Babbel vs Polyglot Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Babbel
Master a new language with expert-designed, bite-sized lessons that fit your schedule. Build conversational confidence quickly through interactive practice and a smart review system. Learn Spanish, French, German, and more for travel, work, or fun.
- Bite-sized lessons
- Expert-built courses
- Interactive conversation practice
- Smart review system
- Grammar in context
- Offline mode
- Learn 14 languages
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Speak a new language with real-life conversations. Babbel is the award-winning language learning app with courses tailored to your native language, built by 200+ language experts and trusted by millions worldwide. Because lessons are built for speakers of your language, an English speaker learning Spanish gets different lessons than a French speaker does. You learn to speak, listen, and understand grammar in context, then practice real conversations with Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner that gives you personalized feedback. Learn a new language faster with bite-sized lessons designed to fit your everyday life. With Babbel’s proven method, you could start having real conversations in as little as 3 weeks. Your language learning adventure starts with a lesson. WHY BABBEL WORKS • Tailored to your native language: Courses are created by language experts and tailored to your native language, so you learn naturally and efficiently. • Real-life conversations: Learn the language people actually speak, for travel, work, and everyday life. • Speak with confidence: Practice out loud with speech recognition and Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner to improve your pronunciation. • Research-proven results: Efficacy backed by researchers at Yale University: 100% improved their oral proficiency in 3 months.* TRUSTED BY MILLIONS • 25 million subscriptions sold • 1.5 million 5-star ratings (based on App store ratings) • After 10 hours with Babbel, 96% of learners saw better test scores on grammar and vocabulary** BUILT FOR REAL LIFE • Short, effective lessons: Learn in as little as 10 minutes a day • Lessons for every motivation: Learn for travel, work, or fun • Listen, speak, write: Options for every learning style • Stress-free conversation practice: Build confidence with Guided Conversations, then practice freely with Babbel Speak (Beta) • Smart review system: Boosts learning and retention • Grammar in context: Clear explanations exactly when you need them • Offline mode: Download lessons and learn anywhere, anytime • 5,000+ courses: Over 60,000 lessons across all languages LEARN 14 LANGUAGES Spanish (Latin American or Spain), French, Italian, German, Portuguese, English (American or British), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and Indonesian. TRY BABBEL TODAY Download Babbel now and take a free lesson. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS A subscription is required to access full courses for one language. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment will be charged to your Apple account. Available plans: • 1 month • 3 months • 6 months • 12 months Privacy policy: https://about.babbel.com/en/privacy/ Terms of use: https://about.babbel.com/en/terms/ LEARN MORE Read Babbel Magazine for tips and insights: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babbelusa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Babbel.usa CONTACT US Questions or feedback? Email: support-mobile@babbel.com *Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available at http://bit.ly/BabbelYale. **Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available: http://bit.ly/BabbelMSU.
Polyglot Reader
Read books in foreign languages and learn new vocabulary. Tap on unknown words for instant translations and save them to flashcards for later study. Supports various document formats and offers pronunciation practice and knowledge tests.
- Read books in multiple formats (PDF, EPUB, TXT)
- Translate unknown words and phrases instantly
- Create flashcards for vocabulary learning
- Pronunciation support for words and phrases
- Knowledge tests for vocabulary sets
- Scan and recognize text from documents
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Read books in any foreign language and turn every unknown word into a flashcard you'll actually remember. Version 5.0 brings a complete redesign — a calmer reader, a smarter library and a new way to study. Polyglot Reader is your pocket library, dictionary and flashcard trainer in one app. Tap any word or phrase in a book, get an instant translation with transcription, hear the pronunciation, and save it to a deck to review later. Built for iPhone, iPad and Mac, with a refined dark theme. — READ — • Completely redesigned reader, bookmarks, translation popup and settings • New System theme that follows iOS automatically, plus refined Light and Dark • Open books in PDF, EPUB, FB2, RTF and TXT • Import from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or any file app • Scan a paper page — the app recognizes the text and saves it as a book • Highlights words you don't know yet, right inside the page • Vertical scrolling, comfortable type settings, picture zoom — LIBRARY — • Thousands of free classic books in 38+ languages, sorted into sections like Classics, Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare, Horror & Mystery, Children's Books, Philosophy, Adventure • Adapted A2–B1 readers for German learners, plus original literature in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Greek and many more • New sorting, new sections and search inside every shelf • Filter to show only recent books • Difficulty level and tags shown right on each cover • Drag and drop to reorganize your shelves • New "Added manually" section for everything you imported yourself • Smoother search, scroll and sharing on iPad — LEARN — • Redesigned cards and study screens • Ready-made flashcard sets for English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese and Japanese — verbs, nouns and themed categories • Smart virtual decks: All cards, Recent, Unknown — see progress at a glance • Quick preview and actions inside every deck • Pick a default deck for new words you save while reading • Per-card knowledge level with a colored progress bar (red → green as you master each word) • Three study modes: foreign only, foreign + native, native only • Hands-free mode — keep learning without touching the screen • Long-press context menu: mark as known or unknown in one tap • Optional shuffled order during study • Filter to show only words you haven't learned yet • Pronunciation for both the word and its translation • Knowledge tests for every deck • Export and import cards in CSV — TRANSLATE — • 111 offline dictionaries — no internet, no quota • On-the-fly transcription for all popular languages • Speech-to-text: just say the word, get the translation • Translate your own phrases and add them to any deck • Edit translations when you want a better wording • 90+ languages supported, including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and many more — AND ALSO — • System, Light and Dark themes • Choose Google or Yandex as default online translator • Compact mode on iPhone, expanded card view on iPad • Notifications to bring you back to recent cards Whether you're reading Sherlock Holmes in English, Kafka in German, Don Quijote in Spanish or Dostoevsky in Russian — Polyglot Reader turns reading into vocabulary, one tap at a time. Questions or feedback: support@readandlearnapp.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Polyglot Reader at free with in-app purchases against Babbel's subscription. Polyglot Reader also leads on review sentiment (66% vs 44%). Babbel's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (754K vs 74). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Babbel sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month and Polyglot Reader sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Babbel holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 754K ratings behind it against 74, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 44% of Babbel's written reviews are positive against 66% of Polyglot Reader's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Babbel ships an update every 4 days, Polyglot Reader every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Babbel | Polyglot Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (754K ratings) — better | 4.4 (74 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 43.7% of reviews | 65.7% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 754K — better | 74 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #8 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 263 MB | 120 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Babbel GmbH | Anton Ivanov |
Customer experience
Babbel
Polyglot Reader
Bugs and requests
Babbel
Reported bugs
4 issues- Lessons sometimes freeze or crash the app
- Subscription cancellation process is overly complicated
- Inconsistent behavior when switching between languages
- Keyboard issues and inability to use system keyboard
Requested features
5 requests- Add more language options, especially Asian languages like Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
- Improve review and practice tools to better reinforce learned material
- Provide more customization options for lesson pacing and content
- Implement a more forgiving scoring system and allow users to revisit past lessons
- Add a dark mode and optimize the app for better readability
Polyglot Reader
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Babbel
- Mexican Spanish – 1-month plan$17.991 Month
- Spanish 1 month$17.991 Month
- French 1 month$17.991 Month
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- Italian 1 month$17.991 Month
- Mexican Spanish - 1-month plan$19.991 Month
- Mexican Spanish – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
- Learn French – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
- Learn Spanish – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
- All Languages – 3-month plan$53.993 Months
- Mexican Spanish – 1-year plan$89.991 Year
- All Languages – 12-month plan$107.991 Year
- All Languages – 12-month plan7 Days trial$107.991 Year
Polyglot Reader
- Monthly subscription$3.991 Month
- Monthly subscription3 Days trial$7.991 Month
- Monthly subscription$7.991 Month
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Monthly subscription$9.991 Month
- Annual subscription$22.991 Year
- Annual subscription$34.991 Year
- Annual subscription7 Days trial$39.991 Year
- Annual subscription$59.991 Year
- Upgrade from advanced to professional version$3.99
- Upgrade from Starter to Advanced version$15.99
- Full version$99.99
Questions
Is Babbel free?
Is Polyglot Reader free?
Which has better reviews, Babbel or Polyglot Reader?
Do Babbel or Polyglot Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Babbel or Polyglot Reader?
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