When you want to learn a new language or improve your skills, it’s only natural to look at language-learning solutions. There are many to choose from, and Babbel and Rosetta Stone are two of the most popular.
Of course, these apps aren’t identical, so which is best? Rosetta Stone or Babbel?
I adore languages, and I recently decided to review my Italian and Turkish skills. And I’ve also started dabbling in learning Spanish while testing out the various language-learning apps.
While I’ve done comprehensive reviews of Babbel and Rosetta Stone, I also wanted to compare the two, and here’s how they are similar and different.
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Babbel: The Important Facts
Babbel (or Babbel GmbH) is a language-learning solution created in Germany. The app, which claims to be the first online language-learning platform, has been around for 15 years (it launched in 2008).
The app offers courses in various languages with a focus on real-world conversation and cultural understanding.
Its lessons are interactive and designed to be compact, typically lasting about 10-15 minutes, to facilitate consistent, daily practice. Babbel emphasizes practical language skills, teaching vocabulary and grammar in the context of everyday situations.
The focus of Babbel is on simulating real-life conversations to get you speaking a new language in as little as three weeks.
Here are the most important statistics about Babbel:
- You need to pay to use Babbel.
- It’s an immersive learning platform where you can learn via interactive lessons, Toucan, Babbel Magazine, live classes, podcasts, and videos.
- 50+ million learners have downloaded the Android version of the app.
- In November 2023, 8.5 million visitors checked out the Babbel site. (similarweb)
- Most of the traffic is from the U.S. and the main demographic is 25-34 year olds.
PROs
- Varied exercises in each lesson
- Easy vocabulary review
- Basic yet not overwhelming grammar explanations
- Structured approach for progressive learning
CONs
- Pricey, with separate subscriptions per language
- Not suitable for intermediate or higher learning levels
- Live classes are not highly regarded
- Content quantity varies across languages
Rosetta Stone: The Important Facts
Rosetta Stone is the choice for many individuals and institutions when it comes to language-learning. It’s the platform recommended by the U.S. military, colleges and universities, companies, and the medical community.
Created in 1992, Rosetta Stone aims to teach you like you learned your native language.
The app offers immersive courses in multiple languages. It uses a unique immersion method, teaching language through images, audio, and text without translation, to mimic the experience of learning a first language. The lessons cover a broad range of language skills including speaking, listening, reading, and writing, with a focus on pronunciation through its TruAccent speech-recognition engine.
Here are the most important statistics about Rosetta Stone:
- You have to buy a subscription to use the platform.
- Immerse yourself in your new language with interactive lessons (in the target language), live lessons, audio companions and videos, interactive stories, and phrasebooks.
- 10+ million downloads on the Google Play Store.
- On a monthly basis in 2023, about 2.3 million people checked out the Rosetta Stone site. (similarweb)
- Most of the website traffic comes from the U.S., and most visitors are in the 25-34 age group.
PROs
- Customizable lesson settings for personalized learning
- Engaging lessons with a variety of exercises
- Unlimited review options for specific exercises
- Target language instruction may appeal to some
CONs
- Lack of grammar explanations
- Lacks intuitiveness, resulting in a learning curve
- Inability to simulate real immersion
- Pricey subscription model on a per-language basis
What Languages Are Available on Babbel vs Rosetta Stone?
There’s quite an overlap of the languages that Rosetta Stone and Babbel offer.
Here’s a table to help you decide which app might be best for you:
| Language | Babbel | Rosetta Stone |
| Arabic | No | Yes |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Yes | Yes |
| Chinese (Mandarin) | No | Yes |
| Danish | Yes | No |
| Dutch | Yes | Yes |
| English | Yes | Yes (British & American) |
| Farsi (Persian) | No | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes |
| German | Yes | Yes |
| Greek | No | Yes |
| Hebrew | No | Yes |
| Hindi | No | Yes |
| Irish | No | Yes |
| Indonesian | Yes | No |
| Italian | Yes | Yes |
| Japanese | No | Yes |
| Korean | No | Yes |
| Latin | No | Yes |
| Norwegian | Yes | No |
| Polish | Yes | Yes |
| Russian | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish (Latin America & Spain) | Yes | Yes |
| Swedish | No | Yes |
| Tagalog | No | Yes |
| Turkish | Yes | Yes |
| Vietnamese | No | Yes |
The tally:
Babbel has 14 languages, while Rosetta Stone offers 25!
Excited to learn more? Explore my reviews listed below:
Price Comparison: Babbel vs Rosetta Stone
Babbel and Rosetta Stone don’t have an official free trial, but on Babbel, you can try out the first couple of lessons for free. And there’s no freemium version of the platforms.
If you want to test either out, you’ll have to subscribe. Luckily, you can request your money back if you aren’t happy – but there’s a time limit on this guarantee.
One other similarity on Babbel and Rosetta Stone: A subscription gives you access to one language, so you’ll need to buy additional subscriptions to learn more languages.
Babbel
You can access the first couple of lessons and two live ones for free on Babbel, but the company isn’t forthcoming with this info.
If you accidentally subscribed (like me) because you wanted to try the app, you can request your money back within 20 days if you don’t like what you try.
Babbel offers two main subscription options and then sub-subscriptions in each. Let’s break it down.
First up: Babbel Self-Study
Access app-based, interactive exercises, podcasts, planning tools, videos, and games.
You have three sub-subscription options with Babbel Self-Study:
- US$13.95 per month for a month’s subscription
- US$9.95 per month for a 3-month subscription
- US$8.45 per month for a 6-month subscription
- US$6.95 per month for a 12-month subscription
- US$599.99 once-off (undiscounted) for Lifetime access (and no limit on how many languages you can learn)
Next: Babbel Live
This includes everything in the Self-Study subscription, plus unlimited live classes.
There are four sub-subscription options for Babbel Live:
- US$99 per month for a month’s subscription
- US$59 per month for a 3-month subscription
- US$50 per month for a 6-month subscription
- US$30 per month for a 12-month subscription
Rosetta Stone
There are only three subscription options to choose from. Try out the app, and if you aren’t happy, reach out to the customer service team and request a refund within 30 days of signing up.
The three Rosetta Stone subscription options are:
- 3-month subscription – US$15.99 per month
- 12-month subscription – US$10.50 per month
- Lifetime subscription – US$399 once-off (undiscounted)
Live classes and one-on-one coaching are extra, but Rosetta Stone isn’t upfront about the costs for these.
Rosetta Stone vs Babbel: Analysis of Their Teaching Methods
Babbel and Rosetta Stone’s language-learning methods are backed by science and research. These platforms also have a very adult-feel to them with the minimalistic interface and the real-life-based audio, images, and more.
Both apps aim to immerse you in the language you are learning – but how the companies go about it differs vastly.
Babbel
With Babbel, the goal is to get you conversational in about three weeks, and that’s not a lot of time. Plus, Babbel doesn’t define what conversational is, because while you may be able to have a basic conversation to order food at a restaurant or introduce yourself, that’s where that ends.
Babbel wants to teach you in an authentic manner, so you get a taste of the local culture. Of course, this can’t be 100% simulated on an app.
You work on your translation, memorization, and learning skills with Babbel.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone named its immersion method – Dynamic Immersion – and you are supposed to learn your new language as you did your native one. When you were young, you learned to speak and understand via audio and images and then connecting the dots, and with Rosetta Stone, it’s similar.
You learn in the target language – with no memorization or translations. You need to put in the time and effort to connect the dots, matching the phrases and words you hear and read to images. Rosetta Stone also ensures you practice your speaking and writing skills.
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Special Features of Babbel vs Rosetta Stone
Here are some cool features that Babbel and Rosetta Stone offer:
Babbel
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Games
- Stories
- The Babbel Magazine
- Live classes
- Toucan, a browser extension
- Offline and online learning
- Special courses
Rosetta Stone
- Live lessons
- Audio companion
- Phrasebooks
- The language’s alphabet with phonetics
- Videos on conversation tips, how to say, and grammar
- Interactive stories
Differences in the Target Audiences of Babbel and Rosetta Stone
Since Babbel and Rosetta Stone are paid-only language-learning solutions, their audience is pretty similar – as expected.
Babbel
With the mature look and feel, Babbel isn’t suitable for kids, unless their adult is helping them navigate the lessons.
The ideal target market for Babbel are teenagers and adults who are beginner or intermediate learners. A newbie can start learning the language of their choice, while an intermediate student can review what they’ve learned and get some extra practice.
Babbel doesn’t have enough content for advanced or near fluent students. And depending on the language, there may not even be content for intermediate learners.
Rosetta Stone
Similarly, Rosetta Stone is also best for beginners and intermediate students (and teenagers and adults).
Intermediate and advanced students won’t benefit much if they use Rosetta Stone to become fluent in their language of choice because there isn’t advanced-enough content and exercises for them.
Babbel’s Pros and Cons
Pros
- Adults would like the minimalistic user interface.
- The exercises in each lesson are varied (and even though there’s repetition and that can be annoying, repetition is good for learning).
- You can easily review the vocabulary you’ve learned.
- The grammar explanations are basic but not overwhelming.
- You’re exposed to natural language usage because Babble uses native voice actors for the audio.
- There’s a free trial, and if you sign up but aren’t satisfied, there’s a 20-day money-back guarantee.
- Babbel offers a structured learning approach, so you learn more as you progress and build on what you’ve learned.
Cons
- Despite Babbel’s promises, you won’t be conversational in your target language in less than a month. You might hold a basic conversation in a Category 1 or 2 language (like Spanish or German) – depending on your native tongue – but it may be much more challenging for a Category 4 or 5 language (such as Russian or Japanese).
- It’s a pricey way to learn a new language and even more expensive since you need a subscription for every language you want to learn.
- It’s not suitable if you are at an intermediate or higher learning level.
- The live classes aren’t that great.
- Not every language has the same quantity of content and you are limited with the number of languages you can learn on Babbel.
Rosetta Stone’s Pros and Cons
Pros
- Like Babbel, the interface of Rosetta Stone is very mature, making it more appealing to teenagers and adults.
- You can tweak the lesson settings if you can’t practice your pronunciation or listen but want to learn.
- You’ll stay engaged during the lessons with a variety of exercises.
- You can review specific exercises in the lesson or the lesson as a whole as many times as you’d like.
- You’re exposed to natural language on Rosetta Stone since native voice actors record the audio.
- You are taught in the target language, which may appeal to some learners.
- Rosetta Stone offers more languages than Babbel.
Cons
- There’s no free trial, but if you sign up, you can request your money back within 30 days (if you’re not happy).
- No grammar explanations, which can make it difficult to learn. With Rosetta Stone, you are supposed to use your intuition to put things together in the target language.
- While Rosetta Stone promises a very immersive environment, an app can’t simulate real immersion like when you live with natives and experience a culture first-hand.
- Learning a language on Rosetta Stone takes a lot more time and effort.
- It’s pricey since the app works on a subscription per language basis.
- The platform isn’t very intuitive, so expect a learning curve.
Begin learning a new language with Babbel! 🌟 Unlock up to 55% OFF your Babbel subscription today!
The Verdict: Which Language-Learning App Is the Best for Me?
No language-learning platform is a one-stop-shop to help you reach your language goals. If you think that’s the case (that you can use only Babbel or Rosetta Stone to learn a language and become fluent), you’ll be sorely disappointed.
You need to supplement language learning with other resources.
But there is value in using something like Babbel or Rosetta Stone to get you started and motivated.
Babbel has less of a learning curve than Rosetta Stone, and there’s a free trial so you can see if the app is right for you before sharing your credit card information. You also get some grammar explanations with Babbel, and I really like the review feature.
With no free trial on Rosetta Stone, it isn’t as accessible. And while many laud Rosetta Stone as the gold standard for language-learning, learning a second or sixth language that’s presented in that target language only isn’t as intuitive as it sounds.
The choice between Babbel and Rosetta Stone is a personal one, and for me, Babbel ticked more boxes.
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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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