:
- Level 1 – US$149.95
- Levels 1 and 2 – US$299.90
- Levels 1, 2, and 3 – US$449.85
Babbel's Pros and Cons
Pros
- Get a free trial with access to the first few lessons of all the language courses.
- A clear structure so you learn by building on the knowledge from the previous lessons.
- Mostly ideal for beginners, but intermediate learners can benefit too.
- The app is regularly updated with new games, language content, and podcasts.
- Can learn online or offline.
- The vocabulary trainer is excellent, especially when paired with the review feature.
- Bite-sized lessons with a minimum of 10-15 minute commitment a day.
Cons
- A subscription is only valid for one language course, so it gets expensive if you like to learn multiple languages at once.
- Not suitable for young kids because of the mature interface.
- Not every language course offers the same features. Live lessons, for example, are only available for Italian, Spanish, French, and German students.
- Live classes are costly and you can only start with them once you’ve made some progress as a newbie.
Excited to learn more? Explore my guides listed below:
Rocket Languages’ Pros and Cons
Pros
- A free trial for your chosen language to test the app.
- A clear structure to learning with loads of practice, ensuring you know the content before moving on.
- Ideal for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students.
- Learn the target language online or offline.
- Loads of extra features, like taking notes, the Rocket certificate, Benchmark tests, and forum.
- One of the few multilingual apps for learning a language that teaches American Sign Language.
Cons
- A language package is available for only one language, and it’s pricey if you can’t pay once-off or over 6 months.
- Not ideal for young kids because the instructions aren’t adapted for their level of understanding.
- Need to be very proficient in English to learn a language since English is the language of instruction.
- Some language courses only have content for Level 1 (beginners), while for others, you can really hone your skills with Levels 1-3.
- You need to spend at least 15-30 minutes to complete the audio lesson, and then more time to work through the reinforcement activities, making Rocket Languages quite time consuming (but so comprehensive).
Begin learning a new language with Babbel! 🌟 Unlock up to 55% OFF your Babbel subscription today!
Verdict: Which App Is Best for Me?
While I can easily say that one of these language-learning apps is better than the other, which that is will be determined by:
- Why you are learning a new language
- What your goals are for the new language
- Your budget
- How you learn best
- What language you want to learn
- How much time you have available to dedicate to learning
There’s a huge overlap with Rocket Languages vs Babbel, but they are very different platforms.
Choose Babbel if you:
- Are a newbie or want to review your language skills
- Prefer a monthly subscription and the option of live classes
- Prefer minimal grammar tips
- Like to learn via interactive lessons with games, podcasts, and the Babbel Magazine
- Can only spend 10-15 minutes a day to complete a lesson
Choose Rocket Languages if you:
- Are a newbie, intermediate, or advance student
- Want to invest a lump sum and desire access to the target language for always and forever
- Want more detailed grammar and language usage tips and explanations
- Want to learn via audio lessons and complete many reinforcement activities
- Want to spend as much time learning as you can, with a minimum of 15-30 minutes to complete an audio lesson
I really like Babbel’s interactive lessons, but I loved the grammar explanations from Rocket Languages and the many reinforcement activities to really drill in what I’ve learned.
If you enjoyed my article, please feel free to share it. Have any questions? Don't hesitate to email me!
Disclaimer: I select and review independently. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions that help support my testing at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information.
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